Are we cute or what?

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

My first shot of Pintail. They dont come close out here. I had to crawl through some foul smelling mud to get close to this pair. Wanted to capture the open bill so had to shoot wide-open. IQ is not great as I had to pull up the shadows for the face details. there's noise as well. Cropped it more than I like as there was a pelican on right and coot on left. NR done on BG. some debris cleanup as well. Hoping to get better opportunities...

40D. 400 f5.6L wide-open. 1/1000s. iso 640. evaulative +1 for cloudy conditions.

All comments welcome.

[Randy Stout]

Kaustubh:

A fun pair, open bill a plus, your usual great shooting angle, good exposure.

Despite your concerns over the techs, it presents pretty well at this small size.


Cheers

Randy

[Grace Scalzo]

Kaustubh, You self-critiqued your image very harshly, yet I am with Randy here. It's a pleasing image, full of character. Sometimes I think we have to be careful not to become so super picky that we downplay the good that far outweighs a few minor issues. I really like this image alot.

[dankearl]

The IQ looks fine to me.
The water is looks great, the DOF makes it look like a polished floor they are sitting on.

[Brendan Dozier]

Pretty dang cute, Kaustubh, like the poses & open bill, low angle, and great colors.

[Tom Rambaut]

Not your usual IQ but certainly a nice looking species of duck. I love the zig zag feather pattern on the side of the bird.

[Josh Clark]

Great shot here Kaustubh. It was worth crawling through all that mud. I personally love getting dirty taking photos.
Seriously though, great image here. Got one calling and another with a sort of coy head pose. Fantastic water smoothness as well.
Those clouds came in handy dealing with those whites, great job there as well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I agree the IQ is not to your usual standard, and the dark spots above grab my attention, but I love the plumpness of the birds and the signature low angle. I would have preferred to see either both the righthand bird's eyes, or none of the half hidden eye socket.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice pose but I agree IQ is not up to your usual standards, I do like how the bellies are touching, also agree with Dan regarding visibility of the eyes

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Lovely pose and a good image overall . It does not stand up to your usual standards , and the lack of DOF does hurt a bit .

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent image. Great looking pair, nice head angles, exposed well, and lovely background.
Well done.