Ducklings in the Nursery (Five Photographs)

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Just some wood ducks out for a swim. You can tell the female is taking good care of her chicks. The occasional duckling explores or surfs a wave but in general it’s a tight pack, and then when it’s time to practice escape it’s full speed ahead. For years photographers pushed their film (increased the ISO) to saturate the colors, give more depth and texture. Today the emphasis is on trying to use the native ISO (100 or 200 ISO) as much as possible and higher ISOs only when the light is poor. In nature photography, in my experience, the light is almost never sufficient enough to acquire the shutter speeds I want, so higher ISOs are almost always in play (and my camera is usually set at 400 ISO, four times the native ISO). I pay a modest price in contrast and color for that choice and especially in circumstances like this. Using lower shutter speeds would not work and my shots would not be as sharp, so I have the choice of accepting the higher ISO and fixing problems in post-production or just accepting the results. While I do lighten things up a bit and open the shadows, that affects the detail but does not affect the color or density of the photograph significantly.