Merganser Conflict

[Debbie K]

Walking along the entrance to the river in Gooseberry following a pair of Mergansers and out of nowhere - a male pops out of the river and the chase was on. C/C appreciated.

[ShawnZ]

I think the action is excellent, you have shown just enough of the bg bird to give context to what might be going on between the two. The frozen water droplets intensify the scenario. The main obstacle in the image is the light. Overall the scene is quite dark except for the fg bird's wing patches which are nearly blown out. Perhaps some type of high speed sync flash work here might have balanced things out light wise. Great low perspective too. Cool image

[Debbie K]

Thank you Shawn - this is the type of info/help I'm looking for.

The fg bird exploded out of the water as I was trying to get ahead of the first two mergansers and with no time to setup, just started shooting and hoped for the best.

[Catmendo]

Intersting cature Debbie! That guy was all business!

[Debbie K]

Thank you Stu. I've been out taking lots of pictures over the last few weekends and just haven't had time to go through pictures, but was surprised at what I ended up with this one.

[Steve Foss]

Debbie, a light application of shadow/highlight in Photoshop (if you are using Photoshop) will brighten up the dark areas. Otherwise you can brighten mid-range tones using the levels slider.

[Debbie K]

Steve - I'll give that a try tonite and repost later. Thanks.