Goldeneye.

Hooded Merganser

1/2500, f5.6, iso1600, 420mm, D800, HH

DSC_4695bpn3.jpg

Nice capture Dan! How far were you from the Merganser? The details are fantastic on the whites. I find the gamma in this photo is bit off on my screen.
Here's my quick edit:

Attachment 124640

Added a Exposure Layer: Exposure=+0.80 and Gamma Correction=0.68
Added a Hue/Saturation Layer to lower the cyan (about -0.70) and blue (about -0.60)
Merged all the layers together and perform Tonal Contrast at 100% using Nik ColorEfex
Add Brightness/Contrast layer: Brightness=10, Contrast=-10
Crop off the top.

I concentrate my edit mostly on the Merganser, and I'm sure I can touchup a bit on the background as well. Hope you like it.

Raymond

Raymond, I Appreciate your effort, but you brought up the shadow on the breast which was not there and you completely
oversaturated the color of the feathers and the eye.
Thanks but I prefer mine.
I was close, maybe 20 Feet away.

Excellent image of golden eye.Love the pose,nice details in whites,low angle and composition.
Nice composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

Nice shot Dan! 20 ft?! That's close, were you in a blind? I can't seem to get these guys any closer than the furthest distance they could get from me in the pond.

Nice head turn, and very nice exposure!

Nice shot, Dan. I like the eye and the pose looks good. The whete is well exposed. I wish that the dark would have a little more details. I guess you cannot have both.

I love the sharp details and colours of the bird in this nice close-up shot. I also like the warm colours in the background. The head angle is good, I much prefer your version Dan.

what a treat to photograph this beautiful species. Nice job on the whites. I might try to get more detail out of the blacks and brighten the eye a bit if possible.

Miguel, no hide at all, just on the bank.
This pond is in a heavily visited urban garden with year round Mallard and Wood duck populations.
The public and especially kids come and feed them cracked corn.
The wild ducks that come in winter like Buffleheads , Mergansers and Wigeons quickly get the hang of it and will get within a
few feet of people.
Birders may not like the idea of it, but it makes it easy for photographers.
If you want to photo wild ducks at close range, come to Portland, Oregon.
Wood Ducks will eat out of kids hands!

I like the pose, details in the whites and sharpness. Well done Dan.

You are lucky to have such a spot!! Great bird, neat incoming pose. I do find it a tad dark overall though...here's one instance where fill-flash would have been very nice.