Hooded Merganser

Gallery: AvianPosted May 11, 201667 views7 comments

This image was taken last year in Victoria, B.C. This male was keeping the much larger Mallards off his perch.

Nikon D810, 300 mm 2.8, f 4.5 ISO 320, 1/640. Please view larger image.

Thanks for looking and critiques appreciated.

May

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Floyd Hopper on May 11, 2016 at 6:09 PM

Beautiful. Great exposure and detail. I like the small "catch eye"

Registered on May 1, 2009, 652 Posts, 762 Comments

Comment posted by David Schoen on May 11, 2016 at 11:14 PM

Nice pose and comp. The whites are a little blown though.

Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on May 13, 2016 at 3:02 PM

May, I have never seen one of these out of the water, let alone this close. Good work! The whites on the back and head are a little hot, but they are not out of gamut. The hottest I found for rgb was an average of 246 out of 255. Which begs the question of "is there detail there?"

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on May 14, 2016 at 1:50 PM

Love the pose here May which makes the shot for me, nicely done on a difficult exposure devil

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on May 15, 2016 at 5:10 PM

Great pose, May. Others have mentioned the highlights.

devil

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

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on May 15, 2016 at 5:41 PM

I really like the open bill, nice head turn and good POV May. The whites seem clipped on the head and upper shoulder. These guys are not easy to properly expose. My guess is you metered the entire scene and the dark BG and dark parts of the duck most likely tricked your SS into keeping the shutter open a bit too long. If I am shooting these guys with a dark BG, I usually adjust my SS down to compensate. (i.e., - 2/3, etc.)

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on May 17, 2016 at 7:03 AM

Sweet portrait of this handsome Hoody with attitude!

Great Shot May laugh

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments