Male Blue-winged Teal - habitat

[Daniel Cadieux]

Once in a while I get a habitat-type image that I am happy with. This one surprisingly didn't take off from 100 yards away but still didn't come close enough for proper "portraits". It did swim out in relatively open waters. I wish for more separation between head and reeds, but with this being my first image of a breeding-plumaged BWT I'm am quite content with it. A couple of offending blotches in the water have been removed via patch tool. Almost full-frame - only cropped out the small protruding corners after levelling the horizon a bit.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/1000s., f/7.1, ISO 400, +1 EC, handheld.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/tn_Blue-wingedTeal_2293-01.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Your duck looks well exposed, with a good head angle. His placement in frame is good too.

I do find the background/foreground a bit busy. Because of the reflection, you tend to get a double whammy of the reeds and its associated clutter.

Perhaps a bit more blur and or a bit less bright would downplay that.

I think it really depends on the balance you want here between the duck and his environment. I am sure what you are showing us is what it looked like. You could push it more in favor of the duck, but then I think you would have to crop it much tighter and aggressively manage the clutter.

Thanks for sharing!

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

I like the serenity in this. Seems all alone with not a worry in the world. Comp works well, with a clear reflection. I would maybe darken the reeds a tad Daniel.

[Steve Canuel]

I like it. I do agree that darkening the reeds a bit makes a positive difference.

[Thomas Boysen]

As a seasonal environment shot, this is exactly what it lokks like. I am strugglking with the same ducks and reeds. To me this seems very well exposed on the duck, darkening the reeds would look better, but is not the environmental shot.
Thomas