There Goes the Sun - Cue Beatles

[Randy Stout]

Couldn't resist the Beatles twist. Now the song is stuck in my head.

Taken on a Northern Michigan lake around 8:45 pm just as the sun hit the horizon line. The loon was kind enough to pose for me while I was moving my boat back and forth to align everything up.

D850 600VR f/6.3 1/640s ISO 1250. Fill flash to try and lighten the bird a bit. Dynamic range was obviously a challenge.

Post: LRClassic, PS 2020. Luminosity mask on the brightest whites to tone them down a bit.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[David Roach]

I really love the result here. The specular highlights really add to the image IMHO. You are a master at using fill flash and this canvas is no exception. Framing is also spot on for just an awesome canvas overall. TFS

ps
Getting that eye...

[Arthur Morris]

interesting. Try this on for size; the exact same image and framing with the bird moved 4 inches to our left ... That would have placed the bird in the center of the dark water, gotten the head out of the specular highlight, and balanced the composition ...

with love, artie

[Randy Stout]

Thanks for your input Artie and David.

I only got one frame of this setup before the bird turned away from me, so couldn't try other comps, but I appreciate your points. I will have to talk with him next time. Maybe the bright light was bothering him!

Cheers

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the experiment here. When you have thousands of images of a species, it's fun to change things up and get some cool stuff. These types of images are difficult to get people all pumped up about, except for us that do dabble in experimentation at times. For that reason, I'm liking this quite a bit despite the challenges faced.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Daniel:

I agree with your comments about presenting somewhat non conventional images. It is really easy to become locked into a particular style of image and I am not immune to that either. I often find that when I present an image on a loon site that I follow, what is popular there is not what would be popular on BPN. Good to keep trying new things!

Randy