The Stories of Kensington Market

Got that macro lens!

As I mentioned last week, I'm really loving macro. The extension tubes are OK but they force you to choose between macro and regular distances (so when a hummingbird hovered nearby, I couldn't shoot it). I decided to bite the bullet and I bought the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR macro lens. Took delivery on Monday, and have only had a chance to shoot a couple of images with it. Here's one:

This image is straight out of the camera. I didn't do ANYTHING to it beyond my normal RAW file import preset in Lightroom, not even crop it.  Well, except for 'spot removing' a couple of blemishes in the flower. 

Did you notice there's a wee spider lurking in the centre of the flower? I didn't, until I looked at it onscreen!

Rogers Wireless. First they refused to admit they had (have) a problem with their tower up here despite the fact that at least a dozen of us have the same symptoms: the audio on incoming calls is breaking up even with 5 full bars of signal strength. Admittedly my iPhone 4s is getting old but I'm not the only one.

Then they offered to charge me almost $400 to upgrade the phone to the iPhone 5s. They tried to sell me on an Android phone. But they couldn't convince me that it would sync with my Outlook calendar and addressbook and sure enough, my own research revealed that it will NOT without third party software, which I would have to purchase.

In the end, they said they'd discount me $75 because I've been a loyal customer for 12 years. Whoopee.

Costco and the good folks at Bell. After waiting hours in Rogers stores with staff who are more concerned with the state of their fingernails and a thimble full of computer knowledge, I left and went to Costco. This for an iPhone 6 not iPhone 5, same plan (plus 50 minutes of US calling), cheaper price AND the phone cost was $149. If I switched to Bell, which I readily did.

20 minutes later I was live, they transferred my existing data from the old phone and I got on the road back up North.

The reason I went with Rogers in the first place was because of mistreatment by Telus and the fact they had no usable signal up here in the Highlands. With Bell, I've got 4 out of 5 bars sitting at my computer. The iPhone 6 is nice, same look and feel as the 4s but faster.

I just ordered this "Tough" iPhone case through RedBubble with my own image on it:

It's a pretty dark image (intentionally), looks good on screen and I hope it will print well. Cost me about 60% of the cost of an Otterbox, by the way.  

In a rut?

Here's a link to a series of ideas/exercises that might drag you out of that funk:

http://petapixel.com/2015/07/16/13-exercises-for-photographers-that-can-help-jump-start-creativity/

...or you could get out of your comfort zone and do something different, like street photography!

Street Photography Outing

Seven strong, we headed down to Kensington Market on Monday. All street photography newbies. We knew that it was supposed to rain around 2pm but we hung in there anyway. Trying to get everyone in the same place at the same time was like herding cats. It can't be done! Holly and Chris were in a 'horticultural' shop, learning how to plant certain kinds of "seeds". Maggie went into another shop and bought earrings. Sharon was doing her own thing. Wendy turned left when we turned right. It was a challenge! Amin and I stayed together most of the time, though.

First thing I shot was an onrushing streetcar on Spadina. Slow shutter speed, zoom while shooting. Kind of trite and overdone, but I like it! The streetcar driver wasn't too happy with me standing on the track in front of his moving vehicle!

Then there was this guy...

He was sitting there, giggling and laughing to himself. There was a lot of that going on in Kensington: I usually get the munchies too, when I get the giggles... anyway he got real serious and gave me the eye when he saw me shooting his picture. 

I didn't want to make it all about shooting characters. I wanted stories. So I actually approached this next guy (after I took his picture!) and asked him, "how do you sound"?

He said, "I don't know, I haven't played in a long time". I'm not sure what he was on but... He asked to see his picture on the camera then wanted me to email it to him! Either he wasn't what he seemed, or he was...

Then the rains came. 

Another guy walking along laughing loudly at some internal joke 

This was one of my favourite pictures of the day.  

But this one tops my list:

Tolerating the rain? Enjoying it? Reveling in it? In a hurry to get out of it? I didn't make this one black and white because I think the colour adds to it. In fact, I might make this the basis of my first attempt to paint a person. 

I have several more images to process from that outing. Hang in there!

Twinkle, Twinkle...

The other night I went out to photograph the Perseid meteor shower. Good news and bad news: I saw lots of meteorites but I didn't capture many on the camera. However I'd like to share two images.

This is a StarStaX composite of 100 images. There are actually four meteorite events visible in the image, look for lines that go in odd directions. But they're lost in the splendour of the star trails. I overlaid one of the foreground images and painted it in Impression

Both of these images are somewhat dark, I hope they render well on your monitor. 

This was a single long exposure (38 minutes). Partway through, I discovered that the lens was covered with dew so I carefully wiped it without moving the camera. The canoe was NOT in the scene: I comped it in after someone on Facebook gave me the idea. But the sky really did look like this, an example of real life emulating art.  

Stay tuned for more next week!

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The "Twirl" and Macro and other fun mid-summer stuff!

What's the deal with all these presets?

Lately I'm reading about all kinds of "Presets for Lightroom" and "Actions for Photoshop". "Get 300 new presets here" or "One-click editing"...

Have I ever used presets? Sure, on occasion, but usually they're ones I developed myself. In fact I use them all the time: every time I import RAW files into Lightroom I save them the same way, I sharpen them, I set the saturation and clarity... all with an import preset that I created. Ditto export presets: I format pictures for the purpose they're being used for (forgive the bad grammar!). I even obtained some presets for processing star images because it does it better than I can, and that's my point: I'll NEVER learn how to do it myself if all I do is click a button.

And what's the difference between these presets and plug-in programs like the ones from Topaz or Nik? Let's see if I can explain it better.

So what's a preset? In Lightroom, you invoke a preset and it moves some of the sliders to pre-determined positions. For example, the preset would choose a certain exposure value, white balance, clarity setting, black and white conversion, etc. Or where to save exported images and what sizes they are.

Seems to me that using presets bears a close relationship to shooting your camera on the dreaded "AUTO" setting. Now maybe I'm just a dinosaur, but it's always been my approach to understand why you do things and basically how it works. If you're a wedding photographer and you need to present a consistent look for hundreds or thousands of images under time pressure, I get it. But I like to work on my images one at a time and put some of my own magic and love into each one. Of course there's a time and a place for them: let's say you made a mistake and overexposed a whole series of pictures: wouldn't it be appropriate to fix one and then sync your adjustment to all the others?

How is that different from using, say, Nik HDR Efex Pro or Topaz Impression? It's a matter of degree. Those programs can accomplish in seconds what it might take you hours or maybe days to do, if you could ever figure out how! Although the presets do the same thing, they're more about applying a consistent look (as decided by the designer) to an image or a bunch of them.

I don't know if I'm making sense here. My argument against presets is the same as the one against using "AUTO" on your camera: the software engineer who developed the camera or the preset is making all the decisions for you.

Don't get me wrong: it's good to have a consistent look and feel in your body of work (if that's what you want!).  People who have decided what they want to be when they grow up have done that. Good for them: but they should do it themselves instead of having someone else do it for them.

Bottom line? "Give a man a fish...". Design your own presets. Understand WHY. It's easy to do and then you put your own fingerprint on your pictures.

That said, "The Twirl"!

Now trending on Facebook: "The Twirl"! It's a relatively simple Photoshop trick that turns this:

into this:

In fairness, the original image isn't a simple one. But when you "Twirl" you can use just about ANY picture! This one was a composite – two images focus-stacked, and I used Topaz Glow on the puffball, but I didn't need to! I chose it because it was 'there'! 

So this was exactly what I said NOT to do in the top article. Except that I'm studying HOW it works so that I can add my own personal touch to it.

Now the argument is that this takes no skill. It's a routine where you more-or-less just push buttons, just like shooting on Auto! And because it was a fad, it took over the Photoshop and Lightroom group for a day or two, some people got disgusted by the overwhelming number of images. Let me say a couple of things (with which you may or may not agree)

• It's kinda cool
• It's easy to do if you can follow instructions. Therefore it gets people, who are afraid of Photoshop, to actually try it and experiment
• You can add your own 'flavour' to it by adjusting some of the parameters and then you can do artistic things like blending in some of the original picture!

Here's a couple of examples.

I simply added the original image as a layer on top, then masked everything except the two seeds. 

I made this from the picture below using exactly the same technique, I painted a mask on the original image after placing it on top of the stack. 

By the way, the Highland Yard was last weekend and I was really NOT happy with my pictures. For one thing, the lighting was horrible with the start/finish in the shade and the rest of the world in bright sunlight.  

So for those of you who would like to know how to do this and give it a try, here are the instructions. Note: you need to have Photoshop. Not Elements, Photoshop. I think the tools were there in earlier versions but I'm not sure since they've been deleted from my computer and I couldn't look and see. I'm using Photoshop CC 2015. Here are the steps:

1. Open any photo.
2. Duplicate the background layer (so you have the original for later if you want it). Ctrl-J (Cmd-J on a Mac).
3. Work on the duplicate layer. Filter → Pixelate → Mezzotint → Medium Lines
4. Filter → Blur → Radial Blur (set the slider to 100, blur method to 'zoom', quality to 'best')
5. You can repeat this step a few times if you want. I find it smooths things out. A quick way to repeat it is to hit Ctrl-F (Cmd-F) which runs the same filter you just ran, again.
6. Duplicate this layer (Ctrl/Cmd-J)
7. Turn off the duplicate layer and work on the one you duplicated from. Filter → Distort → Twirl (set the angle to 80 as a starting point. You can play with this).
8. Now turn on the duplicate layer and work on that one. Do exactly the same thing except this time set the angle to the negative of the one you used: "-80°" for example.
9. Set the blending mode of this layer to "lighten".
10. Sit back and admire your handiwork.

Like I said, you can now take the original layer and put it on top, then add a layer mask and paint it in (black brush on the mask) or play to your heart's content.

One more example, from an ugly raspberry picture:

PS: I read a GREAT suggestion (I would attribute it if I knew who came up with it). Take a picture of your living room or bedroom. This picture will have a colour palette that exactly matches the room. Now create a 'twirl' image from this picture. Print it HUGE on canvas and hang it over the couch as a colour coordinated piece of art! Brilliant idea that I'm going to try. This might even be a salable concept!

PanAm Games

As many of you know, I shot the PanAm Games Canoe and Kayak Slalom event at the Minden Whitewater Preserve. Lots and lots of pictures! I put them up on my SmugMug site rather than posting them here, so go to http://faczen.smugmug.com/White-Water/PanAm-Games-2015/ to see them. 

Now I was not able to get permission to sell prints for commercial purposes (long story). But several people have asked for pictures including (a) the Canadian Team, (b) the US team, (c) locals whose kids were 'forerunners' – testing the course before the PanAm races (no list exists cross-referencing bib numbers and names. If you are in this group, email me with the bib number and I'll check and see what pictures I got), (d) the parents of Canadian/US team members and (e) people who just liked one or more of my pictures.

If you want a digital download, you're welcome to it at no charge. Just send me an email with the filename off the SmugMug site above. If you want a print, I'll set it up so you can order through my artist website hosted by Fine Art America, but again you have to contact me. The prices just cover costs so it's non-commercial. And FAA will ship worldwide. By the way, you can buy my other fine art images there too: even throw pillows and iPhone cases if you want!

The Macro World

Wow. A whole other set of possibilities. Here's the deal: I ordered, and finally received, a set of extension tubes which convert my lenses into macro lenses. They move the lens away from the camera body so you can focus closer. I bought the ones that have electrical connections so that you can use autofocus and through the lens metering. They cost me all of $40 (US) and came from the Far East, via eBay. Good news and bad news... but first, here's a sample image:

This is my favourite one so far. It's a "hoverfly" or "flower fly" and it's about the same size as an ant, less in length than your fingernail. This IS cropped and yes, I did do some Photoshop enhancement (primarily with Topaz Clarity). I shot this with a 36mm extension tube on my 70-200 lens. Lighting was provided by Mr. Sun, up there in the sky, but I gave it a little help with my ringlight, another inexpensive eBay Chinese purchase.

So now the bad news. You do 'get what you pay for'... there are 3 tubes in the set: 12mm, 20mm and 36mm. They're made of plastic, not metal. The 12mm works fine. The electrical connections on the 20mm don't work so when you look through the lens it's dark if you've stopped down, and autofocus doesn't work (autofocus sucks for macro anyway. You have to focus manually). When I mounted the 36mm/70-200 combo on my tripod, the connection to the camera isn't rock steady so the electrics go in and out. Handheld it's OK and on a lighter lens it's also OK. I wrote to the supplier, I could get a refund but would have to ship it back to get it and the postage cost would be horrendous, so they credited me half my cost (and had the nerve to ask me to give them positive feedback...). So in the end I have usable tubes for $20 or so.

Also: with the extension tube mounted, you can ONLY shoot macro. You can't focus to infinity. But it's so much fun that I decided to bite the bullet and I've arranged to get a REAL macro lens, the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR which I should pick up next week. Stay tuned!

In the meantime here are some more macro shots for your enjoyment!

I LOVE wild raspberries. I have a million of them on my property and a couple of quarts frozen in my freezer for mid-winter! 

Here's another fly I shot the first day I got the tubes 

...and a flower I treated with Topaz Impression. Unfortunately I didn't record which preset I used, probably Degas if I remember. 

A black-and-white conversion of a daisy, following the technique that I wrote about a few months ago. 

And finally, a shy grasshopper behind my house. I say 'shy' because he moved away every time I got in range! Got him finally, though. 

Stay tuned for more macro's: they are really a lot of fun. I haven't taken out my light tent yet!

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Pan Am Games at the Whitewater

SHOOTING THE TO2015 PAN AM GAMES
KAYAK/CANOE SLALOM EVENT
AT THE MINDEN WILDWATER PRESERVE

One of the first attractions I discovered after moving to the Highlands 8 years ago was the Minden WildWater Preserve. A project spearheaded by Claudia van Wijk, and Heinz and Dieter Poenn over a decade ago has transformed this part of the Gull River into something virtually unique in the world, a natural waterway made suitable for Olympic-class whitewater canoeing and kayaking. All of the other venues in the world are constructed of cement and plastic and don’t have a trace of the natural beauty of the Gull River.

Dieter, Heinz and Claudia: the people responsible for making the MWP happen. Whitewater Ontario actually owns the property on the East side of the river.

 I always love to spend time there, sometimes watching the kayakers on the water, other times alone by the riverside, just drinking in its majesty, the waters crashing by just a few feet away even in winter. I’ve even brought my 93-year old mother there and stood back as she sat lost in its emotional tranquility. I’ve attended, and photographed almost every event on the waters since then. 

So when I heard that the Pan Am Games were to be held there, I knew I had to find a way to be part of it. One of my first thoughts was to wonder what they were going to do to accommodate the slew of people who would participate in, organize, manage and view the event. The parking lot on the west side of the river could only hold about 8 cars!

Note: all of the action images here and in the gallery follow journalistic rules: cropping, exposure adjustment and dodge/burn were the only tools I used.

I knew that getting permission to shoot the event would not be easy so I set out to take the steps to get the necessary accreditation as a press photographer. It was quite a journey.

You can look at the way this event was carried out in a couple of ways. I decided to be a “glass-half-full” kind of guy so I let myself understand why some things were the way they were. Inconvenience, road closures, stringent security… these were things that were necessary in these times. But not once did I meet anyone – management, staff, police, security, volunteers, coaches, athletes – who did not have a smile on his or her face or a good reason for their decisions. Bravo, TO 2015 Pan Am team!

Tania Fernandez, second from the left was in charge of the entire site. She's Portuguese but hails from England and was brought in to manage the event due to her international experience. 

The Whitewater Rescue Team comprised mostly highly trained firefighters.  

Here’s an example: when I showed up on the first day of practice, some areas were still designated as construction sites, so I couldn’t go in. The site manager herself (Tania, above) took me on a tour and let me in areas that would eventually be restricted (athletes only) later in the week. Another: partway through the training week, a security supervisor told me I was not allowed to cross the ribbon barrier onto the rocks near the river. I pointed out that I was press accredited and that those were designated photographer areas. He checked, found out I was right, but expressed concern for my safety. Right action. Eventually they made me wear a life vest. They were right to do that (wouldn’t let me keep it, though! It was actually big enough and said “Rescue” on the back!).

Me, on the rocks at the start line, with the life vest they insisted I wear!
The grey vest underneath was the one I had to trek all the way down to the CNE to pick up.

Sure, there were some glitches. For instance, why did they set up the media centre on the East side of the river (we could only shoot on the West), basically a 2km walk (uphill both ways, just like when I trudged to school when I was little), and no water or food for us where we were working? We adapted. No bib number cross-references during the training days, so I had to guess who was whom. And I still don’t know who the 8 or 12 “Forerunners” were who made sure the course was working (If you were one of them or related, email me. I have pictures of pretty well all of them!). And who could have predicted the crashing thunderstorm that rolled through on Sunday afternoon?

Spectators had a good view of the action, almost as good as we had. Tom and Diane Dawson from Wintergreen kept everyone fed and happy, running at high efficiency with great food at reasonable prices, unlike their big city counterparts! There were almost more staff and volunteers than spectators, but each had a role! 

Tom Dawson (red shirt) tending the BBQ that produced all that delicious food. 

Since the lunch break was short, everyone had to be fed in one massive surge! Tom was efficient, the lineup moved quickly. Meantime, Diane was feeding the athletes and officials across the river! Wintergreen rocks! 

Kudo’s to the paramedics whom I saw caring for a spectator who had succumbed to the heat. And to the whitewater rescue guys and gals – mostly highly trained firefighters who wore those suffocating life vests and wetsuits all day long. Thankfully, they had nothing to do (as far as I know), which is as it should be. Even the Police were super friendly (well there was one guy, not in uniform but with the tell-tale curly cord leading to his ear, but I’m pretty sure I know what his job was…). The Canadian Press guys (you could identify them by their special blue vests and the 100 lbs of camera gear they were carrying around) kind of looked down on us local types, but hey!

A lot of the staff and volunteers were locals. I met some great people, made some new friends, convinced one or two to come out to the camera club and keep in touch. There was Liz (“Leeez!”) a gate judge I spent the better part of the day with, from Mexico, and Jen and Ruth and Duncan in his yellow tie…

Duncan was primary judge on the middle gates (from about 7-13) on the course

Liz was on the rocky spit where I spent most of the day. She was responsible for a series of gates, as backup to Duncan. I was the one who insisted she wear a life vest, she stood precariously on the rocks, right on the edge!

---

Congratulations to our Canadian athletes: Jazmyne Denhollander (GOLD medal, women’s K1 kayak), Cameron Smedley (SILVER medal, men’s C1 canoe), Ben Hayward (BRONZE medal, men’s K1 kayak) and Haley Daniels (BRONZE medal, women’s C1 canoe). Also to the other Canadian athletes who did exceedingly well in the Olympic Trials held simultaneously. See you in Rio in 2016!

---

Jazmyne Denhollander, Gold Medal winner, K1 Women
 

Cameron Smedley, Silver Medal, C1 Men 

Haley Daniels, Bronze Medal, C1 Women 

Ben Hayward, Bronze Medal, K1 Men 

So kudo’s (or “Props” as the kids say today) to the organizers and everyone associated with this terrific event. Y’all did good!

Here are a few more images that I liked from the event. Enjoy!

American C2 Olympic hopefuls Tyler Smith and Ted Dennis run the Olympic Qualifier. 

Canadian K1 Women's hopeful Jessica Groeneveld "in the zone", visualizing her run in the Olympic Qualifier 

You know me! I like to shoot abstracts. This is NOT Photoshop (except the frame and signature!) it was all done in camera. 

There are 156 images currently uploaded for your viewing pleasure on my SmugMug Gallery. On SmugMug, click any picture to blow it up fullscreen. Hover your mouse over the bottom of the screen for the description. Use the arrow keys to go to the next image.

PS: here’s the thing: apparently I’m not allowed to sell any of my pictures for commercial purposes. So if you want any of my pictures, either as digital downloads or prints, we’ll have to find a way to do that for free. I’ll figure out something. Send me an email at photography@faczen.com and tell me what you’re looking for. 

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Life in the Fast Lane

What's the definition of being "retired"?

I know that some retired people can't find a way to keep busy and bemoan the fact that their days are not productive, but I think a good retirement is one where you do the things you WANT to do, not the things you HAVE to do. I think it's important to continue to strive towards goals. The problem is, the word "retired" has the word "tired" in it. That's how I feel a lot of the time and I wish I had taken better care of myself physically, but I've certainly found enough to challenge me mentally and emotionally. 

I don't mean to lecture (OK, maybe I do...) but if you don't have something you feel passionate about you're going to be bored and unfulfilled when you reach that point in your life. I know several people at my age and beyond who continue to challenge themselves. My best example is 90-year-old Stu Freedman who's still shooting bird pictures down in Florida. 

My passion is to express my creativity, whether in photography and digital art, or painting or music. I practice my guitar every day and paint at least once/week, although I'm really bad at it and trying to learn! And sharing my experiences through teaching and through my writing. The physical stuff – the motorcycling, the skiing, playing sports, these can all go away at some point when you can't do them any more. I'm glad I have some things to fall back upon and I hope you, my dear readers, will think about it and plan accordingly.

Enough proselytizing. Just something to think about.

The Fast Lane

Living up here in the Highlands cannot be considered "Living in the Fast Lane" by any stretch of the imagination. I grow more and more frustrated by the frenetic pace of the big city – it took me 10 hours to go down to the CNE (actually the "CIBC PanAm Sports Park" to get my press credentials validated and pick up the famous photo vest, without which I would not be able to get in to any of the Games venues. Good thing I went when I did – the roads are now completely closed: when I went I could drive in but not park anywhere (I won't tell you how I managed to park outside the Media Centre! Let's just say a little extra limp in my walk didn't hurt). And the signs "No Left Turn" and "HOV Lane Only" were the bane of my existence that day. But I got it:

I'll shoot the Canoe/Kayak slalom event for sure. If I have enough energy, I'll possible go to the shooting venue in Innisfil as well. But I have ZERO desire to go to any of the big sports events in Toronto. OK, I shouldn't say "zero": it would be fun to shoot some of those, but you won't see me going down to that frantic city.

Up here in the Highlands, we have more rural activities!

For instance, there was a Miniature Horse Show and a Rodeo in Minden!

Here are three different horse pictures, all shot at the Minden Fairgrounds.

This one was at the Miniature Horse Show a week or two ago. I didn't know that these animals existed. That's not a young 'un, it's fully grown.  

Forgive me, Cathy, but every time I think of the words "miniature horses" I can hear Amy on Big Bang Theory telling Penny about her pretend boyfriend, "Armin the Miniature Horse Breeder". Funny episode...

At the Minden Rodeo yesterday. This rider was practicing her skills in the corral in preparation for the event later in the day (which I missed due to another commitment. I also didn't go on Sunday because it was pouring rain!).

I painted over the existing background (fence, people, trailers, stuff) with dust from the lower part of the image. Then I applied Topaz Impression's "Cave Dweller" preset for the texture and added the horse and rider back in (using Topaz Remask to select them), also with a weak Cave Dweller treatment so it would blend in better. 

Here's what it looked like before I processed it

I didn't know these existed either! The're Belgian Draft Horses and yes, that's how big they are. These guys weigh in at over 2000 pounds each! They hooked them up to a weighted sled which they had to pull over a 20' distance. The sled weighed upwards of 6,000 pounds.

This image was a 5-shot HDR blend using NIK software. The background was toned back using several techniques, including the new deHaze filter in Adobe Camera Raw.

Time for a new banner! 

As usual, to archive it in the blog itself, I'll reproduce the new one here. Some can't see it (on mobile devices or through RSS feeds), and it goes away retroactively every time I change it. 

I shot this at Carden Plain a couple of days ago. I was there with Dr. Ron, Linda Cresswell and Cheryl Goff (although Ron had already left for Algonquin Park. Linda and Cheryl and I were on the "Sedge Wren Marsh walking trail" when we came across this "Fritillary" butterfly sitting on a milkweed flower (thanks, Linda!)

I shot this with my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 mounted on a TC17e 1.7x teleconverter. I can't wait for the extension tubes I ordered to show up so I can do real macro shots! 

Speaking of Carden Plain

I'm hooked. I love the place. I go there every chance I get: and since it's right on the route between Minden and Toronto, that's at least once/week! I'm stuck in a rut, photographically, but it's a good rut! I wish I had one of those king sized lenses – someone suggested I sell my car and buy one! My birthday's coming up in a few months, that 500mm f/4 looks pretty good. I saw one on eBay for only $6000...

I don't want to swamp this blog with Carden bird pictures, so I've created a gallery on Smugmug where I'm accumulating images. It's here: http://faczen.smugmug.com/Carden-Plain/. I have a little under 100 images on there as I write this. Go have a look, I'll wait right here until you get back! Here's a couple of samples from Sunday:

Bluebird with Spider. S/he was bringing it to the nest for the young 'uns. 

And this Eastern Phoebe was doing the same thing with a grasshopper for her kiddies. Her nest was inside the blind so our presence made her wait, posing, outside until she could get in! 

By the way, it's not just birds at Carden. I met this fellow and his buddy when I was there last week. Keep your eyes open...

Black Rat Snake. Well over 4' long. Not venemous but I heard they bite when provoked! He was sunning himself on the little bridge on Wylie Road. 

Photo Assignment

The group "F.O.G." (it stands for "Four Old Guys") has recorded their second CD "Goin' Slow", and I shot some images for the CD cover. This one won't be used, it's too 'serious' but I thought I'd share it because it was technical:

I stacked four images, focusing on each of the faces. Then I added the blur effect, toned it and added some grain to give it a vintage feel. From near to far, that's Francis, Steve (my cousin), Al and Weiman (also a "Steve"!) 

The CD will be out soon and it will be worth adding to your collection. I'll tell you where you can get it as soon as I know.

Parting Shot...

Last week in Minden, I came across this Model "A" Ford Racer.

It took about an hour to finish this image. First, I had shot 5 bracketed images and merged them to an HDR. I selected out the car for separate processing, then I added texture to the background, and then brought the car back in and used Impression/Palette Knife and Oil preset to finish it. There was a lot of detail to clean up, including removing the "For Sale" sign that was on the car.

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