"Guarding the Fallen" . . .Duck love; Hard to beat

[Jim Poor]

The thin oof slice of boat ramp brings this couple to Hand of Man.

Back before the holidays, I spent quite a while watching and photographing these two mallards. The male was obviously injured.

He seemed to forage well enough and swim just fine, no flying for him though. His mate stayed right by his side and even caught fish to bring back to him. I watched a gull steal one once (meanie) and I watched these two get along just like ducks do. Swimming, eating, doing that "bottoms up" dive thing ducks do, and even mating.

I called several rehabbers and finally heard back from one who thought it was best to just let them be. I made a nice close up of the female which I have posted before.

The good news is, I visited with them today for quite a while with the 200-400 and hope to have a nice series to follow up on this image.

This image (not technically the greatest, but . . .) was taken on 18 Dec 07 at Burke Lake in VA.
D300
600mm f4
1/500 @ f7.1

Post work:
Rotated a little, but managed to keep full frame right to left.
Curves to lighten the birds and a QM to keep the water from blowing out.
QM on the male's head to lighten it a little.
Smart Sharpen 200% @ .2 pixels.

I'd like a little more room for her tail feathers, and I'm undecided on whether to take some off the top. I think the space gives room for her vigilance, but I'm still wavering.

[Jeff Nadler]

Jim, cute pose . . a bit bright and personally usually like stronger eye contact for connecting. I like how you kept most of the oof foreground out of image, which would have been distracting.

[Jim Poor]

Thanks Jeff,
I think going darker on the exposure would have lost the male's head to the darkness, but I can probably tone it down with a mask. . .
Stay tuned for eye contact. I had the female approach me inside the MFD of the 200-400 which is somewhere around 6.5 feet.

[Jim Poor]

How's this?

[Lana Hays]

Jim
I like the repost better. An interesting story.....and glad that you are continuing to monitor. I really like the curves on both birds. As Jeff said.....good job minimizing the OOF foreground. There looks like there might be a dust bunny to the left of the female's head. When I look at the detail of the female, I feel that it may be over sharpened.

[Jim Poor]

Grrrr, you're right. Silly dust bunny trying to hide in the ripples. Time to do a sensor cleaning :(

Thanks.

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Jim,

Interesting story and poses here. Good job minimizing the boat ramp. I too would like more direct eye contact. There are a few areas that appear oversharpened to me.