Wordless Wednesday: Red and Yellow Barbet

Red and Yellow Barbet, Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania:

ISO 1600 70mm f/11 1/400

Picfair version here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: I’d Rather Be

It’s not so much a question of where I’d rather be but that I’d rather be wherever that is with my camera. The photos in the gallery below are from my trip in December to Tanzania:

Mwanza flat-headed rock agama, Serengeti National Park

Hyena, Ngorongoro

Ostrich, Ngorongoro Crater

Zebras, Ngorongoro Crater

Hippo Pool, Ngorongoro Crater

Rock Hyrax, Lake Manyara National Park

I came home with a lot of photos, and I have been working on sorting and editing them. One of the projects that I have in mind for these photos is a book. It will be a bestseller. There will be two copies made eventually.  At the moment, the photos that will be considered for the book are in two albums on Flickr, an unedited larger album, and a smaller book album. That unedited larger album is also the one I have shared with friends and family who have asked to see some photos, 96 from the original 1,690. The smaller one is photos that have been edited and are ready for possible publication. It is a work in progress.

But as awesome as the trip was, and as much as I am enjoying the process of working with the photos, the reality is that I really like to take photos. Even of everyday things, like these that I took yesterday morning:

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My #beastfromtheeast survivors #daffodils

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on Mar 16, 2018 at 2:28am PDT

I enjoy processing my everyday experiences through a camera lens. How about you, do you feel like a camera is part of your everyday life? Your thoughts are welcome below.  Feel free to browse my Flickr albums as well and leave a comment here if you like.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: A Face in the Crowd

This photo was taken at a hippo pool at Serengeti National Park.

ISO 2000 11mm f/14 1/1250sec

It was taken in the middle of the day so lots of contrast between the bright light and dark hippos, making a good exposure a bit of a challenge.  Here is the original photo:

ISO 2000 11mm f/14 1/1250sec

The camera handled the exposure fairly well, but I wasn’t crazy about it, even though it was a good representation of the scene.  The vegetation is a distraction, and really I wanted the photo to be more focused on the hippo faces, many of whom were looking at the camera. Cropping the photo helped with that.  From there I applied a filter that darkened the photo overall and a vignette to draw attention away from the water a bit.

Do you think this edit helped the photo be a better portrait of this crowd? Your thoughts are welcome below.

Cheers!