Canon 7D, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS with 1.4X Extender @ 260mm, f/7.1, 1/800 sec, ISO 400
The Roseate Spoonbill was one of the most colorful and interesting birds that we saw at the Florida Bird Festival. Most of the time the Spoonbills were quite far away. This one flew right over the top of me. I got so excited that the most of my frames just caught a part of the bird. I was lucky, out of dozen shots I took, one was centered within the frame.
Canon 7D, EF70-200 f/2.8L IS with 1.4x extender @ 250mm, f/9, 1/1000 sec, ISO 800
Over the past several years some of my long time friends have said they wanted to go down to the Florida Bird Festival in Titusville. We have been talking about this for over 5 years. This year was the year! Three of us and our very understanding wives took the trip. My other two photographer friends have done much more wildlife photography than me. This was my first trip and I was ready to learn new techniques. I quickly found out that my methodical engineering approach to working a subject was not working. I had to be quick, anticipate, and have a lot of patience. I took two half-day workshops and over 9000 images during three days of shooting. Out of these 9000 images, I felt that only about 10-12 were good. I also learned that taking so many pictures take an enormous amount of computer time just to sort out the keepers.
Wildlife photography may not be my niche. However learning new things always excites me and gets me out of a rut that I may be in. It also encourages me out to apply new ideas to the work that I most enjoy. I thank Milton Heiberg and Robert Amoruso for their insightful instruction.
Canon 5D MKIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 67mm, f/8.0, 1/50 sec, ISO 200
Here I was just trying to capture the repeating circles of the wheel tires and the post in addition to the repeating lines of the logs. Again I was thinking of B&W when I took this image. The mixture of green grass and brown leaves cluttered the color image and distracted from the wheels.
Canon 5D MKIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 62mm, f/11, 1/15 sec, ISO 400
When I saw this fireplace, my mind went immediately to black and white. The shadows, bright highlights, and shapes captured my attention. As I view simple subjects, I am slowly becoming able to pick out the shapes and tones that make the subject interesting, at least to me.
I was looking for colorful streamers or confetti to wish in a Happy New Year! Alas, all I could find was a pile of old steel bands from old barrels. Add a little Topaz magic and voila, instant streamers.
The following is the original for reference.
Canon 7D, EF24-70mm f2.8L @ 70mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO 400
Looking back over some photographs taken this past summer on San Juan Island, WA, this image of a lone tree hanging on to a ledge above the water caught my eye. I recall taking this image and trying to get the ripples and the bright reflection of the sun to frame the tree. I spent about one half hour just moving around and trying different exposures and shutter speeds to get what I was looking for. When I reviewed the photographs last summer, I was disappointed with the color image. Today I worked with the subtle shadows and reflections to come up with this B&W version.
Canon 5D MKIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 24mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 400
My friend and mentor, John Barclay, has been posting a couple of images that he post processed by converting to Black and White, inverting, then adding a texture overlay. This is my first attempt at the process. What fun!
This image was taken on an overcast day at Peace Valley Park, Bucks County, PA. The trees were just silhouettes against the grey sky. It was a very boring image.
Canon 5D MKIII, EF24-70 f/2.8L @ 68mm, f/8.0,1/400 sec, ISO 400
Well, we tried for a White Christmas. The 60-70 degree temperatures we’ve had during the last several days melted all the snow. The temperatures are dropping again and we will have a clear and brisk Christmas Day. No snow, but is still should be a beautiful day. We are thankful for each and every day. Each one is beautiful in its own way.
Have a very Merry Christmas!!!!!
Trees and woodland areas always capture my interest. The horizontal fallen trees in the foreground and the vertical living trees in the background caught my eye. When was re-looking at this image taken 11 months ago, the same lines caught my eye. However, the color tonality was very subdued and boring. I felt in a “painterly” mood, so Topaz Simplify came to the rescue. I used Topaz to give it that “artistic” look as well as bring out a little color and enhance the edges of the trees and leaves.
Here is the straight out of the camera image. Today I prefer the “painterly” view.
Canon 5D MKIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 70mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 400
Looking up I saw the white bark of this old Sycamore standing out above the other trees against the bright blue mid-day sky. Great opportunity for a B&W conversion! On this day there was an image waiting at every turn. Next time I will take my telephoto lens to isolate some of the interesting details.