Nervous but pretty

[jeeperman]

I wish I could have snuck up closer to these guys as these shots are all greatly cropped and suffer quality being at the far end of my 75-300 and about 65 yrds away. They just would not allow me closer. Gives me a goal I guess.

These first few are the elusive...wood duck








The last pair here are Northern Shovelers also difficult to find and pretty nervous.

[Donald]

Paul

The poor Shovelers just don't have the glamour of the Wood Duck. But maybe they have more brains!

Nice stuff. I take your point about the length you had available and the need for the major crop. If you were wanting to get serious about this sort of photography ( and on the basis of the evidence here, there's no reason why you should not), then you probably need to turn your thoughts to something longer at some stage. Don't know how your placed to think about that, but given what you're producing here I, for one, would love to see what you could do with 500 or 600 mm available to you.

[jeeperman]

True Donald, the Shovelers just don't shine amongst the painted look of the Wood duck. Thank you for your comments. As for the costly thoughts rattling around in my melon which you so kindly re-enforced..... For a while I feel I will have to rely on stealth and maybe a doubler......someday though...someday.

[ilovelucydog]

Those are great, Paul. If you were closer they would have been amazing. If you can't buy an amazing lens... you could try a kayak, or those fishing wader, floater things...

[Stinky]

Great shots! I especially like #3 with the water ripples. I took a few shoveler photos last month and they just slowly begin to wander away from you as you shoot.

[jeeperman]

Thanks Mary, these guys were simply spooky. They would start going for cover if you moved while being across the street from this pond. I was working and could not just sit and wait. If I had got in the pond at all they would have taken flight. The boat does work great for some though.

Thanks Steve, He certainly made some good ripples doing his little bathing dance, I was luck to have caught that.