Bufflehead in Flight.

I was lucky to get something out of this flight sequence as the Bufflehead was quite close..out of a series of 8 frames all but 2 had clipped wings. For once the best pose also was the sharpest (Murphy's Law usually has something to say about that!). The wing tip was very close to the edge - I had to about triple the amount of space underneath it by using canvas from the previous frame.

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/3200s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, cropped for comp plus canvas extension as explained above, darkened pupil, NR to the BG. Audio used to get the subject closer.

Daniel:

Very nice max downstroke pose of this fast little fellow. Sharp, well exposed, with seamless canvas expansion.

When using the audio, were you in plain sight? I find these guys pretty spooky locally, and rarely get any in close enough to shoot. Any details about your technique would be appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

Great pose of this streamlined duck, Daniel. Nice crisp details against the blue water.

Beautiful bird and wing position. All of the technical aspects are excellent, and the canvass extension is flawless.

Top flight shot Daniel, sharp & exposure is spot on, great job on adding canvas too.

Cracking capture Daniel! Love the wing position, exposure is spot on and lovely back drop! Well done man!

A wildly difficult image to execute. Super well done. I bet that you've got even more of that irredesence hiding in your raw file. :)

Thanks guys!

Randy, they spook easily here too most of the time. If you can get settled in to a spot without them flying off then you'll have a chance with the audio. I was not concealed for this, but I was lying flat prone on the shore of a local pond...that seems to get their confidence in approaching. Standing, sitting, or kneeling does not seem to get them in as close as one would want. I'm sure a blind would work, but this was at a local city park. Kwik camo would surely be great. Another thing I've noticed, and perhaps it's only coincidence, is that if using the "BirdTunes" app there are two calls for Bufflehead: the second works much better.

Thanks Daniel for the detailed answer. I will squirrel that away for future reference.

Hope you have some more from that series.

Cheers

Randy

Flying bullets, they are. Great job catching one in flight, and with wings intact. Your good fieldcraft has paid off again. Wish the dark head were opened up just a tad to get some more of the iridescence.

Agree with all above, and also wish a little more detail could be brought out from the head area. Just a fantastic flight shot. Thanks for all the additional info.

Ed

Great looking flight frame Daniel!! Good job on the techs and the wing position looks perfect. I like that you caught some of the color on the head and the neck. Not an easy catch, so well done!

Truly shows off the "seldom captured" beauty of this little duck up close.