Ring-necked Duck (drake)

[Joseph Przybyla]

I am anticipating this years fall and winter season so I have been reviewing images from last year. This is one of them. I captured this image at Lake Mirror in Lakeland, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering +2/3 EV ISO 360 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Joe, well exposed on the darker plumage of the head, and you have come away with a nice angled swimming pose. The eye really pops, and if this were mine, I would take a bit off the bottom.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Handsome duck, and you exposed it really well. Good detail and texture on the black head and face. Bummer the reflection is so weak, and lacking the head part. Ditto in taking some off the bottom.

[William Dickson]

Perfect exposure Joe. Beautiful feather detail with lovely colours throughout the image. Nice HA. Another vote for a wee bit from the bottom.

Will

[Bill Dix]

Good one, Joe. Well exposed, and perfect angle. I'd crop more than a little, maybe a 16:9 pano which often works well with waterfowl. Curious that the head doesn't show in the reflection.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing, commenting, and suggesting improvements. Very much appreciated....

To those who wondered why there was no reflection of the head, you were correct I took artistic license on this image. The reflection of the head was ugly, your question made me go back to check the original. I have another that is on my website with a more attractive reflection including the head. Thanks again everyone. Here is a post of the original.

[Bill Dix]

That reinforces my suggestion for a pano. The reflection, as you note, is not worth keeping, but a pano with a bit of neck would look very good, IMHO.

[Joseph Przybyla]

That reinforces my suggestion for a pano. The reflection, as you note, is not worth keeping, but a pano with a bit of neck would look very good, IMHO.

Hi Bill, I like your suggestion. Here's what I came up with using a pano crop.

[Bill Dix]

I like it better than the OP. But the version that you cropped is the one without the reflection, so one is still left to wonder. How about cropping the version with the neck?