Wolf Road Prarie Burning

gluwater

Well there wasn't anything to do at work today so I left after only staying for 30min. Yes life was good. I was driving to the woods and saw smoke so naturaly I drove to see what was going on. I got closer and realized that it was just a small prarie that they burn each year so that the new plants can grow. I stopped by and got some shots. Let me know what you think. All taken with 20D and my new 17-40 f/4. I really like this lens.







Thanks for looking!

David_S85

First image isn't showing up.

I might have seen that as I drove down to Willow Springs to my accountant (one expensive trip come next monday, and I'm not talking about the price of gas). She told me to avoid Wolf Rd. I think it was because of the road construction though. Where on Wolf was this now?

Anyway... they let you get this close? I've done burns like this, and we shoo people away that aren't part of the burn.

I'm not going to want to sell my 10-22 now, am I? these look incredibly sharp, even at this reduced size.

gluwater

I walked up and they thought I might be someone from the newspaper but I told them I was just an amatuer and they let me be. I was talking to a lady and gentleman there who both worked for the Forest Preserve and they didn't ask me to leave, I just made sure I wasn't in the way. It is on Wolf and 31st in Westchester. In the Spring and Summer it is full of wildflowers and song birds. I like my 10-22 but the 17-40 I used to take these is super sharp, I'm really glad I got it.

The first pic is showing up for me, anyone else not seeing it?

Eric&Susan

I see 3 pics and 1 one red box When I right click > properties I get:

http://gluwater.smugmug.com/gallery/share.mg?AlbumID=1357076&Page=1&ImageID=64117227


Eric

gluwater

The red X should be gone. There should only be 3 pics. Thanks, it only showed up in IE so I didn't see it in Firefox.

wxwax

I see all three. Very nice storytelling. Those underbrush burns are a good thing. Amazing how we try to control nature by replicating its processes in a managed way. Sometimes it even works!

You might want to play with the last shot, throw some more light on the guy's face.

Awais Yaqub

Intresting series thanks for sharing

Skippy

gluwater wrote:

Well there wasn't anything to do at work today so I left after only staying for 30min. Yes life was good. I was driving to the woods and saw smoke so naturaly I drove to see what was going on. I got closer and realized that it was just a small prarie that they burn each year so that the new plants can grow. I stopped by and got some shots. Let me know what you think. All taken with 20D and my new 17-40 f/4. I really like this lens.
Thanks for looking!

Hi Gluwater......... I love these type of shots........they tell a story, and you find yourself looking into the images to see what else you can see.
Great Series.....nicely done....... Skippy (Australia)

gluwater

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. Sid I thought about that after I posted them. It was an overcast day and the helmet didn't help. I lightened his face a bit here but can't really go to much further becasue it gets pretty noisy. In case anyone is interested in how I lightened it:

• I selected an outline of his face with the magnetic lasso
• switched to quick mask and used gaussian blur at Radius 1.7 to feather the selection
• exited quick mask and created a new layer from the selection
• Used Shadow/Highlight on Shadow only to lighten it
• Lightened it a little bit more by dodgeing
• Smoothed it out using Median filter at 1 Pixel
• Sharpened it a little bit using Smartsharpen Amount=200 Radius=.8

It may not be the best way to do it but that is how I did it. Let me know if you think it's any better.

ultravox

Nick, the last one is great and thank you for infos also.