I'm not particularly excited about photographing ducks, but some species are, in fact, beautiful. This is a female paradise shelduck that I captured on the shore of Lake Tekapo here in New Zealand. To get the lowest possible angle, I laid down on the ground and shot with the lens about 6 inches above the dirt. I used a 100-400mm lens at the longest focal length and watched the bird through the lens, waiting for it to stand upright and look alert before I took the picture. Most of the time it was hunting for food with its beak in the ground. My settings were 1/200, f/7.1, and 800 ISO. I had to be very careful not to overexpose the image and lose the detail in the white feathers. This is why I never 'expose to the right'. Many photo instructors teach this concept, saying that most detail in a digital file is to the right side of the histogram. I disagree. In this case, had I lightened the image with my exposure settings, that beautiful white head and neck would be blown out with no texture or detail.
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