THEME: Northern Shoveler take off

[Gary Esman]

Hello, the plan was to capture a take off shot from all the migrating waterfowl that show up here in Michigan every fall. The problem is they have only now started to show up. We are about 3 weeks behind in the migration. I went out yesterday morning to check out a local sanctuary and was able to catch this guy bolting off. It was a strange morning rain, sleet, hail, snow lighting or some call it snow bolts, sunshine but very little wind. Hope you enjoy and C and C welcome. My self critique is I wish his head was a little more towards the camera (me) and in his spring breeding colors (can't fix that one right now).

Gary.

7D, iso00, 1/1600, 700mm, f/5.6.

[Stu Bowie]

Gary, I like the raised wing position for take off, and his yellow eye stands out nicely against the darker green sheen of his head. Ive always liked the shape of shoveller's bills. It looks like some of your NR 'destroyed' the droplets behind the tail.

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

Can't get much more full up wing position than that. Dangling feet, eye, good.

Agree with self critique re: head angle, but close.

Cheers

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice light and dynamic pose, the IQ is not great however there are some halo artifacts, was this a large crop?

[Gary Esman]

very nice light and dynamic pose, the IQ is not great however there are some halo artifacts, was this a large crop?

Thanks Arash, not really I may have over sharpened. I am not real pleased with this image. Oh well, move forward. Gary.