Loon chick portrait

[Steve Maxson]

Something a little different for Macro. :S3: Several years ago, while doing a grebe survey from kayaks on a shallow lake that sees almost no summer boat traffic, my wife and I encountered a pair of Common Loons with two very young (about 2-days old) chicks. One of the chicks, having never seen humans before, swam right up to my kayak and posed for a few photos. This chick still has the egg tooth (used to help it break out of the egg shell when hatching) and you can see my reflection in its eye. 40D, 300 mm f/4 + 1.4X, 1/500, f/8, ISO 400, focus distance 2.5 m. I did some NR on the background and selective sharpening only on the beak and eye - to keep the downy feathers looking soft and fuzzy. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Thought I had opened Avian when I saw this cute guys thumbnail! Can never get enough loons!

Nice balance of sharpening, as just as you stated, you don't want to oversharpen the fuzz, at it gets very 'cruchy' looking when you overdo the sharpening.

I love the catchlight.

Thanks for sharing!

Randy

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Steve,
Amazing reflection in the eye! Love the contrast with the BG. well processed too.

Allen

[Nancy Bell]

Way too cute! All looks perfectly done. Plus I'm good with cute critters in any forum :bg3:!

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the composition and the treatment applied it makes for a very pleasing image. You may wish to consider removing the highlights or three vertically arranged dots in the eye.