Lady Pintail shows off her wing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

For most of the past week a very accomodating Long-Tailed Duck (a relative rarity, especially good photo-op-wise) frequented a local urban pond. Of course when I could finally manage to go out, the duck was gone...at least a few fellow photogs got it pretty darn good!

Anyhow, I did get a bonus Northern Pintail, a species I had nothing worthwhile of in my files. Although not rare here during migration, they almost never afford any good opportunities. Maybe not a fully dressed male, but this female did choose a good perch (which I improved by digitally cleaning it from goose poop), and performed nicely before a point-and-shooter overzealously approached and flushed her away - with me in plain view obviously working her. Thank goodness I was in a good mood :)

Canon 40D + 100-400L @330mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/6.3, ISO 400, +0.3 EC, natural light, handheld, just about full-frame.

[Dave Blinder]

Very nice Daniel, great light and excellent pose, focus, and bg.

[Dan O'Leary]

Very nice - the pose, background, colors and sharpness are great.

If I had to change anything I might suggest trying a slightly lower angle.

[Harshad Barve]

Awesome shot Daniel wih every thing spot on
TFS

[Dave Barnes]

I like the pose and IQ Daniel. Super detail and well exposed.
Just not sure about the double catch light?

[Stu Bowie]

Its always great to capture them stretching. Nice and sharp, and love the light quality in this.

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice pose, nice BG too. Love all those details. It's not easy to take an appealing photo of a perched duck but you did very well here.

[Graham Smith.]

Great shot Dan - It was great shooting with you on Sunday
Fantastic pose and sharpness. BG is superb too.
I might be tempted to remove the second catchlight from the water reflection.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Lovely one Sir, loved the light and pose, sure a lower angle would have added punch, still loved this.. congrats..

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey guys thanks. I had started a little lower, before this gal gave me a stretch, but quickly noticed the head was merging with the brown water above...with the brown/blue transition cutting across the head. Not good, so I got up a bit more to clear this problem. Better :-)

[Danny Laredo]

This is indeed very nice Daniel.
Pose BG and even the rock is excellent.

[Daniel Belasco]

Beautiful shot with a lovely background.