{"id":79226,"date":"2019-12-09T04:45:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=79226"},"modified":"2019-12-09T05:24:30","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T12:24:30","slug":"female-mallard-in-flight-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/09\/female-mallard-in-flight-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Mallard In Flight Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

A species too often ignored by bird photographers. I’m guilty of it myself so it’s time for atonement.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Especially in winter I spend time at several local ponds looking for interesting birds to photograph and given the opportunity I’ll always take a stab at a Mallard in flight. Mallards may be common but I think both sexes can be beautiful in flight and ducks on the wing are always great practice for the bird photographer. Like most bird photographers I need all the practice I can get.<\/p>\n

One year ago tomorrow I caught this female as she was coming in for a landing on one of the ponds. She was glowing in warm late afternoon light, my shooting angle was a good one and she was mostly gliding on her approach so she was a little easier than usual to keep in my viewfinder. I managed to get three sequential sharp shots during her approach.<\/p>\n

The far shore of the pond in the upper background…<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

disappeared as she descended closer to the pond’s surface and began to flare out ever so slightly. At this point she still had some serious speed so I was pleased to keep her both in frame and in focus.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

After this next shot in the burst I began to lose focus on her.<\/p>\n

I was happy to get the series but at these ponds there’s often a fly in the ointment and more often than not the fly is…<\/p>\n

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a distracting coot somewhere in the background. Even when a coot is softened by the bokeh its bright white bill still stands out like a sore thumb so in this case I amputated the offending digit in the previous version of the same photo. This is what the photo looked like prior to surgery.<\/p>\n

Because of rotten weather and light it’s been almost a week since I’ve been out shooting anywhere other than the ponds so I’m about to go stark raving mad. But it’s looking like we might have a few intermittent breaks in the clouds over the next four days before the next big storm rolls in.<\/p>\n

So for the first time in much too long I’m hopeful to finally get “out there” again.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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

A species too often ignored by bird photographers. I’m guilty of it myself so it’s time for atonement.<\/p>\n

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