Loon Portrait

[Dave Harwood]

Common Loons are, very fortunately for me, a common experience at the lake. They can pop up anytime, but this time I was waiting for him. As you can see, he filled the frame and then some, a lot more startled to see me than I of him. It was early evening, golden light. Used LR and PS for processing along with Nik plugins. File appears darker here for some reason? Thanks for looking.

Canon EOS 7D Mk II
f/4 1/1600 ISO 2000
EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x
Focal Length 400mm
Flash Type Did not fire
Tripod Used
100% of Original




Your comments and suggestions are always welcome and gratefully pondered.

[David Roach]

A unique perspective this one... Love the detail and I can live with the down angle given the detail look... Love the water and head turn toward you would have put this way over the top for me... TFS

ps
Great job on the exposure as well...

[Randy Stout]

Dave: The loons are back in Michigan as well, so nice to see one of yours.

He was really in tight, must be pretty comfortable with people.

Angling away from the camera generally isn't as engaging to the viewer. The saturation seems a bit high, esp. noticeable with the eye and the red starting to show up on the back.

Hope you have more opportunities.

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nicely caught, the colours I agree are a little saturated - maybe have another look without the plug ins? The negative head turn was unfortunate but I am looking forward to seeing more.

[Dave Harwood]

I have to laugh, with his beak, like a thumb, pointing right, this is my "left-handed loon!" You're right I pumped up the eye too much but it's the only color in the scene, it carries the whole weight. I'm looking forward to more good feedback. Thank you, Dave, Randy and Jonathan, for providing it.

[Arthur Morris]

Critiques above nailed the problems: bird looking away and mega-over-saturated ... None-the-less, you might want to try another go at this one to see if you can come up with more natural colors.

with love, artie