Mandarin Portrait

[Randy Stout]

James Salywoda posted a nice Mandarin a couple of days ago, and it reminded me of some of my older images of the same.

This male had taken up residence with a female mallard. It was quite strange. Come to think of it, there have been some funny looking ducks swimming around the bird sanctuary recently!

This is an unrestrained bird at my local bird sanctuary.

D300 80-400mm f/7.1 at 400mm ISO 320 handheld

Post: CS4 PS, curves, crop for comp. Mild sharpening.

He was sitting on top of a wire nest box, waiting for his honey to come home.

Advice always appreciated.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the eye contact, BG and open bill. I might sharpen the bird a bit more and run NR on the BG. I've never seen this species in the field.

[Raymond Barlow]

an excellent portrait, both you and Axel have a pair of stunners, with well balanced exposures, and sweet details. The colours on this one are spectacular Randy.

[denise ippolito]

Randy, I love the expression and the open mouth. Nice exposure,details and colors. Agree about a bit of NR. Did I mention-I would love to have this in my files.Beautiful image.

[Ron Caswell]

Randy, Nice colors and head angle, I really had hoped the duck was still there but I have not seen it in a long time.
I was out there today for a bit and had some sun but mostly clouds :(. If there's some sun tomorrow (Sunday) I may have to head out there, I had a female merganser come in close but it was cloudy then. Ron

[Dave Leroy]

Very nicely done. I particularly like the detail through out the range of colours and tones especially the whites. A very happy looking duck. Dave

[Krijn Trimbos]

Love the cool pose! The detail is absolutely excellent, and I like the eye contact. I do think the colours a bit on the cool side, maybe adding some yellow and red would make a difference here. Nice one!

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone.

Axel - I actually backed off the sharpening a bit as the teal colored area was starting to look a bit crispy

Krijn - I think you are right on the color. Here is a revised version, with just a touch more red added. Tried yellow also, didn't work for me. Thanks!

Randy

[subramanya_ck]

Tremendous image. Fantastic Colors

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Randy,
Might be my favorite duck! Sweet portrait and the re-post correction ison the money! Very nicely handled!

[Matt Vosniak]

The open bill and detail in this are great Randy. What a funky looking duck.

[Harshad Barve]

this is awesome , pose , techs , BG , species and expo SPOT on
TFS

[Kiran Poonacha]

Wow, great porrtrait this, loved the colours and comp here.. congrats..

[James Salywoda]

A very nice portrait Randy I like your repost better such a beauty excellent detail too as a portrait should....:)