I continue to look forward to when our Loons return (aka, having severe Loon withdrawal!)... and hoping for a baby again this year!
This was photographed mid-July, 2013. Baby Loon is just a week old here.
I wasn't shooting RAW at the time, so this was only shot in JPG.
Canon 60D, 300mm F4, F7.1, 1/320, ISO 500, EC +0.7.
Straightened, cropped... desaturated the blues/greens of the water (they were quite bright and contrasty), selective sharpening.
Hi Tim... Thanks for commenting! Would have to agree on the crop... but I'm at about or beyond max (shortness of lens!) Do you think if I "repositioned" it might help?
And, yes, harsh lighting washed out the whites.... if I had "upped" (is that a word?) the EC even more, might that have helped?
Hope to post a couple more Loons from 2013 here in the future, until they arrive again this Spring (whatever THAT is here in N. MI!)
Hi Sandy
You have captured a nice moment between parent and chick here. I think that if you cropped a little off the bottom to make this a more pano crop then the image would be stronger without losing any image quality. You may be able to recover some detail in the highlights with a linear burn in photoshop. I have been looking into it since Artie mentioned it on one of my posts but haven't had chance to try it yet. He has a post about it in educational resources.
One of my favorite birds also, Sandy. I wondered, instead of cropping more, maybe try placing the birds lower in the composition, i.e. more space over there heads than under them. Really nice photo: sharpness, interaction of mama and baby and water ( amazing the variability of water due to light in photos)
Thanks, Iain and Willie! What bothered me a bit was the large amount of OOF water at the bottom.... a bit of a crop there will likely help! And, of course, thank you for the positive comments (always a bit "needy" for some of those!)
It's amazing watching these birds on a daily basis...their interactions are so very different than most water fowl....they were quite skittish much of the time last year. Missed the photo op of a lifetime last summer when an Eagle tried to snatch the baby and Dad Loon came literally screaming out of nowhere in "attack mode" against the Eagle. (I was too busy screaming for hubby to "Get the Boat Out There!"... He did... Mom and baby spent about a half hour cowering next to the boat. Dad Loon returned and all went safely on their way. Whew.) A Loon's "scream" (aka, Yodel), sure "raises the hair on the back of your neck!"
Oh... I'll check into the "recovering some detail" too!
Last edited by Sandy Witvoet; 02-21-2014 at 04:01 PM.
This pair is SO sweet! I think cropping some off the bottom will strengthen the image. The contrast is a bit high -- typical of JPEGs and hard to reverse, Head out when they are back and you'll be rewarded with some more great shots, I'm sure!
Thanks, Diane! If this Polar Vortex "thingy" ever leaves, maybe the Loons will be able to return... highs in the single digits predicted for the next week or so... sigh!
"Baby Love"
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