Mourning Dove from the Winter Window

Yet another image from the Winter Window. The doves seemed to stay close to the area over the winter. I guess they recognize a good, consistent food source when they see (or taste) one. The one in the image is taking a short winter break.

Key Lime Cupcakes and Zooborns

Above is another set from the Cupcake Campaign. This was a tasty cupcake. I like anything with Key Lime in the title. I love the Florida Keys, too. The entire system of keys is great, but I am partial to Marathon and points south. Everyone has their favorite.

Also, there is this neat website that shows images of newborn zoo animals from zoos all around the world. It's called Zooborns. All the babies are great, but I am partial to the otters, fennec foxes, ferrets and red pandas. Everyone has their favorite.

Textures and Flowers

This image was made using similar techniques discussed in the previous post. I tried it with and without a black border and it looked better to me without.

Some Fun With a Montage and Textures

I am getting some more mileage out of the tulip beds in D.C. The image above was made using a mirror technique. This involves taking the original image, duplicating it, flipping it and joining the two together. It's not a secret technique. Many photographers use the technique. But, Andre Gallant, one of my all-time favorite photographers is an absolute master at photo montages. He explains the technique on his website here . However, he not only explains the technique but also provides outstanding images that demonstrate the technique in his book, "Dreamscapes." See page 39 for the mirror technique. I caution you to not skip a single page of this book. It is full of incredible images using a variety of photo montage techniques. I digress.

Back to the image. I then applied a sandstone texture. On top of that I used a grunge-type texture and finished it off with a black border. The original image was captured with a LensBaby 2.0.

Winter Window Images

Here are two more images from my Winter Window. I want to preface this with I do not profess to be a bird expert or even a "birder." What I know about birds is only from what I have observed (mostly casual) and read (which is very little). I have a book sitting on the window sill of my Winter Window. As I see a bird I do not recognize, I use this book to help identify it and then read the facts about the bird. While this blog is mainly about photography (and our ferrets on occasion), I think it's a good thing to pass on a little info about the subject matter from time to time.

The first bird is a Dark-Eyed Junco. I was amazed to learn that this bird migrates from Canada to Virginia and parts further south. From what I have observed, it's mainly a ground feeder and they hang out in fairly large numbers. A very common sight around here in winter.

The second bird is an American Gold Finch. What a beautiful bird this is. The male takes on a bright color of yellow, however, during the winter it loses this color and looks much like the female does year round. Female birds, for the most part, lose out when it comes to color, don't they? This bird lives in Virginia all year. I counted 27 Gold Finches in my tree at one point. If you want to attract them, use Nyjer thistle seed. Wow. They devour this stuff. I put the seed in a "seed sock." Works great. Alas, they have all but disappeared from around the home. We did get to see quite a few males with the bright colors before they left. But, now that food is abundant, I suppose they have moved on to areas closer to open fields. Look for them in open areas hanging on thistle. I see them on golf courses quite a bit during the summer.

All B/W conversions done with Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro.

Cardinal In Winter

During the winter months, we spend quite a bit of time on weekend mornings watching birds through a window and from the comfort of our home.

I make it a point to keep several feeders and water (heated bird bath) available for the birds that continue to make Virginia their home during this time of the year. It's a dedicated task because it seems that the birds come to depend on the feeding "stations." I'm sure that they would find somewhere else to gather food if I stopped, but I like the idea that they know they can come to our yard, find food, eat and build energy to get them through the winter.

I started capturing shots of the different birds as they perched on the tree closest to our window. Grab shots, snap shots really. Through the window, no less. Most were captured with an 80-200mm f/2.8 lens and hand held.

I really have just started processing them. I filed them away in one of my external hard drives and have just begun to revisit them. Looking at them brings back those mornings in winter and, for me, I see personality in each one. They endured the winter and some have gone on to find food (and mates) elsewhere. Others stay close by and visit daily. I maintain the feeders and bath year round.

I add a hummingbird feeder starting in spring and we now have several that not only drain the feeder but also find the nectar (and insects) from the flowers I have planted around the home a part of their daily diet.

I will publish the Winter Window images periodically as I get to them.

More Tulips and Tungsten

The above image is the exact image from the last post except I brought it into ACR and changed the White Balance to 2800 (from 5250). Wow, I really, really like this one. The colors are magical. For me, the image from the last post is remarkable as well. I love the complementary colors of red and green. Both of these will make outstanding canvas gallery wraps.

Tulips, Texture and Tungsten from Spring

The first image was captured from one of many tulip beds planted around Washington, DC every year. This was taken at f/22 and a 1/2 second shutter. Slight movement up during the exposure qualifies this as a pan. I added a bit of texture and watercolor effect.

The second image is from the same tulip bed. However, the lens was at f/14 and the shutterspeed was 1/8 of a second. The camera movement was different as well. As you can see, during the exposure, I moved the camera in what could be described as a small "u." This is evident from the elongated white lines in the image.

It's likely you are saying this can't be the same tulip bed, the colors aren't even close to being the same as the image above. It's true, the colors aren't the same. But, it is from the same bed of tulips. During the initial processing of the image, in the Raw Converter, I changed the White Balance to Tungsten. This changed the color temperature from 5250 to 2850. Much cooler in more ways than one. I also added some film grain effect to the image via Nik Software Color Efex Pro 3.0.

The final image is a "mirror" of the Tungsten-converted image.