Footprints in the water: In all my numerous photos of swimming waterfowl, I have never seen this water pattern before. It's like each stroke of the webbed foot was frozen on the...

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

In all my numerous photos of swimming waterfowl, I have never seen this water pattern before. It's like each stroke of the webbed foot was frozen on the surface. This is a jpg saved from the raw file, and the only changes I consider making are to crop some from right and bottom sides, and to remove all of the little detail there is in the duck images.

How would you viewers say?

(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

An engaging image, Neil! I imagine the angle of the light and your position, maybe even wind, are responsible. Fun to capture.

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

Linda From Maine wrote:

An engaging image, Neil! I imagine the angle of the light and your position, maybe even wind, are responsible. Fun to capture.

If I didn't have the raw file I'm not sure I would believe it wasn't a photoshop job. This was indeed a fun shot. Thank you for having a look, Linda.

kenievans Loc: Dallas

neilds37 wrote:

In all my numerous photos of swimming waterfowl, I have never seen this water pattern before. It's like each stroke of the webbed foot was frozen on the surface. This is a jpg saved from the raw file, and the only changes I consider making are to crop some from right and bottom sides, and to remove all of the little detail there is in the duck images.

How would you viewers say?

I think you captured a very unique and beautiful image. I agree with your thoughts on cropping. Great job!

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

kenievans wrote:

I think you captured a very unique and beautiful image. I agree with your thoughts on cropping. Great job!

Thank you, keni. When I first looked at it my thought went to the old saying "even a blind squirrel can find a walnut now and then".

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

Ya ol' squirrel you! As with any creative endeavor, readiness to perceive and capture a happy accident is a good skill to cultivate. Well done. The shot is fascinating. I wish I knew a fluid dynamics scientist to show it to. There are four wave patterns, two cross-winds and two of the ducks. As they are won't to say: "It's complicated."

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

neilds37 wrote:

In all my numerous photos of swimming waterfowl, I have never seen this water pattern before. It's like each stroke of the webbed foot was frozen on the surface. This is a jpg saved from the raw file, and the only changes I consider making are to crop some from right and bottom sides, and to remove all of the little detail there is in the duck images.

How would you viewers say?

I've never seen that before either and it really is unique and engaging. I don't think that I would make any of the two changes that you say you are comfortable with. I like the little bit of detail in this near-silhouette. Maybe a slight crop would be ok; but leave room so that they are convincingly swimming from left to right.
Erich

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

artBob wrote:

Ya ol' squirrel you! As with any creative endeavor, readiness to perceive and capture a happy accident is a good skill to cultivate. Well done. The shot is fascinating. I wish I knew a fluid dynamics scientist to show it to. There are four wave patterns, two cross-winds and two of the ducks. As they are won't to say: "It's complicated."

Thank you for your thoughts on this, Bob. I just had another thought. The V wake of the ducks breasts is not uniform as in the smooth wake of a boats hull. The pattern I've been associating with the up-welling from the duck's foot is on the inside of the breast's left side wake. The ridges then could be the increased pressure from the breast with the force of the foots push. Not sure if I've translated my thoughts into words clearly enough.

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

neilds37 wrote:

Thank you for your thoughts on this, Bob. I just had another thought. The V wake of the ducks breasts is not uniform as in the smooth wake of a boats hull. The pattern I've been associating with the up-welling from the duck's foot is on the inside of the breast's left side wake. The ridges then could be the increased pressure from the breast with the force of the foots push. Not sure if I've translated my thoughts into words clearly enough.

👍

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

ebrunner wrote:

I've never seen that before either and it really is unique and engaging. I don't think that I would make any of the two changes that you say you are comfortable with. I like the little bit of detail in this near-silhouette. Maybe a slight crop would be ok; but leave room so that they are convincingly swimming from left to right.
Erich

You may be right, Erich. Notice I haven't jumped right into the changes yet. I'll have to see it on paper before doing anything. Thank you for your input.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

That is a great photograph as presented. I would not crop it, there is no reason to. As presented there is no doubt as to what the subject is. The background, all of it, adds to the isolation of the scene. I tried reducing the details in the ducks and to my untrained eye I like it as is.

IMHO it also looks good in B&W

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

Curmudgeon wrote:

That is a great photograph as presented. I would not crop it, there is no reason to. As presented there is no doubt as to what the subject is. The background, all of it, adds to the isolation of the scene. I tried reducing the details in the ducks and to my untrained eye I like it as is.

IMHO it also looks good in B&W

Thank you for your input, Curmudgeon. I haven't tried B&W yet, but I'm planning on it. Trying to get through three days of furred and feathered photos at this location.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Excellent image, Neil! Thanks for sharing.

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

UTMike wrote:

Excellent image, Neil! Thanks for sharing.

Thabks for viewing, Mike. Why take the photo if no one will see it? Last weekend produced enough photos to bore a whole room full of viewers.

Guyserman Loc: Benton, AR

neilds37 wrote:

In all my numerous photos of swimming waterfowl, I have never seen this water pattern before. It's like each stroke of the webbed foot was frozen on the surface. This is a jpg saved from the raw file, and the only changes I consider making are to crop some from right and bottom sides, and to remove all of the little detail there is in the duck images.

How would you viewers say?

I'm still trying to get my head around this one but just can't. Notice the very faint wake lines from something previous run in different directions in different parts of the picture. Seems to me they should all be running the same way. Oh well. A little crop would be OK but be restrained. You certainly have an unusual image.