Common Loon Juvi - periscope view

[Randy Stout]

• Randy Stout
• ©2020 Randy Stout. All rights reserved.
• Ver.1.20

This common loon juvi was captured yesterday in Northern Michigan. He is about 2 months old at this point, and almost as big as his parents. Starting to show a little independence , will stray from adults occassionally, can catch fish on his own, but still prefers mom and dads take out deliveries. He had been preening and was rather fluffed up.

D500 500PF f/6.3 ISO 500 1/3200s.

This fellow was quite cooperative, and I was in a quiet area of the lake away from the wind, so thought I would change up approach a bit. I leaned over the side of my boat until my left hand was touching the water on the backside, used Live View and did my best to keep him in the frame. Although live view on the D500 is pretty useless for most of my work, because he was an isolated subject with the background well out of focus, it would slowly focus on him and I got a few good shots. I literally could not have gotten any lower and kept the camera dry.

Post: This is full frame. Little work in LRclassic and PS , but basically out of camera. Sharpening is always a challenge with the juvies as the feathers on the head are so soft and the light in this shot was soft as well. Reminds me of Cedar Waxwings in that regard.

Advice and comments appreciate.

Cheers

Randy

 

[Brian Sump]

Randy, wow. You crushed it with this one... which is not atypical for you but I love this one for sure.

The bkg color palette is all-world and the softness with detail on the subject is excellent for me. Comp and dof are nailed too.

Only critiques I could offer is a touch of denoise on the bkg. And if you wanted to clone those two larger white spots on the wings.

TFS, well done!

 

[Robert Kimbrell]

Stunning, Great to see Loon this age. Nicely placed in the frame. I really like the color pallete on this one. Great you were able to get so low.

 

[David Roach]

This one is well worth getting your hand wet... Just stunning perfection taken to another level due to POV. TFS

 

[Randy Stout]

Thanks guys. I didn’t mind getting myself wet, but would prefer not to get the camera wet!

Randy

 

[John Mack]

Love that periscope view. A nice pose and framing. The soft light brings out the detail nicely.