Early morning stretch

[Randy Stout]

This common loon was just limbering up on a lovely quiet morning on a northern Michigan lake.

D700 500mm f/4 with TC 1.4 f/6.3 1/1600s AE -0.7 EV ISO 640

Camera mounted on a pedestal , just peeking over the gunwales, me sitting on the deck of my boat
the "Loonatic"

Post: NX2, slight rotation, small crop for composition, minor levels and curves adjustment.

Comments always appreciated.

Randy

[Art Peslak]

I like the low angle perspective on this along with catching the bird at an interesting position. The exposure and detail are very good.

[Stu Bowie]

Seems like both you and the Loon were relaxed. Your pano crop works well with the outspread wings and the loon sunken into the water. Exposure well controlled, sharp, and I like the overall detail in this. Great capture Randy.

[denise ippolito]

Randy, I really like the stretched wings w/ the water drops falling off. Beautiful HA and BG. The details look very good as does your exposure. Looks like your trip was a success and it's nice to have you back.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Low angle makes this for me. Whites look a bit hot(not a whole lot) but my just be my monitor. Very fine capture.

[Arthur Morris]

Not bad for a loonatic. Nice pose with just about perfect wing position. I think that this could be improved with some Eye Doctor work....

What type of pedestal?

[Gal Shon]

Beautiful image, Very well presented.
I like the soft light, superb wing position, BG, sharpnes and Comp.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone.

Artie, I did brighten the eye just a bit. Because the light was very soft, and indirect, you don't get the brilliant red eye that loons show in full sun. I did not want to go overboard, wanted to keep it consistent with how it looked in person. Perhaps a bit more local contrast would work.

The boat has four pedestal mounted seats that can be moved around as needed for fishing. I bought an extra adjustable pedestal, put an aluminum plate on the top where the seat would normally go, mounted my Wimberely on to of that. If it is OK, I could post a picture of the setup in this thread, or do one in the general photography forum. I found it worked quite well. Didn't trust a tripod not to get knocked over with wave action or my movement as I moved around the boat. Plus, since I was also driving the boat, couldn't use something that couldn't be left unattended, like a BLUBB.

Cheers

Randy

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent exposure and detail. I like the low angle and the pose, well captured

[Harshad Barve]

Grand expo and details , loved low angle
TFS

[Juan Aragonés]

Spectacular pose and low angle Randy. Pano croping works really good on this one. Glad to see you posting again :-)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose, good angle, BG and composition. I would tone down the highlights a bit and increase contrast a few points.

[Mike Lentz]

Randy the low angle and open wing spread is perfect for a pano crop!
I agree with adding a small amount more of contrast.