Lovely Lady

Gallery: AvianPosted February 16, 2011116 views9 comments

A friend told me about the Wood Ducks at a local park. When I got there I saw a lot of Wood Ducks so I decided to try and capture a female since mostly males are posted. I have always loved the female Wood Ducks with their Cleopatra Eyes. I never realized the beautiful colors they have. They were in a pond but they would stay as far as they could from any approaches, they even flew up into the trees which I have never seen before. I captured a female in a tree and may post it later. I cropped this to include the palms to emphasize the Cleopatra theme.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated

Location: Irvine Regional Park , California
Date taken 02-15-11 around 8:30 a.m.
Weather - Overcast
Canon 7D
EF 300 2.8L w/1.4 420mm
Shooting Mode = Aperture Priority
ISO 800
Shutter 1/500
f/ 4.0
Exposure Comp. 0
WB Auto
Tripod
Processed in Elements 8 from Raw image - sharpened
Cropped to 50% of original image

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on February 16, 2011 at 4:00 PM

The overcast helped a lot here and kept the shadows open.

I like the setting and composition.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Larry Reitz on February 16, 2011 at 4:25 PM

Pretty bird. Nice composition. Well done.

Registered on September 7, 2007, 32 Posts, 335 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on February 16, 2011 at 4:29 PM

Harry, You're really posting some beautiful shots!
I personally love the females of most duck species - very beautiful in their own more-subtle way.
This is a great pose to show off the colors, and I really like the environment included.
Cheers -
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Marquart on February 16, 2011 at 10:23 PM

Nice image Harry, they do have some unique colors about them. I would probably clone out the poop though.

Registered on October 24, 2009, 126 Posts, 799 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on February 16, 2011 at 10:49 PM

Sweet image, Harry. Excellent job on the exposure, good detail, and a wonderful composition.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Marc Dubuc on February 16, 2011 at 11:34 PM

Very good shot. I like the colors and composition!

Registered on January 4, 2011, 59 Posts, 229 Comments

Comment posted by David Haynes on February 17, 2011 at 1:12 AM

Harry,
This is really a great image. Love the overcast light, the inclusion of the environment and the beautiful colors on the wing you were able to capture here Harry. I'm thinking that if you stopped down to maybe f/8 you could have gotten the head and the tail sharp. The eye appears slightly soft while the tail apears to be tack sharp. I'm seeing this on my laptop so take that with a grain of salt Harry. One of your best to date.

Registered on February 20, 2010, 110 Posts, 1511 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on February 17, 2011 at 5:41 PM

Good concept and good execution. I agree with Richard that you were lucky with the light. And I agree with your opinion of female Wood Ducks.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Geoffrey Baker on February 17, 2011 at 6:35 PM

Lovely, I like the setting.
Well done.

Geoff.

Registered on August 20, 2010, 192 Posts, 980 Comments