Lesser Scaup Drake Showing True Colours.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Although appearing black from a distance I love how these guys' heads shine beautiful hues of purples and/or greens in the right light. With one individual it is possible to have images with either or both of these colours, pretty amazing. Here's another of a drake that came rushing towards me when I turned on the audio...

Canon 7D + 100-400L @350mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/7.1, ISO 400 (settings histogram checked on nearby Mallards), natural light, handheld, 85% FF, bright wet highlights on the chest tamed via clone tool @ 20% opacity.

[Don Lacy]

Love the head on framing and wonderful light and colors.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel

An unusually nice display of the purple on his head. Soft light helped is show so well.

Nice that he gave you a bit of a head turn.

Good angle, nice framing, like the wake he is throwing.

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

The wake is awesome. Scaup color is very nice but again, your processing is just superb.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice eye contact and beautiful colours, Danieal. This purple colour of the head is rarely shown so well.
Sometimes even the Mallard has purple in the head.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Beautiful, those colours are exceptional, love the soft water too, the low angle and the bow wave make this a winner.

[Grace Scalzo]

Love the intense look he's giving you as well as the clear water. Great job getting the light just right to show off his purple head.

[Enrique Patino]

Great shot and colors Daniel. I like the low angle and the feathers in its neck. The water is so clear...