The Wild Photographer

Here are a few images I took while in Rocky Mountain National Park last month. Enjoy

Hello everyone. I recently got back from a trip to PA where I was photographing fall warblers. I took most of them at Hawk Mountain. I would like your help with two versions of the black-throated blue warbler. The basic issue is the hotspots. For version one I used an empty layer, the color picture tool and a large soft brush to work on the areas. I selected a color adjacent to the hot spot and then brushed it. Sometimes I brushed with several colors. In the second version, I masked the bird, inverted the mask and placed a pattern layer underneath. I created the pattern from the background of the image. Do you have a preference for a version? Do you have another strategy for dealing with hotspots? Thank you for your help.

The Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary

Mallard Wing Display: A Quiet Study of Color, Water, and Wild Presence

A drake mallard lifts one wing above the still water, revealing a vivid flash of blue among soft gray feathers. The gentle green reflections and the bird’s poised presence offer a quiet glimpse of nature’s mystery. Bring this peaceful moment into your space as a reminder of the wildlife just beyond our doorways.

This photograph creates a pause in which an everyday species can appear newly mysterious.

I took this image at a little lake in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, called Lloyd’s Lake, on an early September morning. I love the background colors and setting for the Drake Mallard.

Sometimes the ordinary becomes extraordinary!

A perfect representation of the rugged New England coastline captured in a calming photo that elicits memories of endless summers gone by.

What do y’all think?

October season in Town of Hancock New Hampshire

From a recent afternoon walk after work.

As Autumn starts to take hold upon the rocky New England coastline, where the wisps of Summer begin to fade, what inspiration awaits to grip the hearts of the weary and tired?

Took this on a photo shoot in a nature preserve in Southern Maine.

Sat on the top of a small waterfall for this striking shot

I love the ripples

Two very tall age-old trees with a trunk circumference of 10.5 m and 8.5 m, which stand there and spread their majestic branches from the time of Ottoman rule in Greece, since 1975, they have been declared as protected natural monuments.

The safety of these branches has been chosen by Stahtotsiknias (Ardea cinerea-cinerea or Gray Heron), the largest heron in Europe, and one of the largest in the world, to build its nest.

"Stahtotsiknias" birds are large herons about one meter high, with a characteristic gray color on the upper part of their body, white head and neck, white crown with two characteristic long black wings that protrude and form a plume, long and sharp beak in gray-yellow color, which turns more rose-orange during the breeding season in May. They live in large colonies and are known mainly as migratory birds, traveling from Northern Europe to Africa, but in this area (as also in some other areas of Greece) they nest throughout the year.

In the spring, when they have given birth and their chicks are in the nests, the herons stand motionless on the high branches and it is the best time to photograph them.

"SpaceX Falcon9" and the image that was captured minutes before the launch... "Galactic Reach". Which one do you like the most?

I love shooting Macro but recently I have been told to try stacking my images to get sharper focus throughout the subject. Today while gardening I came across the caterpillar for a hawk moth, and decided to make some stacked images, is the result of using my Z8's ability to shoot shift focus images (I shot 40 for this experiment) and the other is the result of some hand held images (5) which I stacked. All processing done in Photoshop. BTW fortunately the caterpillar stayed absolutely still because it took me about 25 minutes to get my camera on the tripod and to set up shift focus shooting on my Z6 II. Can you tell which image is the 40 stack on a tripod and which is the 5 stack handheld?

These colors tho

How does everyone prepare photos for uploading to ASF and then Instagram/Facebook? Do you export each photo twice, once in lower res for social media? what resolutions/sizes seem to work best for Instagram/Facebook? I hate they way they crop. I'm doing all of this now but it just seems like it's not very efficient.

Hi there,

A cub looked up — I couldn't look away.

That moment arrived between breaths: wet meadow, low diffused light, and a small wild face intent on a mouthful of grass. I knelt, steady and quiet, feeling the distance between us shrink.

It felt sacred to me.

I named the piece "First Close Encounter" because the scene held both simple curiosity and an old, wild rhythm; the close view lets you meet the animal rather than merely observe it. This close view brings you nearly level with a young life—curious, alert, uncomplicated.

Greens and warm browns keep the frame honest, so the cub's gaze becomes the story, and I chose this subject to remind us how easily wonder can return when we slow down, pay attention, and become aware and alive to our surroundings.

On New Year's Eve in 2020, I walked across the street from my home to the Carpenter Dam site on the Fox River in Illinois. I was in the midst of a traumatic divorce and this was the way to get back to my center. The goal was to finally capture image that were sharp enough to be able to polish up in post so that they were worth of submitting to art shows and PPA Merit Image Review. I have one merit image from that day and several other images that have either place in a show or was accepted as a juried exhibit. Well I found another one from that same day! This is "Wings Through Shadow". Many of my gull images start with the "Wings..." name.

Finally got around to processing my images taken at the Caroni Bird Sanctuary in Caroni Swamp, Trinidad where I took a boat ride to see the Scarlet Ibis coming in to roost in the late evening. The big challenge was the birds keep away from the mass of boats and tourist and being close to the equator the light fading very quickly. So in addition to high shutter speeds I also needed high ISOs

Peacocks are one of the most beautiful bird which are always presentable nO matter how you shoot them where you shoot them. What is your opinion or experience?

This is a video of dear Otis enjoying his catch. This was the end of the season, so Otis had already bulked up, making the skin and brains the only important parts for nutrition to help him through the winter months. The remainder of the salmon were left to float down stream to where the cows with their cubs were devouring the remains.

Brooks River, Katmai National Park, Alaska.