Mandarin Duck

[jprzybyla]

Yesterday while waiting with other photographers at the vantage point to where the Barred Owls are nesting I overheard conversation about a pair of Mandarin Ducks. The location was Lake Mirror in Lakeland, Florida. So on the way home Dottie and I stopped by that lake. Below are a few of the images I captured. This duck is not supposed to be here, let alone in the USA. It is native to Asia and sometimes seen in zoos. C&C welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

#1



#2



#3



#4

[mikejduk]

Aren't they gorgeous birds, excellent colouring. I discovered about three of these ducks at a local pond the other day and will post the photos I finally captured. I had to return a number of times as there was snow falling and it really would have taken forever to remove the spots from them.

I love your 2nd one where the duck has his feathers fluffed up. I think the information board near the pond I visited advised the Mandarin were as you say from Asia - China.

Thankyou for sharing these.

[jeeperman]

I love these ducks, never seen one in the wild myself. Thanks for sharing, Joe.

[Geoff F]

Sharp focus, good colour and composition. Everything working well.

[kaneohebud]

Joe:
You did another great job of capturing colors and feather detail. You sure have great access to a wide variety of our feathered friends. Well done!

[Bobobird]

Clean, clear, sharp shots Joe.

The male Mandarin is probably the most beautiful duck there is though our male Wood Duck is almost as beautiful. I sometimes find it hard to tell the difference.

[Brownbear]

Wow, just gorgeous... your photography is inspiring.

[charzes44]

Joe,

Fantastic photos, again!

How do you determine your exposures? I too use a D7000, and frequently feel that my pics are a little less than, well, as good as yours exposurewise!

A little advice will be really appreciated.

Charles

[zen]

No. 4 is magnificent! Wonderful!

[terrib]

Joe, these are gorgeous. You really do have a lot of opportunities down there in Florida and you make the most of them! I really like the last one with him nestled in those leaves.

[jamn4ex]

I dont have a favorite . they are all great !

[FlyingSquirrel]

All very beautiful shots, and what a stunning creature that is! At first I thought the brown duck in #2 was distracting, but then I noticed an interesting effect in the photo. Due to the positioning and angle of both ducks and the concentric water ripples, there is kind of a circular implied motion in the photo which I like (I might just be crazy though ). I wonder how #2 would look with a slightly tighter crop. Thanks for sharing your great photos!

[jprzybyla]

Aren't they gorgeous birds, excellent colouring. I discovered about three of these ducks at a local pond the other day and will post the photos I finally captured. I had to return a number of times as there was snow falling and it really would have taken forever to remove the spots from them.

I love your 2nd one where the duck has his feathers fluffed up. I think the information board near the pond I visited advised the Mandarin were as you say from Asia - China.

Thankyou for sharing these.

Hello Mike, yes quite gorgeous. I look forward to seeing your images. Thank you for viewing and commenting.

[jprzybyla]

I love these ducks, never seen one in the wild myself. Thanks for sharing, Joe.

Thanks Paul, as far as I know these came on their own and sometime I expect will leave. They have been in this lake for about a week.

[jprzybyla]

Sharp focus, good colour and composition. Everything working well.

Thanks Geoff, very much appreciated.

[jprzybyla]

Joe:
You did another great job of capturing colors and feather detail. You sure have great access to a wide variety of our feathered friends. Well done!

Hello Bud, thank you for your comment. Florida, especially in the winter is a paradise for bird photography.

[jprzybyla]

Clean, clear, sharp shots Joe.

The male Mandarin is probably the most beautiful duck there is though our male Wood Duck is almost as beautiful. I sometimes find it hard to tell the difference.

Hi Bobo, thank you for viewing and commenting. I agree with most beautiful, I have not yet photographed a male Wood Duck but I think the Mandarin would make that a close second.

[jprzybyla]

Wow, just gorgeous... your photography is inspiring.

Thank you Christina, very much appreciated. It is a journey of love of nature and trying to capture beautiful creatures.

[jprzybyla]

Joe,

Fantastic photos, again!

How do you determine your exposures? I too use a D7000, and frequently feel that my pics are a little less than, well, as good as yours exposurewise!

A little advice will be really appreciated.

Charles

Hello Charles, thank you for viewing and commenting. I would say that it is the post processing the brings out and tweaks the exposure a image has. I use Adobe Lightroom 4 to catalogue and process the images with minor tweaks in Photoshop Elements 10. My camera is set up is simple. I have all of the Picture Controls set to normal or off. I want the JPEG shown on the LCD screen to be as close a representation to the RAW image I capture. I let the camera determine the exposure, basically turning the D7000 into a expensive point and shoot camera. Nikon has a Auto ISO Sensitivity feature in the menu. I set that to the camera minimum ISO of 100, I set the maximum ISO to 3200. In this control Nikon has a feature of being able to set a minmum shutter speed, I set that to 1/400 because almost exclusively I am using my 55-300 at the long end. By setting this when capturing birds I only have to worry about what aperature and what shutter speed for the shot. I normally use and have set up Shutter Priority and Manual for flying birds with a shutter speed between 1200 and 2000 deplending on the light and type of bird. I use Aperture Priority for stationary or slow moving birds. Out of the camera the images look bland and lack contrast, it is post processing that uses the data captured to make the image. I just kind of muck around with the sliders until it looks pleasing to my eyes. I cannot tell you exactly what settings because each image is different unless there is a whole series taken within seconds of each other then the settings from the first can be pasted to the others.

[jprzybyla]

No. 4 is magnificent! Wonderful!

Thank you Zen, very much appreciated.