{"id":22139,"date":"2014-02-17T06:08:25","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T13:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=22139"},"modified":"2014-02-17T06:08:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T13:08:25","slug":"redhead-pair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/17\/redhead-pair\/","title":{"rendered":"Redhead Pair"},"content":{"rendered":"

“If you\u2019ve dated a redhead raise your glass, if not . . . raise your standards” – Anonymous.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Redheads (of the duck variety)\u00a0begin to pair up on their winter range and some of the birds now migrating through my area have already formed their monogamous pair bonds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"redhead<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For at least the last week there’s been a half-dozen or more Redheads on Willow Pond near my home.\u00a0 Most are quite skittish and stay out in the middle of the pond but I’ve been charmed by this dandy male who is far from shy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"redhead<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I suspect he’s learned some bad habits from the\u00a0Mallards and domestic mixes\u00a0who have become accustomed to being fed bread by unthinking humans but I’m sure enjoying his antics and relative tameness.\u00a0 It’s quite unusual for me to be this close to a wild duck.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"redhead<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This is his apparent mate.\u00a0 She’s not quite as approachable as the male but more so than the other Redheads on the pond so I think she’s also learning some of those bad habits.<\/p>\n

When I’m photographing birds on this pond I’m on foot using a tripod rather than my usual technique of shooting from my pickup and I struggle a little with swapping out my teleconverter – it’s far less convenient for me.\u00a0 It seems like I always have the wrong gear combination for the situation that is presenting itself.\u00a0 Here I wish I’d had the converter attached but when I take the time to do so I often miss other opportunities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"redhead<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/400, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I can’t resist taking a few tight shots of a wild bird when given the chance because I enjoy the intimacy but this is another example of the wrong gear combination for the situation.\u00a0 Because I had the teleconverter attached the duck is too tight at bottom for my tastes and I have less depth of field than if I hadn’t been using the converter (but yes, I still like the shot…)<\/p>\n

There are definite advantages to using a zoom lens but overall I’m still very\u00a0happy with my choice of a fixed, prime\u00a0lens as my primary glass.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If you\u2019ve dated a redhead raise your glass, if not . . . raise your standards” – Anonymous. <\/p>\n

Redheads (of the duck variety) begin to pair up on their winter range and some of the birds now migrating through my area have already formed their monogamous pair bonds.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,334,391,1243],"tags":[1828,1244,137,1871,211,938,1242,308,1332,937],"class_list":["post-22139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","category-nesting-and-mating","category-redhead-waterfowl","tag-1-4-teleconverter","tag-aythya-americana","tag-female","tag-fixed-lens","tag-male","tag-prime-lens","tag-redhead","tag-tripod","tag-willow-pond","tag-zoom-lens"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/redhead-2396-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-5L5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}