Bluer Waters Harlequin Duck

[Daniel Cadieux]

The lighting was variable that morning, and the very rare-for-us Harlequin Duck swam in and out of shaded spots making exposure tricky at times. Here the water and BG appeared bluer and darker than the previous image I posted but the light remained the same on the subject for this sequence...I was lying flat in the snow at the same spot. Perhaps she was thinking of her male counterparts' colourings ?

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, eye work, cropped for comp (I tried a version with more room to swim into, but much preferred this one with more room to look into), bluish cast toned down on the body.

[Iain Barker]

Fantastic Image Daniel.

Love the low angle and the feather detail. The blue light makes the image different.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

For my tastes, the balance of luminosities is better in this image, and the extra color in the background, is more pleasing as well.

The choice on the comp is just right.

Cheers

Randy

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I agree with Randy, this one has more colour on the sky and I like the pose of the bird a bit better.

[keith mitchell]

I love the angle that you get these shots at feels like your camera would be almost in the water, cracking shot!

[gail bisson]

My favorite of the bunch.
I like the blue BG and the inquisitive head pose.
My kind of POV and I really like the comp you chose.
gail

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, just love this shooting angle, it really looks like you could have been in the water - great. I like the hint of a slight head tilt, and well exposed on the head. The various blues takes this over the top. Well captured.