This photo shows all the power in the take-off shot , ciao Giangiorgio

Grazie mille Giangiorgio! These Bufflehead ducks are so hard to catch since they’re so fast and that plumage has too much contrasting colors of dark and white

Hi TmJ,

 

just beautiful! You captured this bird very well and the water is amazing too. I like the crop too. I was wondering: do you shoot raw or jpg? I ask this question because you referred to the black and white on this duck's plumage. Kind regards, Vincent

Thanks for your visit Vincen! Actually, I am still looking for a sharper image of this bird (this one is OK but I am greedy, LOL). Lately, I shoot JPG only since I am getting tired of RAW processing. It's ok to shoot JPG as long as I tried to adjust my exposure to be correct or close enough for each bird's plummage (be it light or dark). With this bird, it's the hardest because it's both white and dark and the irridescent color of the somewhat dark head. It's very easy to get the white all washout and I have to close down enough to make sure that won't happen. But then if I don't get the light right then you won't see the eye or the irridescent head won't shows well either. On top of that, this bird (both male and female) can take off from the water with little or no running distance. From what I check they can fly 48mph which is slower than the fastest Merganser duck (81mph) but somehow I feel like it's faster (LOL). At one time, I owned Panasonic, Olympus, Sony & Canon shooting RAW and that wear me out from so many different software, system and disk space (I either don't shoot or I shoot daily. Sometimes 2 or more times each day). So, I only shoot JPG nowadays. I shoot AV mode and adjust the dial to EV+ or - on the fly. That slow me down a bit at time when seeing the bird/birds and make adjustment before I aim and shoot.

The bird is great but the water splash is phenomenal! I never bother with raw either (not that do as much as you do) I've tried a couple of times but there isn't enough difference between the finished product and jpg to merit the time. In tough light situations (which you handle well anyway) I can usually get good results with Photo Shop's Image>adjustments>shadows/highlights. Then for spot adjustments ctrl o for lighten or darken- only do this rarely though. I'm sure there are other ways as well, but these are easy and quick.

All the best!

G

Thanks Gregory & Verena! Good to hear from you. Shooting RAW allow much more ajustment when I completely screwed up, LOL! Generally, that happen when I shoot the Egret which requires around -2.7 EV and then forget to set the EV back and something like an American Coot comes by (dark bird) and then I am so under-exposed. RAW will allow much more adjustment compares to JPG. But, for the last 2,3 months, I gave up shooting RAW and make sure that my exposure are not so .... much off and so far that works out fine for me. If I only use one system then it might be OK but with multiple systems it's a nightmare. My short term memory is already 'fragile' and taxing it anymore may result in a total crash (like an old hard drive if you know what I mean, LOL).