Late yesterday afternoon, I headed down to the lake to observe the loon nest. There was not a lot of action.
I watched for an hour and three-quarters. In that time the individual on the nest shifted position quickly twice. I am not sure they even turned the eggs.
At about ninety minutes, I got up to stretched my legs and saw a second loon off the end of the point on the main part of the lake. This gave me hope that they might do a switch so I sat back down and waited another fifteen minutes before I decided that dinner was in order.
All told, I made about sixty exposures, mostly to keep myself entertained, not because there was great action!*
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I also experimented with video, something I rarely do. Here is a three minute clip that really gives you a feel for the ‘excitement’ of loon watching!
Try to stay awake… I did for more than an hour and a half!!!!
* WARNING – photographer talk ahead! The first few exposures yesterday afternoon were made using with a 2x teleconverter (a different one from the one I used several days ago). There is certainly some degradation in the images made with the converter, although I am not sure that it is evident in the small files I post here. I am pretty convinced that I will get better results with deeper crops (to get similar fields of view) of the files made without the converter than I will using the converter. As you would expect, since it is a 2x converter, the file sizes differ by a factor of two as well.
I’ll need to make a few prints before making a final decision.
If it weren’t for the tall grasses you’d never know it was a video!
Thank you for your time out there – someone has to do it and you appear to be well-equipped to handle the challenges (except for dinner). Perhaps pack a lunch?? I’m guessing Joan does not make deliveries. . .
Comment by Joe Kennedy — 9 June 2022 @ 7:10 AM