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One of these days I'm going to get away from my fixation on "traveling light"! I went out the other day to walk along the river in Waukesha's Frame Park. I took only my camera, one lens and a blower brush in my pocket. I think these are nice, but they sure would be better with a just little pop of fill flash. Most were at 200mm and the little pop-up flash just couldn't cut it. My speedlight would have done the trick.

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Although they all have the coloring of Mallard females, look at the variation in the color of the bills. It's more obvious in the last image where you have two heads side by side. I THINK the yellow bill signifies a juvenile -- could be either male or female. I will not be offended if somebody that knows more about this corrects me. :D

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
I love the way you got the motion of the wing in the first one. Did you do any post processing, the colors are wonderful
Thank you, Suzi,

I was shooting in Raw and watching the "highlight screen" on the playback after each shot. I didn't let it bother me if I had a few blinkies unless they were on the duck(s). In my attempts to avoid any blown highlights, most of the shots were underexposed with the histogram around the center of the screen. For all of the shots post processing, in ACR mostly involved exposure adjustments. The colors are true -- didn't do any significant saturation boosts.

It's funny, just as I -- as usual -- didn't have a piece of equipment I could have used, I also completely forget about changing ISO. When I was just about done for the day the thought hit me, "Well, Dummy, what about increasing ISO? Duh!" All of my shots, and the first two posted, were at ISO 100 and that gave me a shutter speed around 1/250th or less -- usually around 1/125th to 1/200th. The final three shots I took, including the last one posted, were at ISO 400. That kicked the shutter speed up to 1/500th and the f-stop from f/8 to f/11. Not only is that resulting image sharper, I think the colors were a little better as well.

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Nice Duck shots. The last one of the pair looks a little over saturated to me. I think you could have used ISO 400 without any problems. Flash is nice but iin most cases won't do much more then put a highlight in the eye. All ducks look the same this time of year. They have all molted and won't get their new feathers for a month or so ( the ones with the color)
As far as the bill color I have heard it differentiates male from female but don't have anything to back it up.
Rusty, these are absolutely beautiful. I love the colors in the third one, and the way you caught the wing movement in the first.

alpha
Rusty, they're all great shots. I like the sense of movement in the first two, and the colors are wonderful in the last one. Even though you were traveling light, you got some really good shots. :thumbsup:
If it makes you feel any better, I can almost guarantee that when I travel light, I don't have the one lens that I really need for a shot.

Anita
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