I’ve seen this rare female mallard every day. Finally took my NEX-5N to get a better shot than the one i took with my ipod Touch. Should have used the 200 mm lens but the camera fits in my pocket with its 18-50 mm lens. Next time I’ll get serious and bring the old MAXXUM 5D with its 300 mm lens.
Had to use manual focus on this shot. She didn’t cooperate by staying put so I had to move along a steep, icy bank and shoot between bushes. This is where a proper viewfinder is better. The screen is hard to use in a tricky situation, especially when evaluating the sharpness of your subject in MF assist.
The two ducks turned out to be in the bottom left of the photo, so I finished this by cropping.
It’s hard to tell, but I think the lack of sharpness is more a limitation of the lens since the birds were 60 feet away, but I really felt I was guessing at the best focus with the MF assist feature.
Anyway, the photo ain’t bad, and it is an interesting duck, AND I didn’t slip down the slope into the icy water! Bonus!
mightyturk 