Mallard Incoming

[Bill Dix]

From Cape May.

D500, Sigma 150-600C @ 600mm, Auto ISO @ 3200, 1/2500s @ f/7.1.

[John Mack]

Nice incoming pose. Really like the colors in the background. The detail on the bird is quite nice.

[Dorian Anderson]

Image looks very crunchy on my screen. I do like the landing pose, but the striped BG is a bit distracting and doesn't allow the subject to be fully isolated.

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

Good pose, angle in frame and comp. I do agree with Dorian about the noise, and my 1st impression was that the brighter areas in the background do distract from the bird. My eye jumps to them first, and then back to the bird.

Cheers

Randy

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Great approach capture, Bill. I've gone back and forth with this image thinking the duck might be over sharpened, but today it looks good.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[gail bisson]

I love the sharpness and the wing position.
You have a great catchlight and the iridescent green head looks great.
Yes to a better BG but certainly not an image killer.
It might be a bit oversharpened but I am on the fence about that.
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. Between high ISO and a slight underexposure, this one did present a challenge. I struggled with PP between sharpness and NR, and tried several versions, but couldn't completely overcome the inherent noise. I may have slightly oversharpened on this version. But I did like the colors and incoming pose.