tonybrown

I love the use of DOF that gives the bird a sense of presence. Nicely composed. Tony

Thanks for your thoughts.

After Lunch

Another purple finch.

Thanks Maria, I think you are right. A tweeked version is attached. Tony

Thoughts appreciated. Tony

Dave: This is a beautiful photograph of a lovely place on earth. I like the composition which carries my eyes beyond the sharply detailed foreground into the distance beyond the storm. Depending on how near the far shore is, it looks slightly tilted from horizontal - but in some way that seems to add distance to the left horizon. Nice job, Tony

I'm practicing my noise reduction techniques. Comments please? Tony

Dave and Leroy: I can't tell you how much I value your feedback. Seriously, I almost bought noise ninja. However, I decided to see what I could do with noise reduction in PS (CS3). So, working with the JPEG I originally uploaded, I used the majic wand to select the space around the Finch, and then applied the maximum noise reduction PS could muster. The result is the attached file. My question is, did this approach match the result of noise ninja?

Incidently, a print of the same image at much higher resolution did not show the same noise level. I guess I acquired most of it when I reduced the file size in PS and selected the 'preserve detail' option. Interesting. Thanks again, Tony

Leroy: that noise ninja certainly cleared up the background, which was nice. It also seemed to flatten the detail a bit? The real problem was using ISO 1000 to get enough speed to capture the detail in dim light. I'm saving my pennies for a 1Ds mk III. Regards, Tony

Any thoughts please? Tony

I've been working this in photoshop - fairly obvious I guess. Any

thoughts anyway? Thanks, Tony

This goose was a gift. I saw him coming from a distance and had time to fire off a series of shots. However, this is also the reason why I'm interested in the 1D or 1Ds mark 3. I could use the added tonal depth both in the highlights and the shadows. Incidently, my preferred lens would be the EF 300mm 2.8F IS USM, with a 1.4x multiplier. Generally I find the EOS 5D too slow for this kind of photograph. Regards, Tony.

Thanks Stephen. The flakes were photographed individually. I put a piece of black plastic in the snow and photographed groups of flakes with the EF series 100mm macro, hand held. The colours are the natural reflections of light in the snow crystals, but I increased the colour saturation in Photoshop. Later I bought the Canon add-on magnifier lens which I hope to use this coming snow season.

Hi Stephen.

Thanks for the nice comments. Here's a brief outline of the procedure that I found works nicely.

The orchid was in our house in a pot in daylight. I used some black velvetine cloth as a background for the orchid. My camera was mounted on a stand with the 16-35mm wide angle lens. The camera position was not altered at all during the multiple photographs and the same zoom setting was maintained. Each photograph focussed on a single bloom, beginning at the bottom. The photographs were combined in photoshop to obtain sharp focus over the whole plant. Incidently the 16-35mm EF lens is the mark 1 version, a little soft near the edges - as I found during this experiment.

Regards, Tony.

Great composition. Congratulations - Tony

I love the message your picture portrays. The tones and highlights are masterfull. It could have been an oil painting. Thanks for sharing, Tony

Thoughts appreciated. Thanks!

My wife and I took an early morning paddle in our canoe and came

across this loon who was not at all camera shy. We talked to it a bit

before it dove.

Gerald: thanks for your comment. In response to your need for a subject, I have to say that most of the time I try for realism and accuracy in nature. This time it is more impressionistic art. The sunlight suggests gold treasure and the fish are roaming around in some sort of paradise. I submitted an alternate version which achieves even more of an impresssionistic effect. Regards, Tony

Really nice composition. Great sharp foreground. Thanks for sharing.

Comments welcome.

This is a cropped version of my 'Tiddler's Paradise', with some extra

sharpening. Comments welcome.

Here in all its splendour I give you a rose! With a little bit of

photoshop. Tony

Thanks for your comments, Tony