Oxbow Bend’s aspens basking in Autumn morning light, Grand Teton National Park – Wyoming, USA

Perhaps some my regular readers remember my first Grand Teton post, Pre-dawn Stillness on Oxbow Bend, where I described how I waited on the bank of the Snake River in darkness? This is one of my favorite shots from my last Grand Teton trip. In a span of five days, I saw this grove of aspens turned from light yellow to deep orange. They were on fire in the soft morning light.

I shot this photo two days after my I recorded my previous two Oxbow Bend images. The first morning, I saw a few ducks breaking the pristine glass water surface, but wasn’t in position to get the composition I wanted. I returned to the same location two days later and waited for a duck to swim across my frame.

I hope my viewers who have not visited Grand Teton look at this photo for a while and imagine what it would feel like to be there in person soaking all of this in … and for those who have visited Grand Teton, perhaps next time, linger around a little longer to catch those fleeting moments that can only be experienced only if one allows oneself to feel motion in stillness instead of rushing through the park.

“Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other,
but in looking outward together in the same direction”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Did a little bird watching over the weekend. Decided to do minimal post processing for this image.

There are a few ingredients needed to make this shot: a medium telephoto lens and some patience to stalk the birds without chasing them away, a circular polarizer filter to reduce the glare from the water surface and to boost the color saturation, luck and timing to get the birds to pose, and light: it’s always about the light. Last but not least, when I shoot these, I always think, “What can I remove from my composition to allow my image to speak clearly?” Here’s a zoom out scene of what the creek looks like about five minutes later. I post the zoom out image shot at 70mm not only to show the light and colors in the actual scene, but to demonstrate how “selective seeing” makes a difference in a photograph. Sometimes, less is more.

It is still color, it is not yet light — Pierre Bonnard

This image of a black necked stilt bird feeding in shallow water might look like a computer rendered digital art, but except for the enhanced back ground colors, everything else is from a single RAW capture. I use “shade” color while balance to get a warmer color tones, change level to boost the black points, and apply a linear S curve to get the rich golden water surface. The rest of the colors come from shooting into the setting sun. I’ve done this a few times with my other bird shots. For this image, it took countless tries to get the reflected light on the inner ripples to match with the bird’s position.

On a personal note, its been a while since my last post. I am so busy that shooting and posting photos on a regular basic now is nearly impossible. There are still a few weeks old emails from my inbox that I haven’t gone through yet :( For those asking how am I doing? I’m good. Thank you. I’m just super busy. My life has different priorities now. Last evening was the first time in weeks that I was able to take my camera out and for a little bird watching in the warm sun. Hopefully, I’ll find the time and the motivation to take my camera out more often.

I’ve seen a lot of Egret landing images shot at high speed to freeze their motion, so I thought I’d experiment with panning at a slower exposure time. I shot this image in July 2007, but didn’t want to post it back then because I couldn’t get all the bird’s reflection in the water. It’s an out-take, but it adds a little diversity to my photo stream.

On a side note, I need a break from work, so I’m taking the next few days off and head up the mountains to catch some Fall colors. I haven’t been able to shoot anything new lately, so I’m looking forwards to the road trip. Early reports for Fall colors in the Eastern Sierra for this weekend aren’t that promising (early colors & wild fire smokes). Since I already made traveling arrangements last week, I’ll take my chances and just go. Hopefully, I’ll get a good photo to post next week.

Earlier this week, I went back to the beach for the first time in over a month.   It was wonderful to see a pristine blue sky, and to breathe the fresh sea air instead of inhaling smoke and ashes from the fire last month.

To change thing up a little, I decided to stack up three stones instead of placing just one small pebble in the corner.  I was able to get a few good frames, but still haven’t decided if I want to post a couple more of these or just make a triptych …

Same location and time as previous shot. Same post processing. I waited for all 6 birds to turn side way, but they didn’t comply. Will try to return to the beach soon.

Silences make the real conversations between friends.
Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.
— Margaret Lee Runbeck

I’ve been wanting to do a bird silhouette shot against the setting sun. So, I took a break from shooting down by the beach and spent sometimes watching marshland birds. The original image has similar background tones to these shots. I didn’t want the background light and colors to dominate the picture, so I converted the color version to B&W. To leave a touch of background colors, I reduced the b&w conversion layer’s opacity to 80% instead of 100%.

"Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead… "
-o-

“… Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
–Albert Camus

The water color is a result of shooting during sunset time. There were patchy clouds reflecting some of the sunset colors into the water. I changed white balance to “shade” during raw conversion to get warmer tones. I also cloned out a few distractions on the water surface. I wish I could have gotten more details and sharpness out of the birds, but given the available light and what I had to work with, I am happy with these shots.

For over a month, the Zaca fire is still burning in the Lost Padres National Forest, dumping ashes all over town. During the evening, the sunset paints the smoky sky with eerie shades of dark colors. Not wanting to shoot beach sunsets under these skies, I’ve been turning my attention to these birds during sundown.