Wood Duck Hen

[Joel Eade]

This is a wild bird but the image was taken at a lake in a park where the birds are accustomed to people.

1D MKIV
500mm hand held
Evaluative metering
Manual Mode
Center AF point manually selected, using rear focus I put the focus on the eye and then re-composed.
ISO 800
f/6.3
1/800

I cloned out part of another bird in the left upper corner, cleaned up the water slightly and added some canvas on the left and top.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Joel,

Nice capture the colors are beautiful and the power of a still photograph comes out here. The foreground is always an issue with reflections to keep or evict. In this case most of it was removed and only a thin slice remains. If you crop it out then the virtual feet become an issue, it is it a bit distracting but that is what you saw so it should be included in the image. Long way of saying, I like this one and just a reminder to everyone that simple subjects can produce beautiful photographs. Love the muted background and low profile, nice job of HHing the 500 as well.

[Troy Lim]

Do you have more room overall? The bird could be smaller in the frame in my opinion.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Joel, really nice colors, detail, and exposure. I love the feather detail and the eye contact. Really lovely image, maybe a little tight in the frame. You made the most of your DOF budget, which was very slim. Getting the bird parallel to the sensor really maximizes the sharpness and allows you to show a large area of detail. Good one!