Another day, nother chase.

[gail bisson]

I am still trying to get "the shot" of these common mergansers.
I went back after work yesterday afternoon in a light snowfall. Light wasn't great but this merganser hopped out of the water and stayed within full frame shooting range while he swallowed the fish.
1DX, 600mm and 1.4X
ISO 1600 F 6.3 @ 1/1600
PP: Small crop to 90% FF, levels, cloned out 2 snowflakes that intersected with the head and added nothing to the image, DE at 3% and USM at 40% ,0.3 pixels to duck.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Doug Brown]

Really nice frame Gail. Love the raised foot and splash. Ditto the splash coming from the fish. I might try to get the bird's head looking a little more green.

[Grace Scalzo]

Nice catch, both of you. Agree with Doug on the head...even though green is not what you were seeing in this light. The lacy feathers by his tail are not often seen, really pretty here. (Or maybe i should say "Handsome")

[Don Railton]

I really like this Gail.. the raised foot with water flicking off, the fish, very sharp.... very sweet.. Am I seeing a blue cast??

regards

DON

[arash_hazeghi]

great frame, the fish makes it for m, I agree with slightly more saturation

[christopher galeski]

nice one Gail,like the raised foot and water falling off the bird,and the fish in the bill a bonus,great pose.

[dankearl]

This is really good, I love the pose with the fish. Very cool and fun frame.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice to see one out on the snow with a fish in the beak. The POV, pose and exposure control are perfect, Gail.

[Randall Farhy]

Hi Gail, I feel (as others have noted) that this is a top notch pose. The capture has multiple pose elements coming together in a single image: Lifted leg, water splash, perfect profile, the fish-wow. Technically, my first impression was that it's too dark on the subject. Which is mostly the result of a flat light snow scene. Perhaps the use of fill flash would've helped. Here's a rework starting with a Topaz Labs clarity custom pre-set followed with several minor tweaks in LR5. A catch light might be added as well. (If someone could direct me as to how to go about posting a screenshot of the LR5 desktop, it would be appreciated). -R

[Derek Willcox]

Gail nice work on the details pose and the fish also like the spray coming off the fish

[Bill Dix]

Really nice one, Gail. A very different look at this species. I love the raised foot, the splash, the tail prop, the look on the merg's face. The repost helps to open up the bird's head, but seems to oversaturate the reds.

[Randall Farhy]

Bill-Good catch, I went back and dialed out some red and orange channel saturation, looks a bit better. I also ran it through another micro contrast adjustment and blended it at 60%. I feel this helped to bring out details and tone on the head a little bit more.

[gail bisson]

Randall,
I love the way you pulled the green out of the head. I think that I will rework the file.
My color balance was not adjusted before I started working on the image so I will start by correcting that and will see what you have done and what your presets are,
Thanks
gail

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi Gail, great capture. I really like the pose and the fish. I think that looks like a baby flounder maybe. I don't understand much about the post-processing but I like the repost with more detail and green in the head.

[Diane Miller]

I like the additional detail Randall pulled out of the darks -- MUCH more to be found in the raw file. Is there a squeak more on the right? It feels crowded there -- the little splash behind the tail is nice. I could give up some on the left.

[Greg Oakley]

Great action here Gail - the repost looks super!

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful shot. Lovely light, eye contact and low angle here, the repost looks great.

[Holger Leyrer]

Great capture, Gail.
Waking pose, water drops, fish in the beak, ... really super. Perfect low angle. Well done, Gail.

[Marina Scarr]

Unique image, Gail. Love your low angle. Like the colors of the RP, esp the head.