Long-tailed Duck

[Karl Egressy]

It was a sunny day and I drove to Burlington to look for Long-tailed Ducks.
Despite all of my handicaps, I managed to get a few sharp BIF shots.
The central focal square was sitting on the very tip of the beak which was a nice surprise.
I usually manage to hit the head with a 300 2.8 or a 400 f4.6 but with the 500 plus 1.4x, I'm happy if I hit the bird, period.
It might be a big crop to many of you but it is an average crop for me.
Thanks for looking.


Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Manual Exposure
Tv 1/2000
Av 5.6
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Love the flight pose, light under the wings and that great tail. Might have lost a little IQ but pretty nice to me.

[Randy Stout]

Karl:

Strong light, but it really helps him pop from the watery BG. Good exposure, like the feet, really good pose.

Yes, maybe a little effect of the crop on IQ.

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Crosswell]

Nice image Karl! I like the exposure and long tail.

[Brendan Dozier]

Great looking duck, Karl, and very nice full wingspread flight pose you captured.

[Grace Scalzo]

Such challenging subjects, Karl, and you've done a great job here. Nice and sharp. Personally I'd ease up on the crop and improve the iq a bit.

[Arthur Morris]

Killer pose and framing. Fine detail seems most lacking in the face and in the WHITEs of the head. Love the blue water and the light.

[Arthur Morris]

Had a thought. Ran NIK Color Efex Pro 4.1 Detail Extractor at 100% on the head and neck only (painted in via a Hide-all Mask). The Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast have revolutionized my workflow.... Learn more about Detail Extractor here.

[Ofer Levy]

Killer image Karl!!! Fantastic pose and exposure control!

[arash_hazeghi]

awesome pose, details and nice light, I applied some sharpening

[Gary Esman]

Nice wing spread and pose. Really pops from the background. A little PS work and it looks nice.

Gary.

[Karl Egressy]

Had a thought. Ran NIK Color Efex Pro 4.1 Detail Extractor at 100% on the head and neck only (painted in via a Hide-all Mask). The Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast have revolutionized my workflow.... Learn more about Detail Extractor here.

Thanks Artie, taking the time to work on my picture.
As always, your improved version looks so much better.

[Karl Egressy]

awesome pose, details and nice light, I applied some sharpening

Thank you Arash.
Yours and Artie's PP. work made it look so much better.
I hope you guys allow me to copy it back into my subdirectory with your work.
I may post it somewhere else mentioning that you helped me in PP.
Thanks.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thank you Arash.
Yours and Artie's PP. work made it look so much better.
I hope you guys allow me to copy it back into my subdirectory with your work.
I may post it somewhere else mentioning that you helped me in PP.
Thanks.

most welcome Karl, glad you found it useful

[James Salywoda]

Outstanding Shot Karl!!!!

[Dave Leroy]

Lovely pose Karl. Very well done and good for you to capture the moment. Nice to see both reposts.

[gail bisson]

The repost is amazing! well done on the oroginal Karl and well done Arash and Artie on the PP,
Gail

[Arthur Morris]

Thank you Arash.
Yours and Artie's PP. work made it look so much better.
I hope you guys allow me to copy it back into my subdirectory with your work.
I may post it somewhere else mentioning that you helped me in PP.
Thanks.

Glad that you liked. No problema on this end .

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Great light, fantastic specie and superb pose. The deep blue of the bg works so well here.
The reposts really take this up a few notches.
Hope to see and photography this specie someday.