This Spot-billed Duck seemed to be in training for the next Winter Olympics down on the river today.
I skewed the level a bit to make it look more daring.
D500 + 150-600mm (@600mm) 1/500 f11 ISO 640
In LR adjusted Blacks and Whites, and darkened the area around the face with the adjustment brush. After Denoise, lowered highlights in PS and unstraightened for effect, then cropped.
Looks good, Mike. The pose and the mix of ice and water on the ice have lots of detail. Angling the scene is a good idea.
I love this picture. It made me laugh. It really looks like he is ice skating.
Lot’s of fun, Mike. I like the “unstraightening”. It provides a neat effect.
Fabulous! Makes me shiver…what cold toes. But they’re used to it and so far as I know, can manipulate their circulatory systems to compensate for temperature swings. Or maybe that was swans. Either way, what a great moment and I think the tilt worked as anticipated. I’ve never seen this kind of duck before. I wonder what evolutionary advantage that spot has.
The tilt works perfectly. This is a fun image.
Thank you @Dennis_Plank @Charles_Bell @tamar-aharony @Mark_Seaver and @Kris_Smith for your comments. Kris, the spot of the bird’s name is actually a red one at the bill base which our sub-species lacks. Whatever, it has this yellow spot too. Maybe it helps the young find Mom’s beak for feeding, but I wonder if there’s really any evolutionary advantage, as it rather spoils the camouflage. But then, so does speed-skating.
LOL! Great catch! That bright yellow on the beak is cool, along with the orange legs and feet.
The ice and water patterns are also very cool.
Very nice and funny pose. Good idea to tilt the image a bit.
I love speed skating, but never tried it bare footed.
Lots of fun and very well-done! You caught the decisive moment for sure. Good thing he has those tiny little toes. I love the tilt – cool idea!
