2017 Project 52 - 3rd QTR - Sandy(Skitterbug)

[Wavelength]

The bird image is something special.....i really liked, especially the color

[skitterbug]

When I used to backpack in the mountains I had a red backpack. It was not unusual to be buzzed by hummingbirds asking "are you a flower?" Hence the red feeder just seems a part of the story to me. One might consider increasing the saturation in the green and desaturating the red a bit ..but eliminating the feeder color altogether seems to lose part of the story. Of course we each make up our own stories and others do not seem to share mine in this instance. Nicely done!

Hi Judith ~ I guess I was so intent on capturing the hummer, that I hadn't taken into consideration that the feeder would be a necessary part of my photo. But I agree that it does need to be included. On the B&W version, it wasn't quite as sharp a pic so I decided to use some PP to see what would happen and if it would work. Posting it after the color photo does accentuate the difference in the pics though and color seems the obvious choice! Thanks for your comments and the 'pat on the back'! I appreciate it!

[skitterbug]

Nice shots Sandy. I'd try setting the focus manually. It looks as if the front edges of the feeder are what the camera picked to focus on, at least on my computer. It looks to me like your depth of field went from the front edges to the middle of the feeder in the first shot and the bird is on the back side half of the feeder so is just out of it.
Hummers are tough little guys to catch. At least yours are out in the open, more or less. The ones I try to catch are all in the leaves/flowers so are hard to pick out.

Hi Alan ~ I haven't developed a talent for manual focus yet. I'm all thumbs and by the time I do get it done, my subject is gone! <chuckle> In this setup, I had the camera on a tripod tethered to the computer so I wasn't handling the camera at all. It was more a hopeful attempt to catch the hummer in the right place at the right time. Last evening, I sat in a spot not far from a feeder planning to use the "hands on" approach to capture a pic and of course the hummers were all suspicious and didn't feed! It is at this point that I really would enjoy having gear that "reached" out further for pictures so I wouldn't have to be so close!

Thanks for your insight. I appreciate the sharing of knowledge!

[skitterbug]

I appreciate you commenting about my photo! Thank you Nandakumar!

[skitterbug]

Week 29 and I am a bit frustrated trying to produce that 'WOW what a photo' event. I ended up finding a nest of baby robins and decided to give them a try. Do you know how many leaves seem to appear in the photos once they are taken and entered into the editing software?

I rather liked the one I'll post even though there is a leaf that is not especially helpful. I've tried darkening it and it is a bit better but ideally it would have been nice to have it not there at all. Can't remove it because the details for the robin aren't available to replace the offending leaf. So it is what it is. Comments always appreciated!

1/640ss in case the birds moved! f/5.6 and ISO 800

Baby Robins

[Geoff F]

That is a frequent problem with real wildlife photography, Sandy. The scene often isn't perfect so all you can do is to make the best of what is available; which is why there are so few really good prizewinning images of this sort of thing.

With flowers, it is easy to do a bit of cleaning up and general rearranging of the scene before pressing the shutter, but birds in a nest is a totally different scenario.

Sometimes, after my initial shot, I try to find a slightly different line of sight to avoid any issues like this, but all too often when shooting through gaps in the foliage any realignment simply causes other problems. Occasionally it is possible to select and copy a slightly larger well focused leaf from elsewhere in the image and paste it over the problem leaf. But that isn't an option here.

Maybe you can get away with darkening that leaf a little bit more?

[skitterbug]

That is a frequent problem with real wildlife photography, Sandy. The scene often isn't perfect so all you can do is to make the best of what is available; which is why there are so few really good prizewinning images of this sort of thing.

With flowers, it is easy to do a bit of cleaning up and general rearranging of the scene before pressing the shutter, but birds in a nest is a totally different scenario.

Sometimes, after my initial shot, I try to find a slightly different line of sight to avoid any issues like this, but all too often when shooting through gaps in the foliage any realignment simply causes other problems. Occasionally it is possible to select and copy a slightly larger well focused leaf from elsewhere in the image and paste it over the problem leaf. But that isn't an option here.

Maybe you can get away with darkening that leaf a little bit more?

Hi Geoff ~ I've been fiddling with those two leaves and can't seem to refine them enough without them looking totally "fake" so I guess I'll have to settle for what I have in this pic. I do like the idea of finding a little bigger, darker colored leaf and pasting it over the one there but that is a PP technique that is way beyond me.

In the initial camera session, I tried several different angles, trying to get a more clear pic but Momma Robin certainly chose her nesting area well. I ought to take another look at those attempts and see if I missed a better shot. This pic drew me because the little ones were both attentive and clear eyed. There is a third little one in that nest but it was impossible to get all three captured in my viewing area!

Thank you for commenting! I value your opinions always!

[skitterbug]

As a followup to the robin pictures, I found this one early on but discarded it because I couldn't see the second chick's eye. However, I am back contemplating the merit of it. Obviously and impatiently, I couldn't reach into the nest and rearrange what I wanted. I returned this morning and found an empty nest.... which now has me thinking that it may have been a good ending to my series, an empty nest with a left over egg that didn't hatch...... <hummm>

Anyway, here's my offering! (Still thinking of that empty nest..... )

[skitterbug]

Week 30 - So I went back to the Robin's nest that is now empty, except for one egg that hadn't hatched. It is much easier trying to take a picture with Mother Robin not threatening me and babies not glaring at me.

ISO200 - f/6.3 - 1/100ss
#1 - Robin's nest



I'm also still exploring settings and how to get the action of a moving item captured without it blurring or having graininess. The honeybees are happy to see the sunflowers in blossom. This one is definitely taking advantage of the available pollen. And I'm glad to see the honeybee busy since I like munching on sunflower seeds.

I chose these setting using manual selections - ISO400 - f/6.3 - 1/1000ss (still used auto focus)
#2 - Busy Honeybee


And finally, who can resist taking pictures of flowers? Certainly not me. I've wanted the Hibiscus plant for several years and finally started mine from seed. I have two of them and enjoy seeing the very large and beautifully colored blossoms. It just started to rain (again) as I was trying to get some decent pictures.

ISO100 - f/5.0 - 1/600ss
#3 - Hibiscus

[Geoff F]

With the nest, Sandy, I would be thinking about a slightly different crop to remove some of the out of focus foreground. That image will still show the depth of the nest and concentrate more on the lone egg without the soft foreground.

The bee is OK but instead of having so much unnecessary shutter speed you could have narrowed the aperture a little and had increased focus depth. But I often take a quick shot then realise too late that I could have made a better use of my available settings.

Good colour and focus on the flower. Vibrant but not over saturated.

[skitterbug]

Hi Geoff ~ Thank you for replying and making suggestions for improvement! Of course now I have a couple of questions!

With the nest, Sandy, I would be thinking about a slightly different crop to remove some of the out of focus foreground. That image will still show the depth of the nest and concentrate more on the lone egg without the soft foreground.

#1 - I may have cropped this a bit harder than you may have thought necessary? I used the 4x5 ratio...... Perhaps if I'd used a setting that increased depth of field in the first place, it may have been a better picture and the need to crop so closely would have been unnecessary?
See what you think?

The bee is OK but instead of having so much unnecessary shutter speed you could have narrowed the aperture a little and had increased focus depth. But I often take a quick shot then realise too late that I could have made a better use of my available settings.

#2 - So if I used less shutter speed and an aperture of say f/11.0, would I still have control over stopping the bee's action so that he'd still be in focus?

Good colour and focus on the flower. Vibrant but not over saturated.

#3 - It helped that the sun wasn't blaring when I took this picture!

[Geoff F]

A narrower aperture will increase the focus depth, Sandy. So if you had used Iso 400 on the nest shot and an aperture of F11 you would have had more of it in focus. However, from that angle I suspect it would have been impossible to get the whole nest sharply focused. The only option being to shoot 2 or 3 different focus points, using a tripod, and merge the images together.

The same thing goes for the bee where F11 would have given more of the scene in sharp focus. I find I can usually get away with dropping the shutter speed to around 1/200 for slow moving insects. But a totally different approach would be required for fast moving/flying subjects; which is where your 1/1000 speed would be required.

With most flower photography, including fungi etc, I always prefer to avoid direct strong sunlight and your image nicely proves this point.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice hibiscus shot Sandy You might as well clone the pink bud at the bottom left corner

[skitterbug]

Very nice hibiscus shot Sandy You might as well clone the pink bud at the bottom left corner

Hi Binnur - I gave the removal of that bud a go and I believe it turned out fairly well. I really like Affinity Photo for this particular chore! Thanks for the approval and the nudge to go the extra step!

Edited Hibiscus

[skitterbug]

A narrower aperture will increase the focus depth, Sandy. So if you had used Iso 400 on the nest shot and an aperture of F11 you would have had more of it in focus. However, from that angle I suspect it would have been impossible to get the whole nest sharply focused. The only option being to shoot 2 or 3 different focus points, using a tripod, and merge the images together.

The same thing goes for the bee where F11 would have given more of the scene in sharp focus. I find I can usually get away with dropping the shutter speed to around 1/200 for slow moving insects. But a totally different approach would be required for fast moving/flying subjects; which is where your 1/1000 speed would be required.

With most flower photography, including fungi etc, I always prefer to avoid direct strong sunlight and your image nicely proves this point.

Hi Geoff ~ I have to deal with a lot of wind and that's one of the reasons I set the speed a bit faster. I will take your suggestions and give them a try again on the honeybees busy working the flowers and see how the pics turn out.

Speaking of fungi, I was weeding a planter and under the foliage, I spotted these very tiny ones. They are maybe 2 to 3 mm across and that be it. I haven't a clue what they are. Since I don't have a macro lens, I grabbed my mobile phone and gave it a try mainly because I am hoping that these can be identified. I was surprised that the pic turned out as well as it did though.

So for interest and identification: Fungi that was hiding in a planter full of flowers and weeds

[Wavelength]

Superb images.....

[skitterbug]

Superb images.....

Hi Nandakumar ~ Thank you for cheering me with such kind praise!

[bnnrcn]

It looks better Sandy You can also remove the blurred little pink part on the top left corner if you want. But it is not as distracting as the other bud.

Hi Binnur - I gave the removal of that bud a go and I believe it turned out fairly well. I really like Affinity Photo for this particular chore! Thanks for the approval and the nudge to go the extra step!

Edited Hibiscus

[skitterbug]

It looks better Sandy You can also remove the blurred little pink part on the top left corner if you want. But it is not as distracting as the other bud.

Thanks Binnur! It'd be hard to take a pic of the hibiscus plant now because the entire bush is covered in blossoms. It is beautiful!

[skitterbug]

Week 31 - Tried to take a few pics of Mr. Bullfrog because he looked like he had something in his mouth. Not sure what it could be and even looking at the pic, I can't get a feel for what he munched on. My fear is that he's eating the bullfrog tadpoles. Not much I can do about it and I hope I am wrong.

Since I was unclear what settings I ought to try with the light fading rapidly, I decided to trust my camera and do a "point and shoot" with flash (GASP). I hope I'm not tossed out of CiC......

Another reason I did do this was to see what my camera would choose for settings and these settings ended up being the following:
ISO400 - f/5.6 - 1/60ss and my popup flash activated.

I did a little PP on him - crop, etc. Comments about him will be appreciated! OH....and for some reason TinyPic did not cooperate this evening so I am using Flickr for this upload.