Mama Woodduck w/babies

[buzzsaw]

I was out on Tonka Sunday morning and came across a family of Woodducks, they were very content staying on this log as I snapped away. I wish I could say the same for the other birds/ducks I came across.

[Steve Foss]

Huh, those youngsters are liking their nap, eh? Nice work in sweet light.

[Dbl]

Nice shot buzz. I too like the lighting in that shot, really shows the colors of the feathers and the glint in her eye.

[floating minnow]

Very nice Buzz.

[buzzsaw]

Thanks Guys! Here's one more from Tonka.

[Tom Wilson]

Mike,

In my "nobody else likes it or agrees with it opinion" that is the sharpest, clearest, cleanest, photo you've ever posted. Very nice. Even the composition is great. I think your'e starting to get the hang of this--you've learned in 1 1/2 years what it took me 6 years to learn with film--isn't digital awesome.

[buzzsaw]

Thanks Tom, I learned some things first hand with you and Bill (Hobby) and other things through posts and trial and error. I try to put myself in situations where I can maximize any potential photo and got lucky here I guess. I also took a long look at my post processing and purchased an incredible Photoshop Elements 4.0 book (Scott Kelby) and have since tweaked everything I did in the process of "after the pic has been taken" I took your advice on the "save for web" and save all at "Maximize" and I used to have the "reduce noise" bar slid too high and unknown to me it was blurring alot of images... didn't know it could do that. I also have learned what levels of sharpness/USM (Threshold) I should be using for different types of pictures and so on....I am having the woodduck picture blown up poster size and putting it in my basement.

P.S. I started doing this photo hobby in December 2005... only 8 months ago.