Moment in time

As I continue my 365 challenge I find some days I do not want to go out hunting a picture but today I am glad I did. I went to my local park to catch up with the signets I photographed earlier in the year and while I was doing that I noticed that the ducks were jumping up out of the lake on to the bank. I dashed over and focused as the next one headed in but knew I needed a faster shutter speed (I was on aperture priority) so without taking my focus off the duck I change my ISO from auto to 200. It worked and I was able to freeze the duck mid jump.



I think a fast shutter speed would have frozen the wings too but for me I like the blur.
K10D with Sigma 70-300 F5.6 @ 300mm 1/750

A great shot! Well done.
I think the shutter speed is fine, you've captured the bird and the water perfectly, the blur of the wings adds to the effect too.

That was well captured.

An unusual bird shot and a very good one. Perfect shutter speed to allow the wings to blur while capturing sharp detail in head and neck.

A fantastic shot, I think if you had stopped the blured wings it would just have been another duck photo. Great timing love it.
Regards Bob.

Love the shot, great action and sense of movement. It was a good quick idea to jump up the iso to get your speed, quicker than moving to Tv mode. Its moments like this that I place great value on our excellent Pentax ergonomics and control choices.

Excellent effort, but don't think it quite hits the spot for me. The eye needs to be pin sharp, and it seems to fall down on that

The eye is about as sharp as the rest if the body and head, as well as the water splashes. So is it a focus or shutter speed issue Alan? It seems that the particular speed was needed for the wing movement ...

Hard to tell at this size but I think its focus Nigel. Looking at the edge of the pond I think the point of focus is just beyond the bird

Nice shot - different too

It's great timing though, so I can forgive any technical points. It's a really attractive shot and one I'd have been very pleased to capture.

I agree with John on this one. I think it's a little harsh to criticise the focus on the eye, I understand where Alan is coming from, especially as he is 'the king of wildlife' on here and Alan's standards are extremely high.

It's a great shot, one that you would struggle to capture once in a blue moon, so for that reason I applaud it!!!

Regards
David