Family solitude

[Mike Lentz]

Hands down my favorite bird species to photograph. There is something about being on the water pre sunrise hearing the call of the Loon and the excitement I feel when we are able to "work with" the Minnesota's state bird. The lake I frequent has many nesting Loons and since its a lake that is fished and has boat traffic, they are very tolerant of me making images. :) Spring is around the corner and I started thinking about them today, so here is one I just processed from June 14th of last year. They were pretty comfortable with us as you can see.

P.S. Minnesota holds the largest concentration of Loons in the "continental" US.... at around 12,000... a population second only to Alaska overall. Wisconsin, I believe is under 4,000. In Michigan they are a threatened species and have fewer than 500 nesting pairs of Loons.

http://www.pbase.com/mike_lentz/image/109267058.jpg

Nikon D200 ~ Nikkor 300mm F/2.8 with Nikon 1.4x TC
ISO 400 ~ F/7.1 ~ 1/800 sec ~ - 2/3 EV

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great angle, mood and details. I might crop a bit off the bottom.

[Randy Stout]

Mike:

I share your love of loons. We have a cottage on a northern lake in the lower peninsula. Quite a bit of loon activity, but not nesting. It is a very open lake, not their preferred quiet coves and inlets. Pretty light traffic, but just not enough cover for them to nest, I would guess.

The picture is lovely, with nice head angles, great water. Exposure looks good. I am almost always shooting minus EV or manual on these birds to prevent blowing the whites.

Keep them coming, it gets me fired up for the summer!

Randy

[Alfred Forns]

Agree with Axel but what a sweet image !!! Love it Mike !!! Must have had soft light to have detail through out !!! Big Congrats !!! .... btw could only wish the other chick was looking our way !!! :)

[Steve Maxson]

This one's a winner, Mike. Love the soft light and the sharpness. These guys look pretty big to still be riders. Yup, spring is coming and in only another 2 months :( we might have open water up here.

[Grady Weed]

Come on spring! Loons.............o yea baby! Great image all the way around by the way.

[Roger Williams]

Beautiful image, Mike, and very nice detail in the whites. We live on a small lake in the north metro and are fortunate to see a pair of loons each summer that nest on a smaller largely undeveloped adjacent lake. Have to make some images this spring/summer.

roger

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Mike,

Excellent low angle. The horizon looks a hair off but not a big deal. Excellent moment.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Lovely family portrait, great exposure, colors and detail, I agree about croping a bit from the bottom, but tha´s preety much it for me :)
Congratulaitons!

[Mike Lentz]

I think I will crop some off the bottom. Good advice guys! Thanks for chiming in, always appreciated! :)

Steve, two months will be here before you know it. :D

Roger, I didn't know we had another Minnesotan on the forums. Its nice having Loons out your backdoor isn't it?! :)

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Oh Mike this is where I suffer a little no a lot of envy. Really am fascinated with them and their incredible beauty. To capture one with the baby is the ultimate. Congratulations on a fine image with outstanding composition and exposure. The detail is wonderful I guess by now you can tell I love it.

[mao ouyang]

Very interesting facts about loons in Minnesota. I'm envious.

The rider on Mom is perfect as is the exposure.