Mandaring Duck (drake)

In a previous post I showed an image of a female Mandarin Duck portrait. This is the image of the drake captured at the same time and place. The two were together as a mating pair. There are a few things I wish were different with the image but you have to play the ball where it lies. I was on a set of concrete stairs that lead to the water. Sitting on the lower step leaning out over the water aiming the camera back to where the ducks were perched on a concrete ledge, trying to frame the image while eliminating the concrete from the frame. Pretty much succeeded, cropping just a little concrete out of each frame. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering +2/3 EV ISO 3200 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition and presentation

Beautiful colours and details, and you got a perfect head angle from this fella. Nice BG too, with a bit of lines and textures to add interest. I do wish you had more room at left, but perhaps that is where some of the concrete distractions were?

The colors are just stunning. Nice portrait shat with just the right head angle, Joe.

Gorgeous sharpness and tonalities! The pose looks like it had the planning of a studio shot with a professional model! Well done in difficult circumstances.

Would be easy to add a squeak to the left.

Thanks everyone for viewing and feedback, very much appreciated.

Daniel and Diane, here is a post of another from the same series that has more room on the left. Thanks again for your suggestion.

I like the composition of the repost best. Well done Joe!

Congrats on this one, Joe. Nice and sharp and the either comp works for me.

Thanks everyone for viewing, commenting, and offering suggestions for improving the image. Very much appreciated...

Magnificent portrait. Beautiful colours and composition.

Regards,
Satish.