Harlequin Duck

[Ryan Schain]

Harlequin Duck - March 17, 2011
Barnegat Light, New Jersey

Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS

98% of original frame

1/2500
f/6.3
400 mm
ISO 400

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ryan,
Nice to see that the Harlequins are still around! The water there makes a sweet BG from this angle but i will recommend a few things for you to try there.....You are still at the sunny 16 rule for this image.....so a 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop of light will make a huge difference....once the sun gets lower......but you did maintain the whites very well given the conditions. I don't know if it is in your ethics.....but i would get rid of the mound of poop if that is within your ethics. If you are doing portraits....I would add the 1.4 tele....this will help with your approaching them and also allow you a lot more flexibility.....but only for portrait work. You have the time in that case so manually focusing shouldn't be an issue. As presented, I would consider removing a bit of the water above the bird...about 1/2......as this forms a more pleasing comp IMO. I would also go tighter on the left.....as I prefer tighter crops.....but you will get debate there. If you scroll and eliminate the top 1/2 of the water(browser crop)....you will get a better idea of what I am trying to convey. Still a very nice portrait but a few small tweaks will take this up a notch or 2!

[Ryan Schain]

Thanks for your feed back Roman!

The lighting is what it is of course, but the only time I had to bird that day was mid day, so I did what I could. I don't actually see the harsh lighting as a problem in this one, as I was able to find a halfway decent shooting angle.

As for the crop suggestion. I'll give it a shot and see how I feel, but for this particular image I was going for this type of composition. I was offered countless portrait and much tighter crop opportunities from the birds that day, so I was trying for something different with this head angle. The 1.4x extender isn't all that necessary for these birds, at this location that is. A few times I had to either wait or step back, as I was TOO close!

Thanks for your input!

This shot (yeah I know the whites are gonzo, it's a screw up shot) is just about full frame. Just showing you how close they let you come, even at 400 mm :).

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ryan,
I'm a Jersey boy so have been to the jetty countless times! They aren't always so close BTW......but yeah.....sometimes the 100-400 is too much! In genenral.....I like the longer focal length as it gives you a better shooting angle in most cases. Tough in Barnegat as you are generally shooting down but you did very well there too!