Nesting Loon

[Tom Cudzilo]

I shot this while camping/kayaking through AP in Ontario. The nest was on a tiny island and I only found it by being bored and wanting to expore the lake a bit. I saw a canoes go by and no one ever went on "the other side" of the island where the nest was. I was about 50 from the nest in my kayak as I did not want to scare the bird away from the nest.

This pose is what a nesting loon does when it wants to hide. Neck almost in water and flattens its body. It remains very still while doing so.



30D
300mm F4 is + 1.4x (handheld from a kayak)
iso100
f7.1
1/200s
fill flash

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Tom,

This is terrific. I love the head position and details. I also do a lot of kayaking. Excellent work!

[Bonnie Block]

Fabulous, could not be better, Tom! I have never seen something like this--cool!

[Robert D. Gregg]

That's a great capture!

BigBob...

[Dan O'Leary]

Wow - this is a very unique image. I found myself staring at it for some time. The super low angle, very odd pose / behavior, great composition, amazing sharpness, great light, and fantastic exposure make this totally off the chart for me. I've not seen a loon in person; I'm surprised by the completely matte black head and the very shiny plumage elsewhere. The inky black head is amazing.

Thank you for sharing. If it's not already obvious I really like this image.

Edit - if I had to improve anything, I'd wish for a cleaner background. This is a bit distracting. Not much you can do.

[Marko Matesic]

Great and interesting behavior shown here ....I like low angle ,light and composition.
well done!

[David Hemmings]

Probably my favorite loon image ever, wonderful sharpness and behavior!

[Fabs Forns]

Excellent habitat displayed and great pose too, what's not to like :)

[Todd Frost]

Amazing capture!! Not a single thing I don't like except it's not mine! The detail and comp of this image are truly outstanding.
Todd

[Lana Hays]

Tom
This is excellent. The light is wonderful and the setting makes such a perfect behavior/habitat shot. I like how the head/neck is just slightly curved.....giving a wonderful full view of that "ruby red" eye.