I had hopes I had gotten a decent duck picture. But didn't have my polarizing lens and boy did I need it. The son on that water was brutal. Will try again tomorrow but if it dries up too much they may not be there. These are rain puddles.
@eyesmile@barbarajdonnellan Okay instead of being mad I cannot see the duck's eye, I will rejoice that there is sun to sparkle on the water (only there was also cold wind and I hurried too much taking the picture)
@joansmor Hi Joan, responding honestly as you asked. For me, part of the richness of this site is the incredible variety of the pictures posted and the wide range of members' tastes. I'm sure that sometimes people make an anodyne comment because they want to show us that they have looked at our post, but they don't want to hurt our feelings by making a comment that some might perceive to be negative: but oftentimes too, people genuinely do like a photo which to others might appear to have little artistic or photographic merit... beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder for a good reason.
For me - I can only speak for myself - this photo is no better and no worse than hundreds of other duck shots posted on here. The complementary colours of the duck and the background and the sparkles give it a certain instant appeal but, again for me, the flaws outweigh the surface attraction. The 'sparkles' are in, in fact, burned out whites and contain no detail; the ducks profile, being 'contre-jour' again has no detail and finally (sorry) the composition with the duck placed centrally, lacks dynamism. If you lift the exposure on the duck and reduce considerably the exposure of the background, you will end up with a good record shot.
There you go Joan, my honest opinion as asked for... but it's only my opinion and if the shot pleases others, you've added to their day - and that's quite a thing.
@vignouse Thank you because you said all the things I was thinking. I started to worry that I was missing. Sometimes I am excited and get little or no response. That doesn't bother me. Its getting response on a filler picture that confuses me. Silly I know.
For me - I can only speak for myself - this photo is no better and no worse than hundreds of other duck shots posted on here. The complementary colours of the duck and the background and the sparkles give it a certain instant appeal but, again for me, the flaws outweigh the surface attraction. The 'sparkles' are in, in fact, burned out whites and contain no detail; the ducks profile, being 'contre-jour' again has no detail and finally (sorry) the composition with the duck placed centrally, lacks dynamism. If you lift the exposure on the duck and reduce considerably the exposure of the background, you will end up with a good record shot.
There you go Joan, my honest opinion as asked for... but it's only my opinion and if the shot pleases others, you've added to their day - and that's quite a thing.