clives

Not sure of the species. They tend to do well in wet springs.

Cheers! Clive

A scan from an old slide taken in 1995. These cacti are very neat to

watch unfold. The buds you see here change from one stage (shown

here, from tight bud to open) to the next stage in about one hour.

The stamens are sensitive and fold inward if touched. Very cool.

Cheers! Clive

This image has been posted before, but I did not like the scan from

the slide, so it was re-scanned and re-uploaded--I hope that is

allowed.

However, for some reason on my screen the display image is "fuzzy"

and only looks decent if viewed as LARGER.

Best wishes,

Clive

Cold morning at -25C .. need to go back when brain is thawed.

Truying to keep hands and camera warm. Had camera set at f5.6 on

this series. Ooops. Comments on tight crop of sky?? Thanks. Clive

Thanks Len. I appreciate the detailed comments. I wrestled with the skyline--I have originals with less sky. I am a 2/3s or 2/3s guy and rarely split images like this, but rationalized the final format on a crude 1/3 .. 1/3 .. 1/3 balance of sky, hills and foreground.

I used a polarizing filter and did enhance the yellows a bit in PS to liven it up.

The hills will be there all winter....I'll be back! Hopefully we will get a big snow before winter is done.

Thanks,

Clive

Gaetan: I like this. Good exposure for a dull day. Nice moody winter street scene. This is picky >>> I don't like the person in "black" whose feet leave the scene. She's too domineering in the foreground and when I visualize this without her, it improves--there is a nice sold area of white space at the bottom.

It is winter and we can't put our cameras away and this gives me a nice feel of winter in the city. Well done. Cheers! Clive

PS: VERY cold here in southern Alberta right now. Record high temps last week and we may break a record cold tonight.

Thx Terry. This was cropped from a tight hozizontal shot...so the bottom reflection is missing. I've cropped the picture tighter (not displayed) and it looks better without the neat reflection begging for more.

BTW ... was out in the bitter cold today and did no see any snowys...will keep looking.

Cheers!

Clive

Played some with the previous tree and moon as suggested. Thanks.

Clive

Peter ... the light is most interesting. Sorry, no flashes. This bird was about (what??) 30 meters away--something like that and of course it was over water. (BTW .. The image here is about 1/2 of the original horizontal image.)Setting up off-camera flashes on moving birds would be ... well, difficult. So, the light? There are two basic phenom going on here: 1) low sun angle, and 2) reflections off the water back up on the bird. At this time of year at 11 AM at 50 deg. N latitude the sun is only about (??) 20 deg. off the horizon. There MAY be a third factor here. See those mini ice floes on the surface..it is possible they are also acting as mirrors. Anyway, I am glad you noticed the funky light. It is unfortunate the other birds are in the background, but that is life and removing them in PS would take take hours.

BTW .. I did lighten the shadow areas a bit.

Cheers!

Clive

Svet ... very nice. Good composition. Good action. Here in Canada, wild mallards are very wary and they are difficult to get close to.

Thanks,

Clive

Michael:

Thank you. The speed was 1/2000 at f8 at ISO 400. (You have to like the lack of noise in the DSLRs!!) The background is about 10 meters back from the bird so was suitably out of the DOF. The bright twigs and dusting of snow bothered me so I played with "removing" them, but did not like it as much so left it alone. Nothing done to this version other than resize.

Cheers!

Clive

See #1.

:)

Clive

The days dwindle down to a precious few ...

The water is starting to get hard. They'll all go to the river

soon ... or South.

Gary: If there is an outdoor area, see if the staff will move the bird (birds) outside on a sunny day. See here ...

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3764536

This bald eagle is in the same boat as blinker. Several birds at this rehab center are allowed outside and the photo ops are great. The staff are MOST cooperative. It is closed to the public until spring now, but I plan to go back next spring and and schmooze the staff and take more birds.

A more natural background will help you sell more pictures.

See what they staff will do for you. Tell them you will give them a picture or two.

Clive

I think this will be it for a while. Have hundreds of images to sort

through--most of which I will delete. Cheers! Clive

Looks like the weather is going to turn. Shall see what happens with

the geese with the pending change. Clive

Ben:

I appreciate your comments. Thank you.

Specifically re the neck shadow. It is too severe to burn out. The sharpness and general position is suitable to warrant this as a half-decent image, so I posted it. I like how it is at near eye level.

BTW ... the best way to reduce unwanted shadows is to shoot birds flying low over snow covered ground or flying low over water--see some of my water shots. Snow reflects light back up onto the underbellies and REALLY is a huge aid--I should maybe post an old slide example. We may get some snow here soon, but I am afraid the ponds will ice over and the birds will go to the river for the rest of the winter. I'll probably give up until February when they will come back to my ponds on a more or less regular basis. I won't bother to shoot down at the river in winter--I may.

I quit taking slides of flying geese 14 years ago--I tried it for a couple of years and got a few very good slides. However, even with good AF gear back then it was just too expensive at about 40 cents per slide when I was getting one or two good images every 50 or 100 slides. Now that I am shooting the KM 7D DSLR I don't care. I still plan my outings according to time of day, sunshine, and WIND--a huge factor. Moderate wind keeps the birds lower as they come and go off "my" local marsh--across the road.

However, even with proper planning, timing, positioning etc etc, there are just so many variables we can't control--wing position, neck shadows etc. (Man, this is not like taking a picture of a rose in the garden, eh?.) So I plan as well as I can and shoot away changing the things I can change and not shooting when I know it is pointless. (BTW ... you should know that all of these goose images were taken anywhere from a 3-minute to 5-minute walk from my house. :) I work at home, so can come and go as conditions dictate. Lucky me.)

This specific picture dates back to Sept 25. Since then I've taken (what??) about 3,000 flying goose images--maybe 4,000! I took 700 on Tuesday alone!! I've had a very good week and got a few good images--including two or three this evening--which I may post later.

Thanks again! I appreciate the feedback.

Clive