photoartflightBald Eagle Close-Up Flyby
Posted on December 12, 2019
I am going through my array of backup hard drives to cleanup and remove unnecessary files and make more room to add files. Also to go through and see what sessions I my not have worked on. I was surprised to find this image of a Bald Eagle from many years ago from a trip to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge Maryland. It flew out of a tree along the Wildlife Drive. I was photographing a different view when I noticed this Eagle fly out of a tree on my side. So I quickly tried to get a shot but just managed to lock on to get this image in focus. I was shooting verticals so I did not have time to change orientation before it changed direction. I have learned that photographing Eagles tail views are not my favorite images. Eagle image shot with a Canon 400mm Canon DO lens with 1.4x Teleconverter on a Canon 1D MkIII Camera body.
Dragonflies From Davidsons Mill Pond Park
Posted on July 10, 2019
Some Dragonflies from a recent walk at Davidsons Mill Pond Park. Featured image is a Blue Dasher (male). All images captured with a Canon 1D MkIV with a 300mm f/4 lens & 1.4X Teleconverter.
Another Blue dasher – Male
Eastern Pondhawk – Female
Eastern Pondhawk – Female
Eastern Pondhawk – Male
Slaty Skimmer Male
Common Whitetail Male
Widow Skimmer – Female
Eastern Amberwing – Male
Calico Pennant – Male
Widow Skimmer – Female
Widow Skimmer – Male
Panoramas From The Celery Farm Natural Area
Posted on November 26, 2016
I went to one of the Nature Areas I used to go to frequently to see if there were any subjects to photograph. Usually at this time there are a number of different types of ducks. But this day there were mostly Mallards and way out in the distance were a pair of Dudy Ducks. Being bored, I thought, try some panoramas. So I tried shooting a few series of panoramas to try out assembling them in the new CC Photoshops I downloaded (CC2015.5 & CC2017). I have been a user of Photoshop since version 2 in 1991 and my CS6 version was getting outdated. I resented paying a monthly subscription for the CC version after paying Adobe for all the boxed suites and multiple versions my studio used, but finally had to subcome after all these years. All were images photographed with a 400mm f/4 DO lens on a Canon 1D MkIV. The featured 4 image pano was of 4 Mallards swimming by where I was setup. I had to shoot quickly as they were moving along. After some practice you can make panoramas of moving subjects, just needing a few Quick Masks to help in the blending.
Then I tried a 14 shot pano across the lake. The CC Photoshop versions, I feel did not work as well as the CS6 version. But it was tougher with the wind making different ripples in the water. The CC versions seem to distort & bow sections more than the CS6 Photoshop does. This I shot with more overlapping than usually I do. I could have worked on it more, but it was just a test and not all that interesting anyway. And I did get a gull in it off to the left that flew in as I was shooting the pano series.
My last series was a tree on the left side of the lake that had lost all its leaves by now, but there were leaves on trees higher and behind it. This one was 12 overlapping images and worked out much better. I was curious to see how much detail I would get in the branches and leaves. This worked well in the CC Photoshops. After the pano was assembled, I tried using the Macphun Luminar photo editor to add some detail. I usually use the Nik suite of Filters, but so far my CC Photoshop versions do not play well with them. So when there are no photo subjects, it is a good time to try different techniques and ways to photograph your subjects. You never know when it will come in handy and get you the image when you might not have gotten it otherwise.
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