Goosander

[Rich Steel]

Hi

I think you may call these Merganser in the US but here in the UK they are known as Goosander. This photo was taken on my birthday at the beginning of February when myself and two friends visited an upland lake in North Wales where we found 6 males and 3 females. A good day was had by all and we even managed to get some good flight photos of these fast flying birds. I have only just got round to processing the photos as 10 days later I found myself in intensive care with acute pancreatitis from which I am still recovering but looking forward to getting back behind the camera :)

The males are a tricky exposure, particularly the head which changes from black to green in colour. Fortunately at this site there is a concrete jetty that is set a couple of inches above water level which allows for a nice low shooting position.

Photo taken with 7D (mkIV was in for repair) with 500mm lens. ISO 250 1/1600 s at F6.3 -0.3EV

Cheers

Rich

[Don Lacy]

Great low perspective and wonderful light and colors.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Rich, great super low angle. Beautiful bird and you've exposed it well. nice head position. I find the comp. a bit unbalanced with lots of stuff above center line and emptiness below. If mine, I'd place the bird a bit lower in the frame.

[Arthur Morris]

Whoa, two good ones in two days of one of my nemesis species. Ditto all of the positives. If it were mine I would lose some of the specular highlights near and on the bill and clean up the bill a bit.

[Frank Schauf]

Great picture, nice deep shooting position in front of a perfect backdground.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful image. Love the low angle, great light and pose, really like the background, and exposed very well.
Well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great shot Rich - I guess I know where you took it. Beautiful detail there - glad to see you posting again.

[Rich Steel]

Many thanks for the comments and suggestion which are appreciated.