Another Lesser Scaup...This Time the Female.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Drake ducks almost always steal the spotlight with their beautiful colourful plumages, but the females look good in their own drab way. Here one of the many female Lesser Scaups struts her stuff in fornt of the lens to try and steal some of the spotlight away from the very few males present. As with the other images of this series a high SS was used to offset my shivering hands (I was freezing!!) and uncompromising face-down position along the narrow bank...

Canon 7D + 100-400L @390mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/3200s., f/6.3, ISO 800, +1 EC, natural light, handheld, cropped for comp (about 80% FF), a few of the worst offending wet highlights patched out on the head/face.

[gail bisson]

another beauty Daniel. lovely low angle and softly layered BG.nice bow wave as well.Excellent iq
Gail

[Grace Scalzo]

Glad to see you giving the ladies their time in the limelight. This one's subtle beauty is well photographed by you. The little push of water in front of her adds motion. Love your background.

[Todd Frost]

Nice shooting angle Daniel. Nice exposure and good sharpness. Agree with others on the nice varied bg and bow wave. Well done. TFS

Todd

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Very well captured, agree with comments above re: bow wake, BG, details.

Excellent subject isolation from your low shooting angle. Hope you had someone along with you to pull you back in if you slid into the water :bg3: And remember, I have shot with you enough to know that is a real risk!

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

I like the females as well, at times they can have almost red heads.
Very nice, the specks just seem to really show up on Scaups, male and female.
Yours look fine as far as they go, and the layered BG really looks nice.

[Stu Bowie]

Super low angle Dan, and you have captured a perfect swimming pose. I like the sharpness and detail you have captured. Yep, the bow wave adds a lot, together with the multi layered pastel coloured BG.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great low angle and soft ness in the tones. I like the wake and the water drops too.

[MohsenVahedipour]

Excellent low angle shot Daniel. Like the warm soft light, IQ & background colors.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Daniel, excellent perspective...good exposure...the hen is a little more tricky than the drake due to that white spot.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. Love the shooting angle, great light, real nice detail, and love all the water drops.
Well done.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Daniel! I like the low angle, exposure, sharpness, calm water and complimentary BG.