A female Merganser Duck, making a take off run across a mostly frozen pond. There was a slush & water layer on top of the thin ice which allowed her to stay on top easier yet still resulted in splashes to record her foot steps. There was a lot of dead space above and below so I cropped it into a panorama for composition and to put the focus on her “flight path”.
Sony a6500, FE 100-400 GM @ 400mm, ISO-250, f/8.0, 1/4000, hand held.
Gary, the series of steps with their flying water looks great and your pano crop emphasizes her actions well.
Gary, this is a great look at a fast moving duck. I love the splashes of ice water from her previous steps.
Wonderful timing, shutter speed and crop for comp Gary.
But I have to confess a bias based on your home port of Valdez. Dunno what the black patches on the water’s surface might be, but my Alaskan eyes keep staring at them and wondering if they’re oil. Not a factor for other viewers perhaps, but a distraction for me. The sad mix of birds and oil is just too graphic in the back of my brain.
That’s an unusual, but very effective angle, Gary. I like this image a lot.
