Last nature shoot, ginger

ginger_55 · August 11, 2005

Until some time next week. Tonight I am going up to Charlotte for the weekend. Family shots. May get feeder birds, if time, etc.

Yesterday went to a "secret" place on "the island", I went by myself, I usually talk Bill into going. We have to "hunt" it out, it is kind of hidden. Bill doesn't like to stay long. I sat, by myself, no one else was there, though I think people do put boats in there. I sat there for about an hour, it was hot and muggy, I stayed until I couldn't see for water dripping down my face, from the "glow". It was beautiful. Not a lot of birds out, it was about noonish, but I did get what I could. Above was one little bird. I don't know what it is, have not had a chance to look it up and not a lot of distinguishing characteristics, but I think it is sweet looking.

Below are two shots of a/two herons, Tri -colored????

Below is a view from where I was. A couple of flowers and lots of hidden nature there.

I came back on the way home from running a few errands. No birds, but did see these little creatures. Small things, very small. See next to blade of grass. They live in little "holes", their dwellings in the sand, they must close up when the water comes in. I thought I would share, note the black hole in one, home for the creature, and a blade of grass for reference in another. They scurry all over. I don't do well with these creatures, hate them actually, but the funny thing is that they are all over when I am at the marsh or the ocean, just underground or water most of the time. The tides rule.

Lots of life, seen and unseen, all around us.

later, ginger

Dee · August 11, 2005

Don't you wish
you could be out on the water in a kayack or rowboat? Just sort of edge up on the birds?

Osprey Whisperer · August 11, 2005

Nice shots Ginger. I like the BIF

Imagine that.

Have a fun 'n' safe trip. Thanks for sharing the shots. Keep 'em coming.

Cheers

BMP

ginger_55 · August 11, 2005

Yes, Dee, so much. I have not owned a boat since I moved to Charleston: the irony. I have so often wished for one for many reasons.

Now with my photography, Oh, Dee, there are places I cannot go at all, up and down the rivers. Such beautiful photography I see from those places.

I considered renting a kayak once, it finally sunk into my thick head that is one boat I cannot risk my hearing aids by going in one. They teach people how to tip over: I can't tip over!

I would love to take a trip up and down like the Edisto river, but not with a lot of people, I really can't afford the tours anyway, but I would want to be kind of by myself or family.

In the seventies, we, my husband of that time, and I, owned a small 14 ft boat. Went out in the ocean down by Hunting Island ONE time, with small children and small dog. We almost died, there were advisories all over, I was too dumb to know, huge swells. We got back in, but it was touch and go. Other than that we went all around the back creeks down there. Many dolphin. That was one of my non photography periods, but it was lots of fun.

We lived near a big lake, usually just took the kids water skiing. And me, gosh, I must have been young. My husband got custody of the boat, it burned in a house fire in the mid eighties. He has another boat, but with the kids grown, grandkids there are teens, no one wants to go with him. I coulda told him, and he is up by Charlotte.

But since moving to the land of boats down here, I have been land locked.

ginger

Andy · August 11, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

Below is a view from where I was. A couple of flowers and lots of hidden nature there.

ginger, how did you post process this shot, all the steps? thanks...

Steve Cavigliano · August 11, 2005

Ginger,

Very nice job on the heron BIFs and the crabs

All of these are well exposed and nice and sharp

Gotta love those colors on that tri-colored heron

Wish we had those

Thanks for sharing and good luck with the family pics

Steve

ginger_55 · August 11, 2005

RAW w nothing done (link and picture)

http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/31804531-L.jpg

The settings that I brought it up with were

as shot temp 5000 tint 0

exposure +1.55
shadows 0
brightness 58
contrast +64
saturation 0

sharpness 41
luminescence 20
color noise reduction 35

(those figures on the sharpening, they are pretty standard if I don't want to exhibit a photo, don't have time to mess with it, those figures have worked for me in the past, maybe they didn't work here, but it means I was not going to put a lot into this.)

the photo that I brought up looked like this:

I did this this morning, I am supposed to be ready to leave by 4:30, I wanted to post this stuff first, decided to throw this in, I thought it was a pretty easy work up.

I don't know how to find out what I did with it. But I did not do layers. I cropped it at the last minute to get it out of a 1/2 top and bottom position, I did not sharpen it again, I did use the saturation thing w a boost of yellow, probably did a bit of curves. I know I have all that dust, got a lot of it at the beach and the blower thing didn't work, but no time to order stuff and get out of town. So, I figure I will be dealing with getting rid of dust until and after I get back. So I did use the clone tool for that, however I know that is not what you are after.

I just looked to see how to get the history, I don't know. I am afraid to mess with too much stuff as I don't want to erase what I have.

I don't know, I tried not to post a bad photo, the only problem I could possibly see would be the sharpening. I might have used light/dark a bit, but not much as I didn't need it.

ginger

I think it was the amt of contrast, whatever happened andy, it happened in RAW, because I noticed that the leaves had a little white on the edges pretty soon. I have really been rushing.

I am keeping this open, as I will be stewing until I know what you were noticing, what I did wrong. Bill will be here at 4:30, I am only partially packed, haven't eaten, showered, etc. this is all EDT.

I have been told by people not to sharpen in RAW, but I have also read that I should, seems to be some people do and some don't. I have found that the color noise can be a problem if I don't take care of it in RAW. I have not had a problem with those settings before. Not me, myself. Sometimes I don't sharpen, sometimes I use Rutt's method, depends on my intentions.

I also have other RAW versions of that same photo, I did several to make sure of the composition but I think the settings were the same. I do think I raised the blue a bit in saturation. I usually don't add blue, but I think I did here.

ginger still

no clue in the past, on the time thing, dear

Dixie · August 11, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

...... I considered renting a kayak once, it finally sunk into my thick head that is one boat I cannot risk my hearing aids by going in one. They teach people how to tip over: I can't tip over! ......

ginger

Not to mention the camera and lenses you would lose. :uhoh :cry

Been there, done that during a canoe trip down the Delaware River in 1979. ...and I thought that metal case with the gaskets was waterproof.

I lost everything. That's when I switched from Minolta to Canon. My first Canon was the A-1. It was so new then that my serial number was only six digits.

Dixie · August 11, 2005

...nice shots, BTW.

Dee · August 11, 2005

You bring a smile to my face!
Isn't life strange? When you had a boat, from now you're near the water and don't have a boat.

Kayacks are kind of tippy, probably a row boat would work better. When we lived in New Jersey I'd see some people in the "meadows" -- meadowlands, bash! We called them the swamps...

But as in any area like that I worried about getting stuck in the muck and not being able to get out. We used to teach/sail on the Hudson and once I had to try to get the sailboat (small ones) out to deep water and that mud was so yucky and sticky, oh Yuck! I never want to do that again.

I finally decided I'm really afraid of water that is over my head, and I get seasick easily, so sailing small sailboats is sort of out for me now. And too wet for the camera...

And I know what you mean about boat rides, we went on a whale watching cruise (I took pills for seasickness before we left) and just about the time the whales showed up everybody pushed and shoved and rushed to the rail, it was almost impossible to get a good photo.

I can understand people getting excited and wanting to see, that is what they paid a lot of money for, but makes it hard for those of us who want to get good photos. We haven't done that in a long time.

When I was young and able to walk long distances I was just too busy with work and raising kids and life necessary stuff -- now that I have more time my body doesn't want to cooperate.

:

bfjr · August 11, 2005

Nice series to leave us with Ginger

Have a good time and shoot some stuff

gtc · August 11, 2005

nice BIFs Ginger

re kayaks as birding boats:apart from the tipping over and damage to equipment(hearing aids camera etc) kayaks aren't very stable shooting platforms- the go is a small flatbottom skiff with a little electric motor so that you can sneak up on birds -they are more stable too for shooting purposes-you could get the skiff very cheaply and a second hand electric motor would not be much-hubby could fish while you shoot...

Andy · August 11, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

ginger still

no clue in the past, on the time thing, dear

ginger - please click on "usercp" (upper left) then "edit options" (on the left) set your time zone from gmt-8 (that's california) to gmt -5 (us east coast) and you'll be fine from now on.....

Andy · August 11, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

RAW w nothing done (link and picture)

http://gingerSnap.smugmug.com/photos/31804531-L.jpg

i think the shot is underexposed, and so you had to bring up the exposure too much in raw, then the added curves & saturation work you did make it look somewhat unnatural - hopefully this will help you,

andy

ginger_55 · August 11, 2005

andy wrote:

i think the shot is underexposed, and so you had to bring up the exposure too much in raw, then the added curves & saturation work you did make it look somewhat unnatural - hopefully this will help you,

andy

Thanks, Andy, for the info, yes, i hope I can fix the shot when I get home. If further problems I will probably put it on the Whip thread next weekend, I am more fond of that shot than I thought I would be.

Also, thanks for the info on the time thing. I have been a member a over a year and had no idea. I am always surprised at what I don't know, but I do know that what I don't know is a lot.

And sorry for snapping. Today was very stressful, Bill delivered me to Julie at a half way point. Julie and I just got here. Bill is almost home.

I will be on the PC a bit, just checking stuff, but I won't have much time, it will be heavy on family.

Thanks again for the help,
ginger

Allen · August 12, 2005

I's just sitting here bored and had to see what I could come up with. Took alot of work
but this is the fun part of shooting. Probably won't print very big but looks nicer on the
screen if you get back a ways.

Couldn't do much with the bif, too far oof.

These DSLR's sure pick up everything, even got all those gnats flying
around in the sky.

(Think sensor needs cleaning?)
Hope you don't mind me fooling with it.
AL

ginger_55 · August 12, 2005

Thanks, Allen, may try some of that next week.

Yes, I had the sensor pretty clean, went to the beach, now it is a real pain. I can see the spots on the LCD screen they are so bad. It worked before to use the blower, this appears to need a more aggressive treatment. Will have to wait on money and time to order the stuff the "pros" here use.

I like to work on other's photos, I appreciate your try on mine. Nice.

ginger (I do know where the sensor thread is when the time comes)

ginger_55 · August 12, 2005

Ben, Greg, Birdman, Dixie, I want to respond to each of you, but I can't here. Thanks so much for your comments, I have read them all. Loved them. Dee I loved your second post, too. I would ask how old you are, but this is a "public" forum, and it is none of my business. But I have sure been compromised in my ability to hike, run, whatever in my older ages, 50s were the beginning, I think. 30s were good, however, like you I was involved with kids. I took photos of kids, so I did do that. I did not do landscapes, figured they were too easy.

I don't think I gave birds much thought except in the usual way. Recording them with a camera, that is new to me.

Anyway, I loved heaing from you all. I loved thinking about my husband out in a boat fishing.

. I have to show him that one. For that, I am married to the wrong person.

I have often thought that flat bottomed boat for the marshes is exactly what I would want. Only I would want to dock it somewhere. Heaven only knows what that costs.

I am going to check with my priest to find out if there is a place I can go to record the shrimping season where people go out and throw nets. He mentioned that in his newsletter. Must be a viewing place. I am sure enjoying myself more on land than I ever thought I could.

I really loved everyone's responses. Have any of you used these new keyboards. I keep hitting the caps thing, redoing. etc. I need to get my camera out, too, and start recording my surroundings.

happy shooting,

ginger

snapapple · August 12, 2005

Ginger,
Just wanted to let you know I enjoyed these shots. I love the herons. I found Andy's comments helpful for me. I'll have to watch my exposure too. I get that artificial look a lot. I find it happens a lot when I take mid-day pictures too. With no shadows, there seems to be no depth. Anyway, have a great visit with your family.

I'll be having a house full myself for the next couple of weeks. Grandkids coming to visit and daughter and her husband staying here while the "remodel" work gets done on their house.

Be sure to remember to take a few pictures.

'till later,
Snappy

Harryb · August 13, 2005

That first shot is marvelous Ginger.

Last nature shoot, ginger

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