Theme: Frozen Northern Pintail

[Shawn Zierman]

This drake northern pintail just had a little drink from Lake Superior on one of those 20 below air temp. days in Northeastern Minnesota, hence the pose. This bird was fed throughout this year's winter season by myself and others, and eventually became so tame, that it could nearly be handfed...thank you mallards :) Canon7d, Sigma50/500os, iso800, f9, 1/1600, full frame, gentle NR to the bg, USM to the subject and a bit of the foreground. Comments and critiques welcome.
Regards,
Shawn Zierman

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the light, pose and the water drops. sharp details. I might put more room around this and brighten the image by ~1/3 stops

TFS

[William Dickson]

What a pose. The details and sharpness perfect. The ice adds so much to a beautiful image. Well done Shawn and thanks for sharing this.

Will

[Daniel Cadieux]

That is one other reason that I like mallards too...so often you get a normally shy species (or uncommon for an area) associating with them (we had a Northern Shoveller this winter doing just that). I also had my first male Northern Pintail in late fall, but it was at about 85% prime plumage...yours is stunningly fresh and prime. I like the pose and I love the frozen drops. My first impression was that the image is a tad dark, so I agree with Arash. Hope to see more!

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Detail here is killer! I agree with Arash and Daniel ... just a tad dark on my monitor.

[Grace Scalzo]

Lighter and looser for me too. (Not to sound like a broken record). Love the frozen droplets....adds an entirely new dimension to this image. Details rock!

[christopher galeski]

nice one,good detail,love the ice drops,agree on a bit more light.

[Satish Ranadive]

Spectacular portrait.

Regards,
Satish.