The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I went back to the lake where we have mergansers on Sunday and found that most of them had left to head back to their breeding grounds. There were still about 10-15 of them, mostly females and young males although there were still 3 adult males hanging out. I set up low to the ground and just waited as most of them were up on a overhanging tree branch just above the water level napping. The rain started falling but I was under a huge canopy tree so all was well. I see a few of them start to move around and then 5 of them jump off the low hanging branch and into the water. They preen for a few minutes and then decide to start hunting. They dive down coming up with nothing. As they move around I am hoping they don’t leave looking for a sweeter honey spot for crawdads. Then I notice one of the females come up with a fairly large dad. She’s shaking her head as I’m trying to compose for the shots but she’s moving very erratically. She then starts flying across the top of the water as she struggles with the large dad. She zipped back and forth a couple times before settling down. It took her 2-3 minutes to finally get this crawdad down the hatch. It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed what caused all of the ruckus. There was another merganser under water that came up beneath the merganser with the dad and tried to steal it from her. By the way, this other merganser is a juvi male. That’s why his eye color is different than the females. I didn’t know they went through this change but another person at the lake told me about it. The female never let go of her prize and was rewarded with a nice meal. What a terrific surprise for me. I never saw that other merganser in real time.
Specific Feedback
Any and all comments and suggestions.
Technical Details
Z9, 400mm 2.8 with built in teleconverter engaged @ 560mm, ISO 2000, f/4, 1/4000, hand held, manual exposure
What a great surprise for you, if not for the female Merganser, David! These images are just wonderful and leave the viewer wondering how it ended (which you were nice enough to explain). No nits from me on these images.
Fantastic captures!! And what a great story! Your patience and skill were well-rewarded! I wouldn’t change a thing – the processing is as good as the captures.
I have nothing to add other than that you may want to enter this photo into any or all photo contests you can find. This is certainly worthy of winning a prize!
David. I keep having the thought niggling at me that this wants to be a triptych. Do you have an initial frame or a follow up framewith just the female and her prey, preferably the former? I think it would really complete the series.
Fabulous moments to capture - it’s really interesting when you get home to discover something you didn’t see in real time. I think it happens quite often in the wild and is nearly always rewarding. Makes me think of that movie “Blow-Up”. I like Dennis’s idea of the triptych. Great shots, David!
Dennis, Great idea. I do have several before and after images but I don’t know how to arrange them into a triptych frame. Can I do it without a frame or would that be weird? If I do it without a frame, would I just post three images or is there a way to post three images next to each other? Thanks very much for your inspiration and your thoughts.
Thank you Diane!!
Thank you Lori!
Richard, I have never entered an image into a competition and wouldn’t even know where to start. I guess Google would be a good place to start.
You made me smile Barabara. Thanks you!
Allen, I couldn’t have been more surprised when I got home. I never had any inclination as to why the merganser just took off but I assumed it was that the crawdad was very big and fighting back. Who knew. I love those kind of surprises. These cute little mergansers have given me plenty of surprises this winter.
You are so right, Mike. Thanks for your thoughts.
In order to do it for a post, I think you’d have to create the triptych as a single file in PS or whatever processing software you’re using. Unfortunately, they don’t show up all that well online because of the limitations of monitor sizes. I’m using a 32 inch monitor and even then the individual images start getting pretty small. I was thinking more of a print, but if you want feedback, you could lay it out like you would intend to print it and run it by the community.
Given that some people use the light background and some the dark, I’d put a virtual mat around them to separate it from the background.
I’m not very good at photoshop but I’ll try and google how to make a matt for this. I love the idea though. I appreciate your insights about this. I never would have thought about doing that.
Thanks for your encouragement.
I can’t find it because I can’t remember where it ended up, but maybe @David_Kingham can remind us where he posted the presets for this kind of thing he made. I think it was for Adobe, but can’t remember if it was for Lr or Ps or both.
Shazam! I love that when you “see” something even more interesting after you get home. This is just amazing, and I’m glad she held on and was justly rewarded. A wonderful photo!
These are so great! And what a great story, too! It’s fantastic that you got them so sharp, with the gorgeous greens of the background. Congratulations on a fine capture!
