Tag: nature

My Evening View

If the weather is decent I’m usually gifted a spectacular sunset since I live on the Gulf of Thailand and my condo looks out over it. Being on the 12th floor of a 15 story condo pays off in this case so I took this shot.

I have been leaning more and more on my Nikon D5500 for shots. It’s light, I have 3 lenses that cover every range and did I mention it’s light? Even compared to my mirrorless gear the camera is damn light and better than my mirrorless gear I get great battery life out of it.

Enjoy my evening view!

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Landscapes From The Naples Zoo

While I was at the Naples Zoo I snuck in a few landscape type photos. Well, close enough to landscape to count in my world. I feel more comfortable doing these edits because I have kept my hand in shooting them even if I didn’t publish them.

I have been editing furiously while I am here in Florida. When I get back I will start publishing some of the older stuff I have shot. It will be a mix of stuff from the US and Thailand and Cambodia.

Enjoy!

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Just Like Animals

More from the Naples Zoo! It also helps I stole the title from a Maroon 5 song called Animals. It’s a sad day when I know Maroon 5 lyrics meaning I have lived in Thailand too long where you hear it frequently in the bars. Plus as I have been told Adam Levine is dreamy. I’ll take it on the ladies words.

For the record I am not a wildlife photographer and I know some of these images are less than sharp. I still liked them and shared them. Plus I had to get the editing muscles back. I haven’t had to edit photos like these in a long time.

My time here in Florida has been spent editing a plethora of backlogged photos. I also took the time to change up my workflow. I also made the switch to publishing all the images on Flickr instead of storing the images on my hosting. It saves a ton of space.

Enjoy!

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Monkeying Around

More from the Napels Zoo visit I did late last year. The bulk of these were shot on a boat as you cruise around the islands where all the monkeys are kept. Shooting from a boat and the monkeys being so far away made it a bit of a challenge. Least I could use autofocus instead of having to manually focus. I did have my 24-240mm lens on the camera which helped.

It should also be noted that I fixed a little problem I was having with my photos. I had to fix a color profile issue between Lightroom and Photoshop. I have edited these photos and the Birds Of A Feather images so many times until I finally got it right and the images displayed correctly and not washed out looking on the site.

If you want full resolution of these images just click on them and it will take your to Flickr.

Enjoy.

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Birds Of A Feather

I am back in the US visiting from Thailand. I am still here in the US so taking some of the time a trip was scheduled to the Naples Zoo. Not being a wildlife photographer and having to shoot through cages made things interesting. I was in manual focus for a good chunk of these images. Factor in moving animals and me in too low of an ISO made thing less then perfect but good enough to share out!

Enjoy

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The Lone Cloud

Was just standing on shore and saw this scene and figured why not take a picture. The single clouds was the dominating object in the image but there was so much else that I just liked the total scene.

I am not 100% sure where I took this image. I know I had my Sigma 17-70 on my Nikon D5500 but that’s about it. I believe I was near the Bali Hai but don’t quote me as I was wandering around the area with my camera and just taking photos.

Editing this I bumped it up with Macphun Intensify and liked the end result. I am starting to put more contrast in via my curves adjustments now and let Intensify bring out features. I didn’t bother to mask anything in. I did spend copious amounts of time removing dust spots from the lens and then burned the cloud down a bit.

Enjoy.

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Spot The Carp

Taken at Meadowlark Gardens earlier in the spring when I was there doing the other spring shots.

This image is one of those that I don’t know why I like it but I do. The carp swimming buy just adds that little something to an otherwise boring image. I was just standing there and could see them swimming by so when one came into the frame I fired off a few shots to capture the image.

Editing I am still playing with Intensify. So I ran it through and didn’t bother masking anything in. I did some selective dodging and burning and called it a day.

Enjoy.

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Tulips – Part 1

I shot this series of images when the tulips were in full bloom. The series was shot between Brookside Gardens in Maryland and Meadowlark Gardens in Virginia.

When I was taking these image I didn’t have a filter that fit my lens. I would have used a 3 stop neutral density to cut down on some of the light since I shot them just before midday. You can fix some of it in Photoshop but it’s never going to look as good if you had a filter.

None of these were shot with a macro lense. I just used my Sigma 24-105 on the Nikon D5500 and went wild. I was still learning how to use the camera so I there were a few misses but for the most part the images came out decent.

Editing wise I just did the Lightroom to Photoshop workflow. I always add my contrast in via a curves adjustment and do local work with dodging and burning as needed.

Enjoy.

Park Bridge

This is a bridge at Meadowlark Gardens. There are a few of them over the various ponds in the park.

This is just a random shot I took while I was playing with the Nikon D5500. I didn’t go with any real plan to Meadowlark Gardens. I shot the limited shots I wanted and then just took a wander.

The one thing I regretted was not having a polarizing filter on my lens. I could not find it before I left for the shoot. In all things, as I returned I found the filter. But that is how many things are.

Editing wise nothing fancy. Just gradients and camera filters. Then I brought it into the Photoshop and used curves for tone and contrast. I wanted a bit more so brought it into Aurora 2017 and bumped up the HDR settings but its so slight most would not recognize it.

Enjoy.

Park Bridge

Splashes of Color

Shot this in April at Brookside Gardens on a visit there. I went there with a new camera and to shoot something else but ended up doing a few series over a few days.

I indicated I was shooting a bunch of stuff. So when it came to edit I just went ahead and picked out some images that show splashes of color. These just broke up the predominate color hence the title.

I have no idea what any these plants are. I was just walking around taking photos and doing my thing. Mainly working with the Nikon D5500 to learn how to use the camera. Which I am coming to enjoy as a camera. It’s light and a lot of fun to shoot with and you get excellent picture quality out of it.

Editing these was straight in Lightroom with camera profiles. Then using gradients to change the focus. Once in Photoshop I added overall tone and contrast. Then it was just dodging and burning.

Enjoy.