"at the end of the day", its just another Mallard shot

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

We had another dull cold windy overcast evening yesterday. My target species was Wigeon but light wasn't very good. I was almost ready to give up. But as the sun was about to set, clouds opened up briefly letting the sun throw some warm light on this Mallard. Too good an opportunity to ignore. Sometimes, I wonder how much we would have appreciated this bird if it wasn't so common.

40D. 400 f5.6 at f/5.6 iso 640. 1/160s. on ground with bean bag.

All C&C welcome.

[Doug Brown]

Great light, nice low angle, and excellent eye contact. Sharpness is excellent too. So what if it's a Mallard!

[Markus Jais]

It pays to not give up to early. Great shot with a beautiful bird in a beautiful light. Great low angle.

Markus

[D. Robert Franz]

Great light and good low angle on this fine speciman...

[Steve Canuel]

Common but attractive subjects. Really nice light, angle, and transition of BG colors. Nicely done.

[Fabs Forns]

Beautifully done, great light, the face glows, nice placement, catch light in the eye, water drops, pretty nicely done. If you are into p/p, you could remove the shine from the breast, piece of cake ;)

[Conrad Tan]

I see what you are saying with the sharpening Kaustubh. I'll give that a shot with my next wood duck! Nice low angle man.

[Arthur Morris]

Aside from the specular highlights on the sides of the breast, this--for all the reasons mentioned above--is about as beautiful a portrait as you will find.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thx everyone.

Fabs, my PS skills are very limited. I have PS elements...not the CS4. So some of the things that usually get advised are not there. Thanks for offering to help removing the breast highlights. Simple selection and curves on that usually doesn't do the trick.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

beautiful colors,low angle,pose!

[Nate Chappell]

A beautiful portrait Kaustubh!:cool:

[Stu Bowie]

Stunning light and exposure on the Mallards head, and the droplets add to the image too. Lovely low angle, and what a killer BG.

[Simon Bennett]

Lovely portrait - especially like how the background colours are those also shown in the bird.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Loved the 3D feel here bhai, nice details, colours and angle too...

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Strong image - what else can I say besides I love the species.

[arash_hazeghi]

Everything has been mentioned here, a very beautiful shot.