We have loon chicks - finally

[Randy Stout]

I follow several loon nests in Northern Michigan each spring.  Last year the chicks hatched ~ June 2, but the ice-out was very late this spring and the hatching was the latest I have seen in the past 10 years.
This pair of chicks is one day old at this point.  Still stay really close to the parents, and are vulnerable to snapping turtles, eagles, gulls etc.  The parents do a great job protecting them, but it is not uncommon to lose at least one of the chicks, often fairly early.

D500  500mm F/4  1/1000s, ISO 800 f/7.1
Taken from my kayak using a pedestal to support the camera and a right angle finder.

Advice and comments appreciated.   Full frame except for slight crop from top, and a bit of leveling.

Cheers

Randy

[Jacques Pochoy]

Fantastic family portrait... :-)

[Mongo]

congratulations on being a dad again. Crackingly great shot Randy. great family portrait with eye contact/interaction.

It is difficult to add anything to this already excellent image. On Mongo's monitor it looks ever so slightly lacking in contract. Did a very quick few step edit and it seems to have addressed the contrast. Then again, it might be just in the different calibration of our respective monitors. In any event, it does nothing to take away from the quality of this great shot.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks guys.  I appreciate your input.

Mongo:  I agree about the contrast.  It does need a bit more.  The repost is a slight change, but I think a step in the right direction.  The light was soft, so the intrinsic contrast was modest, and it is so easy to blow out the white breast and wing feathers, that I tend to go easy on the contrast.

Cheers

Randy

[FredCrowBear]

Fantastic shot.  Those chicks are very young indeed!

[Ann]

Absolutely enchanting!

( I prefer your original rendering!)

[Mongo]

Randy, your edit is almost identical to Mongo's. As Ann has correctly reminded us, it can often be a matter of taste.

Just to generally address the comments you made re being careful not to blow out whites in post processing. This is a very common problem for all of us. To minimise this or at least, not exacerbate it, Mongo will often us the selection tool or the lasso (with appropriately set feathering) to select the white area and then either work on it in isolation from the rest of the image OR select "inverse"  and work on the rest of the image in isolation of the white area. Either way, you get to do more of what you want to do the parts of the image without affecting the whites. This could also be done using layers. Mongo never works on an image as a whole image but rather as a collection of differently lit areas to be addressed separately in such a way that they  work as a whole. Well, at least, that is the theory.

[Bent Hjarbo]

Absolutely enchanting!

( I prefer your original rendering!)

+1

[armando_m]

Beautiful scene 

[Akira]

I cannot discern the difference on my monitor.   

Pretty image, nevertheless!

[armando_m]

I cannot discern the difference on my monitor.   

Pretty image, nevertheless!

neither can I

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone for the comments.  The difference between the two images was subtle.  I have a 5K monitor, and could see it, but the second repost was brightened up a bit. Luminosity mask on the breast and white on wings to prevent blowing those areas.

Cheers

Randy

[Hugh_3170]

What a lovely image of this avian family.  I like this latest version.

[jgould2]

Hi Randy.

Beautiful shot. You  must be loving your D500 as much as I do.

JIM