Another Common Loon - A Portrait.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Here's one that swam pretty close to me early in the morning. The light was still pretty dim with the sun not yet above the trees and my shutter speed quite slow...but I managed to get one sharp close-up of this gorgeous species...the only critically sharp one out of a series of 8 images on this particular pass. But hey I was on a bobbing paddle boat - that's my story and sticking to it!

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/100s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, small crop for comp after some CW rotation, enhanced the reflection on the eye at the 2 o'clock position, eliminated a colour "blob" close to the bill.

[Ted Ellis]

Very nice Daniel!!!!

[Joe Senzatimore]

Sweet shot for such tough conditions. Well done.

[dankearl]

Daniel,
While I like the comp and the IQ is top notch as usual, the light let you down for me.
The eye needs to be bright and colorful for a Loon portrait to work for me.
I would be thrilled to get this close to one....

[Karen Forderer]

Very nice photo! It is incredibly sharp despite the slow SS you used. Bobbing in my kayak, I always need a high SS. The colour of the eye doesn't bother me at all. It fits the rest of the lighting and is nice and clear.

[Grace Scalzo]

Absoultely a delicsious photograph. That velvety head makes me want to touch it and I love the splashes of color in the water.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the pose and you have excellent plumage detail and at 1/60 sec - pretty impressive Dan!

[mohammad reza shahab]

excellent comp,detail and nice Eye contact.