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Thread: Drake Mallard

  1. #1
    Robert Smith
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    Default Drake Mallard

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    I was set up on a river off of the Chesapeake Bay just after Christmas shooting canvasback imagery. There were a few wigeon, mallards, ringnecks, etc. mixed in. Every now & then an eagle or peregrine would flush all the waterfowl loafing there in front of me, which would give me an opportunity for flight shots.

    The canvasbacks & other diving ducks would fly out 1/4 to 1/2 mile & then swim back in, but the puddle ducks would fly back in - often circling a time or three.

    I felt like I had gotten a decent shot of this mallard drake, but was pleasantly surprised to see the band on his leg when I started working up the image! (I had gotten a banded canvasback earlier in the day, but I saw the band on him as he was preening before I shot...). (The band is the reason I posted over here in hand-of-man...).

    This shot was cropped from a horizontal image to a vertical image, so there is a good bit more room to work with... Nikon D70, Nikkor 400 mm, f/4.5, 1/1250th second, ISO 200, handheld.

    Comments and suggestions appreciated. Thank you for looking.

  2. #2
    BPN Member Tony Whitehead's Avatar
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    Nice shot Robert. Was wondering re hand of man until I saw the band. Have you tried a landscape crop giving a bit of space for the bird to move into? I would be tempted to level the horizon in the background or crop it out as it seems to be sloping down to the right
    Tony Whitehead
    Visit my blog at WildLight Photography for latest news and images.

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    Robert
    I, too was wondering why this image was over here until I saw the band. It's a nice image of the mallard. My first thought about this image was I'd like to see it as a horizontal. If you shot a series you might want to see if you have a different wing position that might show more of the pattern but you do you some of the top side showing in this one.

  4. #4
    Robert Smith
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    Hello Tony & Lana, many thanks for your comments. Oops, don't you hate it when you do something stupid...:o:o

    Yep, the horizon is crooked. This wasn't the version I had meant to post. Oh well, it is pretty close... I think the duck looks even better on the version cropped correctly - the horizon is flat & the drake is tilted up slightly more...

    Yes, a horizontal crop looks good too, but there is something about the vertical crop that I really like, even though I can't tell you what it is because I can't verbalize what it is...

  5. #5
    Lifetime Member Jim Neiger's Avatar
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    Hi Robert,

    I'm ok with the vertical crop. I would like a horizontal crop too as long as it included the land in the bg. Sometimes frozen flight images against a smooth sky bg just have a sort of sterile appearance. The horizon in the bg gives a sense of scale and reality. If your horizontal versions had this removed, perhaps that is why you are attached to the verticle presentation. I like the colorful duck, but the wing position is not ideal. A full dorsal view, wings all the way up, or wings all the way down would have been better.
    Jim Neiger - Kissimmee, Florida

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