Tremolo serenade - Common Loon

[Randy Stout]

This loon was imaged last week while on my annual loon outing in northern Michigan. Weather was a bit uneven, but had several good days with the birds. The sad part was that 3 of the 4 nests I was following failed to produce chicks. One actually hatched a chick which lasted for 2 days, the other two had no hatchings and the nests had been abandoned. The 4th nest success is unknown, as they hadn't hatched yet when I left.

D4 600VR f/6.3 1/1600 ISO 640

Post: leveled with slight crop for comp, 80% of original. LR4 and CS6. Cleaned up a second catchlight, toned down the whites.

Advice and comments always appreciated.


Cheers

Randy

[Sandy Witvoet]

FINALLY! A Randy Loon image! Great calling posture...great detail on the white breast...and of course, excellent focus on the head. Shows nice iridescence on neck and back of head. Green bg is a bit bright (probably just for me), but that is often the color of inland lakes. So sorry to hear of the nest failures..... ours failed two weeks ago, due to human interference... eggs had been due to hatch today.

[Randy Stout]

Sandy:

Thanks for the comment, and sorry to hear about your loons problems.

The background is accurate. I used a Passport color checker to set my camera profile. It was 6:40 AM when I took this one, but no clouds or haze, so already pretty bright.

Cheers

Randy

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

So cool loon Randy!
Exposure looks right one for me except the chest a tad bright. Blacks/dark tones look great.
The semi-pano crop works quite well for this one.

[christopher galeski]

nice capture,like the pose,nice FGand BG.

[Satish Ranadive]

Spectacular image, Randy Sr.
Beautiful colors,great fine details, water droplets,lovely BG and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Holger Leyrer]

Wonderful image. I like the pose and colors. The low angle works great.

[arash_hazeghi]

lovely low angle, pose and details the green BG is very nice too

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Excellent image Randy! Love that awesome low POV, lovely looking loon, nice BG & perfect comp.

[Bill Dix]

Great low POV, handsome bg. And handsome Loon too, of course. Love the velvety blacks with hint of green on the head. Terrific calling pose.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Looks great Randy! Love the erect neck and slightly open bill. Techs and colours spot on.

[Andy Shepherd]

Fantastic image, Randy. The BG is very good, as is the open bill pose.

Andy...

[Gary Esman]

Randy, the whites on the neck look great!

Gary.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks folks for the input. Much appreciated. The bird was excited by another loon flying over, so gave me some nice calling poses to work with.

Cheers

Randy