Hooded up close.

[dankearl]

About as close as I get to this beautiful duck.
Late afternoon yesterday, laying on the ground just waiting for the female to
glide out of shade and into the patch of light through the trees that surround the pond.
About 75% FF, cropped for comp.

1/800, f6.3, iso1000, 600mm, D800, HH

DSC_4163bp.jpg

[arash_hazeghi]

good light, details and low angle, I wish the entire body was parallel to the back of the camera

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot.
Lovely warm light, excellent head angle, nice shooting angle, and really like the semi lifted head feathers.
Very well done.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, you couldnt have got any lower, and it works well. Love the hooded head, and well timed to wait for the light to be cast on him. Interesting to see the water effect around the body, especially the small wave infront.

[Shawn Zierman]

Lovely light hitting the face of the duck. Very sharp details on the face as well. I like the mostly crest up expression of the hen. I think a consideration could be to blend out/fine tune a few of the brighter reflected (sky?) portions in the water. In particular, the bright spot coming into the bottom of the frame to the left of the bird's reflected head, and the bright spots in the upper left and right hand corners. Small tweaks to consider for an otherwise beautiful image.

[Uri First]

wow astonishing light and excellent details

[Grace Scalzo]

Nice spotlight effect on her face.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot I like the light and the colours and the composition, my only reservation is over the tail being OOF, normally not an issue but the ripples in front of the tail draw attention to that area.

[gail bisson]

Hi Dan,
You really did get nice and close.
Love the light on her face and the raised crest.Beautiful details on her face.
I wish her body was more parallel to us. I would tone down the reflection behind her head as well.
A lovely shot,
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Now you're making me jealous. Beautiful light on the hen's head, and nice detail. Yes, I'd tone down the light reflection behind the head, so more attention can be given to the lovely bird.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Its all about the light. Very nice....lots of details, low angle, sharp.

[David Salem]

Great light on this one Dan. Exposed well and lots of nice feather detail. The raised crest really makes the shot special.Like the shooting angle and the comp. Well done

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and eye contact.