In order to avoid a distracting background the image was photographed as close to water level as possible. I used a Nikon F5, 4002.8S W/TC 1.4E, gitzo w/B1 and RRS bracket, Fill flash -2, Fuji RDP III Pushed 1-stop ISO 200

-- Charles Glatzer (UWvis@banet.net), January 29, 2000

Answers

-- Andrei Frolov (andrei@phys.ualberta.ca), January 29, 2000.

Very nice. Depth of field keeps the duck and reflections in focus but not the background. The ripples lead my eyes right back to the duck. It's in a great body position too. Kudos.

-- Christian Deichert (torgophile@aol.com), January 30, 2000.

Very nice picture. The only thing that might improve it would be if the head were seperated from the log just a bit.

-- Billy Gorum (Herphoto@aol.com), January 31, 2000.

What has this mallard done to hang her head in shame! It would make a great greeting card cover for "I apologize," from the vertical format to the duck's posture.

-- Chris Varner (Johnny_Pinto@msn.com), January 31, 2000.

Does anyone know what this behavior means? I've never seen a duck in this position before.

-- Rob Dalrymple (robd13@erols.com), February 01, 2000.

I love it. The depth of field is perfect.

As for the question of behaviour: could it simply be drinking and flapping its wings a bit at the same time? I'm not really a duck-ologist, but...

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), February 04, 2000.

Rob:

I've seen this behavior a couple of time. Normally, birds do this after they sit and/or stand for a long period of time. I would say that they are just stretching. I have a picture of Double Crested Comorant with this same posture. Just my $0.02

And yeah, I would like to secound the opinion that this picture would be a lot better if you can seperate the duck's bill from the tree.

-- Nonn Panitvong (npanitvong@hotmail.com), April 15, 2000.