Looking Through

[Stu Bowie]

This is a species of duck, we call the white faced duck. They have high pitched call, and very noticable from most other calls. Took this at one of the water spots in Pretoria. I experimented here by setting my ISO on auto, set my ss as high as I could ( it was still early morning, so not much light available) This is the result which I am quite happy with.

Canon 50D
100-400L IS USM @ 400mm
1/1600
F/5.6
ISO 800

Exp comp +0.33
Hand held

[Brian Wong]

Hi Stuart!

Beautiful smooth background with unusual pose. I like how the composition leads to the bright, white head, also very sharp. Undecided about adding some room to the right?

[Phil Ertel]

Well done. Another caption could have been Peek-A-Boo. I think the vertical composition works well here. I like you were able to keep the head in focus with the wing motion. The background is very nice. Very nice as is. If I were to suggest anything I might try and tone down the higlights on the feet. Congratulations.

[Kim Rollins]

Hi,

Well done. I can see why you would be happy with this one.


If you have PS Photo Filters you might try just a little "cooling" -
PhotoFilter (80) at 10-15% might bring your red channel back to left just a little bit.

[Shem Compion]

Nice tack sharp image. Perhaps have played with a bit more space in front of bird?

[Gary Dumer]

Hey Stu, I have seen this before but it looks just as Good Here!!! Killer all the way!!!

[Juan Aragonés]

Sure you can be happy with this excelente result Stuart. The composition is really good for a bird in flight and the Bg is fantastic. I love the timing and the great, superb, eye contact of the duck. Did you applied some gaussian blur to the background?
Very, very good job and creative composition :-)

[Fabs Forns]

Terrific Phantom of the Opera pose, with sweet light. Perfect timing and great to be able to geet the head visible. BG a big plus, Stuart.

[Marina Scarr]

Time, light and BG here are all superb. I think I would prefer to see this capture in horizontal with more added to the right and some off the bottom. I believe that would accentuate the head surrounded by the wings which is your focal point. Thanks for sharing.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I also feel a horizontal would work well with the bird in the back (left) third of frame. Great exposure and love the peeking eye. Congrats on a fine image. Love the wing blur too, even if only so subtle.

[Steve Canuel]

Great timing on the pose and good sharpness on the head.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much for the kind comments. Much appreciated. With regards to the comp, it was really a 50/50 to go vertical or horizontal.

[Charlie VanTassel]

I like the way the subject just looks like it's sort of hanging there. A fine photo.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you so much Charlie.

[Mark Dumbleton]

I like the vertical crop here Stu, and love the pose. I like it as presented!

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks for the kind words Mark.