Category: Nature

Spring Impression

Spring_Impression

The weather was grey and I was a little depressed the other day so I took the Fuji down to the park and just started playing. Intentionally moving the camera, zooming during exposure, etc. Then I went home and started playing on the computer. This was the result.

What I did here was to take a straight shot of a blossoming tree and overlay it with one that I had zoomed during exposure. I didn’t write down all the steps so I don’t know that I could recreate if for you but there was some blending of the two images, some detail and saturation added in color efex pro. And a treatment in Topaz Impression.

What I love about this image is that it just screams spring is busting out.  Probably not for everyone but it passes the “Would I hang it on my wall?” test.

Bald Eagle

Bald_Eagle2

I guess I saw more bald eagles this week than in the rest of my life put together. It turns out that the largest concentration of bald eagles in the lower 48 can be found practically in my backyard, less than two hours from home, in the Klamath Basin. Eagles come from the north for the winter so it’s best to catch them between November and February but a few stick around all year.

This guy was found at Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. I took the picture from my car on the auto tour route using a 100-400mm zoom handheld.  Not the ideal situation but the eye is tack sharp so hey, if it works, it works.  I did crop some to get in a little closer. I added a little detail and saturation in post and a slight highlight around the bird.

Fern

Fern2

Well, the trip to the San Diego zoo has to be considered a complete bust. It seemed like all the animals were asleep or inaccessible for one reason or another and then, of course, I ran out of steam way before I had gotten my $48.00 worth. But then this week after sitting at the North American Nature Photography Association Summit listening to photographer after photographer talking about taking weeks or months to get one good shot in the wild I didn’t feel quite so bad.  At least I can show you some photos of sleeping animals.

But in the end I actually liked my plant photos better and this shot of a fern was my favorite. A little exposure adjustment, some detail and saturation and voila art. One thing I have enjoyed about the conference is also hearing photographer after photographer assure me that it is ok to use the software tools to create art.  So here you go.

Ferns

Ferns

Winter is definitely getting to me.  I have been wracking my brain for something to shoot in between rainstorms.  I finally thought I might try doing some black and white photography at the Japanese Gardens. But when I saw these ferns I knew they needed to be in color.

Post processing was in Color Efex pro with detail and brilliance/warmth added. I am not crazy about the branch in the upper right hand corner but I could not crop it without losing the best frond on the left.  I tried cropping it to 8×10 format but that took out the point of the bottom frond so I decided I would rather live with the branch.  It might be argued that it provides a stopping point for your eye to move back into the image.