Pacific Loon

This is my new favorite bird. I cannot tell you how beautiful they are in real life (but I will try to show you !) Another keeper from my workshop with Matthew Studebaker in Nome. Have I told you how great it was?!!!:S3: Even with 3 days of really crappy weather.
Canon 1DX 600mm II and 1.4X
ISO 400
SS 1/3200 ( in hindsight 1/2500 would have been better)
f 7.1
Waders, tripod,9:30 PM
PP : Increased exposure by .75 on everything but the whites. In my desire to not blow the whites I really underexposed this guy. NR to BG, cropped to 15% for comp so 85% FF, dodged the black area at right shoreline, DE at 3% on loon and sharpened JPEG at 45% and pixel size 0.3.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

Gail:

They are elegant birds for sure. Good to get a flap facing you, as they often turn away when they flap. Excellent head angle, shooting angle.

In perfect world, would prefer the far shoreline to not pass through the neck, but not always easily managed without standing up a bit and possibly spooking the bird.

Look forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

Beautiful bird and excellent capture. They are not an easy bird to capture with bright white areas. Most people try to get images where only a small portion of the bright whites show. You did a great job with exposure IMHO.

The only things that bother me are the shoreline running through its head and the white in the water right below the loon.

The pose is awesome! The head angle is perfect. I'm enjoying the color contrast between the browns of the bg and blues of the water. Low angle....clutch. Honestly I dig everything about this very fine image, except for the whites on the loon, which particulary on the chest, look like they could be a fair amount whiter. Great image Gail.

OMG ,what a lovely colors and super sharp details you have got in this wonderful image?
Every thing is just perfect in this frame. Great IQ,extremely beautiful colors,great low angle, superb BG and FG .
Beautiful composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

Fantastic. Wonderful pose, colors and background.

Stunning Gail, WOW just love the light and clarity of this image. Great timing as well.

Yes, the shore line in the ideal world...but still, it is an awesome capture. Love the pose and the low angle. Great IQ. I just noticed you have new gear. Congrats.

i simply love the water and the brown in the bg
the pose is great, IQ looks excellent
Great composition to my eye

Beautiful image Gail, pose, detail & exposure all top notch.

Excellent image! Beautiful detail, nice background and low point of view.

Hi Gail, you couldnt have captured a better pose - and just love the overall light and colours in this. You have nailed the exposure and sharpness, and great feather detail from the underwings. Very well captured.

Super!! You did a good job of showing us how beautiful they are. Wonderful pose, low POV, exposure, sharpness. Don't mind the position of the shoreline. A lovely image in all respects. Hope you didn't get your new lens wet.

Thanks all for your comments.
Randy- you are right about the standing up to get shoreline away from the neck. We did consider getting up on our knees but I think that would have spooked the loon. She was so at ease with the 3 of us as we sat in the reeds with water to our waist and cameras just barely above the water line. I would rather have this shot than no shot!!:S3:
Shawn-I will go back to the RAW and see if I can push the whites a bit more.
Gail

This is beautiful Gail.
It just sparkles.
I like the head against the Rust BG, i think the perspective is nice.
THe only minor and I mean minor, critique is I might remove the lower catchlight.

excellent pose details. low angle and exposure is perfect

well done

wonderful in all aspects as noted above! nothing more to add than just WOW!

Love the pose and the subject. What an awesome looking bird. Love to see one in real life. The techs look great to me and the detail in crisp. Nice BG and I dont mind it running thru the neck too much. Nice work

Awesome image for sure. I would be happy with this capture. The right wing could have been better with it fully stretched, nonetheless, an awesome image.

Excellent light, low shooting angle, IQ & wing position.

Beautiful bird and excellent capture. very nice pose and light.

fabulous Gail! great pose, great light, good shooting angle, excellent post processing. and thanks for the kind words!!!

ps - I think the shoreline is out of focus enough that it doesn't bother me one bit behind the bird. Also, I prefer NOT to clone out double catch-lights on water birds because that would look unnatural. in other words, I like your choices.