I believe the madness will just be starting. A few years ago photographers and bird watchers flocked to Viera Wetlands. The female Masked Duck made them all crazy. Well the Male of the species. has arrived.
Canon 5D mark II, 500F4L,F8,1/500sec, stacked teleconverters, Crop
I like the light and calm water and wish the bird were angled toward you. It looks as i you sharpened the entire image which makes the water look quite noisy.
I remember the excitement when this bird showed up. :)
Cool looking duck. I like the lighting, the ringed ripples around the duck and the water drops on it's back.
BG is a little noisy above and behind the duck.
Some day I'm going to have to try stacked teleconverters. If you haven't cropped it a lot to begin with I'd suggest cropping a bit off the left and bottom per the rule of thirds.
I agree on the noise, and the bird is a little tight on the right side. Image is a bit too contrasty. You might try lowering the contrast with an inverse S-curve in Curves.
Last January I was lucky enough to see the female Masked Duck, a fellow avid birder and I drove down to Lake City, Florida (Aligator Lake) from Canada. One day down, two days to see the Masked Duck, and try for the Harris Sparrow (Paynes Prairie)...then back home 2600 miles in all.
No luck on Harris Sparrow, but 1,000's of Sandhills, 10 Whooping Cranes at Paynes Prairie.
Very tough to get close to her, photo below is best I could get, but was a great bird to see anywhere in North America..
How long has the male been there? Where has it been seen? Thanks for sharing image, I'd love to have one so nice in my collection, if it sticks around I'll try to get down to see the male.
Image not that great, just one for my collection..someday I'll get a better one..
Last edited by Paul Lagasi; 12-25-2009 at 02:32 AM.
Masked Duck Madness
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