Bufflehead with Reflection

[Doug Brown]

Here's another Bufflehead flight shot from my duck workshop with Dave Salem. I was lucky to get the complete reflection, but I did have to add a bit of canvas on the right side of the frame. I also did a little water cleanup in post.

Canon 1Dx, 600 mm II + 1.4x III, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO 500, manual exposure, hand held

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

One of my nemesis birds! Beautifully captured and rare to get that good of a reflection from a flying bird! Nice control of the whites.

Based on the reflection, it needs a sliver of CW rotation, but probably a degree or less.

Great job!

Randy

[Bill Dix]

This is sweet! Great reflection, wing position; wonderful iridescence. Well exposed (did you do any burning of the whites on the head?) Interesting that there's a double catchlight in the reflection but not above.

[Doug Brown]

This is sweet! Great reflection, wing position; wonderful iridescence. Well exposed (did you do any burning of the whites on the head?) Interesting that there's a double catchlight in the reflection but not above.

Thanks Bill. Good eye...must have cloned a catchlight out of the bird's eye but missed the one in the reflection. Looks like I pushed the exposure to the right in post.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely, the reflection is a mirror image. If mine I might try to match the upper left hand side of the background with the right hand side. Thank you for sharing.

[Doug Brown]

Just checked the RAW file. The 2nd catchlight is much more prominent in the reflection than it is in the bird.

[Karl Egressy]

It would be pretty amazing flight shot with the wings down and forward, but the perfect reflection puts it over the top, Doug.

[steve torna]

Beautiful image and I appreciate how difficult such a capture can be; having the reflection just brings it all together. I wonder Doug, why did you choose f/5.6 and such a low ISO for the 1Dx? Although the DOF is really nice, it seems like f/8 or even f/11 would have possibly made a great image even better. It doesn't appear that an increase in DOF would affect the pleasing background bokeh. Thanks steve

[gail bisson]

You have shown your technical skills very well with this BIF. These guys are little bullets so congrats on getting a tack sharp image with nice wing position. AND you also got the nice iridescence of the head.
I really like the reflection but find the strip of blue at the bottom very distracting. Too bad it wasn't all gold color but still an awesome shot.
Gail

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful image and I appreciate how difficult such a capture can be; having the reflection just brings it all together. I wonder Doug, why did you choose f/5.6 and such a low ISO for the 1Dx? Although the DOF is really nice, it seems like f/8 or even f/11 would have possibly made a great image even better. It doesn't appear that an increase in DOF would affect the pleasing background bokeh. Thanks steve

Good question Steve! Where a lower ISO comes in handy is when you're trying to bring up the shadows (as you do with Bufflehead males); the darks have less noise. Also, I suspect that most of the blur you're seeing is motion blur, not lack of DOF.

[Jack Breakfast]

Splendido in all ways! I quite like the smash of blue at frame's bottom.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent flight shot. Superb reflection. Beautiful colors,great details and nice composition.


Regards,
Satish.

[Girish Prahalad]

lovely image. the pose, IQ & the reflection is top class. Maybe tweak a bit more details out of the whites if the bird has it.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

[Marina Scarr]

This is one heck of a flight shot, Doug. I personally feel the blue at the bottom is what makes this image more unique than some of the others we have seen of this species in flight.

[David Salem]

Killer frame Doug! I too think the blue on the bottom of the image really makes this one. It adds that splash of color and really adds dimension to the Black and white of the bufflehead. The wings down pose with perfect reflection and that slight look this way it is awesome. The comp looks perfect also:) Well done

[Joe Subolefsky]

It would be a great shot without the reflection but that just puts it over the top!

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent frame Doug, tack sharp with great details, wing position and the calm water with clear reflection