On tour with the Road Scholars this week we ended day one with a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. I was excited with how well this shark silhouette turned out. Had to do a lot of noise reduction,exposure adjustment and sharpening but overall I think it turned out quite well.
I had to make it a quick trip to the Klamath Basin ahead of an incoming cold front and before Holiday and other obligations sucked up my time. But I can at least report that indeed the Eagles are beginning to return.
Post processing was a little difficult with this as the bird was backlit and in shade but I got a lot of help from Color Efex pro in bringing out the detail in the feathers. Some burning and dodging on the head also helped.
I didn’t have a chance to get out and shoot this week and it is probably just as well since I am way behind in post processing of my Klamath Basin images. This one is from August. I have hundreds of shots of pelicans out swimming in the lake but when I zoomed in to check sharpness on this one I thought it would make a great intimate portrait if I cropped in a lot. Love that diagonal line of the pelican’s beak.
In post I did the usual. Detail, saturation, darken edges, a little noise reduction and some final sharpening. On this one I also added a border for a little more visual interest.
Well, I’ve been busy as a bird dog this week. I just started teaching Introduction to Digital Photography for seniors through a life long learning program. Hence, no new captures but still some nice images from the coast. I used the longest lens I own for this one and still cropped some. But I like the variety of poses and expressions and some rocks and water for environment.
In post I did not have to do much. A little detail and saturation and darkened the corners ever so slightly.
I hadn’t been out of the car five minutes before this Northern Flicker landed on a branch near me. I never even knew flicker’s existed before I got into bird photography but lately I have been seeing them everywhere.
In post processing I did a lot of work to tone down the shadow on the side and bottom of the bird though I am still not completely happy with it. I also edited out all the branches in the lower right hand corner to lose distractions and create some negative space. The the usual treatment in Color Efex Pro: a little detail, a little saturation and some darkening of the edges to highlight the bird.
I spent three days in the Klamath Basin this week and thought I might come home virtually empty handed, at least in terms of new and interesting birds. In the last hour of the last day I decided to stop at the wildlife viewing kiosk at Tule Lake and there I found one American Avocet, two Black Necked Stilts, three long billed dowitchers, and three killdeer. Proving once again that persistence pays off.
In post processing I did most of the usual tricks, ie detail, saturation and darkening the edges. I also did alot of spot healing and content aware fill in the upper part of the water to remove distracting junk from the water. Not sure I went far enough with that. I’m also wondering if this should have been a vertical. Always room for improvement.
I can’t say this is the best image I shot this week but it did seem most appropriate to the holiday. This is the first eagle I’ve seen at Tule Lake since early March. So I guess it is true that there are some year round residents.
In post processing I added some detail and saturation and a spotlight on the bird. I have just started using Topaz deNoise which gives a nice smooth look but also requires some extra sharpening in Photoshop at the end.
I was privileged to spend a couple of hours watching this burrowing owl family last Sunday evening near Burns, Oregon. The result was over 300 images which after editing for composition and sharpness left about 150 keepers. So, it was hard to choose but I liked this shot for having 5 of the six young owls in it with no weeds in their faces and all with a little different expression and posture.
In post processing I cropped a little to emphasize the owls and added a little sharpening, a little saturation and a little warmth. I then darkened the corners and borders and lightened the birds faces ever so slightly.
I’m running late with last week’s image of the week as I have been very busy with a three day workshop on bird photography in Harney County. I caught this Western Meadowlark on Saturday but stay tuned for next week because there were some awesome birds on Sunday and Monday.
In post processing I cropped a little for composition, added a little detail and saturation and just a slight highlight on the bird to bring him out.
Truth be told I did not shoot one photograph this week. I had to make getting out from under the chaos of moving a priority. Sadly, the job is still not done but significant progress has been made. I reached back to my last trip to North Mountain Park for this Mallard portrait. Sometimes we overlook the beauty of a bird that seems commonplace. I’ve seen the iridescent feathers on a Mallard’s head go purple in the right light.
I did my standard post processing, detail, saturation, highlighting the subject. Then added some sharpening. I’m looking forward to a trip to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Southeast Oregon next week so hope to have lots more birds to share soon.