An Evening in the Park

I was doing a photo shoot in a park and when we were completed I decided to walk back through the park and get a few pictures. These are all just as shot so they could probably use some photoshop work but I decided to just put them on today. There were a number of ducks on the stream so I pretty much spent most of my time trying to get them. Hope you enjoy these prints.

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Yes I know I posted this fellow before but since he blended so well into the trees and brush I decided to try something. I learned a lot doing it also. This first image is a cropped version of the original where pretty much everything is in focus. Bad photography when you want to isolate the animal from the brush.



Now this was actually my last try at it but without cropping in close as I did on the last two images in this blog. This final version I finally decided to leave the foreground in focus as it would tend to be if shot properly. Then I left the back out of focus as I had made a layer and blurred it then masked it to create the separation and help focus on the buck. It made quite an improvement to the image even though it could still use a lot more.

In this image I tried (my initial attempt) to blur out all of the vegetation and leave only the buck in focus. I didn't like it at all so since I had saved a layered version I was able to go back quickly and redefine the layer mask which was used to hide the in focus background and foreground.



So when all was said and done I liked this version probably the best as it is in focus for the most part in the foreground and out of focus in the background allowing the deer to be more easily seen. Then it is cropped tightly to the antlers and the head making it appear to be a very large buck, (Which it was a pretty good sized one anyway.) And finally the black border seemed to go with this image pretty good as well. 

Now the thing I learned from this process was to be sure I always save a layered file as I work and to back it up often like we have already learned before. Plus keep working at different variations until you find the one you like. Notice that I also changed and used LAB color in the last three images. I like it a little better even though it may be a little rich.

Two Sunsets in a Row

Last night my daughter called me just before I was ready to leave work and asked if I could see the sunset. I couldn't but it didn't take long to grab the camera and go out to photograph it. Then tonight I got off a little earlier and was able to drive to my favorite barn in time to photograph it with tonight's sunset. Both of them were very beautiful.





I love to watch how the skies change as the sun goes down and hopefully caught a bit of that in these images.

YOUNG LOVERS IN THE FOREST

Today I had an opportunity to go to a Scout Camp called Camp Tifie. We went there to photograph it for a brochure. We were there for a couple of hours and during the entire time I didn't see any deer like I have in the past during camps that I have been to in that area. But when we were going back home I was sitting in the back seat and spotted these two deer. I quickly asked the driver to backup to where I could photograph them and discovered that the two were in mating season which seemed to be later than usual in the year. It was fun for me since the buck could have cared less that I was there. I was only about 20 yards from the two of them so it made it real easy to get some good close up photo's. I hope you enjoy them because I sure had a lot of fun photographing the. He even posed for me and that made it real easy to get the close up.






This is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity and I was glad that I had my equipment ready when it came. they seemed to really blend quite well with the late fall trees which made it a little harder to spot them.

Amazing Speed

My Grandson rushed into the house on Thanksgiving Day and wanted us to see his super cape with the stars on it. He could really run fast and make it fly. Well that suddenly gave me an idea and we went outside to prove it. So I still need to work on this panning stuff but the two of us had fun anyway.