Friends

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

These two mergansers were captured a week ago at Viera . I drove through Viera this past weekend but did not see any.
Nikon D3
Nikon 600mm F4
ISO 400
1/1600. F8
manual

All comments are appreciated and thanks.

[Ofer Levy]

Good job in getting the two in the frame with similar pose. I don't see details in the black and white but it can just be my laptop which I use when overseas.

[Bill Dix]

What a great capture - getting both with fully raised hoods, great HA and pose. Can't tell for sure about the blacks but it could be that some detail is lost. In a perfect world the bill of the LH bird wouldn't overlap the RH one, but IMHO this is a beautiful image. Well done, Judy!

[Don Lacy]

HI Judy, It was nice running into at Viera on Sat, lovely pose with both Hoodies together and nice color in the water. Unfortunately when I pulled the image into PS the black were completely gone and the whites are on the edge with values around 253 and 254.

[Randy Stout]

Judy:

Excellent to get them so close together, with good poses. Our local birds are so pugnacious that you don't see the males together. Was there a female out of frame?

The exposure on these guys tends to be nightmare unless the light is really soft. I wonder if you might have some useful detail in one of the three color channels? If so, perhaps you could use some blending to borrow some from the channel with detail and use as a layer to help bring in some detail.

Hope you get to see them again!

Randy

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Judy....good call on the aperture. If this is full frame, then a slightly tighter crop will make more impact. Loved the reflection pattern. Thanks for sharing...this is wonderful.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I was aware of the little detail in the whites but was thrilled to have captured two together both with their hoods up and so I wanted to share it. Thanks Randy for the great suggestions and I will definitely look into it. Also Randy I appreciated your comments and found them most interesting. To answer your question there was a female very close by and sometimes there were even some confrontations between the males. You are right about the exposure being extremely challenging and the light here in Florida can be quite bright. Again many thanks for your remarks and I appreciate what you had to say.

judylynn

[Nancy A Elwood]

Judy really great timing!! And nice clean water with a good color. It was terrific running into you Saturday!!:) Hope to see you in a few weeks!!

[Stu Bowie]

Judy, I like your comp as is, and just love how those eyes stand out against the dark plumage. Lovely looking ducks.