THEME -- Common Loon Close

[Melissa Groo]

5D Mark II
500mm - 1.4 TC
1/640 sec; f/7.1; ISO 400

Took this a couple days ago, of a wayward common loon here in central NY. Cropped quite a bit. Wondering if I should blur the background--is it distracting? What about the reflection in the eye? Should I try to make that cleaner?
Did some sharpening, NR of background, and work in Curves and Shadows/Highlights. Was glad the white breast covered by the water as i had a devil of a time exposing the blacks of this bird without blowing out the whites!
Thanks so much for looking, and for any comments and critiques.

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

You are killing me with this picture of a loon in breeding plumage! They are just starting to return to Michigan now, but I won't get a chance to go up for a month or so.

Sharp, love the reflection in eye. Might consider cleaning up only the bottom portion, but top is great, and I dont' really mind the bottom reflection that much.

I would try a version with a bit of blur on the on the BG, won't take much.

Cheers

Randy

[Melissa Groo]

Glad it's whet your appetite, Randy! That's great you have that to look forward to. This was probably my only shot till they migrate through in the fall. And of course they won't have this plumage then!
Here's a quick repost, probably not the cleanest job (did a Quick Mask, Gaussian Blur). Left eye alone. You like it better?
Thanks for the feedback!

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

The BG looks better, but the foreground looks unnatural because the water and bird are sharp on the right, and then blurry on the left. Fix that and it will be better.

Was this from a boat, or shore?

Cheers

Randy

[Melissa Groo]

This was from my car, next to a stream. The bird didn't seem to be able to get out of there, didn't have enough waterway to take off....I didn't get out of the car as I didn't want to stress it.

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

Thanks for the info. Loons do occasionally land on roads or streams when they are confused and think they are landing on larger body of water. Since they essentially can't walk, and have to have a long take off runway on the water, it can be tragic.

If you have a local loon preservation society, usually listed on the internet, I would give them a heads up about this bird. They might be able to do a rescue if it hasn't managed to take off yet.

Good luck.

Cheers

Randy

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Melissa, loved the details. always love water droplets. Well done.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks Kaustabh!
Randy, I'm afraid we did try to rescue the loon and it didn't have a happy outcome. After it had been there for about three days, a wildlife rehabber and a couple of bird experts hatched a plan to capture it and take it to a big lake nearby. I volunteered to help, and yesterday we got in the water in waders and tried to guide it into a net. It eluded us repeatedly though, and ended up (we think) escaping down a culvert and going downstream. I don't think it will meet with a good fate, but there's nothing anyone can do, the river winds through lots of different private properties and we have no way to track it down. I'm heartsick over it.

[Mike Milicia]

Hi Melissa,
Hope the Loon makes it! Excellent detail and love the iridescent color!
Original non-blurred BG looks more natural to me.
My Loon photography experience is limited so I might be wrong but the head seems almost a bit too light to me.
I'm used to seeing darker and richer colors. Maybe it's just the light you had.

[Melissa Groo]

THanks Mike. The sun was pretty direct and strong, so the bird was quite well-lit, but I do think I may have lightened a bit in Curves to show some detail. I have never photographed a loon before myself, so am open to correction.

[DanWalters]

Like the repost. Nice colors in the head and I like the drops of water. Maybe just a little more room around the subject.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Melissa,
This is a nice portrait with great colors and sharpness, a few points perhaps worth considering: The BG is a bit distracting, the ripples have created a mildly harsh bokeh. IMO applying Gaussian blur to the BG will make it look unnatural and unrealistic. I would try to get it right in camera rather than blurring later :S3: here the best option would have been to get lower (if possible) this will not only place you at eye level with the loon but also because of the shallower angle the BG would be farther away and hence creating a softer more pleasing bokeh...overall the crop is too tight as presented...a looser crop would be a big improvement too.

Great job!

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks much Dan and Arash. Arash, I absolutely agree, wish I could have gotten lower, but the loon was quite close to the road (without anywhere to go) and I didn't want to stress it, so I couldn't get out of car to get lower. And I normally wouldn't crop so tightly, but I wanted to fit in with April theme of Extreme Close ups, so thought that would be appropriate.
Thanks again to all for looking and for the feedback! Every day I learn so much here.

[Ofer Levy]

An impressive work!! Sharpenss, detail and colours are fantastic! Randy's suggestion is excellent.

[James Salywoda]

Beautiful portrait Melissa nice and sharp I love that eye it's so captivating.

[Melissa Groo]

Thank you Ofer and James!

[Stan Cunningham]

There will always be something else we could have done. I like the blurred background and love the detail on the bird and the fact you can see the white breast below the clear water. Gives the pic a good "feel" for lack of a better term. The color of his bill is great as well, nicely done.

[Melissa Groo]

Thank you so much, Stan!

[Ken Canning]

Very nice, Melissa, you have done a wonderful job of capturing the irridescent head colors of the bird. A couple of tech comments; the sharpening mask spills into the BG a a little bit, especially along the front/top of the head, might consider contracting it a bit. I do like the slightly blurred upper BG in the repost, but agree with others to keep it limited to the upper portion of the frame. I would try removing the reflection in the eye, but that is very subjective and removing it might result in an unatural appearance, but worth a try IMO.

[Melissa Groo]

THanks so much Ken. All excellent points. Will try those and see how it goes.