It's My Nature » winter

For the Birds

Ed — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 02:11:00 +0000

My wife and I stopped by one of our favorite local city parks this morning in search of some birds. We know this park well and know that it is not at all unusual for Chickadees, Titmice, and Nuthatches to come eat out of your hand and other birds (White Throat Sparrows, Cardinals and Jays) and bird wannabes (Squirrels) to come eat whatever seed is left on the ground or in case of conditions like we have now, on top of the snow.

The Chickadees, in particular, did not disappoint today. They were coming to my wife even before she was able to get the seeds out of the bag. I stood back and waiting for opportunities to get some decent images. They are fast little buggers, that much is for certain.

This first image is one that I have ended up naming “Gratitude”. There is just something about the look of the Chickadee that makes me think he is looking at my wife and saying “thank you” for bringing some seeds.

The second image immediately followed the first. Again I can’t help but think that after thanking my wife for bringing the seeds, he said “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take this one.”

A little further on in our walk, we found the White Throat Sparrows waiting for some seed to be placed on the snow so they could could also eat. Here is an image of the “Patient White Throat“.

All images were made with my Canon 50D and 300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld.

Fire and Ice

Ed — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:27:59 +0000

(1/2 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 43mm)

Image was made yesterday morning at Lake Galena in Peace Valley Park (Bucks County, PA) in the minutes before sunrise. The lake obviously was frozen.

Used my Canon 50D; 24-70 2.8L w/ a 3-stop graduated neutral density filter; all tripod mounted.

When I got home and looked at the images on the big screen, I felt they were cold, desolate, lonely and boring. I wanted cold, desolate, lonely and less boring. So I went to work. I started with cropping out some of the excess ice in the foreground in order to provide a better balance. Then I ran the image through Nik Dfine to remove any noise that may have presented itself. Moving on to Viveza 2.0, I opened up the blacks in the trees on the left and right and reduced brightness while adding saturation to the ice and sky accentuating the blues and reds. I also reduced structure a bit in order to start smoothing the ice blemishes. After contenting myself that I did what I wanted to do in Viveza, I moved on to Color Efex Pro. I said that I had used a 3-stop GND while shooting but felt it could use a bit more so I used the Graduated ND filter in Nik and finished it off by softening and smoothing the image using a filter designed, I think, for portraits called Glamour Glow. Finally I used Sharpener Pro to, believe it or not, reduce the structure and focus a bit more in order to reduce the impact of the ice blemishes even more – much like a portrait photographer would do to remove skin blemishes.

“Fire and Ice” is the result. Remember… cold, desolate, lonely. Let me know what you think!

Just about when you are ready to give up…

Ed — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:39:37 +0000

Cold (17F), blustery (20-30 mph winds) but we decided to go out this morning anyway. Admittedly most of the morning was spent in the car driving from site to site looking for birds for my wife (we found the albino hawk she wanted to see) and anything for me to shoot. After two hours, I hadn’t even taken my camera out of the bag when I mentioned to my wife that I hadn’t seen a single thing that I had wanted to shoot. Not a minute later, we rounded a curve in a local county park and there it was… a most interesting (at least to me) stand of trees, cypress maybe, I don’t know for sure.

I pulled over, got out the camera and made several images. This is one that I like.

Image made with Canon 50D and 24-70 2.8L lens, handheld

0.8 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 55mm

Image processed in Nik Dfine, Viveza 2, and Color Efex (Polarization and Lighten Center filters).

Winter Rental

Ed — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:13:52 +0000

(1/1600 sec @ f/5.6; ISO 100; -1/3 EV; Sunny WB)

Another bit of experimenting with the Lensbaby. Just wait until I get the Fisheye optic which should arrive today or tomorrow!

This is another image made after the weekend snowfall but later in the morning than the previous two blog postings (which were made at sunrise). I had moved on to a small community park located higher up on a small ridge. It was a different world up there. Instead of 2-3″ of wet, packed snow, there was about 6″ of much nicer white stuff. When I saw the bird house tucked in among the snow-covered evergreens, I knew I had my composition.

Like I said, I was just experimenting with the Lensbaby. Let me say this – Making blurred images ON PURPOSE WITH THE BLUR EXACTLY WHERE YOU WANT IT is not as easy as it might seem. There is a real learning curve to using the Lensbaby creatively and effectively!

This image was made with the Canon 30D and Lensbaby Composer w/ the f/5.6 aperture ring; handheld.

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Morning (Version 2.0)

Ed — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:17:30 +0000

Most of you have seen my pan/blur version of this composition, immediately below on this blog. I did work this comp with several different techniques in mind. This particular version, Version 2.0, utilizes the digital sandwich (or Orton, if you prefer) technique. I took a single image, duplicated it in Photoshop, blurred the duplicate image and then sandwiched it and the original to create the above image. (It is a technique that I learned from Tony Sweet. Thanks, Tony.) A different look. A different feel. A different mood. I like it! But I must admit, I like the blur more. But that’s just me. This is your opportunity to compare.

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Morning…

Ed — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:40:19 +0000

right around sunrise.

So we had a change of plans. We were going into NYC today. Nothing special. Walk around a bit. Visit B&H. Pick up a couple of small things. Window shop. Visit Rockefeller Center. Have lunch. Stuff like that. Barb wasn’t overly excited about going. Weather tanked. And I could get the Fisheye optic for the Lensbaby which I was planning to pick up at B&H and the Soft Focus optic (which I was going to wait on) direct from Lensbaby and still end up spending over $100 less than I would have spent on the NYC trip. More than you wanted to know but it explains why I am here and not pounding the pavements of the Big Apple.

Since I was here, I went out just before sunrise and was looking for “snow on trees in early light” opportunities. I came up with a few right along my local creek. I burred some, sandwiched or Ortoned some, Topazed some, and some I left be just as out of the camera. But this just may be my favorite from this morning. And of course, it just happens to be a blur.

Image made with my Canon 50D and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, handheld.

0.6 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; Sunny WB; FL 65mm.