Duckings

I've been caught up in so many other things that I have neglected my blog for the last couple of weeks.  A friend of mine said there were some ducklings messing around in a pond that had been drained close to his office, so I had to go have a look.  I'm sure glad I did.  These little guys were really enjoying the safety and freedom the secluded area provided.  There was plenty of grass and moss to feed them for a while.  They were hopping in and out of the water and exploring.  Jumping in the mud and blowing bubbles all under Mom's watchful eye.  One thing I noticed is they sure do like the mud.  View more of the little guys on my website http://www.alderimages.com/wildlifeinnature.  Thanks for looking! Enjoy and share!  Thank you again to Derrald for showing me the little guys and letting me try your bazooka.  You can view his photos at http://www.journeyoflight.com/blog/2015/05/29/photo-friday-ducklings/

Family Sessions

Had the opportunity to photograph a young man recently celebrating a birthday.  All photos were taken in natural light at one of my favorite locations to shoot family photos.  He has one of the best smiles and personality to boot.

Filter Painting

It has been a little while since I had the time to sit down and actually gather my thoughts long enough to write something on my blog.  It is nice to be able to put some thoughts down on paper (or computer if you will).  Something I have been wanting to do for the past couple of months is write a post about something I really enjoy doing.  I have stated in the past that I have always enjoyed photographing sunsets.  Sitting there watching the sun leave the horizon puts thoughts at ease if only for a moment.  Listening to nature, the rustling of leaves, the wind whistling through branches of the leafless trees, birds chirping, provides a calming effect.

One way I make the experience more enjoyable is a technique of using filters to increase the exposure time of your shot.  This way you capture all of the movements associated with the setting sun and clouds as they pass.  Having said that, I usually only come back with a handful of images due to the length of time it takes to capture the photo, but the quiet of sitting and listening is worth it.  I don't know how many of you are old enough or have caught reruns of a show on PBS I use to watch called "The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross".  When I was growing up I use to watch it just before I took a nap and being out during a sunset reminds me of that show.  So quite and peaceful.  Yet, when the day is done you have something beautiful.  This is why I call my long exposure sunsets, "Filter Painting".

Once I am home and have viewed what I captured that day, I then begin the fun part of the picture taking experience, Post Processing.  Most people do not like this portion of the picture taking experience, but I really enjoy it.  In fact, I see many photographers skip this portion all together.  I shoot all of my photos in RAW format.  This means that the file you have contains all of the RAW data from the photo and you can use it as you will.  If you shoot JPEG format, the camera cooks the image for you in the cameras processor and spits out what it thinks your photo should look like.  I like the control I have over my images in RAW.  This way, I can make the photo how I saw it when I was there not the way a computer decided it should look.  I usually take 20 minutes a photo when adjusting landscapes.  You really have to pay attention to the details of the photo.  If you happen to over look something, blowing it up on print will bring out your mistakes and landscapes more than not are going to be printed large.

Enough talk for the day, here are a couple of my recent Filter Paintings.

Winter's Last Chance

I wrote this a couple months ago but for some reason never actually published it.  So here you go.

Winter is winding down and that's a good thing.  I am looking forward to warmer temperatures and color.  One thing that the winter does offer is a chance to see some amazing ice crystals.  You really have to look close to see the intricacies of the little crystals, but if you get down close enough they are beautiful.  Last winter I took tons of snowflake photos and never really got anything that wowed me that much.  I had a backlit snowflake that I thought was pretty cool, but everything else was mediocre in my eyes.  Saturday provided an opportunity to see a couple snowflakes and they were perfect.  It wasn't too cold that they were just frost pellets.  The air wasn't warm enough for rime to form.  So I went outside for a couple shots.  Fifteen minutes is about all I had to get something since the sun was setting and it was getting pretty dark.  It is very hard to see and focus on snowflakes through the lens in the first place, let alone in pitch black light.  Working with millimeters of focus depth makes taking multiple exposures a must.  I usually take between 7 to 20 shots of each flake and then focus stack them in photoshop to get a, hopefully, great looking snowflake.  Another problem I was running into with this little shoot is the plexiglass I was using.  I left it out pretty much all winter in anticipation of being able to shoot snowflakes.  Month after month of not having great snow, I gave up and let it sit.  The ice had formed on the surface an when trying to brush it off, I scratched it.  Now that may not seem like a big deal to the naked eye, but once your get down really close it makes a noticeable difference.  A little touch up was needed to clean that mess.  Anyway, here are a couple of flakes I happened to capture.  Thank you for looking!