A friendly common loon

[Randy Stout]

Last week was my annual loon outing. Blessed to have two chicks on my primary lake, and one on my other nearby lake, so lots of opportunities.

This handsome adult is quite familiar with me and my boat, and is more than happy to swim quite close to the boat. I had to add canvas top and right for this image.

D500, 600mm VR, f/7.1, 1/2500s, ISO 400.

Post in LR and PS.

Comments and advice always appreciated.

Cheers

Randyu

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Randy, have missed your Loon images, so nice to see them again.

Any more below as I feel it's a little tight??? I do however fell the Blue is very dominant, is it from a reflection, I might be tempted to reduce it certainly on the subject Randy, WDYT? Like the water droplets on the LHS.

TFS
Steve

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

No more below unfort. It was very close. Nice clean up of blue tint. I might go somewhere between the the two, as I like the blue on the water, not so much on the bird.

Cheers

PS: here is a version with blues toned down on the bird, not the water, but tried not to lose some of the color on the head (which is normal).

Subtle changes on my part to be sure.

[Bill Dix]

A beautiful image of this handsome lord of the lake. My first reaction was how you always manage to get that lovely iridescent blue/green on the head. Just to play contrarian, I think it gets lost just a bit on the reposts. It's the blue ripples in the water that, to me, seem just a bit Technicolor and draw the eye from the bird. But you were there, and know what it looked like. I would take this happily in either version. I hope I'm not too late when I head for Maine next month.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Bill:

The adults should certainly still be in residence. The chicks will be pretty big by then, and depending on when exactly you go, they may be transitioning to their juvi plumage, which I find quite attractive.

Cheers

Randy

[Steve Kaluski]

No problem Randy. I think with hindsight a bit more DoF would have been good too, although you would need to up your ISO some what to retain the SS, as the beak being angled, appears that some sharpness is tailing off?

[gail bisson]

Hi Randy,
So nice to see you back posting your lovely loons.
I love, love the IQ and the detail and iridescence of the feathers.
Whites look great and superb POV.
I like the OP myself,
Gail

[Isaac Grant]

Image quality looks very nice and I love the pose. I agree with Steve that the whites look blue on my screen. I like the blue in the water but think you should tone down the blue in the whites of the bird, especially the upper area of the white on the chest. If mine I would add more to the top as it still seems tight to me. Would also clone out the 2 darker and bluish spots above the beak.