Snowy Stroll

[Brian Sump]

Had some fun with ducks and shorebirds on the icy shore of the S Platte River.

This Green-winged Teal drake was strutting along the ice edge gently coming toward me.

Canon R5
840mm
Handheld
ISO 3200
1/2500
f6.3

LR and PS. Added a sliver at bottom for better vertical crop and evicted a couple faint branches coming in at top for effect. If you're wondering, the darker band at the base of the beak is present in the raw and as seen at time of capture.

[dankearl]

Nice, I like the bit of foot motion, color looks good, prime bleeding color.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brian, ooh in the snow, slight departure from warmer climates nice one.

Remember shooting in the snow is a bit different to normal shooting and so using your Histogram is paramount here, as you should be gathering truck loads more because you are shooting far more to the right before clipping. If the image looks washed out on screen no worries, it should, but then you are not checking the screen for anything other than comp and or distracting elements, the screen is NEVER for colour.

Overall the framing works, the raised foot and displace ice is a cool touch. I think you can afford to drop the Exp, and or, use TK luminosity to bring back more tonal depth, I think you use this, in that way it creates more 'body' to the whole subject. Again this might help with the FG snow too, to me it looks like you just added some negative Exp? If you have really pushed the Histogram there should be more within the capture, Curves is a good way to pull this back in. Was the subject slightly angled to you, so front is closest?

Perhaps a sliver off the top, but not a deal breaker.

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot a tad bright but a delightful shot.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brian indeed a unusual shot from you , in terms of environment .
A very clean and simple image , the walking pose does add interest ... specially with the kicked up snow .
I am actually ok with the brightness , but Steve might be right with his thoughts .... colors are looking fine to me.

Cool shot amigo , nicely executed .

TFS Andreas

[Dorian Anderson]

Yeah, it's really fun to see this guy out of the water. He really pops on the snow. I could see turning the whites down a bit. They don't strike me as overexposed, just very bright.

Also, I've seen thousands of these over the years, and I've never seen one with a head this orange; they tend to be more chestnut. There's nothing wrong with the presentation,
but it's something that I, a serious birder, noticed immediately.

But all in all a very beautiful and memorable image!

[Brian Sump]

Appreciate the comments everyone.

I must say, at first I was pretty perplexed about the "brightness" comments. I presume you all mean the bkg? After all, it is a snowy palette in its entirety at low to mid 240s; felt right to me I guess but can appreciate the subjectivity from such experienced shooters.

Steve, yep ETTR and used multiple curves adj to bring this one to life as it was about as drab as can be.

Dorian, point noted on the head colors.

[Steve Kaluski]

Drab/Flat/Thin/Washed out - Sounds about perfect Brian as a starting point, flat as a pancake!

Before you used to meter by the subject and then add +1 on the EV as a starting point.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Ooh, very nice! Check out all the colours on this beautiful drake! Walking pose is fun. Details on the B&W flanks are pretty dazzling. Good stuff Brian.

[Kurt Bowman]

Love the snowy BG and FG, the raised foot and the colors are great! Nicely done my friend!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Nice work, Brian. The bird looks fantastic against the white of the snow. Thank you for sharing.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice, snow created a perfectly uniform diffused soft light that brought out the sublet plumage colors

TFS

[Arthur Morris]

This one took my breath away. I have always found this bird a huge challenge to photograph. Your high-key version sets a new standard!

with love, artie

[Brian Sump]

Joe, Arash and Artie I really appreciate your kind words. Have had a strong affection for them myself and felt blessed he let me in his snow-covered world for this one :-)