Same birds, different day

A few days ago I downloaded the new version of Topaz Adjust, Topaz Adjust 4. I opened it up and it looked quite different and so set it aside until yesterday to play with it. Remember the high-key birds from a few days ago? The second photo shows you what I originally did. I then applied the Topaz Adjust 4 "Dark-Ghost" (or maybe it's "Ghost-Dark" -- can't remember) and cropped the photo down further as you can see in the first photo. It's an interesting look, isn't it? While this is not my style overall, this is kind of cool for using in my journal. (I printed it out in draft mode on regular photocopy paper and it looks rather good!)

There's no end to what we can do with the tools available (and the tools that just keep on coming). Stephan Dietrich sent me a link to something that he created using Topaz 4, and here's a link to his shot. Here's wishing everyone a very creative spring! ©Carol Leigh

More "stupid" bird photos

I'm having fun processing these bird photos. As I mentioned in a previous post, I inadvertently underexposed them by 2/3 stop. They were also in very blue, shady lighting. Here's how I created this effect: I imported the file into Adobe Camera Raw. I slid the "clarity" slider all the way to the left and the "exposure" slider all the way to the right. Brought them into Photoshop and that's it. Cloned a few errant rocks out of the way is all. Great photography? Nah. Fun? Yes! ©Carol Leigh

Stupid is as stupid does . . .

It was quite the morning for stupidity. I mis-read the tide table, not only the high/low tide part, but also the date! So when I headed out for a quick walk on the beach this morning, I figured the tide was going out. Wrong. It was almost at its height! I managed to stay dry and cut my walk short. At least I wasn't out there during the tsunami! 

And then I inadvertently set my exposure compensation to underexpose by 2/3 of a stop. I was shooting in bluish shady light to begin with, so my photographs turned out not only blue, but dark blue. Well, good excuse to experiment in Photoshop, right?

I purposely blurred out this photo and overexposed it by 4 stops before doing anything else. And even though this photo was originally of maybe 10 birds, I clipped out just a corner of the photo and blew it up big. Now I've got two big, overexposed, blurred birds. And I like it! And it's given me some other ideas, other things to try with a variety of subjects. We shall see . . . And now, back to work. ©Carol Leigh

It's a wild life in La Jolla

It was a sunny day in Portland when I arrived at the airport, but we had to wait 4 hours for a window of opportunity to land in San Diego, where it was POURING. I photographed this stack of La Jolla newspapers that featured a downed palm tree blocking the street.

A family of three sea lions lounges on the rocks at The Cove and a pelican lazily flies past. And then the last photo shows three pelicans snoozing in the late afternoon sun. ©Carol Leigh

Last photo stop of the day . . .

It's unusual for us to have pelicans in huge numbers this time of year; usually they're all in La Jolla by now. But apparently the food supply up here has been extremely good, so the pelicans are sticking around. As we approached Seal Rock, I could see a large flock sort of hovering about. I ran up to the top of a little hill and there in front of me were lots of pelicans all hunkered down on the side of an offshore rock. They're facing into the wind and every once in a while one would slowly swoop in and land or about 10 or so of them would just rise up in the air and then slowly settle back down.

It's been a good day. A really good day. May we all have many more like this. ©Carol Leigh

75 minutes on the beach

Tides and weather combined nicely this morning to be out wandering around on the beach. Other than having to slog through a little creek in non-waterproof shoes, it was a great walk. Very foggy, very monochromatic, very mysterious. Visibility was about maybe a quarter mile.

I shot a lot of rocks (as is my wont), but also tried to take overviews. Since I tend to not notice the big picture, one of my resolutions is to broaden my vision, and so a few landscapes sneak in lately. I found some turnstones (I think that's what they were) and love how the wings flare out in this one shot. And the crow on the rock? Love it! I'm sure he's going to show up in some montages soon.

Beautiful morning. Life is good. ©Carol Leigh

Getting in some shots before it starts raining again

It was a good morning. I made a quick stop at the Alsea Bay overlook to photograph the bridge (looking south over the bay at low tide to the town of Waldport) before it began raining. Then it was over to the fishing boats where there were hardly any in port -- 'tis the height of crab season, and someone told me the fishermen are now receiving $1.95 for crab.

A pair of cormorants create a pretty silhouette against bright water. Next, a couple of crab rings sit lonely on the dock. (Everything around and behind the crab rings was dark. I metered off the bright yellow buoy and let everything else remain underexposed.) As I headed back up the gangplank, I stopped at the bulletin board to see if there was anything interesting posted. Found two items I thought worth shooting and I share them with you here.

I then went over to the crab pot staging area, where this time last month it was covered with stacks of crab pots. They're all in use now and everyone's concentrating on pulling in the crabs. More photos to follow. ©Carol Leigh

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

Well, in my previous post I said I didn't get any good photos, but I'm thinking this one's not too bad. The lighting was quite monochromatic and so I desaturated the photo even more to sort of even things out. I loved the way the six geese were paddling across the water in a straight line. The scenery to the left in the original photo wasn't very interesting, so I just cropped it out. ©Carol Leigh

En route . . .

En route to the San Francisco Bay Area, we stopped at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. Well, it's not yet the height of the season AND my longest lens was just a 200mm. So the best photos I got of birds were these here on the sign! (And I can't believe they included a puffin! He doesn't look very happy.)

It didn't matter, though. Sometimes it's just the being there that's important. Hearing the sounds of the geese, the wigeons, the splash of water. I didn't mind not getting any superb photos. I just loved being there. ©Carol Leigh

Minute number 59 . . .

No rain, a relatively low tide, no bright sun -- perfect for hitting the beach, where I spent 59 minutes this morning shooting patterns. I was headed back toward the parking lot when I spotted a flock of cormorants heading north toward me. I had an 18-55mm lens on the camera -- not exactly what one wants for bird photography. And then I spotted the rainbow. Adrenaline rush! I quickly set my camera to underexpose by a full stop so that the waves wouldn't blow out and so that the rainbow would stand out. My ISO was 500, but no time to change that because HERE THEY COME! The result? A noisy photograph of birds too far away but a photograph that means a lot to me because it was the taken at the 59th minute, my last shot of my beach walk, and I thank whoever is in charge of this kind of stuff. Celebrating what's right in this world . . . ©Carol Leigh

Pigeons in Santa Fe

I'm preparing a lesson in line and design for an upcoming 30-day class and so worked on this shot a bit. Although it was taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico last September, it wasn't until yesterday that I felt it was right. ©Carol Leigh