Motif: Adult Common Loon with Chick

Beautiful creatures, those loons. Nice intimate shot, nice colors, even though the chick is a tad soft, it still works. You've got to respect the loyalty this mother had to her chick - you couldn't have been more than 8 feet away & she couldn't have been too pleased about you being so close, and she stayed with her chick. Admirable bird!

Hi Eleanor, I think the idea here is great, but there are a couple things here that I'd prefer to see differently. (Just my opinion).
For one thing, I'd prefer the small one to be a bit closer to the adult, but more importantly not have the adult's beak overlapping the little one's head.
The other thing is the bit of softness I see in the adult. (Tough shooting from kayak, plus hand holding.)
Lastly, I'd prefer to see all of the adult's head.
Again, only my opinion.

Thanks for your comments! I was about 20-30 feet away and she wasn't bothered at all. I had been with them for a couple of hours at this point. This is height of mosquito and black fly season too :roll:

The chick is actually dead sharp on the slide but the adult isn't. I do have the whole head but was trying to direct more attention on the chick with my crop. As I was probably shooting at f5.6 with 100 ISO I couldn't have both adult head and chick in focus. I wasn't using flash very well then.

Very nice interaction. Do wish that there wasn't a bit of overlap, especially with the focus on the chick, but love the intimacy.

For anyone questioning the comfort level of the mother loon, I've spent a lot of time with them and would note that if there was any concern the mother would be cajoling the little one away from the threat so we would only see the back of the body with perhaps the head of the parent looking back. Many loons become very tolerant of someone in a kayak that remains still and doesn't pose a threat. Eleanor, I hope you have the opportunity to go back and visit again. Typically, the more time spent over days, the more comfortable they get in your presence. (I've had both parents leave a two week old chick next to my kayak while they fish, but when an unfamiliar kayak comes by they'll lead the chick away in a flash.)

Rich

A mighty sweet scene of the interaction, Eleanor!!! Also thanks to you and Rich for all the fascinating information!!

Neat shot!

The nits have been covered Eleanor, but the catch of this sweet interaction between mother and chick outweighs the nits for me! Nice one!

Terrific. Ive never seen close interaction like this. Great job

I like this photo and think it is very intriguing and shows an unusual perspective. I think it tells a story with the little one casting a glance up at the very large parent, a kind of bug's-eye view that includes us and shows the difference in size in the formidable beaks. Slight CW rotation might help the feeling that it's tilted and I might try some selective sharpening on the face of the baby.