Wing Stretch

Welcome to NPN and the Avian gallery, Cindy.  This is a very nice first post.  I really like the colors in the wing and you did a good job on the water.  It does look as if the whites in the wing might be a bit overexposed-I notice your Avatar is a Chickadee, and the duck wing is much like the Chickadee in that way-you need to use a little negative exposure compensation (if you're not using manual exposure) to avoid overexposing the whites.  The head looks like it might be a little out of focus, but in this composition it's not really the subject of the image, so the usual practive of focusing on the head probably wouldn't have meade sense, though it would have been nice if it had been pointed a bit more toward you-still the wing stretch wans't going to wait on a head turn.

It helps a lot in writing a critique of an image if you can include as much information as possible about the camera settings, shooting conditions  and any post processing that you did to the image.  Otherwise it's very difficult to make sensible suggestions for things you might have done differently.  Again, welcome to NPN-it's a wonderful place to learn and improve.  I look forward to seeing more of your work.

I like this photo, Cindy.  The rainbow colors of the duck feathers are a nice contrast to the general color of the duck.  Focus looks good on the duck back, and I agree with Dennis regarding the other aspecst of the photo.  The only thing I would add is that if you're using average metering you'll need to compensate for the darker water and under expose a bit from your meter reading.  Or, use spot metering and meter the back of the duck.  That'll bring the exposure down to the focus of the photo, help the whites, and add a little more contrast to the overall scene. Looking forward to seeing more from this location!

I like the colors in the wings and wish that you had a little more depth of field to get the entire head. The whites are too bright, but you could try to bring out some of the detail by adjusting the highlights down with your image processing software.  The composition works quite well here as well.  Thank you for posting..........................Jim

Welcome to NPN, Cindy. I like this—very good for a first post. I like that the primary focus is on the subject, "Wing Stretch". I do agree with the others about the various possibilities for improvement. As for Dennis call for technical specs, I am in total agreement. A really viable and noteworthy critique depends a good deal on just those specs.