JOURNAL AND DAILY PHOTO, Day 293 Dec 21, 2009 - normvz's Photos- powered by SmugMug

Gallery pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 > >>

< Prev 1 of 294 Next >

normvz > " That Canyon Place..."
Day 293, Monday, December 21

Old Business from Yesterday.....
Thank you to those who took time to critique yesterdays Daily.

As I spent this weekend examining photos I have taken in my first year of photography....I see I had many highs and lows. Sometimes lucky... sometimes making rookie mistakes.

Yesterdays Daily had a high ISO.... because the foreground and I were in deep shadows and I wanted to lighten the foreground. The consensus from comments was that I should have left the foreground out of the capture entirely. I agree and if I had stepped closer to the lake and out of the shadows, I could have lowered the ISO. Or... shot with the higher ISO and just cropped the dark bottom off, but kept the silhouetted trees,, if that was what I wanted. Either way, indecision about what I was looking for, resulted in "poor composition", which resulted in poor camera settings.... including focus point and aperture.

A number of fixes were offered to save the photo. Crop and convert to B&W worked well. Cropping and desaturate a little also helped. The initial use of a polarizer was also suggested.

Todays "flashback" is similar to a photo I posted this summer... but with more canyon and less sky and a little more tweak. Funny how our opinion of a photo changes over time. Just reviewing the camera settings helps me improve.

View X2,
Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Mountain Lake"
Day 292, Sunday, December 20

This is one I never processed from last summer.
I wish the lake had been blue.... and it seemed a little "busy".

How about some "critical" feedback on this..... as to how I could have made it better.
Except for the time of day and ISO, the camera setting were the same compared to yesterdays clean, crisp capture.

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Yosemite"
Day 291, Saturday, December 19

Lots of rain today.... again.

So I thought I would step back from the Wetlands and go to higher ground..... and the archives. This is Yosemite. The rock on the right is the base of Half Dome. The one on the left might be North Dome, but I'm not sure. This was an evening capture..... and the cloud was the only cloud in the sky.

Further along this trail, hikers were forced to turn back. The trail was closed because of a rock slide. Also sat and watched a deer for 10 minutes.

Regular visitors may have already visited my "Yosemite Gallery"... but if you are new or want to see it again CLICK HERE

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Here's looking at you... me...."
Day 290, Friday, December 18

This Brown Thrasher didn't turn out as well as I wished... but...
Hope you have a good weekend.

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Spatterdock"
Day 288, Wednesday, December 16

This week we've had spiders, Iguanas, alligators and birds.... so let's add a plant.
Spatter Dock is different than the common White Water Lily.

When mature, the 2 inch flower is always and only "half open"... and both the flower and the heart shaped leaf can exist submerged, at water level or rise above the water. The leaf can grow to 8-16 inches long and 10 inched wide.

Spatterdock can be grazed by deer, consumed by beavers and muskrat and the seeds by ducks and other waterfowl.

From Wiki....Spatterdock was long used in traditional medicine, with the root applied to the skin and/or both the root and seeds eaten for a variety of conditions. The seeds are edible, and can be ground into flour. The root is edible too, but can prove to be incredibly bitter in some plants.

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Boat-tailed Grackle...male"
Day 287, Tuesday, December 15

At first I was a little confused about this bird.... because of his dark eye color. A rare, Shiny Cowbird I thought ????
But then I read that the eye color can range from dark to yellow and realized it was a male Boat-tailed Grackle. (We have a lot of these..... but none have yellow eyes.)

As opposed to the female in yesterdays Daily, the males are noisy and gather in groups .... and when the sun shines on them just right.... they have a beautiful iridescent color.

View X2, X3 to appreciate the color,
Norm

Ps... It appears there was some problem with my posted Daily yesterday... and it disappeared from the list about 10am yesterday morning. (Neither I nor Smugmug could figure out why....), So if you missed it..... and want to see the female Grackle, completely different in appearance.... click on the... "This is my Complete Journal" link below.

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Boat-tailed Grackle...female"
Day 286, Monday, December 14

This is a female Boat-tailed Grackle.
The Boat-tailed Grackle is found exclusively along the coastline of Southeastern and Gulf Coast States.

The brown, smaller female, shown here, is half the size of the male (half of 16 inches) and sometimes mistaken for a different species. I will show the larger, darker male tomorrow. Here, I caught her puffing and fluffing her feathers.

The squiggly twigs below the bird are the remnants of what was this years Fireflag growth. To see Fireflag growing in the Spring, see my May 9th Daily by CLICKING HERE

To see a Purple Gallinule eating Fireflag CLICK HERE

View Enlarged,
Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Me Again....again"
Day 285, Sunday, December 13

I didn't want to do another Blue Heron but....

I wanted to show a Heron in a setting other than flying or on a nest. I caught this guy in the bright, early morning light as he was looking for sticks for his nest. I thought the green tree branches, cypress knobs at his feet, shadow and light... were a good change of pace.

Shot RAW with a little crop off the sides to make it square and the standard tweeking.

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "...giving that Toothy Grin"
Day 284, Saturday, December 12

This is how gators catch their prey.

They give that big toothy grin that says.....
Hey, I haven't eaten in a ...... I mean,
Hey, I haven't seen you in a while.... How ya do'in?.... C'mon over here and talk to me....

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Look up....."
Day 283, Friday, December 11

Sometime... when your walking through the woods, don't forget to look up.

The strands of web holding these guys didn't show up in the photo. This is the way it was for 75 yards..... 3-8 feet over my head.

Be bold and view at X2,
Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Morning Iguana"
Day 282, Thursday, December 10

Old Business......

As various "birders" were attempting to identify yesterdays Daily.... they were having no luck. Even using various bird identification sites.... (thanks to fotomom). This is mostly due to the white band around its nape, which is unusual. Then..... while at the Wetlands yesterday morning, I ran into just the person I was looking for.... a wonderful, nice lady named Linda. I believe she has over 300 bird sightings.

She knew immediately what bird I was talking about.... and had recently photographed it herself. She calls the white nape a "necklace". She said she has been watching it for two seasons and it is an anomie, hybrid or variation of a Palm Warbler. Thank you Linda.

Looks like this iguana is starting to put his mating colors on.....

Also had a few request for the White Egret trying to eat the rat. I don't know if he killed it himself or found it. He was having a very hard time swallowing it and I don't think he ever did... I left after 10 minutes of watching him try...... if you want to see the unprocessed photos CLICK HERE

View Enlarged... Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Untitled because......"
Day 281, Wednesday, December 9

I haven't identified this bird yet, but here's the story......

I was shooting a Great White Egret that had caught a GIANT rat. I don't think you want to see the photos. He was having trouble swallowing it and kept coughing it back up. Yuck....!!! Then this little guy, about 4 inches long and at least 10 yards away, landed on a reed between the Egret and myself. Even though he was a long distance away and wouldn't stay still for very long, I was able to get two quick shots before he was gone..... I never thought the photos would be acceptable.

When I opened the photos, I was surprised how reasonably good they were... for the distance I had to shoot. When I crop these kind of captures, resolution is lost.
Then it dawned on me..... Was this the result of my new experiment with shooting RAW????,,,, Did I gain that much???
If so, it is certainly another reason to shot RAW.

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "Christmas Decorations"
Day 280, Tuesday, December 8

Not much of a follow-up to yesterdays Daily..... but
After spending many hours decorating the house.... I just had to take a picture.

Just kidding........ it doesn't snow in Florida.
This Christmas card is one of the best I have ever seen. I didn't capture the sparkle very well, but it is a Stunning card.

I did shoot 200 photos yesterday..... but not one was worth keeping. I'll try again today after a doctor appointment.

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > "The Difference...."
Day 279, Monday, December 7

Sometimes we get in an acceptable rut.....

I am a stubborn person. I think I can learn everything on my own. When I reach my limits, I tend to get bored for lack of excitement...because no new horizons are opening for me. Yes..... I will consider a camera club, educational course or some such activity.
Our community is wonderful. Sharing our days and thoughts...but I wish, sometimes, we would share technical advise. The Smugmug community "honest feedback", doesn't make the grade.

I recently received an email offering me some advice. I explored this advice and offer these two photos. The one on the right is a PP photo that I would have considered acceptable. Processed in Jpeg with my iPhoto Program. The photo on the left is PP in RAW with my old, no longer used Canon Program. I like the left one better. With this rediscovered direction, I hope to improve and offer better photos than I have in the past.

A big heartfelt Thank You to Gary Esman for taking the time to help me improve my photography.

Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

" That Canyon Place..."

Day 293, Monday, December 21

Old Business from Yesterday.....
Thank you to those who took time to critique yesterdays Daily.

As I spent this weekend examining photos I have taken in my first year of photography....I see I had many highs and lows. Sometimes lucky... sometimes making rookie mistakes.

Yesterdays Daily had a high ISO.... because the foreground and I were in deep shadows and I wanted to lighten the foreground. The consensus from comments was that I should have left the foreground out of the capture entirely. I agree and if I had stepped closer to the lake and out of the shadows, I could have lowered the ISO. Or... shot with the higher ISO and just cropped the dark bottom off, but kept the silhouetted trees,, if that was what I wanted. Either way, indecision about what I was looking for, resulted in "poor composition", which resulted in poor camera settings.... including focus point and aperture.

A number of fixes were offered to save the photo. Crop and convert to B&W worked well. Cropping and desaturate a little also helped. The initial use of a polarizer was also suggested.

Todays "flashback" is similar to a photo I posted this summer... but with more canyon and less sky and a little more tweak. Funny how our opinion of a photo changes over time. Just reviewing the camera settings helps me improve.

View X2,
Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

normvz > " That Canyon Place..."
Day 293, Monday, December 21

Old Business from Yesterday.....
Thank you to those who took time to critique yesterdays Daily.

As I spent this weekend examining photos I have taken in my first year of photography....I see I had many highs and lows. Sometimes lucky... sometimes making rookie mistakes.

Yesterdays Daily had a high ISO.... because the foreground and I were in deep shadows and I wanted to lighten the foreground. The consensus from comments was that I should have left the foreground out of the capture entirely. I agree and if I had stepped closer to the lake and out of the shadows, I could have lowered the ISO. Or... shot with the higher ISO and just cropped the dark bottom off, but kept the silhouetted trees,, if that was what I wanted. Either way, indecision about what I was looking for, resulted in "poor composition", which resulted in poor camera settings.... including focus point and aperture.

A number of fixes were offered to save the photo. Crop and convert to B&W worked well. Cropping and desaturate a little also helped. The initial use of a polarizer was also suggested.

Todays "flashback" is similar to a photo I posted this summer... but with more canyon and less sky and a little more tweak. Funny how our opinion of a photo changes over time. Just reviewing the camera settings helps me improve.

View X2,
Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

" That Canyon Place..."

Day 293, Monday, December 21

Old Business from Yesterday.....
Thank you to those who took time to critique yesterdays Daily.

As I spent this weekend examining photos I have taken in my first year of photography....I see I had many highs and lows. Sometimes lucky... sometimes making rookie mistakes.

Yesterdays Daily had a high ISO.... because the foreground and I were in deep shadows and I wanted to lighten the foreground. The consensus from comments was that I should have left the foreground out of the capture entirely. I agree and if I had stepped closer to the lake and out of the shadows, I could have lowered the ISO. Or... shot with the higher ISO and just cropped the dark bottom off, but kept the silhouetted trees,, if that was what I wanted. Either way, indecision about what I was looking for, resulted in "poor composition", which resulted in poor camera settings.... including focus point and aperture.

A number of fixes were offered to save the photo. Crop and convert to B&W worked well. Cropping and desaturate a little also helped. The initial use of a polarizer was also suggested.

Todays "flashback" is similar to a photo I posted this summer... but with more canyon and less sky and a little more tweak. Funny how our opinion of a photo changes over time. Just reviewing the camera settings helps me improve.

View X2,
Norm

This is my HOME PAGE
This is my COMPLETE JOURNAL

Camera: Canon (Canon Eos Digital Rebel Xsi) |

more details: exif |

original size: 4272px x 2848px |

Current: 600px x 400px |

Other sizes: S • Medium • L |

Share photo: links, forums, blogs |

Keywords: 9285

Gallery pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 > >>

< Prev 1 of 294 Next >

Comments

|

New comment: Requires approval

Name: Email: Link:

Connect with Facebook

Comment on: | Rating: stars

To foil spammers, enter this code:

in this box: Code unreadable?

Available Feeds | What are feeds?

Gallery Photos:

Atom |

RSS |

Google Earth