Calling Wood Duck

[Ryan Schain]

While birding along the Muddy River in Boston, I came across this male Wood Duck. Anytime a Mallard or Black Duck came near he got aggressive and started calling until they backed off. I love their little squeaks!

Very slightly cropped, small clockwise rotation, levels adjusted and sharpened

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 L IS
Exposure: 1/320
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 400 mm
ISO: 400
Natural Light

[Randy Stout]

Ryan:

You have some nice colors showing on your drake, open bill, partially erected crest, warm water color with a few subtle leaves, all good.

If the IQ will hold up, and I expect it will, I would be tempted to crop considerably tighter from below, to eliminate most of the reflection, which is rather distorted.

I know you rotated it, but it still seems like it could go a sliver more CW.

Cheers

Randy

[pietipeppie]

Colorful bird, but maybe You could turn picture more right and photographer angle/view also could be more down.

Anyway, nice picture.

ppie

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice perky pose, good colours. I personally like the comp as is, but I agree it needs even more CW rotation. I would also do some water clean-up but I understand if you like it this way. Some fill may have hlped with the face's blacks. Overall well done!

[Danny J Brown]

A cute little woody with some attitude, apparently! I too love their sounds and can listen to them all day. Good instruction above to make it even better. Thanks.

DB

[Conrad Tan]

I like it. I agree with the rotation and crop suggestions. :)

[Craig Brelsford]

I like Daniel's choice of words: "perky" pose. I probably wouldn't have immediately noticed had you not mentioned it, but since you mentioned the CW rotation, I'm going to join the chorus and call for a little more adjusting. You captured the rainbow of color rather well. Congrats.