Common Loon with Chick

[Andrew McLachlan]

Common Loon with chick photographed last week on Horseshoe Lake. I spent about an hour with these loons towards sunset, as I lay in my canoe for lowest possible angle while handholding the 80-400mm VR lens.

A ton of work done here. This is the loon with the broken upper bill (that I photographed 6 years ago) - fixed that. Also evicted the other parent that was in the background behind this adult. Adjusted composition without cropping and fixed odd-looking highlights in both eyes that was caused by the low angle of the sun reflecting across the lake. Lastly, I cleaned up lots of bill shine in the adult bird too.

Fractalius applied using Glow 100 preset - masked back in the eyes and roughly 50% of the background.

Look forward to comments.

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[Nancy Bell]

All your hard work in the canoe and processing really paid off. This is great. I love the position of the 2 birds and the contrasts between the parent and chick. Fractalius really highlights the fuzziness of the chick and the cool demeanor of the parent. And Nature is very good to us photographers for putting a red eye on a black and white bird. I'm envious that you live with loons :S3:.

[Anita Bower]

Wonderful image. Did you get cramps lying in the canoe all that time? Good work. Gorgeous colors. I'm wondering about toning down the fractilus on the baby and the foreground water.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Andy....Lovely portrait....I like the bg and loon ...I agree that toning down the foreground water and baby might be useful to help the image just blend together better

[Paul Lagasi]

Almost seems like the young chick is calling out for food, another lovely frac, well done

[denise ippolito]

Andrew, I really like the effect of the Fractalius filter. Toning down the chick and the foreground is a good option.BUT either way I love this one!:S3:

[Judy Howle]

Really lovely composition Andrew! Your work on the image really paid off. The fract on the chick does look a little strong compared to the adult but it's perfectly acceptable as is.

[Mark Fuge]

Nice image and application, Andrew.

Well done on the changes made.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks folks for the comments. I appreciate them very much!

[Indranil Sircar]

Great subject and great effect!! Beautiful processing... nicely done.