Taken a number of years ago in Northern Michigan I came across the file while looking for another image, and liked it so much I reprocessed it a little. He had just surfaced and had not shaken off yet. I really liked the slick look, the reflections of the far shore on the water sheen, the and in the eye reflection.
D4. 600VR 1/1000s, ISO 1000 f/5.0. Pedestal mounted in the bottom of my loon boat.
Post; LR 2023. Small crop from top and left side. Was too close to capture the entire bird.
Oh boy, slick indeed! Although I like the "beaded lines" better, this is different and for that I like it lots. I love the texture of the feathers under the white necklace. A strong image, and fun rediscovery for you in your files!
Hi Randy .. what a cool close up of this guy and i do love the water soaked head feathers , the glassy sheen is priceless cool !!!
ON the color front i would go a bit warmer .... but would eliminate the cyans for sure in a large amount , they do make the colors look a bit electric , IMHO.
I went back and tweaked the image a bit in regards to the color temp and color balance. Always an inexact science, as everyones color perceptions are slightly different, different monitors, etc. Plus of course, the ambient light varies dramatically when shooting near dawn and dusk, as I usually do.
Wow, that's really nice Randy. Exposure and details looks great, and the sheen is super cool. It almost makes him look like the Terminator when he was made of mercury or whatever it was. Head angle ad background are perfect. I'd include more to the right to avoid the square-ish crop. The BG is very appealing, so more of it won't hurt the image.