Green winged teal

[Matt Vosniak]

After trying to get out and shoot for the last two weeks today was finally my day. For an early November day here in the Cleveland area you couldn't ask for a better day, around 70 degrees, wall to wall sunshine, and no wind to speak of. A little gift from above for us today. The minute I got out to my favorite park the birds were just about everywhere which just made for a sweeter day and when this teal gave me this opportunity I knew the day couldn't get much better. Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy.

Matt

40D, 300mm + 1.4x converter, 1/1250th, f 7.1, ISO 400, -1/3 comp.

[Dave Blinder]

Matt - Great exposure, reflection, and BG. I think I'm picking up a slight sharpening halo under his bill. I might consider bringing up the black levels a hair.

[Randy Stout]

Matt:

An attractive bird, well posed for you. Like the waterdrops, being able to see the feet.

The biggest distraction for me is the lump of mud/log in the foreground, which breaks up the reflection. I found myself spending more time looking in that area trying to figure out the reflection/mud interaction than looking at the bird. I don't have a perfect solution, but would crop up a bit from the bottom to downplay that area, and perhaps a small crop from the right to move the bird to the right in the frame.

I appreciate Dave's point about the blacks, but there already is some very minor blocking of the blacks, so wouldn't recommend increasing the black level.

Cheers

Randy

[James Salywoda]

Sweet Shot Matt its nice to see a GWT out of the water and this is a beautiful shot of it I love the colors captured well done.

[Jim Buescher]

Matt, was this at Sandy Ridge? I was there Sunday and a few of the GWT's came in close but in cluttered habitat. If this was at Sandy Ridge, you did a good job of getting him in the open and out of the water. Exposure and light direction are good considering how sunny it was. Now go back and try for the Pintails, Ruddy, Wigeon, Shoveler and Gadwalls that I saw there!:)

[Matt Vosniak]

Matt, was this at Sandy Ridge? I was there Sunday and a few of the GWT's came in close but in cluttered habitat. If this was at Sandy Ridge, you did a good job of getting him in the open and out of the water. Exposure and light direction are good considering how sunny it was. Now go back and try for the Pintails, Ruddy, Wigeon, Shoveler and Gadwalls that I saw there!:)

Jim, yes this was at Sandy Ridge. I don't know if I talked to you because I spoke with some of the guys walking around there with cameras but I was the guy sitting down on the log with the small 300mm lens. Don't know if you saw me or not but I had to wait these guys out to come back to what seemed to be a good feeding location that was so close to the path. They finally wandered back and when someone walked by on the path it pushed them out into the only open spot out there just as I had hoped.

[Jim Buescher]

Matt, I was the guy that talked to you as we were both leaving. I managed to get some good close-ups but they were always in the water with a log or a stick nearby. Your strategy and patience paid off (shows you don't always need the big lens for good shots), nice low angle, I remember you sitting there.