Ready to land

[Yves Matteau]

Canon 20D
1/800
f/5.6
ISO 1600
Exp. comp. -1/3
100-400@105mm

[Jim Poor]

This is a really neat pose you caught!

The blown out wing right behind the head is an image killer. If you have any data in the RAW that would help recover the details, it would be worth trying to save.

[Arthur Morris]

As above, and a good try but no cigar from me. The head needs sharpening. The red stuff behind the bird is distracting as is the second Mallard. You could use some Gaussian Blur on the upper background. I do like the light and the snow.

later and love, artie

[Alfred Forns]

Great points Jim Fully agree !!! Might also note blurring the bg and giving the bird more room would be helpful The reddish branches behind the bird is catching my eye

For this circumstance with a varied bg going to manual exp would be the thing to do for controlling exp The cooked under wing is a bit different Sometimes you can not guard against it and hope to catch them in a different position One of the times I will hold down the shutter and hammer !!!

[Blake Shadle]

Good work capturing this action. As others have pointed out, the whites are a bit overexposed and the background is fairly distracting. Al made some good points about exposure mode selection. If these mallards are around pretty consistantly, I'd go out and give another try, considering some of the suggestions above ;) Thanks for sharing!

[Yves Matteau]

As above, and a good try but no cigar from me. The head needs sharpening. The red stuff behind the bird is distracting as is the second Mallard. You could use some Gaussian Blur on the upper background. I do like the light and the snow.

later and love, artie

Artie,

Imgine.....i did`nt even notice the second mallard. Thank you for all the help.