Bufflehead Pair....Male and Female


Posted by LHays on Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:09 am

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This is another shot from the fish hatchery...a two hour trip from my house. I spent two days trying to get shots of these guys and they were tough. It would take up to 45 minutes just to get close enough in my car to shoot and then they stayed on the move. There were about 16 of them and they stayed in a pretty tight group.....close to the opposite shore. Then I had trouble getting the exposure right with the whites, blacks, and everything in between.
I had wanted a shot with both a male and female together and this was the only one I got. One of these days I'll learn to get it right as this one took a lot of PS work. I should have been using my incident meter but relied on the camera. About the only thing that I did do right initially was remember to go to f/14 for the DOF. Nevertheless I was able to make something out of this one in PS.

Canon 1D, 500mmL IS, 2X TC, 550 EX, shot from the car
ISO 320, ss 1/320. f/14, EV -1 (bumped +1/3 in RAW conversion, flash -2
Photoshop - cropped, levels, curves, USM, etc.
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by Carol Clarke on Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:31 am
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What a sweet pair they are Lana, and lovely colours in the feathers. Nice one! :)
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by Jim Urbach on Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:36 am
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Lana,

Lovely pair. You certainly captured his sheen.

Jim
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by Harvey Edelman on Mon Dec 22, 2003 8:04 am
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Nice pair. It seems like you burned some slightly hot areas down a touch and did it well.
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by Cliff Beittel on Mon Dec 22, 2003 8:21 am
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What, you were off by a whole third? Very nice positioning, looks almost as if he's allopreening her. Just sent in a submission for duck pairs, and I would have been delighted to have included one like this.
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by fredcor on Mon Dec 22, 2003 8:39 am
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Excellent capture. Yep, sometimes you can get close enough, most times they flock a distance from shore and seldom are the two sexes together for a shot like yours.

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by Larsen on Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:18 am
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Beautiful pair shot from a nice angle. Nice color reflection in the water too.
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by Jim Neely on Mon Dec 22, 2003 9:37 am
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Good looking pair, Lana.

Looks like your PS skills served you well. Everything looks good.

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by E.J. Peiker on Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:32 am
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WOW! This is fantastic - its hard enough getting close to one of these, getting both is a special treat. Exceptional DOF!
 

by Alan Murphy on Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:35 am
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Excellent work all the way around, Great shot Lana.
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by Alan Melle on Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:48 am
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Looks like you did pretty well! Nice portrait of the handsome couple, great DOF, and you caught the iridescence of the male beautifully. Well done!
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by moose henderson on Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:57 am
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you did great!
 

by Bill Whala on Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:56 am
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Great job getting both male and female together. Excellent exposure too. :D
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by Bruce DiVaccaro on Mon Dec 22, 2003 12:03 pm
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Lana,

Very nice intimate shot. Whatever you did in PS worked well. The exposure looks great with the iridescence in the drake's head. Nice work.
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by Penney Goodwin on Mon Dec 22, 2003 12:18 pm
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Exceptionally sweet, Lana - a lovely couple - pose and expressions very peaceful, so apparent;y they got used to you shooting them. :) Thank you for your note ( just read) and will respond soon.
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by RichardMittleman/Gon2Foto on Mon Dec 22, 2003 1:43 pm
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One of the nicest images of a pair of buffleheads that I've seen. The light, water, color on the male's head, DOF and positioning of the two relative to one another are all excellent.
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by AlexC on Mon Dec 22, 2003 3:09 pm
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Rainbow Head and the Little Egg machine!!!
8) 8) 8)
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by BrianS on Mon Dec 22, 2003 4:41 pm
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So cool to see both in the same frame -- well done.
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by Marc Oliver on Mon Dec 22, 2003 5:51 pm
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Great shot! I know how tough it is to get close to these guys - I've tried, with little success so far...

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by Laura Stiefel on Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:35 pm
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Just wonderful! I love the rainbow iridescence of the male's head.
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