Wood Duck Swim

Rick,
This looks very un-natural, more like a painting than a photograph, I hope that's what you were going for ?

You're getting some gorgeous reflections with your Woodies Rick. The colors are very complimentary and work well here. I like the composition with the duck smaller in the frame and high and to the left. It seems as if he is swimming up hill just a bit, maybe a couple degrees of CW rotation would help and I wonder if you could tone down the bright area in the ULC - with a couple of minor tweaks, this could be a very strong image.

Mike,
I have no idea what you are implying.

This is a straight up capture with no post process other than NR. No saturation increase, nothing.
This was shot in December with the leaves turning and I think very representative of the scene..

Randy,

Good points.

Thanks

Looks a bit bright to my eye, Rick. I like the details in the plumage and the patterns on the water, but the whites seem to be blown.

With so much going on in the reflection the duck is kind of lost, to me anyway. But then it could just be these blasted bifocals of mine.

I like the prepost Rick, very nice colors.

Ray

Rick,
I meant no offense what so ever and I very much enjoy seeing your work. The repost does look better on my screen. What I should have said the first time was that this capture would classify nicely as 'Photo Art'. You captured some very unusual reflections and compelling textures resembling the brush strokes of a fine museum quality painting. This capture would look very nice as a canvas print in my opinion. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Hi Rick:

Nice capture of this shy species. To me it looks a little flat. I might try bumping up the saturation a bit. And also turn down the brightness in the background a bit to make the duck stand out.

The repost looks quite a bit better, lovely reflection and water.

Good work on the repost Rick, love the water & reflections throughout