Mandarin Duck (drake) (C)

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Lake Mirror in Lakeland, Florida. The early morning was draped in heavy fog, by mid morning the fog had begun to life so I headed for the lake. I posted this image before but did work on it for the theme this month. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED image captured at 400mm
1/1000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +1 2/3 ISO 2000, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC 2018
Cropped for composition and presentation

[gail bisson]

I am so glad you said you posted this before! I thought I was having a "senior" moment when I saw it and remembered it from before.
I see some weird stuff going on in the BG- white spot above bird, lots of dark spots in water, white line below and left upper lily pad .BG looks grey and grainy.Not sure why.
I would clone out the OOF leaf on LHS.
Gail

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Nice Shot. I like the reflection and way you left the leaves on the left side.

Thanks for sharing

[Joseph Przybyla]

I am so glad you said you posted this before! I thought I was having a "senior" moment when I saw it and remembered it from before.
I see some weird stuff going on in the BG- white spot above bird, lots of dark spots in water, white line below and left upper lily pad .BG looks grey and grainy.Not sure why.
I would clone out the OOF leaf on LHS.
Gail

Hi Gail, thank you for viewing and commenting. My guess regarding what you see on the background is probably from too much post processing. Trying to make a light gray background white. The less post processing the better the image.

[Dorian Anderson]

The bird looks fine but the lily pads don't really work for me. They are flat in color do more to distract than add IMO.
Bird kind of feels like an afterthought since he's jammed into that upper left corner.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A lovely colourful, image however I don't think the bill tip and eye are quite pin sharp, they don't seem to be so clearly delineated as some of the plumage.