a duck, what else; with 50D

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm on ducks lately, which is no bad thing as they are excellent subjects. This is a Green-winged Teal, probably young of the year although could be an adult female. It's also my first post with the new 50D, which I will comment on elsewhere.

Anyway to the image- should have used a lower f-stop to attempt more DoF. Boardwalk at local Waterfowl park is about 0.5m off water at this point so could not get lower (they frown on people getting off the boardwalk). Light was beautifully soft, there was little wind and it was warm.

I need some help with the comp. The one posted is full frame, but it results in the head more or less in the middle of the image.

Canon EOS 50D, 500mm f4, 1.4 tcII = 700mm
capture date: Monday, October 27, 2008 2:24:36 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 640
shutter speed: 1/640
aperture: f5.6
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

This is lovely, John. Your self crit re DOF is good. I think the composition works fine as it is - that water looks fantastic and the green speculum stands out beautifully against the limited palette of the rest of the image. Plumage very similar to our NZ Grey Duck ( Black duck in Auz - Anas superciliosa) apart from the missing eye stripes - unfortunately being hybridised by the more aggressive Mallards that were introduced

I agree that the composition works well here John, as does the color palette. It helps accentuate the green in the wing. I'm interested to know what your initial impressions are of the 50D.

John, while the head itself is centered, you should take the whole body into account too...and when you do this the composition is just fine as the left side is filled with the teal while the right 1/3 of the image is empty space. I guess the head could be turned a bit more. I love the all-important green field mark showing nicely :-)

I agree with Daniel John the crop is perfect especially with the tail in the lower left quadrant of the frame, what else was there to do. The image as a whole is great and you did a wonderful job and am happy to see anothwer 50-D doing so well. As Doug says I also would be interested in all your thoughts on this camer, I am now working on my 3rd, yes third. And if not for the professionalism and outright wonderful help from the people at Hunt's Photo I might have changed and gone to { heaven forbid Nikon } LOL, I must say they were the greatest.

Bill

I love how the water looks, the body angle is not the best but the head turn is good, colors are very nice too. Congratulaitons!

I like the bg. I am ok with the composition. I might crop a little bit from the top. It required more dof as you have already mentioned. I would also like to hear about the 50D.

Many thanks for all the comments. I really wanted to post something from the 50D and thought this showed the camera off quite well.

Agree that head angle could be a bit better.