JUST PhotographIN'

The story of lefty began on July sixteenth of 2012.  Today, the story continues!

On July sixteenth, I was doing chores around the house with occasional breaks where I would look out the back door to see what might be in the backyard.  During one break in the middle of the day, I noticed a hummingbird sitting on the deck near a potted flower basket.  I did not think much of it as I ran back to grab my camera.  I thought the hummingbird would quickly fly off and I would miss any opportunity to get any photos.

I returned to the back door with my camera and was excited to find the hummingbird was still on the deck.  Upon further observation, I began to realize that the hummingbird was not acting normally.  Opening the door did not make the bird fly away.  I walked cautiously closer and it still did not fly away.

The hummingbird was frightened and began inching toward the potted flowers on the deck.  I snapped a few pictures of it and continued to observe that the bird appeared dazed, as if it had flown into a window or was a fledgling that was not able to fly well.  Either way, the bird was weak and could barely get any nectar out of the potted flowers.  I also noticed that it was holding its left wing out, which is unusual for hummingbirds [hence the name – Lefty].

I had no idea what to do with the hummingbird, but decided I had better try something.  I found a small red plastic butter tub lid and made some sugar water.  The bird was so weak it laid on the deck with its head sideways, and I stuck the lid under its beak in hopes it could drink.  I saw its tongue flicking in and out, which was a good sign that something was happening!

It was on the back deck for several hours, gradually gaining more strength and testing out flying farther.  The red plastic butter tub full of sugar water became its drinking dish and homing beacon.  Eventually, it found a few branches in the currant bush by the corner of the deck and started flying back and forth between the red lid with sugar water and the bush.

The days went by and I kept an eye on the hummingbird.  It seemed to gain strength and fly farther and better every day.  Eventually fall came around and it was time for the migration south.  Lefty followed the rest of the hummingbirds south for the winter.  It was sad to see her go, and I had no idea if she would make it down.

This spring, the hummingbirds began returning a couple weeks ago.  My thoughts went back to last summer and lefty.  Did she make it south?  Would she make it back?  Just today, lefty returned!

We were up in the park enjoying the day.  When we arrived home, the hummingbirds were zipping around as usual.  There was one, sitting on the same branch in the currant bush as last summer.  Lefty!  I have been watching her for most of the evening; she still has the same routine and route of flight.  The good news is that she does not need the red plastic butter tub lid with sugar water!  She found the hummingbird feeder and can fly with the rest of the hummingbirds!

What a great sight to see!  I look forward to keeping an eye on how she does this summer!

I have mentioned before that my primary goal is to get photos as close to what I want in camera before importing them onto the computer.  I am not really a huge fan of post processing [aka: photo editing, photoshopping, etc.].  Although, it does seem that post processing is a necessary step between taking the photo and publishing the photos to their respective locations for viewing.

I was talking to the pastor at my church a few weeks ago.  He asked me how things were going, and I mentioned what was going on with photography.  While I was on that topic, I mentioned photo editing.  I told him that I needed upgrades to be able to work on files from my camera.  The analogy that I came up with went something like this:  when I snap a photo on the camera, the file on the camera is like a negative;  It still needs to be developed on the computer with software;  Software has become somewhat like the dark room in the days of film.  This made me think, well, even back in the days of film they still merged photo exposures together and burned and dodged areas to get the right exposure and unique photos.  My goal is not necessarily to go crazy with making unrealistic photos, but rather to enhance the photo to make it closer to what I actually saw.

Granted that I am using a trial version of Adobe Creative Cloud as well as Adobe Lightroom 5 Beta, I am starting to enjoy the post processing portion of the photography process a little bit more!  Last night, I attempted my first post processed High Dynamic Range [HDR] photo merge with a few Jpeg files.  Of course, there is more data in the RAW files.  Once I pull those off the camera, I will be working on HDR images for a while!  I started attempting them in camera almost immediately after I purchased it.  Some people have criticized HDR images as looking cartoonish and almost having too much detail that the photos look unrealistic.  However, on the other side of the coin, that much detail can be observed by the naked eye at the scene and one exposure may not depict exactly what the eyes saw.  There is a balancing point for how far to take post processing and I am am still on the side of less is more.

I have been making notes on photos that have some form of major post processing – other than the usual minor tweaks that most photos get.  For example, I will label an HDR image with *HDR.  I may make notes for other edits if they are beyond the typical checks.  If there is no note, the photo is either straight off the camera or there was not any major post processing adjustment.

I am thankful for everyone that has been checking in.  The feedback has been great!  I am sure that with the learning curve with the camera and now the post processing, my photos will continue to improve.

The annual Estes Park Duck Race was held this last weekend on Saturday.  I decided to head down to see if I could find any interesting photo opportunities.

What I ended up trying to accomplish was showing the ducks moving down the river.  In order to get a little bit of motion, I decided to set the camera on a slower shutter speed and the focus on a duck that was stuck or not moving as much.  Then when a duck went by in the faster current, I could capture the motion.  I also found a few places where ducks were flowing over obstacles that were stationary.

Check out my collection of Estes Park Duck Race photos!