Walking on Water

If you spend enough time outside, you will see some pretty magical things. Ducks walking on water for example:

ISO 400 f/8 1/125sec 55mm

You are not surprised to hear it was a cold morning when I took a walk past this local lake. The morning was also very still and quiet. I looked to bring those elements into my edit:

ISO 400 f/8 1/125sec 55mm

My edits here include a crop and a bit of fog added with the help of a filter.  I also added a mask to the lead duck’s face and increased the exposure just a bit, a subtle way to make him stand out. The vignette was added with him set as the center point.

Just a bit of a reminder to look around when I’m outside there are some pretty amazing things to be noticed, that is what this photo means to me.  Feel free to leave comments or questions below.

Cheers!

Added to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Magical.

Wordless Wednesday: Are You Looking At Me?

 

ISO 25 4.15 f/2.2 1/200sec

Added to A Photo A Week Challenge: Attitude.

Weekly Photo Challenge: A Tour Guide on Patrol with the Ducks

A few days ago I went looking for these guys:

ISO 800 95mm f/9.0 1/3200 sec

Only in real life, they looked like this:

ISO 800 95mm f/9.0 1/3200 sec

I was looking for them because week six on the Dogwood 52-week challenge is alternating rhythm, or to practice using light and dark to create depth and rhythm. Sunlight on the lake often creates harsh shadows which adds a sense of depth.  As for these four birds, they always seem to be hanging out and patrolling the lake as a unit, the rhythm of their lives in step with each other regardless of the other activity on the water. It’s a honking loud rhythm too, in case you were wondering.

For this challenge, I was out to push the depth and rhythm ideas a bit. I added a motion filter and tin-like cast to the photo, I think it makes the light and dark contrast stand out, pushing it to a bit of an extreme for a nature image. Lightroom is a good editing tool for pushing ideas, sometimes you can go a bit too far though. Do you think this edit pushed the boundary of the challenge, or did it hurl it off the cliff? Your thoughts are welcome below.

It’s no wonder I went to my local lake, you will find me there a lot, it’s one of my favorite places to photograph:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/710

Morning scene, edited

ISO 640 95mm f/11 1/500

ISO 800 200mm f/16 1/320

ISO 25 4.15mm f2.2 1/2200 sec

ISO 100 155mm f/13 1/100

ISO 320 50mm f/16 1/320sec

What it felt like, the ideal version

Just a few shots from the last year or so. And one more from this morning:

View this post on Instagram

#rainbow #thingsiseeonmyrun

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Feb 8, 2018 at 12:58am PST

I may not make a good tour guide since I spend a lot of time chasing photos and listening to ducks, but it is beautiful and a good place to practice photography.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

I snapped this picture while watching this working dog herding ducks:

ISO 320 135mm -1ev f/16 1/100

While it is not the best photo ever, I think it does invite you to look beyond the dog to the ducks that are in his charge.

Certainly this duck was capable of looking beyond the dog, or perhaps this photo is better suited for the photo challenge called “Ignore”

ISO 320 130mm -1ev f/14 1/100

Cheers!

 

Travel Theme: Multiples

The theme at Where’s My backpack? is multiples.  I have created a gallery below of a few photos that includes multiples.  I also have multiple cameras, so I have included at least one photo from each camera.  My oldest camera is a Fuji A900 which was my point and shoot (and only) camera for several years.  I am sad to say that it is now not working so well.  My newer point and shoot is a Canon Powershot 320.  I am still learning to use it properly. My DSLR is a Canon 50D.  I also have an iPhone.  Between those four, I have taken the images below:

ISO 250 17mm 0ev f/5.6 1/160 Canon Powershot

ISO 250 135mm 0ev f/5.6 1/60 Canon 50D

ISO 1000 4mm f/2.8 1/10 iPhone

ISO 200 135mm 0ev f/5.6 1/400 Canon 50D

ISO 100 22mm 0ev f/13 1/150 Fuji A900

Cheers!

Stalked by Ducks

ISO 250 17.0mm f/5.6 1/160

Umm, yikes they are following us!  It all started innocently.  I was just taking photos of this one duck:

ISO 320 17.0mm f/5.6 1/160

This one, the one I now refer to as my “gateway duck”, due to the results you see in the first picture.  I have heard that you shouldn’t feed the ducks, but I wasn’t aware that you also should not take their picture 🙂

Both pictures taken with my point and shoot, no tripod, and honestly I did not feed the ducks to make them follow like that.  There were five kids with me at the time though, maybe the ducks just figured with that many kids, I had to have some bread.

Cheers!