It occurred to me that as of late, I’ve been doing a bashing of the Mallard and thought it was time to ease up a bit. If you recall there has been some assumptions regarding just how promiscuous this bird is – for reference, check out the muta.. I mean interesting specimens here and here. The little known but powerful Mallard Urban Transgressions and Neglect Tracking Society has contacted me with a cease and desist. Trust me, you do not want to stay on their bad side. As an act of restitution, today’s featured bird is the Mallard. Unless you live under a rock or in The City (sorry, inside college joke) you have seen one of these at your local river, lake, pond or for that matter the roadside ditch. They are indeed the most abundant duck in North America and the male markings make it very easy to spot – note, this is not true of the female mallard which is about as common looking as you can get with the exception of the blue teal patch on their wings. On our way back home from Wisconsin, we stopped in downtown Dells to see what was playing in the river that runs through the middle of it. After walking a ways down the nice path they have for pedestrians I noticed this Mallard catching some Z’s under a bridge. It must be nice to be able to carry your pillow with you wherever you go.
Due to the bridge supports and an outcropping of brush and trees, there was a limited viewing angle (I’m sure that was his intention when selecting this spot). For about 20 minutes I wrestled with foot compositioning in a futile attempt to clear the shot of branches but still capture all the rock pedestal. At one point in this effort, I banged the bridge beam with my knee and my yelp woke it up. He gave a quick look around before eventually settling back into his slumber.
Eventually some of the rock had to be sacrificed to get most of the other distractions out (looks like my cropping effort on the right side was just a wee bit short but guessing it would matte out in a print anyway. After all that work none of the shots would make my gallery list, but I’m finally starting to concentrate more on the in camera composition which results in an easier time in post processing.
I will say the subject in the above picture isn’t that exciting, but I really like the texture that came out in the water. It kind of looks like molten glass.
Hit the jump to see some additional shots of the Mallard along with a composition discussion.
