Composite Potraits

Well, this is what I have been spending my time on lately.
This is my nephew Robert. I decided to take his portrait while everyone was having a few drinks one Saturday night, I don't drink so I took these shots of him in the backyard and it was the perfect excuse to get my equipment out and play around. This was at night using two 24 inch softboxes, one on each side and a 40 inch umbrella only a few feet in front and at about 1 foot above him. Then in photoshop I did some skin smoothing and removed skin blemishes and dodging/burning, then placed him in some backgrounds I took last summer in downtown Windsor. The backgrounds, I used Topaz adjust for the effect they have. You can view these large by clicking on them.

Songbirds in the yard

Ok, Well here are a few more songbirds and a squirrel that keeps taking all the food. I have found the squirrels dragging the peanut and suet feeders across the yard, I don't know if they thought they would be able to carry it up a tree but they always end up near one. Now i just put more feed in areas they can access the food and it works Ok for the birds with their own supply. I thought i would throw this photo in of the Squirrel cause i like the this portrait shot. As for the birds i have a few that were feeding their young again, this year i have seen quite a few species that i did not get photos of, it's been hard with working and finding time when you need to do chores on your days off.
I am now starting to do some people portraits and will be posting them here soon, I've been wanting to get back into portraits and now with spring being over with, it's when i do songbirds mostly and near the end of summer i find more interesting insects so for the in between stuff and throughout winter i can do portraits of people, so that will be here within a couple of weeks.

                                      f/9 @ 1/100 sec. ISO 800 420mm

                                         f/10 @ 1/80 sec. ISO 800 500mm

                                           f/11 @ 1/80 sec. ISO 400 500mm

                                          f/14 @ 1/80 sec. ISO 400 500mm

                                            f/11 @ 1/80 sec. ISO 800 500mm

                                           f/10 @ 1/125 sec. ISO 200 500mm

                                           f/14 @1/80 sec. ISO 400 500mm

                                             f/8 @ 1/80 sec. ISO 400 500mm

                                           f/8 @ 1/80 sec. ISO 400 500mm

Mourning Dove in the rain

I guess we can all relate to this poor dove with how much rain we have been getting.
I did not use flash for this shot, I wanted the rain to show in steaks to show the motion of the drops and I used a medium slow shutter speed. I also used topaz adjust to bring out more detail in the rain although it did bring out more noise, but I still like this shot.

                                                             

                                           f/6.3, 1/60 sec, ISO 1600.

Ojibway Park Wildlife

Here are a few i took at Ojibway park a few months back.
As I was taking photos at Ojibway in the area they feed the birds, this Mallard duck came walking up closer to me as I'm standing behind my camera and this big lens, the clicking of the shutter noise and flash caused her to tilt her head in confusion to what I was.
The Raccoon was walking in front of me on the other side of the railing and noticed me sitting there then started to run back the other way, I had to grab another camera I had in my pack already with a 55-200mm lens attached and I had no time so I metered as quick as I could and I used fill flash with the cameras pop up flash hoping it would be enough, I leaned over the railing to compose and the raccoon looked back at me and this is what I got. I love fill flash, even the catch lights in the eyes bring it to life.
As for the the Red bellied woodpecker, I love these birds and every time one comes down to feed I just gotta Press the button. And of course the White tailed deer often come in just before sunset and this deer came about four feet from me, again using the other camera and this happened just after the raccoon, so I was ready but with the flash being so close to the camera ( pop up ) I was worried I would get steel eye but this came out pretty good, there still is some but I was surprised at this shot with how the eyes looked.   

                                         

Female Mallard Duck

  

f7.1, 1/125 sec, ISO 400 Fill flash.

 Raccoon Backlit from sun

f8, 1/125 sec, ISO 100. Hand held

Red bellied woodpecker

 

f8,1/125 sec, ISO 400.

                                                      Red bellied woodpecker

                                                                       f8,1/125 sec, ISO 400.

                                                                      White tailed deer

                                                                   f8,1/125 sec, ISO 400. Hand held

                                                                 White tailed deer

                                                         f8,1/125 sec, ISO 400. Hand held

Song birds rain or shine

Sorry for my absence. I needed to take a break from this blog. But i have a few photos i would like to share from this new year and i will start posting more regular now. We have got so much rain this year and what i thought i would do was just take photos of song birds in the rain and make the best of the drab weather. I may not have been posting but, I have been taking quite a few photos this year already, between my backyard and Ojibway park. So here are a couple for now, hope you enjoy, thanks.

                                                  Wet Starling

                                   f13,1/80 sec , 800 ISO. Fill flash was used.

                                             Female Red winged blackbird. In the rain

                                             f/11, 1/80 sec, 800 ISO. Fill flash.

                                               Female Red winged blackbird.

                                                

                                         f10, 1/100 sec, 200 ISO. Fill flash was used.

                                              Female Red winged blackbird.

  

                                              f10, 1/125 sec, 200 ISO.Fill flash was used.

                                                       Female Downy Woodpecker.

                                                 f10, 1/125 sec, 400 ISO. Fill flash was used.

Bumblebee covered in Pollen

Here are a couple photos of a Bumblebee I found in the yard in the song bird area. It was injured and I'm thinking maybe from a bird, the bee was missing a leg so I took a couple of close shots of it. One thing I found interesting about this bee was how bright the yellow was on it.

Bugs from the yard

Here's a few more smaller subjects, most of the photos I have taken this summer have been from my backyard, except for Holiday beach. I have been working in my backyard all summer so in between working a full time job and in the yard I take photos when I can. So here are a few more.

Summer Song Birds

Well, thought I would show a few song bird photos. I took these in my backyard. The House wren has chicks in the nest box I built and placed at the back of the yard. I had to get very close to get this shot. ( It is not cropped) This is a fairly small bird. The chicks have not started to fly yet. The Common Grackle was shot while it was raining and it was shaking off it's wet feathers, after that is a shot of a Sparrow chick, just a cute portrait of how chubby it is. Then here is a Male red winged black bird while it calls, they always lift the base of their wings and show the red and yellow colors when they call.

close up photos with more critters

All of these I found in my backyard at night. So what I have to do is catch them by cupping them in a jar and bringing them inside to photograph them. This way I can photograph them right away and release them as soon as possible, right where I found them. Like I explained under the equipment and Info, for bees and wasps I use a special container I made, they cannot escape but the challenge is either waiting or coaxing it to land in the right area. I know most people use honey or sugar water placed on a leaf and I do use this technique also but, it doesn't work with all of them and you usually can see them eating it and I like them with their head up. The photo with this Blue dauber mud wasp was looking at my front lens element or should I say rear as it is a reversed 50mm prime lens and as I was looking through the viewfinder I could see it turning it's head looking around like it was confused as my flash went off. I read that these wasps will not sting you unless they really have too, because they use their venom to paralyze their pray, dig a hole in the ground and lay eggs so the larva can feed off the prey.With the yellow jacket I did use sugar water on a leaf but after about an hour it finally landed on the leaf and I was able to get a shot before it started eating the sugar water, which you could see on it's jaws, so I did not use those photos. I guess I could have tried honey but, it still had it's head down to far and I like composing the shot at it's level, I think it makes it look more realistic like it could almost just reach out and touch you! The potato beetle actually did have it's head down when I tried coaxing it as you can see it has it's antennae tucked under and back and it stayed like this for a few minutes, long enough for a shot. I think it still works and looks pretty interesting. Now the Robber fly I also found at night which is odd, it was sitting on some rope out in the backyard, so I easily cupped it in a jar, this little guy was very frustrating as it would not land on the leaf I had, so after 45 minutes I took out the leaf and placed a twig in there and it finally landed on that, and after I was able to let it go a couple of hours later, exactly in the same spot on the rope.

   

Holiday Beach Insects

We went to Holiday beach and camped there for a nite, the next day I spent a few hours near the hawk tower shooting insects and I found this tiny caterpillar crawling on my shorts. I don't know what species it is but I had to get a shot of it, so I just shot it sitting on my finger to show how small it was. I also found this jumping spider and again I don't know what species but she didn't move while I photogarphed her. The last photo is of a tree cricket I found on a leaf at night.

Crawling Insects

Here's a few more, It takes time editing these photos. I have quite a few now, So it's just a matter of editing, sizing and posting them.

Flying Insects

So, here are a few more critters from my backyard, They are predicting 102º Ferinheight today, last night I tried taking photos outside and my camera kept fogging up on me because of the humidity, which makes it feel so much hotter, so I could only get a photo of a leaf hopper and had to stop.

This first photo I'm pretty sure is a Robber fly but I'm not exactly sure of what species it is, it's length was only about 3/8 of an inch long.