celticsong22's photostream  

This juvenile and adult White Ibis were strutting their stuff on a fence, doing a nice job of posing for me. The juvy photographed better. The bright white of the adult's feathers was a little blown out by the sun, and I thought of cropping out the adult, but I liked the pair of them and their juxtaposition on the fence.

White Ibises are among my favorite birds. They are about the size of an egret, and they are peculiar birds. They hang out in flocks, and act like clucking chickens as they peck the ground for food. They can be seen on Florida lawns going from one yard to another, ridding the landscape of bugs. If they get excited they honk like geese! While they look somewhat clutzy and ungainly on land, and those noises are anything but graceful or soothing, watching them in flight is another story entirely. They have all the grace of a heron or egret in flight.

All the years I lived in Florida before 2006, I never even noticed these birds! I took up digital photography that year, and since then, I've spotted hundreds of them. Now, I hang out in parks and wildlife refuges, and they are always around, usually in the same areas as all the other water birds. It's kind of amazing watching as many as five or six different varieties of birds in such close proximity to each other, and it's always a treat!

Picnik's retouching tools are pretty neat, but a lot slower than doing edits with Portrait Professinal. One click of the mouse vs. an hour of step by step....I might have to save most of the SP's for when I'm home and can work on them there.

This was me in 2007. Before red....before blonde....before brown.

This shot presented a bit of an editing challenge. I really didn't like the crop options, so decided to leave it alone. I added a larger vignette than I would normally use, to bring the eye into the center. While it doesn't fit in the rule of thirds composition structure, there were so many pretty elements that I preferred to leave them all in. I used airbrush, gooify, and the Orton-like filters, as well as some others to get the colors and shapes as I wanted them. It's another water lily shot, but I still like it. Still have more to go. I think I'll be about done with them for a while when I get through, lol!

The large bridge of one of the New Smyrna Beach causeways looms over the dock area of a very pretty park. On the day we were there, the water was a perfect, azure blue, and there were lots of people out fishing. The man in the yellow shirt was having a smoke and enjoying the day.

I've found that while I'm not some kind of nature girl, and I don't appreciate tramping through the deep recesses of bug and snake infested forests looking for my shots, Florida's parks and wildlife refuges offer a lot of visual interest, while still providing some creature comforts like bathrooms, (or at least a port-o-potty!) and cleared paths. I can get my jollies without risking too much, lol!

I have often envied the photos of other, more experienced photographers, who don their snake boots and enormous lenses, and capture wildlife shots that rival anything I've seen in National Geographic, but I've also seen some pretty great shots that were taken in relatively safe areas, like Gatorland. (That one is on my bucket list for the near future, too!) I think the best shots are ones that reflect the photographer's life and experiences, not just his or her equipment, although that helps a lot. I've been itching to get better equipment for a long time now, but finances being what they are, I have to make do with what I have for now. Post processing helps, but I long for that intense clarity that I can't match with point and shoot cameras, and although it's not as visible in smaller view, blown up the distortion is there and bugs the daylights out of me! It's one reason I stick with the artsy edits. I can actually use the grain and distortion to my advantage. Shots like this, though, would be better sharper. Oh, well. It is what it is.

This wasn't a particularly good shot of Squeeks. I'm not sure if I'm loving the edit, either, but I guess that's how you learn.

Sometimes there's a glitch on Picnik that over sharpens, or doesn't show what the actual edit will look like until you hit save. The thumbnail of this looks a lot different than the final edit I did, and hopefully it's not going to change drastically when I hit save!

This shot was taken several years ago, probably back in 2007. Squeegee was about nine then. He's an old boy of 14 now, and every bit the troublemaker he ever was! He's still my baby, and I love him, despite his penchant for instigating fights!