Red-throated Loon from Barrow, AK

[Matthew Studebaker]

103410
Barrow, Alaska | June | Canon 1D4 | Canon 600mm f4 IS | 1/1000, f5.6, ISO 400
We photographed both Red-throated and Pacific Loons in Barrow last year. Next year I'm going a pinch later to increase our chances at Yellow-billed Loon as well. I just love Barrow.

[Randy Stout]

Matthew:

Very handsome fellow,nice light. Good shooting angle.

The combination of sharpening on the bird and blurring of the background does seem a bit overdone for my tastes. Makes him look like a cardboard cutout.

Barrow does sound like the place to go for loons. Did see some nice pictures of Pacific loons come out of Anchorage as well.

Cheers

Randy

[Dan Behm]

Matt,
You know I like this allot,One of the prettiest of the species and this is a killer shot.... the inclusion of the gradient topside really balances this image, love the low angle and lifted head profile. The reflections off the water on the neck is magical and all the colors compliment so well.. a sure favorite of mine from your Barrow trip.

Dan

[Grace Scalzo]

So colorful...as Dan said, the water reflecting onto the neck is sweet. I hope to go to Barrow some day.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Matthew, I am liking the shallow DOF effect a lot. great low angle, details, exp. Good job in getting parallel...that allowed you to open up and create that BG.

Compositionally, I'd like a little less room below and a little more above. There's a lot going on in the top half of the image...the bird, the textures, colors.....Because of the empty bottom part, I think it seems a bit imbalanced. bird is looking upwards as well. Just my two cents to improve an already-fantastic shot.

Thx for sharing.

[Stu Bowie]

Matthew, good low perspective, with excellent light and colours. Comp wise, I would maybe take a bit off the bottom, and eliminate the blue band on top. I can see where Randy is coming from with regards to too much blurring. The more I look at this, it doesnt seem as bad, as when I first viewed this. Looks like a great place to visit.

[Robert Holguin]

Great shot, really like the low angle, lovely light, and great background.
Well done.

[Josh Clark]

Fantastic shot of this Loon Matthew. That glasslike water makes it seem like he is floating in space. Looks like you had perfect conditions there, looks like you had some nice diffused light on the day of capture as well. Just enough to make those details pop. Great separation from the BG as well. Never been to Alaska, but I would love to go someday.

[dankearl]

It does look a bit 2 dimensional to me.
The water looks great, the BG too bright I think.
The bird is nice and sharp but just seems flat.

[Jim Buescher]

Exceptional image of this species. Nice to see some habitat, not just loon and water. There's a large spot near the LLC (dust spot?) faint but noticeable. Images like this would make any bird photographer want to go to Alaska, myself included.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Beautiful shot and i really like the light and the colors. I'm on the fence about the processing and would love to see the bg as shot before processing. I am agreeing about the cropping from the bottom too.

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful shot, Matthew. Love the sense of habitat and the colors are out of this world. Now you are making me want to sign up for Barrow! :t3

[Roger Clark]

Hi Matthew,

While the colors are very nice, I agree with Dan that the image looks flat. The catchlight is dead center in the pupil, so it looks like the sun was directly behind you. This means the angle to the sun is very low (the phase angle) so there is no shading to give form to the bird. I would have moved to the left about 20 degrees to where some shading would give form. It is still a nice image, sharply focused and well exposed. But I do think the image would have been better with a higher phase angle. (e.g. see my comments to Alan Murphy's recent loon image.)

Roger

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent Matt, I love the low angle and the very nice BG. it shows the habitat nicely. shooting angle is perfect too and I like the shallow DOF . I would not change a thing here. TFS

[Danny Laredo]

Stunning image Matthew.

[Bryan Hix]

Great stuff Matthew. The low angle and light rocks.