Mallard in Flight

Hello all...
I've been real quiet lately and haven't had a lot of time to shoot. However, I took my grandsons to the local pond to feed the geese and ducks and got this shot. It was a "chance" shot. This is the result. It is straight out of the camera as is...no cropping or adjustments of any kind except to resize for posting.

I would like to know, is this type of photo "sellable"? What would you suggest for a crop? Since I just threw up my camera and shot, I don't know what else I could have done photographically. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to suggest croppings or other adjustments you think would help this shot.

Camera details: Aperture Priority, ISO 400 f/25.0 @ 1/250, center weighted, Pentax *ist DL w/SMCP DA 50-200 f4-5.6ED @ 73mm

Thanx for any advice.

I love the duck and the way the head is nicely in focus and fairly sharp and the rest of the bird shows movement. The background alas really doesn't hold up to the nice image of the bird. A tighter crop is called for.

Too bad you didn't get all of the shadow too.

The eyes look sharp. If it were just grab-and-shoot, wow!

You can do the usual stuff, i.e., remove the color cast, enhance the colors, levels reduce the noise, correct the tilt, etc., etc.

You may ask those guys on the Nature and Wildlife forum about if this photo is saleable.

The duck is great...the background not. What you can do in post processing would take more expertise than I have.
Good reactions to catch it at all.

I'm afraid I'm with MB and Frog on this one. The bird itself is very nice, but the background is very busy and really detracts from the bird. I also think that a little more room in front of the bird and a little more shadow would really help the composition. As for whether it sells or not, I've seen far worse put up for sale, but your mileage may vary.

PC

Thanx for the comments everyone. I have a question about the background, which, like all of you, feel is the weakness in this shot. Would it be better to blur the background considerably or wipe it out all together and and add in a lake type setting or something like that??? Mind you, this was shot at a local in town park with a small lake/pond. The birds were scared up by my grandson and some other young children running around, so yes, this was a "grab and shoot". I had been shooting one of my grandsons, whose shoes and legs can barely be made out in the background climbing on some rocks, when the birds all scattered.
What do you think? Feel free to show some examples that you think might work.

Personally, I don't think it would be worth all the work involved. A tighter crop would be better, but you'd still have to deal with the white pole and even tougher would be getting rid of the pigeon, partially hidden by a feather on the wing. I'd suggest going back to the park and hoping a mallard flies higher so you can maybe get sky as the background.

However, it is a might nice duck shot.

I agree that the bg is distracting what is a pretty good looking bird shot. i like the position of the bird and the sharp head and feet, while the wings are in motion. I don't think there is a whole lot you could do here but cropping from the top to remove most of the distractions would help. Then, clone out the pigeon and since you only have part of the shadow at the bottom, I would clone the shadows out as well because they are only distracting as they are now. So , a panorama type crop with a few cloned out items should improve alot.
btw, why did you shoot with such a small aperture? I figure it is the reason for alot of the in focus distractions in the bg as well as maybe a bit more motion blur than would be ideal.

Thanx Mike and Gary, and everyone else again. I will take the suggestions and try some crops and clonings and post my results shortly.

Gary...The small aperture is the result of inexperience...My DOF education at this point is extremely lacking. It is still one of the aspects that I don't think of until after I get home and look at the shots I took.

Well, here is a possible fix. Any ideas or further suggestions? I used "Mikes Framer CS2" for the frame. Is it distracting? Personally, I kind of like this one, now.

I think it looks good and is a very usable image now. I can see it on a card or in a small frame(4x12) or something like that. the colors are very pleasing.