photo of the week - dec 19, 2018

There's a creek near my house where some ducks like to hang out. Like, a lot of ducks! Probably close to fifty, I'd guess. Anyways, I went there after the rains to photograph them. I actually find ducks to be really beautiful. After observing them for a while, what I noticed was that many of them would periodically dunk themselves underwater and then quickly rear-up, like a horse on it's hind legs, and violently flap it's wings. I knew I wanted a photo of it, but the tricky part was knowing where to point the camera. There were so many ducks, moving around constantly, giving zero warning as to which duck was about to begin the dunking/flapping ritual, and leaving me only seconds to point, focus and snap the shot once the ritual began. But, with a lot of luck and even more patience, I was able to capture the moment. Water droplets still on it's head from the dunking.

​"Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow."
-Spanish Proverb