Hark 2018

hark · Oct 14, 2018

Marilynne said:
We had a family of possums living under our storage shed. Haven't seen or heard them in a while. They would always root around at night.

I hope this isn't looking to make its home in our yard. I haven't seen any openings under the shed or house. Over the summer I used to put an apple out for the bunnies, but during the colder months, the bunnies rarely come into our yard. So I stopped the apples yet this critter keeps hanging around.

hark · Oct 18, 2018

Here are a few from this afternoon's outing. There is a scarecrow contest at our local park--these are a few of the entries.

Under the Lens Ball thread, I compared the Amlong 80mm Ball with the Merry Nine 80mm ball. These are from the Merry Nine ball which is the better ball.

hark · Oct 25, 2018

The colors are finally starting to turn, but tomorrow a Nor'easter is predicted. That's a coastal storm with extreme wind and rain. Not sure if the leaves will stay on the trees. We've had more rain than usual, and supposedly high amounts of rain make the colors more vibrant. Normally this week should be our peak colors; however, that hasn't yet happened. And by now many of the leaves have usually fallen. So this fall is definitely different...leaves staying on the trees longer and colors not changing as soon.

hark · Oct 26, 2018

Another one from yesterday's outing.

hark · Oct 26, 2018

I know I just posted this image. I'm trying out the specs @Marcel mentioned to see if the lower resolution image winds up appearing larger on the forum. This is the image I just posted above.

And this is an even lower resolution of the same image.

Marcel · Oct 26, 2018

I forgot to mention that after the image is uploaded, I double click on the image and make it full size and then OK. Do you do that as well? I know it's an extra click or two, but otherwise my images were just thumbnails.

hark · Oct 26, 2018

Marcel said:
I forgot to mention that after the image is uploaded, I double click on the image and make it full size and then OK. Do you do that as well? I know it's an extra click or two, but otherwise my images were just thumbnails.

I usually make my pics Large which I did initially. After posting, I saw they weren't as big as yours so I edited my post and made them both Full Size. Nope. You must have the magic touch!

Thanks for the info anyway!

Marilynne · Oct 27, 2018

hark said:
I usually make my pics Large which I did initially. After posting, I saw they weren't as big as yours so I edited my post and made them both Full Size. Nope. You must have the magic touch! Thanks for the info anyway!

They're both the same size and large on my screen Cindy.

hark · Oct 27, 2018

Marilynne said:
They're both the same size and large on my screen Cindy.

They are the same size for me as well, Marilynne, but when I view Marcel's thread, his horizontal images are wider than mine. I sized my second image to the same specs he mentioned (72 res and 1080 px width). I tried both Large and Full Size before posting yet neither stretches the entire width like Marcel's do. There's a gap on the right that doesn't show up when he posts horizontal pics. Mine start out as edited NEF's that are converted to jpegs which I'm assuming his are, too.

hark · Oct 31, 2018

This was as orange as I could find for Halloween.

hark · Oct 31, 2018

A couple more from this afternoon.

hark · Nov 2, 2018

Earlier this year I took out a Costco membership. One of the things I tried was Audubon birdseed. It is loaded with sunflower seeds--much more so than any other birdseed we've used. A squirrel started showing up regularly (have a squirrel baffle on the pole but I always add seed to the ground for the flock of pigeons that visit daily). Also have a few more birds than usual. Yesterday there were 5 squirrels in the yard which is the most I've ever seen at one time.

Of course, with the increased activity at the feeder, predatory birds become more frequent. Yesterday when I put out birdseed, there was a hawk on our burning bush. It flew a short distance to the fence. Small birds that took cover in the bush quickly flew off. I very carefully put everything down and slowly went inside to get my camera. Twenty seconds or so later, I went back out only to find the hawk gone.

A couple hours later while in the kitchen, I looked out and saw a hawk on the lamppost. This one didn't look quite as tall as the first so I'm not sure it is the same hawk. I grabbed my camera and shot through the living room window. Was only able to fire this one shot before it took off. The window is dirty, but a little dehaze in ACR worked wonders.

Texas · Nov 2, 2018

Those guys are rarely in range here in Texas. I did have a somewhat tame one that liked to visit my upstairs deck back in Atlanta, GA., watching for mice back in the woods probably.

hark · Nov 2, 2018

Texas said:
Those guys are rarely in range here in Texas. I did have a somewhat tame one that liked to visit my upstairs deck back in Atlanta, GA., watching for mice back in the woods probably.

Personally I'd rather not have them in our yard, but there isn't anything I can do. If I hear the birds giving a warning chirp, I fly out the door with my Australian Shepherd. She will chase it off.

I believe this is a Cooper's Hawk. We also get Red-Tailed Hawks and small Falcons (which might specifically be called Merlins). We also have Eagles near here, and not just the Philly Eagles!

I saw one of those only once so far.

hark · Nov 4, 2018

I edited this image 3 times yesterday. The CP filter made the colors pop. There was a NOTICEABLE difference while rotating it. Then when hovering over the different presets in ACR (Camera Standard, Adobe Color, Adobe Landscape, etc), some brought out even more color.

So this was the first edit which seemed to be overly bright especially with the lighter/brighter orange colors.

So I took the file back into PCC and lowered the orange luminance and saturation as well as brushed a little blue over the pier.

Unfortunately that didn't seem quite what I wanted. So I copied the NEF and its side card file and made further changes to the original NEF in ACR. For some reason, I am drawn to rectangular vignettes. The vignette below is definitely more obvious. The overall colors are more realistic and somewhat toned down compared with my first two edits. I'm curious to hear if any of you prefer one over the others? I am leaning towards this last edit.

hark · Nov 4, 2018

Back in October I took some Car Show photos since it was held at my church. One of the owners who is a church member asked for a few pics with trees in the background. We've had the most spectacular fall this year. Yesterday it was pretty windy which blew a lot of leaves off the trees, but this one tree was gorgeous. This was taken today.

Although I had a CP filter on my lens, the sky was literally this blue to the naked eye. I've never seen a sky in person that looked like a CP filter was already applied to it! And the leaves on this tree were extremely vibrant. I hardly had to do any editing and certainly didn't have to play with the colors.