Clovis' Nikon Nuggets

[Clovishound]

Haven't been out shooting lately. On the way home I saw some wading birds at a nearby pond. Not exciting subjects or background, but I needed the practice, so I grabbed my camera and headed back out to the pond. Decided to try and shake it up a little with something a tad more creative. Not sure I nailed it, but it is different. On the plus side, it has texture and mood. On the down side, I would have liked a little more detail in the ibis' head.

Here's another with promise, but not quite there. I love the reflection and mood of the water surface. Bird's head isn't quite sharp, and worse, the highlights on the back are blown out. I had my camera set to -1 stop compensation, but it wasn't enough. I had no time to make adjustments while the birds was in the air.

 

[Needa]

Here's another with promise, but not quite there. I love the reflection and mood of the water surface. Bird's head isn't quite sharp, and worse, the highlights on the back are blown out. I had my camera set to -1 stop compensation, but it wasn't enough. I had no time to make adjustments while the birds was in the air.


View attachment 414549

Overall I'm not sure the focus is an issue. The detail in the blown highlights might have contrasted the bird from the background and reflection but I like it as is.

 

[Blue439]

Couldn’t you recover the highlights in Photoshop? They don’t look too badly blown out... I would rather have framed the bird somewhat more to the left to give it some breathing space in the direction it’s flying.

 

[Clovishound]

I've got the highlights buried to the left in LR on both the overall, and also in the masked subject. I tried cropping it and putting the bird on the third line on the left. It looked really out of balance to me. I tried moving it somewhat to the left as much as I felt I could. I also brought the exposure down on the bird a little more, as much as I thought I could get by with short of having it look wrong.

Here is the result.

Here's the one with the bird on the third.

 

[Needa]

I've got the highlights buried to the left in LR on both the overall, and also in the masked subject. I tried cropping it and putting the bird on the third line on the left. It looked really out of balance to me. I tried moving it somewhat to the left as much as I felt I could. I also brought the exposure down on the bird a little more, as much as I thought I could get by with short of having it look wrong.

Here is the result.

View attachment 414911


Here's the one with the bird on the third.

View attachment 414912

The original has the feel of a lone bird.

 

[Clovishound]

The original has the feel of a lone bird.

That is one of the reasons I went with that crop. I always enjoy input on different takes on an image. Sometimes a suggestion works well for me. Sometimes my preference is for the image as I originally shot and edited it. It often comes down to personal preference. Getting feedback on a different perspective helps me learn and grow.

In this case, the more I look at the last image posted, the more it grows on me. Still not sure which I like better. This image doesn't strike me as one of my better works.

 

[Clovishound]

Not sure why I like this image, but it appeals to me. We don't get snow around here but maybe once every 8-10 years.

 

[Clovishound]

Well, it's been a while since I went out on a "real photo outing". Got out to Magnolia this morning. The birds are just now starting to build nests for the busy nesting season. I discovered that I'm a little rusty. I need to get back out there and shoot more.

These guys were very near the boardwalk, and weren't entirely comfortable with me being so close. Still, they just swam slowly away rather than squawking and flying off.

This is a nest that I get pictures of every year. It's close to the trail, and always occupied during the season. I like the curled talons in this one.

This guy was out there fishing. I tend to pass up a lot of blue heron opportunities, as they are so common.

This guy let me get to almost minimum focus distance. I had to back off on the zoom to get him all in the shot.

This is an example of what not to do. I was very close, and didn't really pay attention to my DOF. I nailed focus on the eye, but should have stopped down one or two stops. I had enough light to give it more. Drop down one shutter speed, and let the ISO go up to 400. Oh well, like the blue herons, gator opportunities are frequent, although they seldom let you get quite this close. He was just a little guy, maybe 3- 3 1/2 feet long, so no worries about safety. No way he could chew through my Kevlar snake boots.

 

[Clovishound]

Thinking about writing an illustrated children's book. Thought I'd call it:

Freddie the Frog Has a Bad Day

And a few more from today's outing. I learned from last week's gator shot!

 

[Clovishound]

Headed back out to Magnolia today. It seemed like nothing much was happening, but managed to get more than I thought. It was a heavy overcast, gray day, so ISOs were high, especially with the BIF images.


The great blue herons were building their nest. Dad was busy ferrying sticks to the nest, and Mom was busy weaving them into a suitable nest for the little ones to follow.

Despite heavy clouds, this guy was doing his best to soak up some warmth before braving the chilly water. I tried a longer exposure to see what it would do to the texture of the water, but liked this one at 1/180 sec best.

This great blue heron was checking out the crazy guy with the camera before heading to a new fishing hole.

This little blue heron was very intent on the murky water, hoping for a tidbit.

 

[Clovishound]

Edited a few more today.

Not sure about this one. I love the shape of the bird's wings, but find the second bird behind him distracting.

I suppose there is a fix for that, although I hate to fall back on the remove tool to fix things too often. Somehow it seems dishonest.

 

[Clovishound]

Bad Hair day???????

And one more from the day.

 

[Clovishound]

Went to a new place for me this morning. Got up at 3:45 and drove an hour and a half to meet the club at a Wildlife Management Area south of here. A rather cold morning for southern SC with temps in the upper 20s. I need to get a pair of gloves, or a carbon fiber tripod. When we got there just before the sun came over the horizon, there were probably hundreds of birds in the lake. Lots and lots of tundra swans, and avocets, plus some ducks, including shovelers and mergansers. The ducks never got close enough for me to get any shots by the time there was enough light to shoot. I didn't get anything spectacular, but the autofocus and tracking on my Z7ii worked much, much better for BIF after making a few adjustments last week.

We moved to the other side of the lake after the sun came up, and there was a large flock of avocets in the shallows.

These two were having a disagreement about something.

Got lots and lots of these tundra swans in flight. None really stood out, but several were decent shots. Had lots of issues with the white feathers. I did underexpose them by 1 - 2 stops to keep the highlights from blowing out.

 

[Clovishound]

A couple so-so shots from Cypress

 

[Clovishound]

Things were a little slow at Magnolia today.

 

[Clovishound]

The Pup and I went downtown today. I think perhaps I should stick to wildlife. Still, she enjoys it.

 

[Clovishound]

And here are two that show what Lightroom is capable of these days.

This is one I shot this morning. No political agenda intended either way. More a photojournalistic exercise.

I really didn't like the fencing and orange barriers, so I departed from photojournalism and decided to see what Lightroom's generative AI remove tool would do. I painted the fence and barriers, and let it do it's thing. This was the result with no further editing needed. The only negative is that it removed the section of driveway connecting to the road, and replaced it with a grass strip. I almost didn't notice it. I didn't try to get it to add the driveway section back in. It might have with several regenerations.

Here was an attempt to get creative/artistic. Unfortunately, you can seldom find a window that will let you line up square on it, and have the reflection where you want it, resulting in a distorted image. I tried the Full option for Level, Horizontal, and Vertical automatic perspective correction.


This is edited, but no perspective correction.

And here it is after applying the automatic full perspective correction.

 

[blackstar]

There are at least two more faultiness from AI removal version: 1. bottom of the mesh gate, 2. shadow of the flag and truck (and the rear bumper). Sorry to point out.

 

[Clovishound]

There are at least two more faultiness from AI removal version: 1. bottom of the mesh gate, 2. shadow of the flag and truck (and the rear bumper). Sorry to point out.

Despite all that, I was impressed with how well it did. Especially considering how little time it took.

And, it's not like this is going on the cover of Southern Living magazine.

 

[blackstar]

Despite all that, I was impressed with how well it did. Especially considering how little time it took.

And, it's not like this is going on the cover of Southern Living magazine.

Sure.