female wood duck -Santee Lakes

[nancy hazen]

Thanks for looking.
Nancy

oops I tried to edit this post, but ended up posting it twice. I don't know how to delete.

[nancy hazen]

The female wood ducks are so pretty this time of year. This was taken at Santee Lakes in San Diego County. We have had a ton of rain, so she was enjoying a bit of a sunshine, while it lasts.
Canon 7D
100-400 lens
400 mm
1/2500
iso 800
f 7.1
I did some enhancements in LR to bring out the midtones and soften the highlights.

Thanks for looking.
Nancy

[Linwood Ferguson]

Terrific expression and colors.

Try playing with the crop a bit, and make the bottom reflected sky just slightly smaller than the top, I think it will highlight the real (not reflected) image, and draw your eye more toward it. I find it just a bit too torn between top and bottom right now.

[Peter Farrell]

Nice pose, HA, detail, colors and sharpness. I agree with less room on the bottom.
The water seems a little too dark in relation to the brightness of the front of the duck?
Maybe Brighten the water a little?

Best wishes for the New year.
Peter

[pat lillich]

oh Nancy, this one is exquisite. I would have liked more room above too. i love this one!

[nancy hazen]

Terrific expression and colors.

Try playing with the crop a bit, and make the bottom reflected sky just slightly smaller than the top, I think it will highlight the real (not reflected) image, and draw your eye more toward it. I find it just a bit too torn between top and bottom right now.


Thank you for your suggestion. I see what you mean. I am going to try it.
Nancy

[nancy hazen]

Nice pose, HA, detail, colors and sharpness. I agree with less room on the bottom.
The water seems a little too dark in relation to the brightness of the front of the duck?
Maybe Brighten the water a little?

Best wishes for the New year.
Peter
Thanks for looking Peter and your kind words. This was part of a Wood Duck Duo, which I cropped out the Male. I printed this shot, and the water looked too blue. That may have had more to do with how I set up the color space for the printer. I am still learning how to do that. So I'm a little leary of lightening the water.
Nancy

[nancy hazen]

oh Nancy, this one is exquisite. I would have liked more room above too. i love this one!


Thanks Pat. I agree, and I'll try that. Thanks for looking and the kind words.
Nancy

[Sid Garige]

Nancy,

Fantastic techs. Great light and details.

Here is my take on composition. Your comp is pretty much close to bulls eye comp. It works and puts user on the subject. Just after the subject I started noticing empty space around. To avoid this I would probably go for a tighter crop. But some times we feel tighter crops are little too tight.

IMO an ideal crop for this would be a horizontal crop with some space on the left. Here is my version and let me know if it works for you.

[Julie Kenward]

Nancy, the original is beautiful and Sid's crop also works very well. If you go with his version of comp then I'd give it a sliver more on top. Whenever a bird's head is down close to it's body it's nice to leave enough room at the top of the frame for him to be able to go back to a normal position without pushing his head out of the comp.

You did a lovely job on the details - the head angle and pose are super! There's a bubble or two in the BG of the water that I'd probably remove just because the stillness of the water is so beautiful.

[Gus Hallgren]

Absolutely beautiful, Color & Clarity superb, Comp slightly off to suit everyone. I like Sid's comp.

Well done young Lady

Gus