2019 P52 - 3nd Qtr - Sandy(Skitterbug)

[skitterbug]

Wonderful!!!!

Thanks Nandakumar!

[xpatUSA]

I'll have another look Andre, but everything about the image looks too yellow, even the rusty wire. Most of what I did was pull down the exposure around 20% in luminosity blending mode. I did boost the red channel a touch.

If I disable the red channel adjustment and just pull down the exposure (luminosity blend mode so as to not affect the saturation), I get this.

Yes, that's a lot closer to the cardinals I've seen down here in Gulf Coast Texas.

[skitterbug]

It seems strange that the tail is a bit soft compared with the metal work nearby. Possibly, with a shutter speed of 1/200 it may be subject movement blur? Either way, it doesn't really make any difference to this good scene.

Hi Geoff - I know the shutter speed probably played a part because if I remember the day correctly, it was very windy. The bird was still but I think maybe the wind ruffled his tail feathers enough to cause the blur. Thanks for commenting!

[skitterbug]

It's a good image Sandy, but I do wonder about the exposure and white balance.

We have a lot of cardinals that live near our house and their colouration is deeper, more saturated and less yellow. More like this...

Hi Manfred, Andrè and Bruce - Our cardinals are more faded now and not quite as bright as I think that Manfred has it.

And now I am curious to see what the rusted fence looks like so I'll head outside later to visually inspect it. I'm going to post a screen capture of this as a RAW image along with the histogram. I haven't calibrated my monitor for a bit so maybe that has something to do with the yellow cast? Or something I did during editing? I probably don't understand how to read histograms correctly, but I don't see a yellow band in it?

Here's what I started with:




And here is the histogram of the finished image:



Thanks for the help and suggestions!

[skitterbug]

In regard to week 32, I did slip out and take some images of the fence - that is now covered in tomato plants. My camera focus missed the target so I'll have to do it again to see if I can compare the color against the fence in the cardinal's image. Not sure that my experiment will work since the light conditions will be different but I'm gonna give it another try........

So Week 33 and I'm back to bullfrogs, well this is the same one but in different situations.

The first image intrigued me because he matched his surroundings. I didn't see him at first because of his color scheme.
Settings: ISO100 - f/8 - 1/200

Camo Bullfrog





Apparently when a bullfrog is hungry, he'll go hunting. Here he is sitting under the bird feeders hoping for a tasty treat. We've seen him leap straight up at least 3 feet off the ground but we haven't seen him actually catch anything. The interesting part, to me at least, is how well he blended into his surroundings again.

The ISO was a bit higher because it was dark under the trees. ISO4150 - f/8 - 1/400

Hunting for Birds

[Shadowman]

Week 33, nice efforts, I like the first because of the patterns radiating from beneath the frog, second one nicely captured although the large section of structure could be dulled a bit or cropped out.

[Geoff F]

They both work well. The second one is rather surprisingly good considering such a high Iso setting.

[Cantab]

I think both photos work well (and had no idea that bullfrogs hunted birds!).

[Wavelength]

Both are really nice; regarding color scheme i like the first more; as a profile image, second is more good

[skitterbug]

Thank you for the various comments.

John - I considered taking the white pipe out of the photo but I didn't because I thought it would indicate that the bullfrog was out of its usual habitat - the koi pond. Looking at the image more critically, I agree that it needs to have something done about it. The black pole may be enough to show the surroundings the bullfrog chose to sit in.

Geoff - I was glad that the image turned out as well as it did considering the camera settings. It is always darker under the foliage, making it difficult to capture an image without too much "noise". The bullfrog was there again today but I didn't get the chance to try for more images. Our grandson was here....... He's a great fellow but I believe I'll be glad when school starts in a few weeks. He keeps me more busy than I want to be! <chuckle>

Bruce - Bullfrogs apparently will eat anything they can catch and stuff into their mouths. We'd never seen one going after birds until this one leaped at least 3 feet into the air, trying to catch one. Amazing.

Nandakumar - I agree that the first image - Camo Bullfrog - created a nifty color pattern. My hubby spotted him first and alerted me to the possibility of a photo session. I agreed with him and happily took the camera for an outing!

Again - Thank you everyone for looking and commenting! The added dialog makes this hobby even more pleasurable!

[skitterbug]

Week 34 - These images were captured on August 1st. I have been sorting through some of the photos of this month and decided to process both of these.

The first one was taken in the early morning light. Well, if you call 8:41 am (EST) early..... <smile> I would like to have taken it with the light more from the side but when I tried that, the wings didn't work out very well. So I burned the brighter areas, cropped, etc.

Morning time for Luna Moth




Since the moth was still pretty much in the same spot when evening came, I tried another photo session. Note that the moth is pretty beat up looking. I think it seemed tired.

[Shadowman]

Week 34, nice set of captures, I think the approach to take would be to treat the bug as a still life so if natural light isn't working then consider using flash.

[skitterbug]

Week 34, nice set of captures, I think the approach to take would be to treat the bug as a still life so if natural light isn't working then consider using flash.

Hi John - I appreciate the suggestion. I tend to forget that flash can be used (outside) to help light the difficult situations. Thanks!

[Wavelength]

Waah....great!!!

[skitterbug]

Waah....great!!!

Thank you Nandakumar!

[skitterbug]

Week 35 - Still sorting through some I've taken this past month now. August is gone! This one once again reinforces how nature likes to camouflage its creatures to keep them safe. It is a busy image but I thought it was worth developing. Settings used ISO259 - f/16 - 1/100
Suggestions for improvement always welcome!

Monarch Butterfly

[Cantab]

Sandy, for my money, this image works well. The orange theme throughout the photo grabs one's attention.

Your use of a comparatively low shutter speed (for this type of active subject) worked okay and allowed the small aperture and low ISO. The f16 aperture allowed you to have the butterfly in good focus as well as the flower head being reasonable sharp as well. I was intrigued by the ISO of 259 but presume that it's the result of using auto ISO.

[Geoff F]

Not working for me, Sandy. The orange flower is over exposed/saturated. Maybe you could tone down the yellows and oranges a little. I usually do this in ACR as part of my Raw conversion.

But also, the camera angle isn't good. Probably just a matter of personal preference but for my open wing butterfly shots I require a reasonable amount of symmetry between wings. Part open wings can sometimes work when they are unequal and I am photographing from the side. Even then, 90% of my butterfly photos get ditched.

[skitterbug]

Sandy, for my money, this image works well. The orange theme throughout the photo grabs one's attention.

Your use of a comparatively low shutter speed (for this type of active subject) worked okay and allowed the small aperture and low ISO. The f16 aperture allowed you to have the butterfly in good focus as well as the flower head being reasonable sharp as well. I was intrigued by the ISO of 259 but presume that it's the result of using auto ISO.

Hi Bruce - Thanks for the thoughts you've expressed about this image. The ISO number is a bit puzzling but what I did was set the aperture and speed and then adjusted the ISO until the light was fairly okay on the camera meter. I very seldom look at numbers but what I check is the meter to see if the photo can even be captured.
Butterflies do not sit on command so it was interesting.

[skitterbug]

Not working for me, Sandy. The orange flower is over exposed/saturated. Maybe you could tone down the yellows and oranges a little. I usually do this in ACR as part of my Raw conversion.

But also, the camera angle isn't good. Probably just a matter of personal preference but for my open wing butterfly shots I require a reasonable amount of symmetry between wings. Part open wings can sometimes work when they are unequal and I am photographing from the side. Even then, 90% of my butterfly photos get ditched.

Hi Geoff - I didn't want to ditch this one because I found the background and the butterfly being part of it, as interesting. I did burn the flowers some to tone them down a bit. I wasn't sure how to adjust the colors without changing the monarch's colors as well. Probably a mask will work but it will be tedious, I think?

As for getting the butterfly to be in that perfect "identify him" pose, that was not my intent with this one. It was a windy day and I think the monarch was on the move. Not sure when they do leave our area for migration, but it has to be soon.

Thanks for commenting!