Common Eider in Flight

[Bob Malbon]

You may have guessed by now I am obsessed with Eiders - Yes I am. I find their life cycle fascinating. This on is from my sunset spot on East Point in Biddeford Pool, Maine. Back to the BushHawk due to a sore left wrist.
1DMk3 on 500f4, at iso400, 1/2000, f5.6, manual exp., AIservo, IS off. Bob

[Randy Stout]

Bob:

Very neat birds, and since we don't get them here (Mich) I am always happy to see them.

Nice wing position, head angle and exposure. The wing shadow appears to run up the top of the head, and it makes the eye area a bit dark, but I suspect the eye is always a challenge with them because of their dark feathers there. Nice blur of the background.

I might crop up just a bit from the bottom.

I am curious how good of flyers they are? The wings look too small for their rather rotund chassis.
Reminds me of a B-26 bomber, big fuselage, little wings!

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Nice and sharp, and pops nicely from the BG. I like the hint of the droplets on the body. I agree with Randy to crop some off the bottom. Still, well captured Bob.

[Juan Aragonés]

I think that your obsession with this species is understandable because is a really beautiful bird. I like the beautifull Bg, sharpness and pose of the bird. The shadow in the greenish area of the head is not great but you could try to reprocess the image adding more light to that part. A round of noise reduction or a touch of Gaussian blur to the Bg would improbe the result in my opinion. There is something like a subtle light halo around the left wing (pherhaps due to H/S filter or RAW conversion). Very good job

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good image Bob, and the advice given above will improve it further. I really wish the near wing was even higher up.