At the Water’s Edge

The images for this post were taken while I was out on my morning run. Run is a term I use loosely as I am not very fast and am known to stop if I see something that catches my eye. The image I stopped for at this point was one of the swans. I did take several photos of the swans, but standing there I felt the more interesting story was this man who had stopped to spend some time with them:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/392sec 4.2mm

I took the photo and then moved on. Obviously, social distancing meant I wasn’t going to get too close to him but the real reason is that he seemed deep in his own moment and I didn’t want to disturb that.

This second image is a heron who was so still that I almost ran right up to him:

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/100sec 4.2mm

I couldn’t believe how close I got. I took several photos, slunk past him, then took several more including this one above.

Because I took these photos on the same morning run, just a few minutes apart, I decided to edit them in a similar way. Both have been cropped, and then had minor adjustments for clarity and exposure. The first image I also straightened a bit. I’ve then applied a custom Luminar Look that I had made as a preset. It fit as is perfectly on the first image, but required a bit of tweaking on the second one.

A version of the second photo I also posted to Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

The real reason I go on an early morning #run #heron #cambridge

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Jun 12, 2020 at 1:10am PDT

It’s fair to say that my run stats for this morning weren’t stellar. That happens sometimes. Your thoughts and comments on the images are welcome below. This post has been added to A Photo A Week Challenge, Water.

Cheers!

Wordless Wednesday: Vltava River

ISO 1250 20mm f/11 1/160sec

Added to A Photo a Week Challenge: Water.

The Beautiful Normandy Coast

This photo was taken in Etretat:

ISO 200 10mm f/16 1/250sec

Perhaps it looks familiar? Its scenic white cliffs were subject matter for Impressionist painters including Claude Monet. It’s beautiful, you’ll be surprised to learn I took a lot of photos. When it came to looking through them and deciding what to edit first, I chose this photo, taken with a wide-angle lens that gives a good overall idea of what the area looks like.  Here is the photo as shot:

ISO 200 10mm f/16 1/250sec

I cropped the photo a bit and boosted some of the luminance sliders.  I’ve also sharpened it a bit. For this particular edit, I wanted to maintain a pretty realistic vision of the scene.  The one thing that didn’t come through in this photo was how windy it was.  There is a slight hint in the grasses in the lower left corner, but the water looks pretty calm.

What do you think of the edits? Do you think I have maintained a good feel of the original scene? Feel free to comment below.

Cheers!

Added to both A Photo a Week Challenge and Wandering Wednesday.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Weight(less)

Here is the St. Louis area we have been thinking a lot about water, flood water.  I am grateful that we have not had much in the way of damage or inconvenience in our house, but there has been a lot of damage in the surrounding area.  Earlier this week, I was driving in an area that had just been reopened to traffic and took this shot:

ISO 250 50mm 0ev f/5 1/125

Usually, being in the water makes me feel weightless.  But standing on the side of the road the other day, I was thinking about the power of water to displace people and things.  This photo is just a small view of the amazing amount of debris I drove past.  Most striking were all the plastic bags waving in the trees and the brush.  So much for feeling weightless, more like being weighed down by all the trash.

For this photo, I pulled over to the side of the road, just before a posted road closure sign.  I would say when I am taking photos, I tend to err on the side of caution, try to pay attention to my surroundings and not get into trouble.  What kind of photographer are you, would you have driven past the posted sign in hopes of getting a different or better picture? Have you witnessed the aftermath of a flood? I find it to be incredibly humbling, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sea(pia)

I will admit to you that even though I am a horrible at spelling, I do know that sepia is not spelled “seapia”; so I am stretching this week’s photo challenge of sea a bit.  But wait, there is more!  I took this picture at the Bay of Fundy, which is also taking some liberties with the challenge.

ISO 640 135mm 0ev f/5.6 1/1600

I shot this photo in color and I have, in the past, edited it into a black and white version.  I wasn’t crazy about the outcome.  This week in my Photoshop class we edited some black and white photos into sepia, and that is where I got the idea to revisit this photo.  There are many different ways, I am sure, to create a sepia image using Photoshop.  For this workflow, you start with a black and white image.  I had my black and white image in Aperture and so I imported it into Photoshop.  Then I used Levels (cmd L).  In the dialogue box under “Channels” you can change the Red,  Green, or Blue values in an image.  Under the Red, I moved the middle slider to the left. Then in the Blue I moved the middle slider to the right.  The result is the sepia tone you see above.  Then I sharpened the image and cropped it a bit.

Here is the original:

ISO 640 135mm 0ev f/5.6 1/1600

The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia is a beautiful place.  We spent several days in the area but this photo was taken on a whale watching trip.  I had a really good time taking photos.  Having said that, I also put my camera down for awhile, just to enjoy the larger experience.  I think sometimes when I am taking photos, I get so involved in taking photos, that I forget to enjoy what is going on around me in other ways.  Did you know that humpback whales smell of rotting fish? makes sense when you think about it, but it is hard to photograph.

Have you ever taken so many photos that you forgot to enjoy the experience? What do you think of my sepia version? I’ll be honest, even though I like the tone of the sepia image, it is the color version that really speaks to me.  It reminds me more of the actual trip.  What do you think? Do you have a preference?

Cheers!

A Quiet Moment for your Monday

I took this shot a few weeks ago for my digital photography class.  The assignment was to show a fore-, middle-, and background:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/7.1 1/30

Even though it was pretty cold when I shot this photo, I found it very soothing.  I hope you do as well.

The only “technical” thing I did with this shot was use a tripod.  In this case the tripod not only made it possible to have a lower shutter speed but also made it easier to compose the shot in camera.

Cheers!

Introducing Bubbles

Our latest member of the family, Bubbles, is a male beta fish:

ISO 1250 50mm 0ev f/5 1/200

Wow, is he hard to photograph.  There is the glass, the light, his color, movement….  I goggle searched photographing fish just to get a few ideas of how to get a good shot.  We have had Bubbles for a few weeks now and this is the first photo I managed to get that I feel is fairly clear and representative of what he looks like.  Fish photo tips? feel free to leave them in the comments!

Cheers!

Landscape Photograph

In my digital photography class we are covering landscape photography at the moment.  I also bought Photomatix this week.  What you get is this photo:

ISO 200 f/22 1/13 28mm

I used a tripod to get the original  three photos that were shot in color.  I combined the images and put them in black and white in Photomatix.  Fun stuff!

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Near and Far

The tides at the Bay of Fundy say “near and far” to me so for this week’s photo challenge here is a shot:

ISO 100 f/8 1/800 28mm

If the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia isn’t on your bucket list, it would be a place worth adding.  Take your camera, because with tides like this there are new landscape photos to be taken hourly.

Cheers!

In the pond

This frog just looked so at home and beautiful in its surroundings that I wanted to take its picture.

ISO 500 135mm f/10 1/50

Cheers!