Fight or Flight +rpost

Gallery: AvianPosted October 8, 2012186 views6 comments

PLEASE SEE CROPPED VERSION BELOW: An interesting scene the other day, as an adult male mallard and female were wading about a pond. A younger-looking drake was keeping its distance. Every once in awhile thru the reeds, etc., I could see the adult going after the younger bird (I'm assuming that's what it is)... at first I thought with the chest being puffed out, the youngster was after the hen. The young drake would fly a short distance off, and the scene would repeat itself.

Then someone astutely (Jim D.??) said that it was possibly the parents trying to get their offspring to leave them and go on its own. Hmmmm, that made sense.

Anyway, it was very overcast and dark, but I tried getting a capture as best I could. I'm mad the full reflection was cut off, but... D90, ISO-640, 1/400th (a tad blurry), f-8.0 at 500mm, full frame. Larger is posted too, your thoughts are very much welcomed!

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Bill Maile on October 8, 2012 at 1:06 PM

May have to just crop out the reflection, I would and post if it were a bit crisper. Not sure if it's worth it.

Registered on March 2, 2009, 984 Posts, 2518 Comments

Comment posted by Lance Warley on October 8, 2012 at 3:03 PM

Nice action shot, especially the splash. A shallower dof would give you more attention on the flier by blurring the bg. The wider aperture, along with a higher iso if you can tolerate it, would give you a ss of 1/1000 that would probably have frozen the flier.

Registered on April 18, 2007, 52 Posts, 459 Comments

Comment posted by Alan Murphy on October 8, 2012 at 3:05 PM

Great action, but a little hard to see with the busy BG. Image needs a little CCW rotation.

Registered on December 3, 2003, 192 Posts, 739 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Nall on October 8, 2012 at 6:28 PM

Bill, this is interesting action exhibited by this bird. I know you were trying to include the reflection as a plus, but I think I'd crop out enough to make the action stand out more. Don't see a need to rotate or do anything else. Thanks for sharing!

Registered on October 5, 2012, 45 Posts, 168 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Maile on October 9, 2012 at 9:36 AM

Here is the cropped version, which I think is MUCH stronger IMO. Thanks everyone!

Registered on March 2, 2009, 984 Posts, 2518 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on October 9, 2012 at 8:05 PM

Interesting action Bill but I think the softness is a significant issue in both versions.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments