Nice light this morning at a local pond but still too far away. Lots of specular highlights removed from the wet plumage.
Is this a composite: No
iso 320, 400 + 1.4x, f4.5, 2000th, A7R4, handheld, 3.3 out of 61 MP. So a very large crop.
That is a big crop. But it seems to have held up. Tough birds to get close to. Good job on the exposure. You might even consider a bit of pano crop to remove the bit of wave or dark line in top bg. Really nice pose and looks like a very relaxed little duck.
You really nailed the focus to be able to crop that much, David. I think I’m seeing rain streaks in the image-was there a squall coming through? The water looks amazingly calm-we’ve had high winds all day.
Hi David, nice view of this female. I like the water and reflection also. The image quality on the duck is pretty good for such a large crop but I think it is affecting detail on the bird some.
Allen, I agree that this is not the best image quality. I would rather not crop so much but the high megapixel count of the Sony camera does give one a little reach. When I go out to our local wildlife refuge, the birds are so far away in general that the 2X extender is beneficial but image quality suffers significantly between the 2X and the 1.4 X extenders. I don’t know if this is a problem related to the large crops that I am posting or optical quality. I suspect it is a little bit of a combination.
Dennis, you made a comment about rain streaks in this image. No it certainly wasn’t raining as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Yes, this is the Pacific Northwest and that can happen. But I think because of the high winds that we had, these are probably water drops. I have a fair number of images where this is a problem and I have only seen it on windy days. Some parts of the water were not affected by the wind which is why this looks so calm.
