Duck Bathing in Audubon Park Lagoon

by Sean Setters

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I spent some time this past Christmas in New Orleans. Fortunately for me, Audubon Park was located within walking distance of where we were staying. I spent several hours throughout the week photographing birds that could nearly always be found in and around Bird Island (Ochsner Island) in the park's lagoon. Because people are constantly walking around the lagoon or playing golf at a course that borders it, the ducks and other waterfowl/wading birds that inhabit the area have become very comfortable to having people nearby, a learned behavior that benefits just about anyone with a camera in-hand.

For the shot above, I used a Canon EOS 7D Mark II and the EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Lens. The shot settings used were 250mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec, ISO 640, and the image was slightly cropped in post processing.

I often take the 7D Mark II with me when I travel because it's much easier to cover a wide range of focal lengths in a significantly smaller kit compared to covering the same focal lengths in a full-frame compatible kit. And while a 250mm won't likely be adequate for bird photography under many circumstances, it worked great for a close-up on this occasion because of my ability to get close to the bird without spooking it.

In this case, an overcast sky provided a couple of key benefits that allowed this image to work. For one, the soft light reduced contrast allowing me to capture details in both the highlight and shadow areas of the frame. And second, the glare of the overcast sky in the water behind the duck enabled great separation (producing a high key style) that made shape of the subject really stand out in the frame.