Male Mallard Duck (Anas Platyrhyncos)

The reflection on the water was stunning this evening, and I was

fortunate to have a model willing to pose on the back drop. Your

thoughts and criticisms are appreciated.

I'm still new at this, but i wanted to ask a question. First of all, this is a beautiful photo, very pleasing to the eye! Congrats on the photo. My question is this: would it have been possible to have the mallard better exposed without overexposing the background?

The only way I know would have been with a fill flash, which I was prepared with, but given the reflection throughout the image, I didn't think I could use fill without impacting the surface in some way... Don't know if I'm right or wrong!