High key female Mallard

[shane shacaluga]

Testing a friends Sigma 150-600 a few weeks back we were taking some shots of small birds on the bank of a pond. It was quite cloudy and I had the lens set at 600mm when my friend said that a couple of ducks were coming overhead. All I had time was to lift the lens and i took one shot as the flew past.

Then realised the settings were for perched birds in lowish light so no chance I would have a decent shot. I was quite impressed that at only 1/500 and the speed the ducks were flying that i got the head quite sharp

Unfortunately I clipped the lower wing which I have had to reconstruct

Let me know your thoughts

D800e
Sigma 150-600 at 600mm
f6.3
1/500
ISO 1600

[shane shacaluga]

Just realised there is a bluish area LLC where you can actually see where I added canvas. Will fix that :)

[Katie Rupp]

You obviously reacted quickly as that duck really is right overhead! I agree with you self-assessment and I like the open bill, as if she was either finishing or beginning a call.

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice high key exposure but the shooting angle was a bit too steep here and he has passed you a bit too. It looks like there was some motion blur

TFS

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks Arash. At 1/500 and the speed the duck was flying i was expecting to see a smudge on the LCD haha

Surprised i caught the head like this