Pacific Loon

[Alan Murphy]

Pacific Loon

Barrow, Alaska

D300s, 600, ISO 400, 6.3, 1/400.

This is one of the most beautiful birds IMO. I love the subtle colors in the neck and the graduated tones on the head.
This was taken around 1 in the morning, laying on the frozen ice. The loon was in the thawed part of the lake.
I shared this great moment with Matthew Studebaker and Scott Elowitz.

[Randy Stout]

Alan:

This is not fair. As someone who spends a bit of time with common loons, these guys are real teasers.

Tremendous shooting angle, sharpness,beauty.

When was this taken Alan?

Cheers

Randy

[Tom Rambaut]

Amazing bird and image quality is out of this world. I love the eye contact and low shooting angle. The line patterns are quite something.

[Alan Murphy]

Alan:

This is not fair. As someone who spends a bit of time with common loons, these guys are real teasers.

Tremendous shooting angle, sharpness,beauty.

When was this taken Alan?

Cheers

Randy

Hey Randy, this was taken June of this year during melt week. Thanks.

[Tom Rambaut]

Just looking again - how far is this bird from you?

[Don Leslie]

Beautiful, really like the the low angle, and the detail is just fantastic!

[Alan Murphy]

Just looking again - how far is this bird from you?

Hey Tom, Probably about 30 feet.

[Marina Scarr]

Absolutely stunning, Alan. Love the star catchlight!

[Roger Clark]

Alan,

Another beautiful image. The lighting is wonderful. I would say the sun is about 20 degrees to the upper left, giving the wonderful shading. (Phase angle about 20 degrees.)

Roger

[Satish Ranadive]

Mind-blowing close-up with great details and beautiful colors...

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Fantastic contact, colours, and detail - especially the lines on the head. At first I thought there should be a bit more room on the left for the bird to look into, but now I think it's symmetrical enough that the placement is fine as it is. Well done.

Richard

[Grace Scalzo]

Gorgeous. Love the colors in the bird's neck. As Roger points out , your sun angle was perfect.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I want to be a fly on your hat brim.I promise not to make a peep. Seriously just to be able to go to the places you visit, have the photo ops you have and most importantly to learn from one of the best IMO. This is really nice Alan, Great low angle colors HA ... it's all good.

[Gabi Sandu]

Amazing shot. Great details and beautiful colors.

[Doug Brown]

What a super image Alan. Great pose and shooting angle. Excellent sharpness. And light that brought out the color in the neck nicely.

[Petros Petrou]

What a beautiful image. Great light, low angle and unbelievable detail. Thanks for sharing this.

[Robert Holguin]

Wow!!!! I have seen many pics of these birds in different and places and I have to say this is the best one. The fact that you can actually see detail and the low shooting angle, this is just a top notch image.
Well done.

[Matthew Studebaker]

Hey! I remember this bird. What a great evening we had together. So glad you were persistent until you got this handsome bird in decent light.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great stuff.. Really beautiful indeed...

[adrian dancy]

Sweet! I love the the tonal graduation in the bird's head. Nice work indeed.