If there is one thing I’ve learned as a photographer it is to not pack up my gear and go home as soon as the sun sets. It’s usually about a half hour later that the magic starts to happen. Such was the case on this evening. I did not manipulate the colors here it really was this pink as the ocean reflected the afterglow in the sky. I opted for a painterly treatment to soften the rocks in keeping with the beauty of the scene.
It’s that time of year that I start cleaning out the files and looking for hidden gems that I missed in the first round of processing. This Poppy certainly falls into the hidden gem category. Not sure how I missed it before.
Post processing required only a little cropping ans saturation and some denoise treatment which is getting to be standard for me.
The lights at shore acres were beautiful in spite of the fact that it was pouring rain. I kept the camera tucked under my raincoat and persevered. I found that shooting one stop under worked well. In post I darkened it a little more and added some saturation.
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.
This pear orchard in Talent is not five minutes from my house. I was sitting on the deck of a retreat center and wishing I could come back every day for a year to photograph the changing seasons with this awesome view.
I had to work it a little to control the haziness in the mountains. Added some saturation to bring out the colors of the trees and grass. And it called out for a frame so I gave it one but saved a master without just in case I want to order a large gallery wrap some day.
Well, first of all kudos to Canon for finally getting with the program on mirrorless. Not only did they start marketing a telephoto lens in North America, they have introduced an updated version of the EOS M. I haven’t yet sprung for the new body (dubbed the EOS M3) but I jumped on the telephoto lens for my original EOS M and have been running around testing it out on autumn leaves and I am pretty happy with the results, all of which have been handheld. Imagine what I could do with the upgraded body…hmmm. First I need to invest in a telephoto lens for the Fujifilm, and then Tamron has a new medium telephoto that would look good on the 7D…. so many ways to spend my money.
Anyway I found these leaves with raindrops in Lithia Park at the Japanese Gardens which, as of Wednesday were all decked out in stunning colors. The leaves are falling fast though so get there soon.
I made a break from my usual post processing routine and did this one mostly in Lightroom. I cropped in some and even rotated a little to get more of a diagonal line on the branch. I added clarity, vibrance and a touch of saturation. Then needed some noise reduction since I was shooting at high ISO. Finally some sharpening and then I took it into Photoshop for some spot healing and a little darkening around the edges and on the right side to bring out the leaf on the left.
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.
It was back to the Klamath Basin this week and the stars of the show this month were the hawks. On the second day there it was cloudy and there were hawks roosting in every tree and on many a sign post. But this one was taken on the first day when there was more blue in the sky. I love the way he is just hanging on by a few toes. I learned a new trick for identifying a Red Tail Hawk in my bird class. Though they come in many color configurations, they always have the dark belly bad which shows up well here.
In post processing I first cropped to a vertical. It is kind of a miracle that this one came out sharp in the first place as I was shooting hand held out the passenger side from the driver’s seat so I couldn’t take advantage of my bean bag. Long story short, it would have been nearly impossible to shoot this vertically in that situation.
I brightened it up a little using levels in Photoshop. Then into Color Efex Pro for detail, saturation (brilliance/warmth) and a little highlighting on the center and darkening on the edges. It looked a little noisy to me so I took it through Topaz DeNoise then used smart sharpen in Photoshop to recover some of the sharpness that was lost in the denoise process.
I’m behind the curve on my Klamath basin blog so look for a couple of catch up posts at http://jeannehoadley.com/Klamath by the end of next week.
I went looking for fall color in Lithia Park yesterday and was a little disappointed. It seemed the trees were either past prime or not there yet. I will have to keep looking. As I recall it was November last year when I found the Japanese Garden awash with color. There were a few leaves in the little stream offering some nice color and texture. I did the usual in post, a little detail, saturation and highlighting the main subject.