Curious fellow - juvi common loon

This fine young loon was imaged two years ago. It was August, so he was on his own with his sib for long periods of the time, just occasionally stopping by the parents for a snack! I spent a number of hours floating around with the pair of them. They are so curious, and after a while they would swim up within inches of the boat. I have a number of pictures where the edge of the boat is in the frame as I was trying to capture them.

D300 70-300VR 220mm f/5.6 1/250s ISO 1000 hand held, sitting in the bottom of my boat

Post: Selective sharpening, minor crop for comp, color efex pro for local contrast. Noise reduction on BG only.

A bit of a challenge to crop, as I wanted to show the trailing foot, but this tended to center the bird more than I usually do. Thoughts on this appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

Who says one need prime lens ? I am floored by this one being clicked with 70-300 and with such amazing quality.

A lesson for all who thinks one can only click nice images by Prime and very expensive equipments only.

<embed id="application/x-exifeverywhere" type="application/x-exifeverywhere" width="0" height="0">What is the world coming to??? :eek3: First I post a shot off a tripod, and now you're posting hand held shots!!! Very sharp with good eye contact and a nice low angle. I don't feel the inclusion of the foot is visually important enough to justify the placement of the bird in the frame, which I feel is too centered.

Wow Randy you are master of loons....the super low angle really works wonder...Sharp and nice eye contact..Agree with Doug about composition.

Excellent exposure and detail and water drop is a nice bonus.

Agree that the centered comp is not ideal and the foot is not visually important but I think clipping the foot would look worse.
So unless you have more room on the right, I think this is a good compromise.

I've been getting these guys here as well but not the juvies. Great angle and exposure

That is a nice angle Randy,
I don't really have a problem with the comp, I think chicks look kind of nice front and center.

WoW!!! Excellent shot. Great head angle and the detail is superb. I like the comp too.
Well done.