American Widgeon

[Frank sheets]

I live on a golf coarse in Southern Arizona and we have large numbers of American Widgeons wintering here. Although the greens keepers complain about there presence, they are still fun to photograph. This is one of the better (IMO) captures I have to date. I almost always have this lens on a gimbal with usually a 1.4 attached, but this day, hearing about others success hand holding this lens, decided to give it a try. Probably about a 50% crop but the image held up fairly will, I think. Hope you enjoy and I am always looking for comments and constructive comments.

Sony A9, 600mm gm, 1/4000, f/4, ISO 1000.

[arash_hazeghi]

This is a cool frame, I like the BG. the whitest whites could be toned down a touch. the image is a bit small on my screen, and although the BG is pretty I'd crop this tighter. as for subject size in the frame, I'd just add the 1.4X or the 2X to get the bird larger in the frame.

TFS

[Bill Dix]

Nice rising flight angle and wing position; lovely background. I find it refreshing to have some breathing room around the bird for once. But the 1.4 could have avoided the large crop. Nice job hand-holding the 600.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed, my personal opinion would be to check the brightest and darkest plumage, some whites are featureless as is the underside of the tail, I think a hint of detail would be possible.

[Kurt Bowman]

Very nice! Nits already mentioned about the crop and the whites look pretty good to me, but on my iPad right now. There is a tiny dust bunny just above and to the right of the head.

[John Mack]

I like the pose and the light on this one. Nice background as well.

[David Roach]

Love the colors and sharpness on this beauty. Killer BG and love having this much on this canvas. TFS

[Frank sheets]

Arash, appreciate the thoughts on the converters, but I will say just getting started on using the 600 without support so was sticking to 600mm on that outing. Good conditions today if the wind holds direction and I may give it a try with a 1.4 attached. Yes, the whites are pushing it and I'll see about bringing them down a bit. And Johnathan suggested checking the blacks as well. Curious why the image was small on your screen. Fills my MacBook Pro screen and I think I followed the directions for posting correctly. Again, thanks for the look!

[Frank sheets]

David, thanks for the look and comments.

[Frank sheets]

Thanks Kurt. I twill clean up.

[Frank sheets]

Appreciate the look Bill.

[Frank sheets]

And thank you John as well!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice and sharp! Good background. Comp feels balanced, but I agree a bit bigger in the frame would also work. Perhaps a touch more saturation for me, and yes to that dust bunny. All-in-all a strong image of a beautiful duck!