Long-tailed Duck in Flight

[Grace Scalzo]

With avian photography I find that 99.9 % of the time there are choices to be made. In this burst, the frame before was an unpleasing wing position and the ones after had him intersecting the dark blue water but with a graceful curve in the tail.

After some thought, I believe that this is my fav with the open beak and his position against the sky/Long Island sound. That long tail makes it tricky to compose these frames, this is almost out of camera, just a bit of a trim from the top and left.

Thank you for looking and for your comments.

Sunny 16 (1/3200, f8, iso800)
Canon 600f4 + 1.4tc, 1dx, rrs tripod

[Satish Ranadive]

Missile is up in the air. Absolutely superb exposures in whites and blacks. Great IQ. Wonderful colors in the frame.
Love the wing positions,pink bill, long straight tail, beautiful HA, dual tone BG and as usual excellent composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[John Robinson]

Hi Grace
Satish has said it all ! Superb shot- that's all she wrote.
JohnR

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Grace, tack sharp, and well done on the overall exposure too. Good flight pose with the down stroke of the wings, and the placement is fine, as the long tail does 'push' the Long Tailed Duck into a central comp. Love the blues of the BG. Well captured.

[Mike Poole]

Sublime shot with beautiful detail, and I love the slightly open beak

[dankearl]

The IQ is so nice........

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Terrific image with a super sharp bird, great BG, lovely exposure and awesome composition.

[gail bisson]

Well done Grace.
Looks like a bullet flying through the air.
IQ is awesome and love the blues,
Gail

[Alan Murphy]

Excellent flight pose. A tighter crop for me.

[Bill Dix]

Wonderful shot, Grace. Love the open beak, the long tail, the BG, and a unique flight angle. Great exposure. I like it as presented, but if this is "just a bit of a trim", you might experiment with a little more crop.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose and details

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wonderful shot Grace, the open bill and the wing position against the beautiful backdrop makes a for a really eye catching image.

[Marina Scarr]

Top notch image in every respect. I can understand how tricky it must have been to choose the best of the burst. This is truly a delightful pose and image.

[shane shacaluga]

Up up and away...!!!

All has been said above! Wonderful image with great IQ and BG

TFS

[Grace Scalzo]

Thank you kindly for all your looks and especially the comments. I started with 18 megapixels and cropped to 17 so I certainly have more to play with and will consider an additional presentation with a tighter crop.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Absolutely love the feel of this image, Grace, and brilliant techs. Has a happy duck on top of the world feel to it :)

[WillieHall]

Yes, the open bill gives it a feeling of joyful flight, to me. Love the details but would also like to see a little tighter crop.

[Binu John]

Beautiful shot! Excellent exposure, pose and details! Love that dual color BG. I would crop it tight.

[David Salem]

Wow Grace! This looks awesome. One of the best LTDs I have seen posted. This has a great pose with the bill open and I really like the wing position without any shadows, perfect angle to the sun. The two tone BG and the perfect look at his signature long tail makes for a sweet frame. You must have smiled when you saw this in the LCD. Well dne

[Grace Scalzo]

Thanks to everyone who looked at my image. I've given some thought to cropping in tighter and I just can't see it here. Personal taste, but I feel as if I need room to have him fly into and not crash into the side of the frame. Plus leaving room for the tail just doesn't lead to a balanced comp in my eye. I'll put this one aside for a while and look at it again in the future with a fresh eye.