Gentle Care

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
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Gentle Care
Gentle Care3217×1810 880 KB

Abeautiful July morning - very very early - just a few minutes after sunrise - no one else on the lake.A bit overcast - quite calm. Overcast - perfect! Soft, even light with no harsh shadows. Perfectly calm conditions - awesome. Ideal for getting great reflections. These are the ways a photographer thinks before setting out on a photo adventure!

The baby loons were due to hatch any day out there on my favorite lake. My hope was to find one and maybe capture some images of the parent feeding the chick. The first early days of a baby loon’s life are risky. The chick is not yet able to dive (a loon’s secret weapon) and evade predators. So finding the baby during that time period translates to better images. The baby floats on the surface like a fishing bobber and parents grab small stuff from the lake bottom for those first early meals of small food. Because the food is so small the parent must present each morsel carefully and gently. I had observed this behavior many times and always dreamed of capturing that moment of exchange between eager baby and gentle parent.

As I steered the boat out from my pier I had questions. Was the baby hatched yet? Were the parents feeding the baby somewhere on the lake? Were these perfect conditions going to hold up? I knew a secluded little bay where the loons just might be feeding. Instead of using my gas motor, I turned onthe electric motor and slowly moved towards the bay, hoping that my hunch was right. On this particular morning, I had guessed correctly. As I approached the bay, I could see a small brown shape on the surface - the new baby! The loon mom popped up at that moment and glided in to deliver a small treat. My heart was pounding just the same as if I had hooked a big fish. Here was my chance to try and capture that exchange moment. So I began shooting, getting low in the boat, using the boat seat as a stabilizer and shooting the exchanges. Mom would dive, pop back up and deliver, and then dive again. Over and over,
I really kept my distance so as not to disturb the birds. As I was shooting, I thought there might have been one or two shots that could be good. When I got back to my cabin, I discovered one shot that made all the hard work so worth it. Somehow I had captured both the eagerness of the chick and the gentleness of the parent. The image I had been visualizing for so long had finally become a reality.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
  • Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
  • Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

I had been visualizing this shot for quite a while. So excited to finally capture something very close to what I had hoped for.

Technical Details

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Ken,
My heart swoons when I see this kind of image…telling the story of parent to child and what it takes to survive. It is amazing how excited and committed you were to getting the shot that spoke to you most.

The lens looks both ways so that comes through in your image…the joy, wonder and delight of it all. As you say, I feel the hunger of the chick and the clear intent of the parent to ensure survival…it all comes down to these tiny morsels. You told this story very well both with the image and in your words.

I like the crop because the focus of attention is on the interaction. The chick is responding to the parent and vice versa. Love seeing the food in the mouth and the chick with the open mouth…you don’t even need words to tell the story and that is a photographic win in my book.

As for the editing, I would touch up the chick a bit…maybe add some contrast and pump up that eye color a bit. The chick doesn’t have the same depth of coloring as the parent and would like to see that pop a bit more.

I don’t see your camera settings here and am curious what F stop you used? Especially if you were low to the water, which it looks like you are. That immediately cuts down the DOF. But I don’t see an issue with that in this image.

What comes through in this image is the interest and care you had for the chick being born and then the next step which is keeping it alive. When we watch animals repeatedly we start to notice these moments that make great shots and for that, you get an A+.

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Julie,

Thank you so much for your encouraging words. They mean a great deal to me!

I will do some touch up work to the chick. It’s funny - the adults are so stylish but the chicks are quite bland in their coloring for quite a while. I will try to ge the eye to pop a bit more.

Thanks again for your help and support! I so admire your work, Julie and it feels wonderful to know that my image resonated with you!

Ken

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Hey Ken…

glad you found this supportive. nature is amazing at the colors and yeah the chick isn’t super colorful but that is probably protective by design until they can defend themselves.

I love this shot and the story so keep going.

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Hi Ken
This the action I hope to get each spring. Love those chicks. The framing and low angle really setup the photograph. You may want to take a look at lowering the highlights some. Nice work.
Peter

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Hi Peter,

Thanks for the tip on the highlights.

Ken