American Coot Flapping

[Arthur Morris]

Two coots were fighting. I swung the big lens around to frame them and they disappeared for about 30 seconds. I was mystified. When they surfaced, peace reigned and this bird leaned back to flap.

Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop (to save the white bill): 1/2500 sec. at f/6.3. I used the 2 AF sensors below the central sensor; I love that for much of my duck photography.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

ps: Check out Sunny Sunday Morning Duck Exposure Primer here.

[Ofer Levy]

Fantastic shot! Awesome light, colours, exposure control, sharpness and pose. Would move the bird slightly more to the right.

[denise ippolito]

Beautiful Artie, The exposure and sharp details are striking. I love the water color. Sweet!

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Beautiful wing position , lovely exposure . The water and the BG colours are lovely . Agree with Ofer to move it slightly to the right .

[Duane Noblick]

I like the beads of water rolling of it's body. Excellent exposure (as usual) and love the "victory" wing flap.

[Chris Martinez]

Head angle is sweet

Being picky here, I'm not sure I like the darker patches in the BG at each side(compared to the golden section in the middle. Were there shaded areas of water?

I'm curious as to why the neck feathers are so dark(haven't caught the light). Is this due the them being fluffed up and pointing at the camera?

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all. Interestingly enough, I kept one other frame from the sequence. The bird is a tad more to the right in this one :) I really struggled choosing between the two..... Which wing position do you like best, the original or the repost???

[Arthur Morris]

They are so similar that I prepared an animated GIF.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Very nice capture of a common species in an interesting moment. Balancing the white bill against the black feathers is always a big challenge with coots. Very well done. I most certainly prefer the second version because of the better composition although the first one admittedly has a more striking wing pose. I love the golden-brown water in the background balancing the blue in the remainder. JR

[Stu Bowie]

Artie, I like both the comp and wing position of your second post. Excellent exposure, and overall nice and sharp.

[Arthur Morris]

Head angle is sweet

Being picky here, I'm not sure I like the darker patches in the BG at each side(compared to the golden section in the middle. Were there shaded areas of water?

I'm curious as to why the neck feathers are so dark(haven't caught the light). Is this due the them being fluffed up and pointing at the camera?

Yes to sweet HA :)

Yes to picky. As I recall, nothing was shaded. Though I had not noticed the darker area to the sides I sort of like them as they frame the bird nicely.

As for the dark neck, I just think that the feathers there are darker.... I was working right down the sun angle.

Thanks for stopping by :)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, I find it quite admirable at even after all these years, you dont ignore the common birds.

I liked the second one more. The lines created by the wings are more straight....and the straight line of the near wing pointing into the corner is creating a stronger comp. IMO.

Exposure and angles terrific as usual.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Artie, I like the wing position of No 1 best and the position of bird in frame of No 2 best. Great water

[Jonathan Ashton]

Artie the first one is a more pleasing pose - but it needs just tad more room on the left in my opinion. Mind you neither are that bad really!!!!

[Pieter de Waal]

Arthur I prefer the second as I like the composition and pose of the Coot better in the second post. In any event I would be happy with either if mine, exposure of the blacks excellent. Also love the texture and colour of the water in both.

[Mike Tracy]

#1 is the better pose with the chest lifted up and wing position albeit I wish for more room on our left. The coot #1's neck is also not merged with the left wing which to me presents better. #1 is more of a "dynamic" image.

Why only 800 pixels wide as posted ?

[Aravind Krishnaswamy]

I like #1 better, the way the neck is sticking out. Nice capture.

[Arthur Morris]

#1 is the better pose with the chest lifted up and wing position albeit I wish for more room on our left. The coot #1's neck is also not merged with the left wing which to me presents better. #1 is more of a "dynamic" image.

Why only 800 pixels wide as posted ?

My thoughts are that 800 wide is large enough to get the message of the image across. And 1200 high does not fit the whole image on my rather large laptop. Lastly, and feel free to correct me if I am wrong, the a 200 kb image that is 800 px on the long side will have better image quality than a 200 kb image that is 1200 px on the long side. Lastly, I am stubborn and often resist change (only to find out later that I was wrong and should have seen the light long ago).

[Mike Tracy]

Thanks for your thoughts and mindset. That's been my line of thinking for the most part.

On Blackpoint for the bird festival. Sorta slack.

[Arthur Morris]

:) It great that we agree on something! Yeah, Merritt can be great or a bust. Hope that you find something in nice light.

[arash_hazeghi]

this is very beautiful, the light and pose are exceptional.