White Wanderer

[Brian Sump]

• Brian Sump Photography
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.1 (Macintosh)

This was an incredible special moment for me. We had reports of this Long-tailed Duck hen down on the river here in Denver. This is WAY out of it's normal range, which is in the Tundra regions of northern Canada, Alaska, Iceland, etc, thus you can understand the excitement.

I ventured out Saturday morning with a friend and found her in a flock of Goldeneyes and Buffleheads as she flew in front of us. I was not prepared at that time.

We walked a couple miles down river and found her on a local pond, pinched near shore by the frozen layer of ice. She got up right in front of me and allowed me a series of frames in flight.

R5ii
600mm
Handheld
ISO 1250
1/6400
f7.1

LR and PS. Chose to keep it fairly tight to let the details shine.

Blended a crack in the ice below subject.

 

[Jan van Holten]

That is a great catch! And I even wouldn't mind if the bird was a bit less big in the frame.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Brian ... what a perfect " duck in flight shot " !!!
Your patience , effort and luck ... really paid off here , amigo !!
Love the water color and the icy structure on it ....
Never seen this species in real life , not even in captivity .... albeit I have seen so many species in captivity .
Stunning IQ ... and the details are so well rendered , nice processing !!!!!

A pleasure to look at Brian

TFS Andreas

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Brian it's a peach, love the processing and the details - all so beautifully rendered - well done.

 

[Brian Sump]

Really appreciate the great comments friends