Mallard Female

[ChowChi-Ching]

A pretty female mallard at a local pond, she was very interested in what I was doing, and she kept inching more and more forward....

[Canon_Bob]

:thumbsup: Very nice image. As an experiment, try getting down lower (get eye-level with the bird if you can). You'll discover a HUGE difference in that change alone.

[ChowChi-Ching]

Thanks for the tip. There are always ducks out there, I will try again and see what I can do. It was not a good background where she was standing for me to do that, but I will try and get a better background next time, and will try eye level as well!

[Canon_Bob]

Many times when the background is bad, you can just reduce the Depth of Field by opening the aperture. It's funny how the lousiest backgrounds can just blur away into something very nice. It takes some practice to get the right "feel" for it, but it's lots of fun, challenging, and makes some really nice images. I personally love this technique, and use it all the time. Contrary to many other photographers, I like to shoot with a mostly open aperture. It just isolates the subject really nice.

[ChowChi-Ching]

That is a great idea...... for some reason that seems to be something I forget when I am out shooting.... I will try to remember next time!