Hooded Meganser Showing Off

[Marina Scarr]

This was photographed at a nearby pond where a group of Hooded Mergansers congregated for the winter. As the sun began to set, I lay in wait until they came close enough to photograph, and then I hoped for this type of behavior. I got lucky this particular day.

Canon 40D, 400DO & 1.4tc @ 560mm
F6.3, 1/1250sec, ISO 400, manual mode
used knees as tripod, down as low as possible

C & C always welcome and appreciated,

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

You sure got lucky with this image Marina. I love the warm light and wing flap. Cannot ask for more really to be honest; OK, maybe a slightly better HA, but only just. I really like it. Thank you for sharing. :)

[Stu Bowie]

Brilliant timing Marina. I like the light in this, and pin sharp where it counts. He stands out nicely against the water BG. Great image.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Your patience paid off! I agree with Akos, a better head angle (actually, the whole body is angled slightly away) would have put this over the top. Nice low angle, sweet light, and I like the fact the wings are in complete extension - although my personal preference is having them extented behind the body instead of in front. As posted I would probably place the bird further right. Can be a tough species to get close to, well done :-)

[Juan Aragonés]

Very good result Marina. Perfect timing, very good low angle and BG. I agree with Daniel about the position of the bird in the composition. Considering that this is a mostly B&W species under intense light conditions I am sure that you can extract more details on the blacks and on the whites if you apply a selective processing to the RAW file, that is, if you develope two versions of the RAW, one for the whites and another one for the blacks, and combine both to increase the dinamic range. Well done

[denise ippolito]

Marina, This is beautiful, The light,details,low angle and wing flap are all very nice. I like the colors you got in the water and BG they look really good!! I agree a bit to the right. Very well done image!!

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Killer BG in this image Marina and I love the lighting. Your timing was perfect. A little more of a head turn would have been ideal. Love it and thanks for sharing.

[Graham Smith.]

Beautiful capture Marina - I like this a lot. The warm lighting and BG are great, and you've got excellent details on the subject.

[Mike Lentz]

All minor nits mentioned and thats what they are with an image this nice. The light is good, the whites are good and the wing flap and splashing water droplets are nice! Congrats!

[Maxis Gamez]

I'm not sure if I would call this luck. You did what you were trained to do :D.

Excellent low angle, sharpness and light. However, I would remove the white spot in the top left corner.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Stunning pose, light, exposure, moment and detail, congratulations!

[Gary Dumer]

Time to Take a Bow as this is a Oustanding Image!!!

[Chris Kotze]

Stunning angle and a awesome pose and colours