Down and dirty

[Stuart Hill]

Spent the day at a local wildfowl reserve. UK weather cold but dryish for a change!

Listened to your advice and lay down in the wet and general bird grot much to the amusement of the odd passer by. Here is the result, Goldeneye Duck.

D300 + Sigma 500 4.5
iso 800, f7.1, 1/125s, foot of lens on the grass.

All comments and advice welcome.

regards.
Stu.

[Gary Esman]

Very cool shot! Just a little CCW rotation and that is all I can see to improve. The whites look great.

[Harold Davis]

fantastic job getting low!! agree with gary about the rotation. only other thing i see is the out of focus line cutting through the ducks head. not a biggie by no means. just something to consider working on if you dont mind that kind of stuff. nice detail in the whites and blacks and that eye looks great! nice job!!!

[Stuart Hill]

Thanks for the comments chaps. Agree with the rotation and the oof line. Never even noticed that when processing it! Good to have fresh eyes give it the once over.

Kind regards.
Stu.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Sweet, maybe open up some to gain more shutter and reduce DoF, might help with background lines and hide clutter. Have you ever seen these guys during mating season, their displays are too much. The males do many things but my favorite is the head throw-back, check it in the spring. It is a sight you will not want to miss, beautiful but funny as well.

I would level this out, crop off the bottom and frame it. This is a great picture a beautiful duck, well done.

You nailed the eye and the HA is spot on. Great texture in the whites, nice and steady.

[Katie Rupp]

Great job with the exposure and very nice pose, Stu! I've not been successful with a goldeneye yet so I'm even more impressed.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the details in black and white feathers, the pop out eye and the sharpness, very well done. The image is definitely worth getting down and dirty. Agree about some CCW to the image and the OOF line.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Neat looking bird. Agree with Harold about some CCW. But just love the eye. Might add some vignetting to darken the corners. Well exposed and sharp.

[Alfred Forns]

Love the image Stuart !! Some kind of good !!!

Excellent shadow detail and whites all have detail !!! Might want to see a little more room particularly to the right but one fine image and wish I had in my files !!! Big Congrats !!!!

[kostas nianiopoulos]

verry good Stuart , well done .

[Stuart Hill]

Thanks for the constructive comments. Best single thing I did to improve my photography was join this forum.

kind regards.
Stu.