Common Loon Portrait

[Gary Esman]

7D, iso 640, 700 mm, 1/2000, nearly full frame slight crop for comp.

Had the pleasure of spending the evening last night with this Common Loon. Taken on a Northern Michigan Lake. C and C always welcome and certainly appreciated!

Gary Esman.

[Dave Leroy]

Very nice photo of a loon Gary.

Nice simple composition with a clean bg. Very sharp.

It might have been nice to see bit more of the bottom, but this works for me.

Good for you and I bet it was fun.

Dave

[Stu Bowie]

Exceptional sharpness and detail Gary, and I like how the light has brought out the colours on the head and neck. Good low perspective too.

[Chris Kotze]

Super pose, detail, colours and well exposed

[Andrew McLachlan]

Gary, this is a beautiful, sharp portrait. I'd like to see a smidge more room at the bottom, but this works too.

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

The eye is great, excellent detail and definition in head feathers, with nice greens showing, and the blue at the base of the neck is great. Really nice IQ overall.

I agree, just a little tight below, but you were obviously in close, so sometimes its pretty hard to fit the entire bird in!

Did you do any selection work on the the whites of the breast? The profile looks just the tiniest bit softer than I would expect based on the DOF distribution elsewhere on the bird.

Overall, its a winner for sure!

Cheers

Randy

[Gary Esman]

Thanks, all appreciate the comments. I do have a little more roon at the bottom so I will not crop so tight.
Been a while since I have posted life have been busy...maybe forgot how to crop:e3.

Randy, not sure why the breast is a little softer, the overcast conditions last evening help keep the whites from full blow out. I will say a new respect for these guys, they are tough to get the proper exposure. Had a blast! He swam within 6 feet along side of the boat keeping up with me halfway across the lake. He didn't have to hard of a time since my trolling motor battery was almost dead.:bg3:

Gary.

[Don Lacy]

Very nice image love the detail and soft light well done

[christopher galeski]

Beautiful portrait,love the eye,andthe detail in the head magic.thanks.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Great portrait. IQ and exp looks good. Love the BG and the way the subject pops from the BG

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Gary, terrific shot. spot-on exp., great IQ and sharpness. Low angle, BG, HA...well done. Although soft, judging by the SS, looks like light was good enough. That has helped a lot.

More DOF and more room at bottom would have been nice but if the bird was so close, then its totally understandable.