Common pochard (Aythya ferina)

[Juan Aragonés]

A male common pochard taking off from the water. An overcast but very productive morning in Doñana National Park, in the southwest of Spain. This image was made in the same place and under the same shooting conditions of my previous image of the grey heron: handheld from my car, throught the passenger´s window while the car is working at very, very low speed, prefocusing and setting the exposure manually... and a lot of luck because this species is really, really shy in Spain, in fact is the first time I got one of this guys at a decent shooting distance.

Your comments and critics are, always, wellcomed and apreciated :)

Nikon D300 AFS Nikkor 500VR+1,4XTC, manual exposure, 6,1Mp, ISO 500, f7, 1/640s

[Colin Knight]

Amazing how you got this shot!!

The angle isn't the best, flying away from you a bit. Also, I'm not a big fan of having the whole wings soft, I prefer blur just at the tips. It seems the D300 could have allowed for a higher ISO with acceptable noise performance to bump that shutter speed up a bit.

Sharp where it counts! Great exposure and background!

[Keith Carver]

I agree that this is sharp where it counts - the blurred wings don't bother me, nor that it's flying away. This pochard really pops against the diffuse BG, great eye and face detail. I like the water droplets on the LHS. TFS, Juan!

[Tony Whitehead]

Love that eye, Juan. BG works well. I saw one in central London that was really tame but obvioulsy quite a different matter in the wild. Amazing job at 1050mm equivalent, presumably HH while driving the car albeit slowly:D

[Cal Walters]

I agree with Keith - plus under the conditions you were shooting I would have expected much less sharpness in the head/neck. Overall I like it.

[Fabs Forns]

Great capture, motion in wings is a positive for me, and the green BG a plus to show off the the red head and eyes. Enhorabuena, amigo.

[James Salywoda]

Awesome pose captured Juan a real beauty for sure.

[Jay Tan]

Nice down wing pose. I like the slightly blurred wings to convey sense of motion and water droplets add some interesting detail.

[Harshad Barve]

awesome shot , sharp where it counts and killer BG
TFS

[Ofer Levy]

I love this! Maybe a slightly better angle toward you but still lovely.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A superb image I love the colours and the pose, the detail in the head down to the feet is excellent, the minor wing blur sets everything off nicely. The water droplets add interest, I may be tempted to add a little canvas on the left.

[christopher galeski]

very nice Juan,good detail in the head to the feet,wing blur adds movement,nice BG,as Jonathan says,I would like a bit more canvas on the left,but a very nice flight shot.thanks.

[Juan Aragonés]

Thank you all for your commnets and suggestions :)

I agree that some additional room at the left would much better but there is no more on this frame. I have this one (from the same series but with a different croping) with a lot of water drops falling from the feet and more room at the left but the wing position is not as good as in this one. Of course, it is possible to take part of both frames and make an "hybrid" with them but I prefer no to do it ;)
I would love to hear which one do you prefer

Thanks,
Juan

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great capture Bhai, loved the pose, wing blurr adds greatly here.. nice setting too...