Posts in Category: portrait
4/28/2009
Great Egret Preening in the Light
St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery again. Great Egret. I really like the translucence of the wing feathers.
Sony DSC N1 through the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 85FL spotting scope. 1/640 @ ISO 64. Aperture determined by scope, in the F12 range. Programed Auto with -1 EV exposure compensation.
Minimal Lr processing. A touch of Recovery, added Clarity and Vibrance, and the Landscape sharpen preset.
From St. Augustine FL.
And for the video fans, the same bird.
4/25/2009
Snowy Egret on the Prowl
Another from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. (See yesterday’s entry for a more complete description of the Farm.) At any given moment at this time of year you have birds that have already nested with chicks in the nest, birds on eggs, and birds still on the make. This Snowy Egret was still looking.
White bird, dark background. Always a dramatic shot. I used a bit of exposure compensation to keep the highlights in range. I especially like this shot because of the dappled light on the bird, though it made it more difficult to expose properly. If not for the extreme image scale of the digiscping rig, which fills the sensor with detail and seems to make the automation work at its best, a shot like this would be very difficult.
Sony DSC N1 through the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 85FL spotting scope. I wish I had remembered to shut the auto date thingy off. I will photoshop it out when I have more time. 1/1000th @ ISO 64. Aperture determined by the scope.
Very minimal Lr processing. Sharpen, Vibrance, Clarity.
From St. Augustine FL.
4/8/2009
Egret and the Rubble
This image might break all kinds of compositional rules, but I like it. “Egret confronts the rubble: a study in contrast.” or something of the sort. Somehow the whole thing hangs together for me. The delicate, even elegant, bird; the massive frame of broken concrete; the texture of both concrete and the fragment of rope; even the splash of whitewash on the right…it all coheres to produce an image that has a kind of balance, maybe even elegance, of its own.
The Egret even moved slowly enough to allow me to get Exposure Compensation set for the white of the plumage.
Sony DSC H50 at 465mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/600 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto, with -1 EV exposure compensation.
In Lightroom, a bit of Recovery for the plumage. Added Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel, and Sharpen portrait preset.
From Galveston 2009.
3/12/2009
Redtailed Hawk on Cabrillo Mounment
This is a resident Redtail at Cabrillo National Monument. I see it there most trips. It must have a nest at the point, though I have not yet found it. This is the first time, however, that I have seen it perched on the actual monument. It landed there in full view of a dozen tourists (me among them) and sat there long enough for me to travel several hundred yards to reach the base of the mounment, and then at least 10 minutes more while I took shots from every angle. (Along with the rest of the tourists.)
Sony DSC H50 at full tel (465mm equivalent). F5.6 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I added some fill light to bring up the eyes. Normal Vibrance and Clarity and Portrait sharpen preset.
From San Diego 2009.
And here is another view to give you the context.
Like Patience on her monument...
3/01/2009
Waiting for the Hebrides Ferry
Click the image for a larger gallery view on Smugmug.
I am working on more brooding Scottish landscapes but just to lighten things up, here is a snapshot taken while waiting for the ferry from Skye to Uist (in the Hebrides).
It is just a moment caught. The unstudied pose, the natural setting, the young man so caught up in his music as to be unaware of the public nature of his exposure. I zoomed in and then cropped the image slightly for better composition.
Sony DSC H50 at about 110mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/320 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
From Scotland.
2/21/2009
Reproach
Okay…I do not like zoo shots. I don’t like shooting at zoos, and I don’t, actually, approve of zoos. There are a few that win my grudging admiration for the humane enclosures and the conservation work they do with rare and endangered species, but I wish the world were such a place that there were no need for the work they do (and where I had enough money and time to see all the animals in their natural habitats).
Still, I do go to zoos. With a free morning, and being only a mile from the Rio Grande Zoo and Biological Park in Albuquerque (and having limited options because of the lack of a car), I went. And I enjoyed it for it what it was.
I got some really fine images of Wood Ducks (free) and Flamingos (captive), and I got this catch of an African Vulture really near the fence of his enclosure and very aware of me on the other side of the fence. To me it says something about zoos that resonates. I have no idea if the bird felt the way he looks (unlikely), or if it is a total projection on my part (likely), but what I see in his eye is a whole testament on the nature of captivity.
I shot this by holding the lens of the H50 between fingers on either side of one of the little diamonds of open in a woven cable wire fence, front of the lens actually touching the wires of the fence.
Sony DSC H50 at just slightly over 400mm equivalent. F4.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I used the Recovery slider to bring out detail in the highlighted area above the eye, added Presence with the Clarity and Vibrance sliders, and used the Sharpen portrait preset.
From Albuquerque.
1/30/2009
Close up Snowy
Almost too close for digiscoping, but such close shots make for drama. This bird’s pose also creates interesting shapes and forms within the frame. Since we are photographing close in and tight, exposure is not nearly so difficult as it would be on most white birds in full sun. The -.7 EV exposure compensation brings out feather detail even in the highlights. A bit of Fill Light in Lightroom picks up the detail in the beak. And, of course, the yellow eye in the sun really stands out, and conveys a lot of personality in the bird (to be consciously anthropomorphic).
Sony DSC N1 behind the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 85FL at an equiv. of approximately 2500mm. F6.3 @ 1/500th @ ISO 64. Programed Auto with -.7 EV exposure compensation.
From Space Coast Birding.
1/26/2009
Snowy
Snowy Egrets like to stand on the lower lip of culverts where water moves from one pond or channel to the next at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The moving water carries fish, and the fish are easy prey as they dump disorientated out of the culvert. Why hunt when you can stand still and wait for the food to be delivered?
I saw this one and knew it had real possibilities. White bird. Black background. There was no safe stopping for several hundred yards so I walked back with my digiscoping rig.
Of course, white bird on black background poses an real problem for the camera’s exposure system. I cranked the EV compensation to -2 (as far as it will go). As you see, I still lost the brightest highlights, but I doubt I could have fond a better exposure by going manual. The contrast range is simply beyond what the sensor can capture, and I wanted to keep the white bird white, after all.
The black background turns the image into a study in shape and texture, almost a still life. It looks like something much more contrived than it is: simply a white bird standing in the mouth of culvert. The Snowy Egret is certainly one of God’s most elegant creations, and this image brings out all that elegance.
Sony DSC N1 behind the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 85FL spotting scope. F8.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 64. Programed Auto. Selective Spot Focus and -2 EV.
Recovery for highlights in Lightroom. Just a bit of Vibrance and Clarity and the Sharpen portrait preset.
From the Space Coast Birding Gallery.
For the bird in a wider context, see this image.
12/25/2008
Christmas!
This is what Christmas is about: love, happiness, joy, celebration (and all because of Jesus).
Classic snapshot. “Look at me Kelia!” Using the LCD with the camera held one-handed for the angle.
Sony DSC H50 with the zoom at about 60mm equiv. F3.2 @ 1/50 @ ISO 200, Auto Flash
Noise Reduction and Auto Fix in Photoshop Elements. Like I said, a snapshot all the way.