At Rollins Pond in Adirondack Park, northern New York State, in August. Fortunately, camping and kayaking were viable activities during this pandemic Summer. I had to smile as the juvenile loon was having trouble keeping up with mom while I observed from my kayak. I’d like to get up here earlier some year when the youngsters ride on their mother’s back. I think the small reddish area in the water beneath the chick may be a tag on mom’s leg. Sony RX10M4, lens was at 371mm, hand held, AWB, 1/640 s, f/4, ISO 640. All comments and suggestions are welcome and thanks for viewing.
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Hi, Jim. A terrific moment well captured. Looks like you had some harsh light reflecting on the waves which you handled pretty well. Nice details.
Best,
Terry
Very good detail in the mother loon, Jim. I like the action, but a bit more depth of field might have been nice to get the youngster a bit sharper. You don’t mention a crop, so I think zooming out a bit might have given you a bit nicer image as the birds feel pretty crowded here. Zooming out would also give you more depth of field.
One of my wishes, to see Loons with chicks someday. It would involves traveling though, as we don’t have them over here. Love the chick trailing behind, but can appreciate your wish for having one on the parents back. Nicely done from a kayak. Cheers, Hans
I think this image had all kinds of potential. A wonderful moment in time. The lighting was pretty tough and there isn’t much that could have been done with that other than a polarizing filter to help tame the reflections, but that probably was not a viable option with the time constraints of wildlife photography. The biggest issue is the tight crop. The loon has no place to go in the composition. Getting full frame tight is not always the best option. I wrote an article about that very topic. I’ve done a little work in PS to show a different version with canvas added to show an option that I think improves the image. Certainly more than one right answer with this concept. I also toned down the reflections and did some selective burning on the parent and a little dodge on the chick. Also brought down the luminance of the green water. See what you think of this kind of direction for the image.
I agree with Keith and Dennis about the crop. But you did catch some fascinating behavior.
Hi @Keith_Bauer, thanks for the effort you put into this; I can certainly see some improvements in several areas of the image. The chick, especially, looks much better and I see the need for more space too. What did you mean by “canvas”?
Canvas is a term that means adding more room around the existing image. Usually using content from the existing image rather than some artificial border. I did this in Photoshop using the Crop Tool and having the “content-aware” option checked in the options bar to instruct Photoshop to extend the canvas to the best of it’s abilities.
Hi Jim
That a pretty cool shot of the mother Loon and her juvenile trying to keep up. I had to lookup your Sony RX10M4 and it looks like the ideal camera for kayaking. Remember 90% of what people do in kayaks, boats and walking in the woods is to have fun photographing every thing Mother Nature gives us.
Peter
Thanks @peter, I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Love my RX10; like to travel light, hiking or kayaking, and it has a pretty good lens with a lot of reach so its a great camera to bring along everywhere.