Dappled Hoodie Drake

[Randy Stout]

This hooded merganser drake was imaged recently on a local vernal pond, courtesy of Roy Van Loo. A mated pair had dropped in to visit. I showed the female a few days ago. Not to be outdone, the male strutted his stuff as well.

D4 600VR with TC14II f/5.6 1/1000s ISO 1000. Taken from my sled blind

Post: Crop for comp, rotated to level. Selective sharpening of bird, cleaned up a number of bubbles in the water.

Dappled light can often be a challenge, but I rahter like the effect on the wings here, gives it a nice sense of depth .

I did clean up some bright specular reflections on the bill.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

[Alison McCoy]

Love the action you caught and the crisp detail in the head and eye. Nice bg and overall composition.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Randy, Ive always been amazed at the shape of these guys heads. Great low shooting angle, and well timed to capture the swept back wing position. Although the exposure on the whites look good, I feel the blacks on the neck are a bit blocked. I do like the colours of the BG.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I am not a fan of square crops. Both whites and blacks look a little odd (too bright and too dark), but I am sure you would have checked the histogram. A lovely photo Randy with a great pose! That head is way too cool!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Randy a real stunner from pose and action POV .
I am also thinking the top is for me not that good working , i think a 7x5 would work better in this case .
I also agree about the blacks and whites with Akos, i would try to extract more detail from both areas if there is any .Worth to investigate from my POV.

TFS Andreas

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the low angle, sharpness, HA and action. I have yet to get a good image of this beautiful merganser. Randy can you post an image of this sled blind that you use if you have one, it sounds interesting.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Your image shows the bird at it's finest. Lovely colors, perfect exposure of the blacks and white. Thank you for sharing.

[Sandy Witvoet]

These little guys are tough to capture a great wing flap... Nicely done! Would perhaps like to see a bit more room... good as-is tho. Thanks, Randy!

[Doug Brown]

Really nice pose, and I like the low shooting angle. I'd like to see a rectangular crop here.

[gail bisson]

Great wing flap caught. Nice HA as well.
I am not sure about the crop on this. I think I would like this with more space in front and behind the drake.
Whites look good to me but think the blacks can be opened up a bit.
Great POV and feather details.
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone for your input. The picture was originally taken as a vertical to capture the reflection, which wasn't as strong as I would like, hence the crop up from the bottom. I had to rotate it just a bit to level the bird, so I lost a little room behind the bird. I will revisit the original and see what options I have.

I will also look at the blacks on the neck region. If possible, these guys are even worse than loons for dynamic range issues.

Thanks for your thoughtful input.

Cheers

Randy