Common subject-Simple composition

[Todd Frost]

Common mallard, image made at Nisqually NWR I like the simplicity of this one.
D300, 400 28., 1/500, f4, iso800, man exp.
Thanks for looking, comments and critiques appreciated.
Todd

[John Chardine]

Hi Todd- I like the idea of giving the Mallard a lot of room. You have nice lighting (which you need to render the iridescent green head) and the image is sharp. The open bill is a nice action feature and you had to be quick to get it I guess. I find the OOF detail in the BG a bit distracting and you could blur this out or do a bit of dodging and burning to even out the tonality. The image would be a lot stronger if the bird's head was angled slightly towards you rather than away.

[Fabs Forns]

Head angle mentioned, I love the colors and the perch. A horizontal may have also been an option.

[Jim Fenton]

Agree completely with Fabs that this might have worked better as a horizontal. While I like negative space in an images, there is too much here IMHO. I like the concept...just think the bird needs to be a bit more of it in this case.

I might have tried to darken the light colored dead plant material and also blurred the background a bit.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Todd, You might want to consider cropping this to a square format thus eliminating a lot of the dead space above the Mallard. HA also mentioned but I do like the perch and detail on the head.

[Dave Leroy]

Very nice shot and aptly titled. The perch adds a lot to the photo, and I also like the idea of horizontal crop. Dave

[Markus Jais]

I like this a lot. As the others already said, a horizontal crop might work even better. But a square might also be a good idea.
The perch is great, as is the soft light.

Markus

[john jackson]

I do not see any dead space, I see a wonderful composition with an interesting background. Log is great. Slight turn away makes a change from the regular head angle and gives a texture to the head rather than green sheen over the whole face area.