This guy was perched on a handrail at Bayou Sauvage NWR. These have been pretty common there since I began shooting birds. Unfortunately for whatever reason the refuge has not drawn nearly the numbers of these as well as many herons and others the last few years. Cropped to 80% of original.
Olympus E-3, Zuiko 300 F2.8 +EC-20 on Wimberley I,
ISO 400 1/640 f/6.3 0.0EV
Excellent detail and the pose strikes my funny bone, Bill. I think a bit more room on the left would make this work even better. A really cool image.
Love the pose, background, light, and colors. Detail looks good. You’ve done an excellent job of minimizing the handmade perch. Dennis, as always, has a good suggestion for the comp.
Nice light, detail and an interesting pose. Consider a slight levels adjustment to get a little pop off that background? Not sure what is going on at the bottom of the frame? a blur to minimize the man-made perch?
Beautiful subject, great detail and I just love that pose, Bill.
Excellent color and clarity. I like the pose and the head turn.
Thanks for commenting. This is an old location that has since been closed. @David_Bogener, that odd looking OOF band at the bottom is the closer handrail, which I wish were not there. At on time Bayou Sauvage was a reliable location for bird imagery. Over the years these ducks and many herons, egrets and such have been numerous in that refuge, but unfortunately the last few years the overall health of the refuge has dramatically declined, likely due to lack of food sources, to such an extent that I rarely bother to even go any more.
As everyone else has said, I like that pose! It’s so different for a duck. And of course the rest is very nice - sharp, great background.
