Come under my wing

[gail bisson]

I took this in Kamloops during a great workshop with Jess Findlay and Connor Stefanison. Despite difficult weather and the late hatching of the loon chicks, they worked their butts off and provided us with many wonderful photographic opportunities.
We only had 1 day with these chicks before the workshop ended and I shot 64GB of images in one morning! This is one of my favorites but will be interested in your thoughts re: slightly OOF rear chick.
Shot from a boat with barrel of lens resting on edge of boat..
Crop to 70% FF
Canon 1Dx, 600mm
PP: These birds are a nightmare to expose for. The bright white chest and dark head means that one has to expose for the whites and bring up the shadows in PP A LOT! Nothing added or cloned.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[David Policansky]

Gail: You nailed the exposure on this one. It's a wonderful image. Yes, the rear chick is a bit soft, and wouldn't it be wonderful if it were sharp too. But especially since it's a fuzzy little thing and because the other one is sharp, I think it's OK. As for Jess Finlay, I told him a few years ago that he should leave his brain to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology because he is the birdiest person I've ever met!

[Isaac Grant]

Love the attentiveness of the parent here. Such a nice moment you captured. Image quality is excellent. I do wish the back bird were in better focus. Also I think that the whites on the chest of the adult are too yellowish gray.

[gail bisson]

David-You are 100% correct about Jess. Never have I met anyone who has a better ear and better instinctive understanding of what a bird is going to do. His knowledge is astounding.
Isaac- I just love your eye with regards to my images. You are a great editor. Here is my redo with the whites corrected.Selected chest and decreased ywllow in the whites -30 and blacks by -10. I think I could have been even more aggressive. Thanks for the advice!

[Daniel Cadieux]

I see what you mean about the rear bird, but I can certainly live with that. It would have taken a lot more dof to cover it, or you would have had to coax it on the same plane as its sibling somehow! The raised wing and leaning-in posture of the little one makes for an adorable interaction.

[Bill Dix]

What a sweet image. I don't mind the oof chick. Repost is an improvement on a lovely shot. Did you consider removing the yellow from the reflection?

[Isaac Grant]

Whites look better but I agree that you could probably be a bit more aggressive. I also agree with Bill that you should adjust the reflection as well. Minor details that make an already beautiful image even more special.

[Glenn Pure]

What a 'wow' shot, Gail. Superb interaction captured and handled so well. Repost has fixed that yellowish patch on the bird and agree the reflection could be tidied up the same way but very minor nits. I can imagine how hard this was to expose based on my own experience with black and white birds in full sun. I reckon you nailed this one. You didn't mention aperture used and wonder and may be relevant to the discussion about the slightly soft rear chick - even though that can't be changed after the event. Great POV and love the background and foreground.

[gail bisson]

What a 'wow' shot, Gail. Superb interaction captured and handled so well. Repost has fixed that yellowish patch on the bird and agree the reflection could be tidied up the same way but very minor nits. I can imagine how hard this was to expose based on my own experience with black and white birds in full sun. I reckon you nailed this one. You didn't mention aperture used and wonder and may be relevant to the discussion about the slightly soft rear chick - even though that can't be changed after the event. Great POV and love the background and foreground.
Yes, I agree Bill's suggestion of cleaning up the whites in the water is a great idea.
Glenn- I am sorry I forgot to put my settings in.
F 7.1 SS 1/2000 ISO 640 at 6-30 AM. In hindsight I wish I had been F 8 and SS 1/1600 but it may not have been enough to cover DOF.

[Glenn Pure]

Gail, thanks for the details. I suspect you'd have to go to f9 or more but you had plenty of ISO to play with but it would have possibly brought some more detail into the background. Regarding the 'dirty' whites on the adult's front, I notice your more recent post shows the lower/main underparts are clean white while that front breast area is dirty white - so maybe that's what the bird looked like (assuming the same bird). Maybe it should have been left as per your original post?