Gone Gone Gone
Friends, some beautiful Sandhill Cranes flying on a late fall day, warming up their wings for the long trip south. I am still in mourning over their leaving, but in three short months they will return, yahoooo!!, can’t wait but meanwhile back at the bird feeders, we are seeing a few finches and many many chickadees. Maybe plan a trip to Sax Zim bog to track wolves and look for Hawk Owls and if very lucky, maybe spot a Snowy Owl. so back to my Christmas wrapping, til Tomorrow MJ
Mighty Merlin
Friends, I am editing more images for my book on Hawk Ridge, i needed a different image for a Merlin, so here he is, all edited and ready to print. He has a sassy nature and will take on bigger birds than the Kestrel. I have to fly this morning, so til Tomorrow MJ
Monday morning sale
Friends, this morning please tolerate a short commercial message, and just in time for christmas delivery. This blurb book of my summer in Crex Meadows is available in softcover, hardcover and ipad editions for your enjoyment. Maybe you know someone who cannot get outdoors and photograph the loons, eagles and some wildflowers, then this is the perfect gift to give them. The most economical is the ipad edition, for only $4.00 you can enjoy these blogs and images on your ipad at anytime, so i rest my case. The link to this book is: Thanks for listening, til Tomorrow
Winter Birdie
Friends, the appearance of this tiny bird means that winter has arrived, three inches of snow on the ground this morning and more on the way, a steady stream of snowflakes to cover all our pine trees in the yard, makes a beautiful sight, but wet conditions for birding. This birdie is a Redpoll and gets his name from his jaunty cap of red. His food is hanging all around him and he was very busy chomping on these catkins. I will try to get outside today but it is a struggle to keep the camera dry. Oh well work on my book today. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Changing Seasons
Friends, As the seasons change, more birds become visible After the leaves are gone, these Ruffed Grouse blend into their brown surroundings but are more visible cause they seek out the fall berries on leafless bushes. On my way home from Crex I saw some Ruffed Grouse foraging along the roadside. When i pulled over and jumped out of my vehicle, they quickly hid in the brush. I followed for awhile and this one jumped up in a bush and was busy plucking some small berries for his supper. I got within ten feet of him and shot this image. When he realized that i might be a threat, his feathered crest raised and that is why he is called a Ruffed Grouse. This was a difficult image to obtain because of all the little brushy branches that insisted on getting into the picture, blocking various parts of the bird. I worked at it for about 30 minutes, then my hands were too cold to go on. til Tomorrow MJ
Layered Flight
Friends, back to our winter weather now, and while visiting Crex this week, I photographed this rough-legged hawk in flight. I panned him as he flew by and combined the images (6) into one image to show the various wing positions. These images were over-exposed to white-out the background of each then layered on top of a white background and the blending mode of each image layer was set to darken so only the dark pixels are added from each image. Then each bird is moved to a suitable location. The dark wing patch present on the underwing is diagnostic of the roughie and the gray sky is diagnostic of our weather. Hope you enjoy. til Tomorrow MJ
Rough Waters
Friends, these Trumpeter Swans are swimming in the rough waters of Phantom Lake in Crex. I used the detail extractor in Color Efex Pro 4 to bring out the white feather details. These birds have now gone south, but i still have the images in my head and in my hard drive to keep me warm in this cold weather. I went to Crex yesterday and found a few hawks, eagles and redpolls to keep my camera happy.Stay tuned for these birds in the near future. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Reflections
Friends, another entry to this weeks theme: reflections, i needed a warmer image this morning to stimulate my morning, coffee is not doing the trick this morning, still really groggy, blame it on the weather. This image was taken this summer, but the background as is was too busy, so i put the swans on their own layer and blurred the background and gave it a slightly foggy feel. These trumpeter swans are now floating in a non-distracting background with a lovely foggy reflection. Sometimes the differences between sharpness can also be used to make the subject more prominent. til Tomorrow MJ
A sharper image
Friends, this sandhill crane is similarly processed like the top image in yesterday’s post. First a short lesson about shooting jpegs vs raw captures. A jpeg image is processed and sharpened in the camera, while a raw is basically unprocessed by camera software. Since a computer (and photoshop) have a lot more tools to process an image optimally, it makes sense to me, to use the camera for capturing an image (raw) and a computer for processing the image. So this image was captured in raw, converted to psd format and exposure adjusted in photoshop then finished with Color Effex Pro 4- detail extractor. I think that the sharpness achieved in this software program is superior to those results that i can get in Photoshop or in the raw converter in Photoshop. I think, and this is my opinion, capturing a digital image and processing that image are both necessary steps to great photography. Post-processing does not diminishes the skill of the photographer but is necessary to impart the mood of the photo. Just as Ansel Adams developed a print from a camera-captured negative, so we need to post-process from a digitally captured image. What do you think? til Tomorrow MJ
Is there a difference?
Friends,are there any differences in these two images that can be detected on wordpress? I have run out of processed bird images and in culling through my entire library of images shot at Hawk Ridge, I found a few that i wanted to include in my book. Did I mention that I was writing a book about Hawk Ridge and my experiences up there this fall? Well, I am and I am going to take you along for the ride. Book preparation first needs some first class images. I was not entirely satisfied with this image as it was processed in the raw converter in Photoshop. One of the images is the raw, the other of this Broadwing Hawk is processed further in Photoshop. Can you tell which one? til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 