Common Merganser in flight

[gail bisson]

So, I am totally bummed out that we had to cancel our 4 week trip to Florida due to Covid-19... A big girl glass of wine has helped ease the pain and now I must work to find some subjects here in Cape Breton.
We have had so much snow and cold that the usual open water areas have disappeared. My usual waterfowl spots are frozen over. One spot has opened up, but the only ducks are common mergansers. No sign of goldeneyes or surf scoters or red-breasted mergansers.
I am happy with this one although I was 2/3 of a stop over-exposed. Amazingly, I was able to recover all of the whites with DPP.
Canon 1 DX3 600mm v. 3
ISO 1000 F 7.1 SS 1/2500
Crop to 80% FF. Nothing added or cloned.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[annmpacheco]

Hi Gail, i'm going to miss our usual shooting adventures but we'll find ourselves somewhere else when we are free to travel post "corvids". Now onto this gem, love the colors here and the slight head angle as she looks our wa really draws me in. Glad you recovered the whires and nice that the wings are openly split and we can see the over and under feathers. BG is beautiful and the trailing feet drops are so nice. Go chase the commons especially when they catch a flounder!

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the pose, BG and the water droplets sharp with good details and colors. I only wish the near wing was raised higher. Every time I travel to Canada I long for a good merganser IF frame but I never find them in range

TFS

[dankearl]

Near wing mentioned, but you really nailed the sharpness on this one and you got a look which
these gals don't do much off....
Your new camera seems to be working out really well for you.

[Bill Dix]

A beauty of a shot, with great head turn. Sharp detail and lovely background. Near wing not perfect but not a deal-breaker. Trailing water drops a plus. Stay well. Have another big glass of wine and go out and find some more common birds (although maybe not in that order).

[Daniel Cadieux]

The wines from Pelee are good, plus you can look at the nice birds on the labels lol. Or Baby Duck... OK, maybe not that one. Nice looking frame. I agree about the near wing, but still a cool pose overall. If mine I'd likely blend in the larger whitish spot below-left of the bill. I have a flight to Florida scheduled in May...hoping this dies down enough for me to go, or else I'll be in the same boat as you, but with micro-brewery IPA beers as consolation breverage.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Beautiful flight pose, Gail. Love the eye contact, water droplets on the body and trailing.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[John Mack]

Solid flight frame here. Nice to see that trailing water. Like the framing and the detail is spot on.

[Jack Backs]

Gorgeous, love the trailing water droplets.

[Ivan Sjogren]

Great details, good light and background. The droplets adds a lot and the colors looks good.

I think most things have been said here but further more I just want to add that it is really interesting to follow your thoughts and see these images from the new Canon gear. Glad your enjoying your new equipment and making such great use out of it.

[gail bisson]

Thanks all for the thoughts. Bill, I especially appreciate the drinking tips!!Wine before or after birds....A difficult decision.
Dan- I haven't had Baby Duck since I was 18. It was bad then and I don't think it is much better now!!