More silhouette / backlighting fun. This juvenile Hooded Merganser was busy looking for food right in front of me, but directly against the light. No problem - that means silhouettes! I tried timing the frames when it lifted its head out of the water as the water dropping form the bill was pretty neat. This image, however, was the only one that had a fully rounded bead of water dropping (instead of a long thin trail of water gushing down). It made the cut, rather that the others, to be processed based on that cool feature.
Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4X TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1250s., f/7.1, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, deepened the blacks, warmed up the WB, small crop for comp, a few specks in the water removed via Spot Removal tool and / or Content Aware.
Love it. Yes, that drool of water when they bring their heads up is less appealing than the round drop you caught here. And I love the backlit drops on the back, and their reflections. Well seen and captured.
Very nice. Yes, the bead gives a really nice touch. The dark top and bright bottom throws the balance off a little bit for me but it's a beautiful image nonetheless. 180 degrees sun angle can definitely make really memorable image.
Great use of the backlighting and colours. The water drop repeated in the reflection lift this one right up there. Unusual and different. TFS. I also like the hint of eye but I might have been tempted to make it just a touch brighter.
Hey Dan, This one is really cool. At first glance I thought the the subject was a soup duck, aka, a barnyard duck, aka, lunch on Long Island. Glad that it was a young hooded merg. My only wish would have been the light gold BKGR for the head (as I am pretty sure you do as well). Great job with the EXP on the forehead...
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Love what you've done here, Daniel. Funny I recognized the merganser in this silhouette. The clean look of the water drops in the reflection take this one up a few notches. You picked right!
Drops, Bubbles, and Ripples.
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