That doesn't look like a wood duck to me - Teenage Trumpeter

[Randy Stout]

I went out this morning to a new place in search of wood ducks. In general, woodies are quite shy in Michigan, and not easy to capture, but a friend lives on a nearby lake and has a number of pairs of woodies that frequent his yard.

So, I set off before dawn with my new slind (sled blind) to try it out. I settled in comfortably before sunrise to hopefully catch some early morning action.

Well, I knew that things might be difficult when the Canada geese would swim down the channel about half way towards my position, and then just sit there and fidget, because the blind was new to them.

I did see a number of woodies, but they were skirting my position to come around a different way to get at the corn the owners put out.

So, no pictures of woodies (yet!)

Learned a lot about my new blind, a few things to improve upon.

Eventually three trumpeters came all the way in. The pictured bird is a teenager, from last years hatch, so full sized. His head is mud streaked from feeding and he still has some of the grey juvi plumage.

D700 500 AFS f/5.0 ISO 500 SS 1.2000s Rig pedestal mounted in blind

Post: Selective sharpening, touch of detail extractor on feathers, not globally , just brushed along feather edges in most cases. Same for detail extractor.

Comments and advice always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[gail bisson]

Wow Randy,
This is lovely. Your PP work on the feathers is stunning. I love the low angle and the composition. Perfect HA. I think this is one of my favorite of yours.
How do you selectively brush on the DE? Remember, I still struggle with the concept of masks so "dumb down" your tips!!
And what is a "slind"? Do you have apicture?
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Wow Randy,
How do you selectively brush on the DE? Remember, I still struggle with the concept of masks so "dumb down" your tips!!
And what is a "slind"? Do you have apicture?
Gail

Gail:

When using the Color Efex Pro filters, I will select the one I want, run it, and when the layer comes up in the layer panel, do a hide all mask (black) I then go back with a soft, low opacity brush, often 30%, and paint in the amount of effect I want. I think a lot of people (myself included) used these powerful filters a bit too broadly, and I found the effect unnatural to my eye. So, my approach now is to try to be selective where I use them.

I also will vary the opacity of the entire layer of the effect if I want more of a global adjustment. My goal is to polish the image without making the post work obvious. Same goal as my use of fill flash, keep it subtle!

The light angle also helped me here. The light was still very soft, but off my left shoulder about 25 degrees in this shot, giving more micro shadows which helped add definition to the feathers.

The "slind" is my answer to having a portable, low, water proof bottomed blind. I can set it in the muck without getting wet while sitting in it. My fellow photographer, Roy Van Loo showed me his version, which inspired me to do a similar one. A few tweaks for my different needs, but it was his idea. Roy has been doing this for a long time, and is quite a tinkerer!

I will get a picture up soon. Today was its maiden voyage.

Cheers

Randy

[Mark Young]

Nice work on the whites.

[Satish Ranadive]

Sweet image.

[dankearl]

Great job on the bird, the feathers and detail is superb.
It looks like it could use a bit of NR on the BG (which is very nice).

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful image, Randy. Love the coolness of it. I agree that your processing is excellent.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Randy, well you have just nailed the feather detail so, so well in this. Your angle of capture is perfecto, as is the placement, and I do like the overall exposure. The swan pops nicely from the darker BG too.

You are going to have to capture an exceptional loon image to beat this, and you do have some great images of them.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I can add nothing other than praise - a super shot , love the detail and low angle.

[Karl Egressy]

Great picture, nice head turn, low angle and I really like the feather details and the misty background, Randy.
One time I found two shooting buddies standing around a Camo blind (Doghouse) tent that accomodates two people, and one was laughing very much.
What happened was, when the ducks saw the blind, all of them left.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Gorgeous setting, love the misty water and beautiful plumage detail..

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone, I do appreciate your thoughts and comments.

I will keep working that spot, it has a lot more to give.

Cheers

Randy