Day 148 - First attempt at HDR

I had taken these shots a few days ago and was thinking of trying this out.  Since I didn't get a chance to go out and do any photography, I downloaded Photomatix and tried out the HDR.  Being a trial version, I was getting a watermark, which was obviously really ugly.  Therefore, I did an exposure merge on a series of 5 bracketed shots in PSE8 and then fine-tuned it a little bit in LR3.   But I couldn't do the tone mapping that is usually done in Photomatix, so the results aren't as great in PSE8.

If you have any tips on doing HDR photography, I'd love to know.

Day 147 - Picnic bench

Day 146 - Portrait of a duck

I went out with my photo club members to learn about portraiture from a fantastic photog and a friend.   I had to sneak in a duck shot and a shot of the underwater vegetation while he was setting up.  I almost never give up a chance of shooting random stuff and in fact these were the only shots I took of these because I noticed this duck all sleepy and it was being spun around with the water current (see the ripples around it by enlarging the photo)

Since I don't post people shots without their permission, I will have to wait to get it, so I can post a couple of shots from the lesson.  We were basically learning how to bounce off light from one reflector to another to create a soft fill light as well as use another reflector to get a hair light.  Excellent lesson - can't wait to try it out for myself sometime soon.

But for now, here's something different!  I did very little post-processing on these and I'm really surprised to see how well the colours have turned out.  The sky was very blue and the slanting rays of the sun actually hit the plants underwater and I was able to get a good shot without a C-PL.

Day 145 - Raindrops

Well, the most obvious subject after a rainy day would be raindrops on anything and everything.  I went out armed with only my macro lens and my tripod, but the high winds rendered the tripod useless.  The evening was dark and gloomy so I had very little light to play in.  Therefore, high ISO and noisy pictures were my lot for today.  I tried to remove some noise in post, but just not satisfied with what I got.

The following shots are definitely not worth my trouble, but I somehow liked the shape and the pattern of the droplets on the red leaf - they kinda all appear to be within the lines that are the veins on the leaf.   

This second one has this drop caught in between two leaves - I found that interesting.

More photos from today's outing in my Flickr photostream.

Day 144 - An Ode to the Fallen Leaves

Summer is gone with its bejewelled splendour

The trees standing tall

They know it is Fall,

Their leaves they will soon surrender.

Time flies on the wings of an eagle -

Time doesn’t wait for you and me,

Time dresses Fall in colours so regal;

Time strips the trees of greenery.

Chilly winds blow the leaves asunder

The birds too are gone

The scene so forlorn

The silence deepened by the distant rolls of thunder.

Gone too will be the last seagull

The snow will be here,

Too soon it will appear

Numbing the senses, making life so dull.

Day 143 - Mont Saint Bruno National Park

Day 142 - Gulls galore

Today was a day for seagulls.  I mostly saw these Ring-billed Gulls though.  I saw a couple of Herring Gulls as well, but couldn't get a decent shot of them.

However, what's worthy of mention is that I saw this mean-looking seagull being just that - mean!  He looked militant and kept pecking at the other gulls if they came anywhere near him.  And since I found this really amusing, I just stood around watching his antics.  And I'm glad I did - I witnessed a little skirmish and since I had my camera focussed on this gull all the time, I got to catch the action.  

I'm having some technical difficulty with uploading the photos this evening, but you can see the photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47940945@N06/4952674671/