Second clutch runt...

[David Roach]

EOS R6 RF 100-500 RF 2xtc @1000 f14 1/2000 ISO 10000 HH, Manual EXP, cropped to eliminate clutter from horizontal

With some occasional direct late evening sun as the clouds had breaks, put on the 2x tc and got more pixels on subject in good light. Walked well ahead as the family foraged near waters edge and sat a couple meters from waters edge and waited. Got lucky when the runt came out of the water nearby, saw me and began run back to the water. It seems the first clutch chicks have finally left the family unit.

Grateful, as always, for help on previous posts.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Love it! Processing looks so much better, the sharpening looks good, very clean image.

[Brian Sump]

Pretty nice David.

Nice and sharp, love the purple blooms in the grass. Great eye contact and love the blend of colors in the bkg. The varying tones in the striations (namely the dark bands) are a bit strong but just enough bokeh to make the little tyke pop.

I'd take a shot to see if you could reintroduce a bit more depth into the plumage. It all feels just a little too artificially lifted and lacks some contrast to my eye, although I am perfectly open to admit I have never seen this species so please take it at face value.

Otherwise, if you had a touch right and a little more that that to the left I could see a version with a slightly less box crop.

TFS.

[Dorian Anderson]

Cute little guy! And ****, that detail looks really good given the 2x on top of the zoom. I agree with Brian's comment about adding a bit more depth/contrast to the plumage, and I think you could go for a traditional 1x1.5 crop to introduce more space at left. Bokeh looks good, and I like the soft OOF stuff in the foreground. Makes for a nice effect.

[John Mack]

Nice view of this little one in the soft sunlight.