January 3, 2015 in Orange County, California. I arrived at this location just after sun-up today and was fortunate to get a lot of shots of both male and female Hooded Mergansers, a species we don't see often in this area. I need to work on the males with Keith because their white/black is so intense that it seems that both can be blown in the same image. Fortunately the females are a bit easier on that basis. This female caught this fish and the stick together. She worked on trying to get the fish down for about 15 minutes and finally gave up. At one point it was about 3/4 down and I thought she achieved the impossible.
Nikon D4 Nikkor 600mm ISO800 1/640 f/7.1 White Balance Auto RAW Processed in Lightroom, PhotoshopCC2014, TK and NIK.
Thank you for your comments.
Comments
11 commentsSweet Photo!
Nice action shot. I wouldn't worry about the stick--its part of the scene. I would do some local and slight sharpening on the bill and bluegill as my only suggestion
I want to thank each of you for your comments. I confess I am not a good editor of my own work, and consequently, your comments help me to learn from my mistakes and raise the bar for myself. Regarding the stick, I got over a hundred shots of the Hooded as she struggled to try and get it down. Most were without the stick. I chose to include it because it told a story. I am sure that photographically, it detracted from the image. For Keith, this was not a huge crop, and I noise reduced everything but the duck. I am anxious to review this image in our next tutoring session. I will re-post it after Keith and I have an opportunity to work it over.
Again, thank you for your comments. You only help me to get better!
Looks like you were able to capture some of that early morning light in this image. I really love the color of the water and the reflection you were able to capture. I particularly like that the stick, which appears almost straight is reflected in the water with a large bend in it appearing to circle the head of the hoodie. The prey adds a lot to this image and I'm not apposed to the stick at all and in fact I'm glad you chose to keep it. AS far as the detail the smaller image appears to be pretty good but the larger image shows either a very large crop or some softness. You may be able to have Keith help you with this. He's a magician.
As far as the male you almost have to shoot them in cloud cover because there is not enough dynamic range in any camera to be able to capture both the whites and the blacks with a lot of post processing help if you shoot them in sunny conditions. Glad you made it back from Bosque safe and sound. Hope you were able to add to your collection from last year.
Albert Darmo
Canada