Muscovy Duck

[Diane Miller]

This mother was herding 4 cute babies and keeping an eye on the enthusiastic photographer. It's not the greatest expression but I loved the texture in her face, brought out by soft light.

Canon 5D Mk III, 70-200 f/2.8 + 1.4x, ISO 800, f/11, 1/1000. Fast shutter was due to awkwardly hand holding, knees in mud (and worse). (No way I was going to do a belly crawl.) Aperture was because I was after the ducklings, who were very 3-dimensional at the magnification, and wouldn't sit still to bot, and I didn't take time to change it when I had a fleeting chance for the mother.

[gail bisson]

Hi Diane,
This is a great image of this duck.
I like the square comp which is helped by the diagonal line of forehead and beak.
I love going for "big" F stops for closeups like this.
IQ is excellent and exposure is spot on.
Gail

[Roman Kurywczak]

Very nice details and exposure Diane! I too am OK with the comp. You made an ugly duck......look very good!!!

[Diane Miller]

Thanks! She must have been a young one. I assume they get, um, "more interesting" as they get older. I was after a really strange-looking one that kept hiding behind a tree, as though it didn't want its picture taken.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice portrait shot Diane with great details and HA.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent close up with great IQ, details,beautiful colors and lights.Very nice composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

[PhilCook]

Lovely character shot Dianne...lovely eye contact

[DougBaja]

Chocolate (sex-linked gene) adult (no feathers between eye and beak) female I would wager. Looks too dark to be chocolate + blue, looks too chocolaty to be a brown-rippled. Could become a whitehead but I bet she'll retain a grizzled head her whole life. Where was she? Around Santa Rosa? Golden Gate Park in San Francisco has muscovy ducks at Stow and Lloyd lakes. After the late summer molt their feathers look great, especially the wildtype male (iridescent black with white wing patches).