Daily Image - Jan 2016 Archive

04 Jan 16. Last Sunday evening about this time we were looking at the weather report which was PROMISING bright and sunny weather for a minimum of 5 days after a couple weeks of solid rain. We got up around 0500 Monday and rechecked the reports and sure enough SUNNY for 5 days minimum, so we headed off for the North Cascades Highway to shoot eagles and whatever else we might encounter hoping to add geese, swans, and some snow, ice, and mountains to boot. By the time we got to our destination the sky was solid gray and gave no sign of changing its mind.Nor were there any eagles although we counted 5 on our way up. So we went further east to where we always get the wonderful ice creations I share annually to find a very sparse collection that wasn't very interesting, as well as our favorite lookout where we shoot the Diablo Mountains piled in snow that had an ice underbelly that made travel not safe. Not that it mattered as the mountains were also totally socked in. So we headed back down to the eagle area where this time we found a group eagles all congregating in a single crook in the river. However, the Skagit was way too high for successful fishing and most of the birds were just sitting in the trees. The river was higher than we had ever seen it but according to the indications on the bank about two feet lower than it had been in the very recent past with all the rain!! Took a few shots of the birds and moved on thinking we might get a chance at a few mountain shots if we were lucky. I drove past the turn off I needed and wound up by a marsh that I like to shoot. So we stopped and while I was working the marsh Maggie jumped up onto the plowed snow to play in her favorite stuff and was having a ball. But she couldn't be satisfied just playing in the snow so she thought she'd progress over the bank and down to the frozen marsh and try walking on ice. It took less than a minute and she fell through the ice into the freezing water where I couldn't get to her. I frantically called to her to get her headed in the right direction where upon she got her front end out of the water but not her rear end. Jan brought the SUV to where we were and I started looking through the back of it to see what we might have that we could use to get her out when all of sudden there she was walking around the front of the car and shaking off as if to say that was fun! At that point we put her in the vehicle and headed off to find the missed turn and try to shoot Mt Baker. As we were heading in that direction the sun finally broke out and we got to see the lower portion of the mountain. By the time we reached our mountain shoot destination the weather was breaking up but the top of the mountain was still hidden in the clouds. I was ready to go home but Jan thought we should try and wait out the clouds. I was doubtful but we did and it was really worth the wait!! When the clouds did clear it was perfect lighting and I got several dozen truly great shots of the mountain. We'll get to the mountain shots later but for today we'll take a look at where the eagles were hanging out. I gave some serious consideration to replacing the bleak sky but then decided that it would not fit the story or the occasion, so you are seeing the sky as we saw if for most of the day. When I took this shot I was looking at three birds; when I got it home and began to work with it I realized that I had miscounted. Your tasking for today is to tell me how many birds are actually in this one shot. Hint: it is more than 3. I didn't do anything beyond the standard workflow with this image. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/250 sec @ f / 8.

05 Jan 16. So here we go with the first of the shots of Mt Baker. This is taken from the Baker Lake campground which happens to be directly across from where the WA Mountaineers have their resort cabin. It is a very short walk to the campground from that cabin which was where I was staying the first time I shot from this location. This in not the normal view you get of the Mountain from the Puget Sound side nor what you see in the parking lot of Artist's Point at the end of the Mount Baker Scenic Highway which happens to end in that parking lot. So for those of you who like to photograph large rocks this is a great location for getting a different view of this majestic Mountain. The clouds on the right third were on the very left edge of the range when we arrived and were slowly moving across the face as we observed. The low lying clouds in the valley were also rising so we got to see a great show. By the time we left the clouds at the left hand edge of the shot had moved across and out of view on the right hand side. The heavy snow on the mountain and the trees at the base of the mountain is mimicked to a lesser degree by the small amount on the trees in the foreground. With the trees being silhouetted by the rising fog I thought it presented a composition that would be hard to beat. I converted the image to a B&W using Topaz's B&W 2 plug-in and used an orange filter to dramatically darken the sky just as one would with an orange filter on the lens with B&W film. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

06 Jan 16. Way late for today; yesterday's activities just got in the way of several things including this mailing. Then I got further delayed this morning when a photo op occurred that was time sensitive so just now getting around to getting it out. This is a shot which I've shared many times before, all different of course, with this time it being a shot emphasizing the freshly fallen snow on the Cascades. Giving you two versions of the same file; you could layer them on top of each other and by reducing the opacity of the top image create a third one that might be the best of the three. Any of you playing with graphics programs that incorporate layers ought to give it a go. This is the snow that was falling during the last cold spell and when the sun was out, as on this day, the mountains were simply spectacular. Really a difficult challenge considering our weather, but if you ever have an opportunity to see the Cascades in freshly fallen snow AND bright sunshine, meaning you actually get to see them, and you haven't done so, you owe it to yourselves to try and do it. You won't be disappointed; NONE of my photos can do that scene justice. Nor can anyone else for that matter. A shot of this view I've not shared is one I took a couple years back of a Princess cruise ship as it passed abreast that light house that Jan and JoAnne, my cousin's bride, were aboard on their way to Alaska . May have to share that one of these days. The original image was first severely cropped to get rid of a lot of stuff I didn't want and to correct for my lousy holding of the camera. Then I did come detail enhancement with the detail extractor plug-in, played that off with a little noise reduction to counter what the detail enhancement introduced, and that was it for the original version. The sketched version was created by employing the simplify plug-in. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /10.

07 Jan 16. As you should all be aware, we are owned by a designer dog named Maggie, officially Margaret, who parents are a Labrador and a French Poodle, making her a Labradoodle. Being such she is supposed to be hypoallergenic, non shedding, and a water lover. We, as well as many others, are allergic to her, she sheds enough fur daily to knit a small sweater, and for the most part hates water. And with respect to water, she doesn't drink it without ice or it being outside in cold weather. We are convinced she either can't read or she didn't get her manual of operation, or both. But we love her anyway. If she could talk, she would tell you that her three most favoritist things in the world are 1) playing in the snow, 2) running on the beach, and 3) riding in the car . . . anywhere. And closely behind those three are TREATS, anytime, anywhere. Last Monday's trip up in the Skagit provided her with a few opportunities to indulge favorite item #1 which was also what got her in trouble. Her first exploit was near the lookout where we shoot the Diablo Mountains up Cascade River Road a ways and she had a ball just running in the snow to almost exhaustion where upon she simply plopped down to spread out in the snow and eat it. That's the shot for today's Theatrical Thursday submission. When we left that area and traveled up Baker Lake Road to the marsh I like to shoot, a shot of which I shared in December, she once again decided to go for a run in the snow, this time that which had been plowed and piled along the side and which formed a rather steep shoulder alongside the bog. After running along a rather lengthy portion of the embankment she thought a walk on the wild side, i.e., frozen top of the bog, would be just the thing. She made a hasty run down down the embankment and immediately tried her legs on the ice to see what she could do. After about four of five steps the ice gave way and in she went to the frozen bog. That took her by complete surprise and she stood there, fortunately with her feet on the bottom, looking somewhat bewildered. Being Maggie she then tried making her way in the wrong direction with me watching somewhat frantically. I started yelling at her to come to me whereupon she turned in the right direction making her way to the bank but not being able to get more then her front half out of the water. Jan brought the SUV around and while we were trying to decide how best to rescue her she suddenly appeared next to us, shaking off the water and looking as if to say, well, that was fun, where to next. We dried her off as best possible, got her in the car, and turned the heat to high as we drove off to wet dog smells in the vehicle until she dried off. This shot of her was taken as she was munching on snow on Cascade River road. It's her Dog World centerfold pose; I've removed the staples. The base image was cropped to include mostly Maggie, then I applied some micro contrast enhancement using the Clarity plug-in, and that was followed by an application of the Glow plug-in. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/250 sec @ f / 7.1.

08 Jan 16. Our cold spell has snapped and with it some truly delightful frosty morning scenes. Actually, for several of those frosty days, the scenes were present throughout the day as the temps stayed below freezing. After the first couple days of moist freezing temps we began noticing small crystal formations on most of the vegetation. As the cold spell progressed so did the growth of the crystals until some of them exceeded 3/8th of an inch. I took to shooting the better specimens each morning as we walked Maggie along our road for her morning exercise and over a weeks time got many really interesting shots. Today's submission is of a thistle, or at least what remains of a thistle after the bloom has expired. Blow it up to 100% to get a feel for the size of the crystals on the plants leaves. The base was given a very small amount of micro contrast using the Clarity plug-in and that was it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/60 sec @ f /13 with full flash.

11 Jan 16. Early this afternoon our neighbors stopped by to collect their dog Mini, with whom you are all familiar, and while so doing invited us to join them at their water front property to hopefully watch and photograph whales. I mentioned it to Jan who immediately said let's go, so I readied the camera for some long shots, loaded it and the three of us into the van and headed out. We hadn't been there more than 15 minutes when"our" two humpback whales made their presence known. I got two series of shots of them and was reasonably pleased with some of the frames, four of which I'm sharing with you today in the form of a 2x2 panel that should be viewed L to R; T to B. This is a shot of the adult female who is easily recognizable by her quite distinctive tail fluke. You are looking across Puget Sound towards the Edmonds shoreline which was sharply visible in the images but was a distraction from the mammal so I cropped that portion, as well as some other stuff, out of the four frames. For those of you not familiar with Puget Sound, here is a link that will give you some idea of where it is and what it is (just ignore the Salish Sound crap.) Look at the second chart (in blue) on the right to locate Edmonds; we were shooting directly across form that on the opposite shore about 3 miles further north. At this point the sound is roughly 5 miles across and the whales are somewhere between 3.5 ad 4 miles out from us. It is very hard to measure distance across the water, but I'm making my judgement by where they were in the frame relative to both sides, top and bottom of the frame, of the sound. This series of shots was taken just as the whale prepared to sound. In order to reach them I used my 150 - 600 Tamron zoom which is not an expensive long tele by any measurement, but amazingly sharp for the money. I was fully zoomed out to the 600mm focal length and with the small sensor in the D300s it amounted to an equivalent 900mm lens on a standard film or full frame digital camera. What you are seeing in each image is roughly 1/3 of the frame so the total magnification on this image is significant! The base image consists of four frames I've first cropped, then pasted on a black canvas equal in size to the four frames, spaced so you can get a sense of progression, then the four combined into a single image and saved as such. Otherwise, straight from the camera. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 400/sec @ f /9 on a tripod with the 150 - 600 attached to a Wimberly arm.

12 Jan 16. For today's B&W submission we'll take a second look at a shot I shared last year in full color of the bog on which Maggie thought she might take a stroll on the wild side. IF you are among those who have been keeping these images take at look at the previous image after you've studied this one some. This one was worked up to include all zones of the Zone System, and one which I had some fun doing. When we visited this year it was a couple weeks earlier than last year when I took this shot and there was virtually none of the snow you see in this image. Next visit will likely be in 2017 on a sunny day when I know that there will be snow on the ground; if the eagles are still around so be it, but I think I'll make them the back up material and go for the snow scenes as my main theme. What we really need to do is get up high and shoot the snow covered trees but at the moment I'm not sure where we should go. Perhaps those of you local can provide some insights on where to get that kind of shot. In the meantime for any of you local who might find this kind of scene appealing it is easy to reach, just take the Baker Lake Road off off of highway 20 and drive along, under 20 miles, until you reach it. It will be on your left side of the road. After converting to B&W, I used a zone system plug-in to get all the zones properly adjusted; that was all. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 8.

13 Jan 16. While waiting for the whales to make their presence known, we were apparently the observers of some local sea lion convention. Perhaps a half mile off shore was this string of several California Sea Lions who were, I guess, just basking in the sun. Every so often they became vocal but that generally was for less than 30 seconds. I have absolutely no idea what they were actually doing, why they were there, or for how long they stayed. I've never seen anything like this before but it was fun to observe. If any of you actually know what it is they are doing I'd love to know. Going on whiskers I count 24 critters, but I think there are a few whose heads are blocked from view so the total may have been closer to 30. A herd of seals and a pair of whales all within an hour made for me a pretty good day! I gave this shot a little contrast enhancement, removed a distracting gull, and called it quits. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /10 with the Tamron 150 -600 zoom.

14 Jan 16. While driving around about this time last year just going up and down rural roads to see what was there and where they would take us, something we frequently do just for the fun of it and to see new places and things, we came across what might best be described as a marsh in a farmer's field that butted up against the road. At the time we had absolutely no idea where we were but knew that if we followed the road far enough it would intersect with something with which we were familiar. It of course did and that something turned out to be the main highway in the area, HWY 104. We finally found a name for the road which is Center Road and happens to be the road one took to the Olympic Music Festival grounds for years. In 2016 the Music Festival is moving to Fort Worden in Port Townsend, but for years it was located on a farm in the middle of nowhere. If one were to look for this marsh, the easiest way would be to travel west on Hwy 104, exit at the sign that says Chimicum, and drive perhaps 5 miles; it will be on your right. What originally caught our eyes was the beaver lodge and we spent the better part of a half hour searching in vain for the critters, but they were either out of town or just not feeling overly hospitable on the day of our unannounced visit. We have passed by several times since that first visit but have yet to see anything but water fowl swimming in the marsh plus a few marsh song birds. Perhaps if you pay a visit you may have better luck in viewing the "locals." This image was given the standard fare then I used the Impression plug-in to give it a "Rembrandt" look. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 8.

15 Jan 16. Taking her Majesty out for her morning ablutions last Saturday we immediately noticed that our drive as well as the sticker bushes along the road side of the property were full of spider webs covered in dew and showing off perfectly with the sun striking them at just the right angle. By the time we had finished the walk they were all but impossible to find, the sun having climbed a bit higher in the sky and no longer illuminating them. There were many different looks being provided while they were visible, but one in particular really caught my eye. Now I've always equated the spider with the ants in the ant and grasshopper tale, so to see this particular web I was somewhat taken aback. Somehow it seems we have a grasshopper version of a spider on our premises, one who would prefer to lie back and relax rather than be actively hunting for its meal. Who could imagine a sight so rare as a spider weaving a hammock; but sure enough, we have one on our property. I cropped the base image to isolate the web, then cloned out some strands that were highly distracting, and called it quits. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200, Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 6.3 with full flash in order to reach the distant web.

18 Jan 16. Back to Mt Baker again today with 18 images, of which you get to see the 18th image, a composite of the other 17. I am sharing a significantly smaller version of the final image as there is no way I could get it mailed, being as it is over 50 MB. So while this one would suffer from printing, it will look fine on screen. The frames for this were taken on a tripod but not one properly equipped for shooting panos so I didn't have the camera level and centered properly resulting in the bottom of the landscape being sacrificed in the creation of the pano. I have the stuff I need to do the job but do not normally carry it with me unless my intent is to shoot panos which wasn't on my mind when we left for the mountains. Guess that says something about my Boy Scout training. However, you still get to see the relative heights of the mountains in that area with the biggest peak, that of Mt Baker, coming in at 10,781 feet above sea level. Note that it wasn't going to be very long before the peak was once again obscured by weather. The 17 images were first adjusted as a single group to have them all display the same characteristics, then combined to form the pano. I added a wee amount of micro contrast to the clouds to bring them out and then followed that by tinkering a small amount with the colors using Simplify to add some warmth. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

19 Jan 16. Here is a follow on from what I shared last Friday, it being the larger picture when compared with the close up of the hammock web. This is what we saw as we walked out the driveway to the street and again as we walked down the street. It was all gone - from sight - by the time we returned but it was fun to see while it lasted. Hard to come up with the number of webs in this shot as they are at all angles; some are clearly visible, others are not so noticeable. We both thought it a bit late for this many webs to be seen at a time, more like what we are used to seeing in the fall, but as it was the first time for us this year I simply had to get a few shots. Our frosty mornings have left us now that we are entering the high 40s to low 50s temps, so I'm thinking we won't be seeing any more of this, unless of course I get out the trusty spray bottle, until next fall. This could be severely cropped on the left to almost the half way point to create two different photos which when combined with how I'm sending it would give you a "threefer." All that was done to this image was to convert it to a B&W. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 640; 1/80 sec @ f / 5.6. Note the minimal noise even at this high an ISO.

20 Jan 16. We're going with another pano for today, this time a view of where we live. Well, not exactly where we live, but roughly 5 miles north of where we reside. I could have gone two miles south and provided a different view of generally the same area, but I like this shot and there is a story behind it. This is a picture of Hansville where my dad's sister and her husband lived and were basically the entire business section of the town for perhaps 30 years. The road down the center is Hansville Road. Five miles south (the photo is oriented N/S) lies Eglon where we actually live, and 4 miles further south is Kingston where you can ride a ferry to the opposite shore of Puget Sound. You are looking more easterly than northerly and the big blue island is Whidbey Island where the Navy has a major jet base. About an inch into the photo to the right of where the island seems to be dropping down a notch sits Mt Baker when you can see it which more often than not you can't. We have that kind of weather. Off to the far left of the shot is the location for the Skunk Bay Weather site. It is run by a single individual with whom the major networks consult on a regular basis. It is something of interest to the locals, but the rest of you might find it interesting. If for no other reason other than to watch the shipping traffic on Puget Sound real time as well as the flights into and out of SEATAC. A fun place. Now for the story. It was requested of me to get a good photo of downtown Hansville to put into the book that was being produced about the area. I had to venture onto private property to shoot this pano and the folks who let me do so were gracious enough to say come back if you don't get what you needed. The edge of their property butts up right against Hansville Road (the road running down the middle of the picture) and is about 50 feet above it. In order to get my shots I was teetering on the edge of the dirt and close to falling off. When I provided the image one member of the group complained bitterly that the photo just wasn't what she wanted, it should have been taken 20 - 25 feet further to the right. I politely suggested she take it herself. This is just a composite of 5 frames cropped for best composition and that is it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /10.

21 Jan 16. For today's Theatrical Thursday submission I've taken a common flower, in this case a dahlia, and converted it into a comic book like image. The original was from a dahlia show we attended back in August which wasn't all that great unless perhaps you were a dahlia enthusiast and wanted to see every variety of dahlia locally available. That doesn't include us so our visit there was not lengthy, but the cost was zero so I guess we got our monies worth and then some. On display were potted plants, elegant displays, and single blossoms. This was one of the latter. As we walked around the display hall we noticed which had won awards and which didn't, but we truly couldn't differentiate as to why which ones won and which ones didn't (with a few obvious exceptions). Guess you needed an educated eye - or perhaps something else - to know the difference, but one thing was for sure, there were none representative of what I'm sharing today. The base image was simply modified through the use of a plug-in called Simplify. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200. 1/60 sec @ f /11 with full flash.

22 Jan 16. Taking her majesty out for her morning stroll the other day we noticed this interesting growth on a log along side our driveway. As soon as we returned I took a couple of shots of it thinking it might be a form of Orange Cup, but now that I've looked at it some I'm not so sure. Not being a mycologist I think it best that I leave its identity to one who is. That however does not take away my appreciation for its beauty especially as I like the small things that grow on or near the ground. You may get an appreciation for its size when I tell you the pointy brown thing sticking out of it is a fir needle. One of those things that one might pass by and never see. The base image was severely cropped, you could crop it even more if desired, and that was it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /6.3 with full flash.

25 Jan 16. Shortly after arriving at our first duty station of our Navy career, we realized that we had been in Seattle all our lives and never visited the vast majority of the scenic places the area as well as the state had to offer. It also became quickly apparent that those who were long time residents of the area where we were stationed were behaving in a very similar manner, i.e., not having visited all the local sights because they would always have the opportunity and would get around to it one day. It rather suddenly dawned on us that we needed to take in as much as possible because it was unlikely that we would be there again. That proved not to be the case but at the time we had no way of knowing we would return. So we took in all we possibly could and never regretted it. Throughout the 30 years we were gone that was our modus operandi and it served us well. I was reminded of that today after service during the fellowship hour when our organist commented that he liked my mountain pictures more than the macros and then asked if we had ever visited Mt Baker. In the discussion that followed he allowed that he and his bride had never visited the location even though they have lived here for quite some time. Such seems to be the case for lots of the beautiful locations around here with respect to many of our acquaintances. It seems so strange to me now but I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought prior to our military adventures. So, since we like the Mt Baker area, the four of us will shortly - meaning the next time we have a real sun break - be making a trip up north for a first hand look. As such, I thought I'd go with a shot from the area we'll be visiting taken when a good friend from MD - former neighbor who introduced me to the local MD camera club came out to visit and spent a weekend with me up there. This was taken in the evening of our first day which turned out to be heavy rain on the trip up giving way to wonderful fog for the next 36 hour or thereabouts. Strangely, out of a group of 36 photographers, we were the only two to go out and shoot in the fog. This is Picture Lake which you have all seen many photos of in magazines but always shots of the fall color which can't be beat anywhere in the U.S., but timing your visit to see it is the trick and of my 7 visits so far I've never timed it correctly. Perhaps this coming fall I may finally get "lucky." I took the base image, cropped off the top which was comprised of a whole lot of bright white area and mountain tops - I wanted the mountain tops but the bright whit surrounding then was way too distracting - added some micro contrast enhancement to pull the trees out of the fog, and called it quits. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/20 sec @ f /16 on a tripod.

26 Jan 16. Another MT Baker shot today for B&W Tuesday. While working with this image I got the idea that it might be capable of taking on an Adams look, so after I had finished rendering it in 5 different presentations, I returned to the B&W (1 of the 5) I had created and started playing with it. I intentionally limited my tools to that which were available in clarity, and spent most of my time working with the mid tones. I did have to employ a mask to keep my adjustments away from the triangular patch of ice on the left side near the summit, as that was on the edge of being blown out in the original capture, which was where it should have been. I also had to do some selective lightening of the trees in the foreground at the bottom of the frame, but the majority of my manipulation was on the mountain. I've neither added nor subtracted anything form the original shot, just played with the different zones of light to get the best contrast I could. It is not an Adams quality image, but I feel like I'm getting closer and am reasonably pleased with this attempt. You might enjoy playing with it to see if you can get it closer, perhaps making it a bit brighter. I took the base image and added some small amount of detail enhancement to bring out the detail in the snow and the trees at the base of the shot, then converted it to a B&W, and then brought the B&W into Clarity to play with the tones. The adjustment to the mid tones account for the majority of the contrast in the image. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

27 Jan 16. Last year I shared a couple of shots taken from this location just down the road from our home. The shots I shared then were pretty dramatic when compared with the one I'm sharing today. We had two days of this type of lighting in one week, the first of which I caught at the tail end of the show and the second which I got to watch and capture for the better part of 30 minutes. It is a constantly changing scene and one which you need to just keep shooting as you never know how it will look minute to minute. This shot clearly shows the rays while also showing the surrounding countryside which the shots last year didn't. If you saved the shots from last year you might enjoy comparing them. We occasionally see deer in this field and one of these days I would be delighted to find them in the field enjoying the show while I'm there capturing it all. Unfortunately no deer were cooperating on the day of this shot so for those of you who want the deer just clone them in. The shot is basically what was recorded. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f /11.

28 Jan 16. Something pretty tame for this Thursday's Theatrical submission, but next week stand by for something very different, and something I think all will appreciate. Meanwhile, today's image is theatrical only in the sense that I've heightened the colors a bit and added a small amount of glow to the overall scene, but that shouldn't be obvious. The colors I'm showing are actually very close to how the area looks in bright sunlight but bright sunlight is a hit and miss proposition whenever we visit, so I thought I'd create a scene that we occasionally get to observe but seldom get to capture. But that is part of the fun, and frustration, of photography, trying to accurately capture all you see when what you see can be somewhat of a flighty experience. This is one arm of the Madison River and you reach it by traveling east out of West Yellowstone on HWY 20 heading for Idaho Falls, ID. At this point it isn't much of a river, you could even call it a stream without exaggeration. I'm standing on the edge of the highway with the water traveling underneath at a depth of maybe 12 inches max and a width of less than 20 feet. But what a great location for wetting a fly and just enjoying the surrounding countryside. No park restrictions at this venture, so you can enjoy the area as you deem fit. The base image was adjusted in ACR to remove some distracting chromatic aberrations, then I applied the glowing effect using Topaz Glow incorporating the multiply blending mode to achieve the final look. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 9.

29 Jan 16. Straying just a wee bit off the usual course for macro/close up Friday in that the image I'm sharing has been altered just a smidge. The tulip was shot in the studio with very strong back light which is what is responsible for the glow you see in the flower; what I did to alter it from the normal was to enhance the micro contrast to bring out the texture in the petals and add a small amount of blur to the stamen and pistil. This was one of the flowers that Jan has planted along the lower patio in the back of the house which are situated such that they are very difficult to shoot in situ, so I generally cut them and bring them into the studio to shoot. With our weather rapidly warming up - which seems surprising in that we got our first taste of white today in the form of a hefty hail shower - it won't be long until we see these lovely flowers starting to poke their heads up above the ground. Looking forward to that time of vibrant color and wonderful textures. After cropping the shot to just keep the flower, I first added the micro contrast adjustment and then blurred the stamen and pistil. Nikon D300s; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1.6 sec @ f /14 on a tripod .