This Green Winged Teal was photographed at the Radio Road Ponds in Redwood City, CA, in mid-November. I was pleasantly surprised about the green wing(?) feather sticking out.
Best, Joerg
Canon 40D, 500F4IS, 1.4TC, 700 mm, 1/1250s, F7.1, ISO 400, Manual Exposure, Distance 15 m, Gitzo tripod w/ Mongoose 3.5a
The speculum here really does add a lot, picking up the colors of the head as well.
The brown reflections in the water also works well with the bird's browns.
Good shooting angle to try and get a good reflection. A little distortion here from the ripples, but I agree with leaving this one. I often crop them out if they aren't really crisp, but am OK with this one. I might however consider eliminating the reflection of the catchlight, simply because it is stretched out, and I have had a number of folks comment about that in my water fowl pictures.
Interesting looking Teal Joerg, and those greens stand out nicely, both on the head and wing. Good low perspective, with a good HA. Great point from Randy regarding the reflected catchlight.
Like the colours and feather pattern in this image. Also good HA. This is my first sighting of this bird and have to ask Joerg, are those green feathers allways that bright or is it the light angle accentuating them.?
Lovely image, with good detail, head angle and colors. For me, it would be nice to add a little canvas at the bottom, so the reflection of the head has a little more room.