Category Archives: Uncategorized
Tetraptych-watching snow melt
Friends, my father was easily bored after a winter of under-snowing, in other words, a winter that did not produce enough snow to ski, but too much snow to go play golf. This winter was such a winter. I remember him looking out the picture window and proclaiming that the season was “as exciting as watching snow melt”. So i made this time-lapse sequence of snow melting on an oak leaf. Since i do not want to upgrade my account to show you the video, I made this panel of four images (tetraptych) to show you the exciting winter up north. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Ready
Friends, this young bison bull is ready for the winter winds to blow across the prairie and encase the land in ice and snow. Even though the wet snow of this first winter storm has melted all over him, he is still ready to take on all adversaries, even the larger bulls. His horns have not yet been torn up in battle and with his black head he looks rather menacing. I did not test his courage and after taking his picture, retreated to my vehicle. til Tomorrow MJ
Another close-up-Boreal Chickadee
Friends, another closeup of a chickadee, this is a boreal chickadee, a small bird that occupies the tamarack and black spruce bogs of northern Minnesota. His coloring is very different from our more common black-capped chickadee, but I love all the feathered textures in this image. They love suet and will come to an undisturbed feeder like those in the Sax-Zim bog. So how do you like this tiny bird?, til Tomorrow MJ
Grouse in the Grasses
Friends, today we return to color and the wild birds. This is a grouse from the badlands of North Dakota, taken in late summer or early fall. Not sure if it is a sharp-tail grouse or a sage grouse( or other?). I am not a very good birder so I don’t know all the differences between the species. But these birds come to the road in the early morning light to get their gravel and pose for pictures :). I didn’t crop this image closely because i wanted to show the relationship between the grouse and her grassy environment. What do you think? til Tomorrow MJ
Badlands in Black and White
Friends, i know this looks like a moonscape, but it is a black and white image of the badlands of North Dakota, one of our favorite places to visit. I shot this photo at an aperture of f/16 to get the great depth of field, but every time i looked at it, it looked like a jumbled mess. no clear subject was evident. Further analysis revealed that the foreground was really the subject. So i made two layers, blurring the bottom layer and painting away the top sharper layer to reveal the blurred layer underneath. I had used this technique earlier to produce bokeh in other images. I also converted to black and white to further simplify the image and emphasize the rugged topography of the eroded landscape. What do you think? did I succeed ? til Tomorrow MJ
Painted red
Friends, last year at this time, we traveled to the US Southwest, visiting Sedona, Flagstaff, and points on the way there and back. I loved the painted desert adjoining the Petrified Forest National Park (or Monument), all the reds at sunset and a small snowstorm the day before we got there to paint the desert with a little white. This image didn’t need much photoshop help, it was lovely at sunset and we enjoyed the great color. Filled up the red color meter that is so lacking this time of the year in the northwoods. til Tomorrow MJ
I’m Ready for my Closeup
Friends, In an old movie, Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson told the Director Cecil DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup. Lately i have been experimenting with converting color digital to black and white, and this black-capped chickadee begged for attention. I love how the textures appear more prominent when the image is in black and white. The big challenge is to preserve the black details as well as the white details. These birds are extremely friendly, waiting for their seed ration every morning and practically landing on me while i fill their feeder. No patience needed to photograph these guys so they make good practice subjects. til Tomorrow MJ
Pine Siskin II
Friends, this pine siskin shows the yellow wing edges typical of these tiny birds. He is perched on a bird feeder hence the turquoise metal and has a sunflower seed in his bill. I sit and wait at the feeder, patience is the key to small bird images. til Tomorrow MJ
Birds in Flight
Friends, today I will address photographing moving targets. Recently, we journeyed again to the Bog in Northern Minnesota, a haven for winter birds. The photo technique is really quite simple, but lots of practice is needed to stay sharp. First pick an aperture that will give you a very fast shutter speed. In this case the telephoto lens (400mm) is open all the way (f5.6) and the shutter speed on a lovely clear winter day was 1/500 with ISO of 100. I focused on the bird (female pine grosbeak) at the top of the tree and waited until it tipped ready to fly. Then leaned on the shutter until the bird was gone. See simple 🙂 til Tomorrow MJ
Right brain activity
Friends, trying a little right brain activity to satisfy my cravings, sometimes straight photographs don’t float my boat. This image started as a photograph from my iphone, to test the resolution level. At 8 mpx, the resolution was very good. When i put a few photoshop layers over the top and messed with the opacity of each layer, I changed the mood of this old barn to more closely match my perceptions. While the old red barn is falling apart and leaning to the west, the rusty cupola still shows pride of ownership in the punched metal artwork of years ago. The watercolor effect served to emphasize the shadowy patches and the brown grasses in the front, adding to the abandoned mystique. til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 