Common Goldeneye Portrait.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I was lying on the ice photographing other subjects when this fella surprisingly popped up right in front of me. I only had time to compose, focus, and fire off a couple of frames when it realized its "mistake" in being so close to what it perceived as potential danger as it quickly dove right back in the water and re-emerged a hundred feet away (I'm surprised it did not just take off running like they usually do!).

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/640s., f/5.6, ISO 1600, natural light, handheld, small crop to help the comp, extra levels and saturation to boost the otherwise washed-out (but properly ETTR'd) raw file.

[Joseph Przybyla]

This is special, I have never seen one before. Top quality image. Thank you for sharing.

[John Mack]

Great portrait. Nice details. The soft overcast light is very nice for this one.

[David Roach]

Another classic from you (big surprise). Love the water droplets on top of all other perfection. TFS

[Mike Poole]

I love it when ducks pop up right in front of you without knowing you're there, if you're reactions are up to it you can get an otherwise difficult to nail portrait, which is exactly what happened here. Beautifully presented as always, another winner

Mike

[annmpacheco]

Well done Dan, details, whites, all looking good to me!

[Tim Foltz]

Daniel, good portrait, you pulled the greens out nicely and that yellowish eye really draws you in. sharp details and nice angle too.

-Tim

[William Dickson]

Now this is what a Goldeneye should look like...Lovely image Dan. the colours 'fit' so well together.

Will

[dankearl]

Super close up , nice details and nice color in flat light.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Nicely captured pop up! Good separation of the white plumage from the water, great eye, greens and shooting angle. I have rarely seen this close of a shot for this species.

Well done.

Cheers

Randy

[Anthony Barsotti]

Beautiful shot Daniel, so much detail and you managed to capture the vibrancy of the head while maintaining the detail in the whites. Also really love the greys in the background and foreground. My only criticism is the tail being cut off but it honestly doesn’t bother me as much as it usually would because the composition is still really well-balanced.

[Dorian Anderson]

Making filtered/flat light work with this shot. Lovely detail in both head and body. I like the portrait/headshot crop. Really nice.