Wood Duck ON GOLDEN POND

Wood Duck ON GOLDEN POND , Aix sponsa (Canard Branchu) Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com All Rights Reserved Canon EOS 1DsMKIII, 500mm F4IS, 1.4X II Teleconverter. ISO 400, F8 1/800s Manual mode. Canon 580EXII Flash in manual. Gitzo 1325 tripod and Wimberley Head II. Click HERE to purchase print or license image for publication.

Ever wonder how to photograph ducks (waterfowl) on beautiful golden water? The technique is much easier than most think. I love digital, and digital photography does amazingly well in the shade or overcast conditions. Once you locate your subject, simply position yourself so that your "zone" is in the shade of beautifully colored fall trees. Set your cameras exposure for the shade (here, I used Aperture priority set to minus 1/3 stop) and add enough flash to properly expose your subject (I used my flash in manual mode, set to the approximate distance where the Wood Duck filled the frame reasonably well). This technique works incredibly well to bring out the iridescent colors on the wood ducks head.

Perhaps the most beautiful species of waterfowl in North America, if not the world, the Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, lives in swamps, creeks, river valleys, streams, lakes and forest bottomlands. They can be found from southern Canada to the eastern, southern and western coasts of the United States. Unlike most other ducks it has sharp claws for perching in trees where it normally nests in cavities. In southern parts of the breeding range the wood duck regularly produces two broods in a single breeding season, making it the only North American duck to do so. Often called "woodies" or "woody", their population was nearly wiped-out around 1900, and a complete ban on hunting them between 1918 and 1941 brought their population back to what is now considered to be a secure one.

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