After Dyeyo and I went to Merritt Island last week, we stopped by my neighborhood pond where the Hooded Mergansers have been hanging out. We got there around 3 in the afternoon, when the afternoon light was hitting the pond at a great angle. I love how the green trees in the background color the water, sometimes bright green, and sometimes a golden glow.

The Hoodies are a pain to expose correctly. Their bright white spots are easy to overexpose, but if you stop the lens down too much, you lose detail in the blacks. Not to mention that the cars passing by on the street were causing all sorts of colors and shadows to reflect in the water. I tried for pleasing backgrounds with some blinkies in the white head, knowing that I could regain some detail in post-processing. I was pretty happy with the results.

The Hoodies weren’t the only ones at the pond. A pair of Mallards flew in and posed nicely in the clear water. They obligingly swam fairly near to me, at a good sun angle. Or maybe they were swimming away from Rich (we sent him to the other side of the pond to shoo the birds our way. It worked pretty well!)

One of our neighbordhood Sandhill Crane pairs flew in as we photographed the ducks. They got so close that Dyeyo couldn’t photograph ducks for the bright gray feathers in his face! The birds seemed to be initiating their courtship dance, about three feet in front of Dyeyo! Then they danced away…