Taming tough light

Our 15 year old lap lover Max was stretched out enjoying a patch of mid-morning sun.  I knew from experience that photographing this high contrast scene was very difficult.  Since just our little Canon S95 p&s camera was handy, I decided to try something a little different.  I got down to carpet level and composed tightly on his illuminated front side.  I really like how this image came out.

Lake Perris 2012

From January 17th to January 22nd, we attended a gathering of the Lazy Daze Caravan Club at the Lake Perris Recreation Area in Riverside County in Southern California.  I was able to photograph some wildlife near the lake's edge.

There was a pair of Great Blue Herons.

At least one Osprey.

Rabbits

A hummingbird

A Red-Tailed Hawk

While I was trying to get a good shot of the Heron on the nest, I was happily surprised when a Peregrine Falcon landed in the same tree.

Sunsets and Photoshop

On January 2nd we had a very colorful sunset.  I had just enough time to walk to the back yard and snap off a few images.  Unfortunately, this view is marred with power and telephone lines.

The most recent versions of Adobe Photoshop have a feature called "Content Aware Fill".  This capability tries to analyze the content bordering an area to be filled and attempts to fill that area with content that matches the surrounding area.  In some circumstances, this fails completely, but in others works amazingly well.  When used on the above sunset image to erase the power and telephone lines, I believe it worked very well to produce a much better image.

Elkhorn Slough - Part 5

Finally, the last group of Elkhorn Slough images.

Another pelican on the water

"Yak, yak, yak..."

A couple of Curlews

Glaucous-winged Gull

 

 

Sea otter eating a clam

Lots of sea lions

Just trying to blend in...

Cormorant portrait

Sea lion swimming by

Pelican preening

"Everyone comfy?"

All curled up

Elkhorn Slough - Part 4

Yet more images.

Cormorant in flight

Pelican flying low

Cormorant drying its wings

Godwit probing for a snack

Snowy Egret (note the black bill)

Willet in flight

Sea otter really chewing on something

Pelican just taking off

"Move over! I'm landing there."

Another pelican in flight

More American Avocets

Great Egret portrait

"One good tern deserves another."

Group of Elegant Terns in flight

Stepping out

Unruly looking mob

Elkhorn Slough - Part 3

Even more images from Elkhorn Slough.

This juvenile pelican looks like he isn't sure what to do with his neck and bill.

As the boat got too close, the pelicans at the near edge of this large flock took off.

This landing pelican almost appears to be leading a choir.

These elegant Terns were neatly lined up on these old pilings.

Cormorant washing its tail feathers

This seal appears to be sticking out his tongue at us.

More sea otters just hanging out

Duck just taking off or landing.

Another pelican in flight

Cormorants ignoring each other

Getting the "pelican stare"

American Avocets

 

A Godwit

A nearly fully grown otter pup nursing with his mother.