Male Wood Duck in fresh breeding plumage + crazy "painted" water reflecting fall tree colours = autumn scene at its' peak! The water was beautifully lit, but the subjects were in heavy shade so I pulled out the flash and used it as main light on the ducks.
Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/640s., f/8, ISO 1600, flash as main light on the duck @ + 1.7 FEC, BG naturally lit, full-frame, darkened the pupil to rid of "steel eye".
This is pretty much perfect Dan. The pose, eye contact, colors of the bird and water are all great. Don't see how you could have made this any better. Nice to see someone else posting some shots with flash. I think it is the most under used tools by bird photographers.
Hi Dan, love the variety of colours in this. Both the Duck and the water, although both very colourful, they still seem to stand out against each other. Great detail and sharpness on the Duck, and a good HA to round it off. Well done with the subtle use of flash.
Wicked, wicked water. I wish for a bit more room below the bird.
with love, a
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Hi Daniel. At first I thought this was a Mandarin duck, but that's a native of China/Japan, but related to the wood duck. Fantastic colours, and the water is really nice. TFS
Thanks a stack guys!! John, I simply mount my 580ex flash directly on the hotshoe. With the 500mm lens I remove the lens hood to prevent the domed shadow on the bottom of the frame.