Stretching those young wings - common loon juvi

I had the privilege of spending a number of hours floating around with a pair of juvi common loons on a northern Michigan lake recently. They have just started flying. This youngster was getting limbered up!

D700 500mm f/4 with 1.4 TC Manual exp, f/6.3 1/1250s ISO 640 SB800 with better beamer,+1.3 EV. It was a dim day, so needed a bit of help on lighting.

Post:

CS4 PS, curves, selective sharpening, small crop for comp.

In a perfect world, I wish he was turned a bit more towards me, but I liked the profile effect of his face from this angle.

Advice always appreciated.

Randy

Nice wing pose and sharpness.I like the eye contact and the exposure.

Randy, The water color accents the juvi nicely. I like the pose and the fantastic details. Glad to see you back and glad that you were able to spend time with the loons. I know how much you enjoy them.

Hi Randy, the juvi looks like he's posing proudly for you - good wing stretch captured. Overall well exposed, good underwing detail, and I too like the water colour. Maybe a tad tight on the right.

Beautiful Randy Bhai, great expo, pose and angle here, Loved the details too.. very well done..

Another great shot. Like the sharpness, exposure and beautiful water. Excellent work here.

I like the DOF(F4 did the trick) and composition. Lovely underwing detail and pose too. All round a very pleasing image Randy.

Very nice image Randy - the soft, even lighting and detail are just excellent. I think the pano crop works very well here (although I'd have left a bit more on the right). Is the image the full width of the frame? (or is the slight vignetting on the top by design?)

Regards,
Jeff

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice.

Jeff: The image is full frame on the horizontal axis. I cropped up a bit from the bottom. The f/4 will show a bit of vignetting on the full frame D700. I agree, a smidge tight on the right. Can add canvas.

Thanks again!

Randy

Wow, what a great shot. I can't stop looking at the details on the wing feathers.

Thanks Connie.

Randy