Hooded Mergansers At Sunrise.

[Daniel Cadieux]

• Canon EOS R6
• EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x III
• ƒ/5.6
• 700mm
• 1/2500s
• ISO 1600
• Daniel Caxieux
• Sat, 27 May 2023 5:41 AM
• Daniel Cadieux
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 12.3 (Windows)

A bit of a "grab shot" here as I was not expecting to come across these two mergansers, and especially not towards the reflected sunrise. The sun and surrounding colours were deeper and richer than usual, due to the light being filtered by a thin veil of smoke haze that drifted east due to the wildfires west and north of the country. When I saw that the mergansers were going to swim right through the colours I hurried up ahead of them, set up and waited and hoped for the best. It all happened pretty fast, within seconds, that I was not expecting much, but low and behold when reviewing the images this jewel of a frame was right there waiting for processing

I do wish this was about one second earlier to better center the sun between them, but still super happy with it.

Canon R6 + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1250s., f/5.6, ISO 1600, small CW rotation and cropped out resulting corners. Adjusted WB to taste to closest I remembered the scene being like.

 

[Randy Stout]

Very dramatic shot Daniel. The sun draws you to the center, and the contrast with the dark birds anchors it. The slightly higher POV works well here.

Well anticipated and executed1

Randy

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

We are seeing some dramatic images recently and this one is no exception, fine silhouettes super colours in the sky/water.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Dan ... nice moody image .
Love the silhouette and the colors , nicely processed with good choice of tone and color .

A real cracker IMHO

TFS Andreas

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Beautiful image, Daniel. Love the colours and those Mergansers silhouettes. A simple frame with great dramatic effect and I truly enjoyed viewing:S3:

Warmest regards,

 

[Arthur Morris]

Quite stunning. Do you remember how you came up with the exposure? Would you rather have gone a bit darker with the original capture. Anyhoo, a slight pano crop from the bottom to lose the brightest highlight on the bottom frame-edge (and the one next to it) might improve it.

with love, a

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks guys.

artie: This happened so fast and unexpectedly that I just eyeballed it real quick in the viewfinder and tripped the shutter before missing the opportunity. I suppose darker would have lessened the larger blown area of the highlights. I do love the rest of it though. I "browser-cropped" to evaluate your comp suggestion, and yes, that would definitely work.

 

[Brian Sump]

Daniel, when I saw this on FB I knew I would love it here as well.

Just a gorgeous color palette and the silhouettes came through nicely.

A gem, TFS!