Bill Silliker, Jr.

The Camera Hunter

The loon makes a special subject for the camera hunter during summer. Common loons – the species of loon we enjoy on Maine lakes and ponds - also present an uncommon challenge: how to capture the two extremes of light reflectance, pure white and nearly pure black, with a single exposure setting. Even worse, the dark red eye on the common loon doesn't record well on film unless light is hitting it pretty straight on. And in wildlife photography, if you've missed the eye, you've missed it all. 

Most of what we record on film is reflected light. The brightness of that reflected light varies due to both the texture of the objects that we photograph and the wavelength, or the color, of the light reflected by those objects.

You may recall from high school science classes that the entire world is colorless until it reflects or transmits light. Remember how a prism divides "white" light into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet? Do you also recall that white is the presence of all colors, while black is actually the absence of color?

White appearing objects reflect all colors well, and therefore, lots of light. Black appearing objects reflect little, if any light. Anyone who doubts that need only turn their camera's exposure meter on an a white light reflecting object and then on an a black light reflecting object in the same light. Your meter will detect a wide range of reflectance.

How much reflectance can a film record? That depends on its latitude. Latitude is the word used to describe how wide a range of brightness a film can record. Color negative films, the ones we get snapshots on in print form, have a wide range of latitude. Black and white films also have a good deal of latitude. Because of that, both types of film are forgiving of mistakes in setting the exposure when you take a photograph. Your photo lab can pull a reasonable print out of either color negative film or black and white film even if you erred by as much as two exposure settings - usually called "stops" - too bright or too dark from what would be a perfect setting.

Color slide film has much less latitude. In fact, slide film cannot properly record more than a "stop" off of a perfect exposure setting. Miss by more than that and the colors are either all washed out looking: overexposure, or too dark to show any detail: underexposure. And yet, most professional nature photographers shoot slide film, because that's what the magazines use to make color separations to publish from.

Expose For Detail

The answer is to set your exposure for the detail most important. With a common loon, that's the white. If you expose for the black, which doesn't show much detail to begin with, you'll "blow out" the white so badly it can actually look blurred.

I usually set my camera for loon photography by first setting it as if to photograph an object of average reflectance by metering off of green grass or preferably, a gray card purchased from a camera store. All camera meters are calibrated to record the light reflecting from a gray card as an average exposure.

I then adjust the exposure setting to allow one half to two thirds of a "stop" less light to reach the film, depending on how bright is the light hitting the loon. While this dramatically underexposes the black, and makes the water around a loon darker than you might normally expose for, it keeps the white from blowing out.

And how do you deal with capturing the eye, you're wondering, if you set exposure for less than average?

We already said that the red eye doesn't reflect well unless light is hitting it pretty straight on. Think about when that happens. Light early in the morning or late in the afternoon will be at a low angle, as the sun rises and sets. Light at such a low angle hits a loon right smack in the eye. That light is also softer, not nearly as brightly reflective, as during the times of day when the sun is higher in the sky. That's a plus for loon photography because the softer light reflects more photogenically off of the white.

You also need to know something about getting close enough to a loon without harassing it. The first thing to do is to study from afar how a loon is behaving, especially how it reacts to people in boats or canoes on the water near it. Some loons are more habituated to seeing folks in a watercraft and don't get too alarmed unless you charge up on them in a direct approach.

Learn the signs that a loon makes when alarmed. If a loon displays, or spreads its wings, or if it calls out as you approach, it is probably disturbed by your actions. Back off.

Always watch your subject for signs that it is uneasy from your approach. Don't chase a loon around if it obviously doesn't want you near. Find a loon that is more tolerant.

And never interfere with or approach too closely to a nesting loon.

One of my favorite techniques is to start out at a comfortable distance for the loon. Then I simply float in the wind or current towards the loon. After a while, the loon may actually approach you. As with many wildlife targets, if you let the subject set a distance that it is comfortable with, you just might be surprised.

Catch yours in the good light.

Bill Silliker, Jr. teaches wildlife & nature photography for L.L. Bean's Outdoor Discovery Schools and has done the photography for 5 books, several of which he also wrote. He is editor of the website www.wildlifewatcher.com as well as for his own website at www.camerahunter.com

© Copyright 2000 Bill Silliker, Jr. all rights reserved.