M is for Mallard

Why are you so shy my Mallard friends, I come only with my camera and lens to capture your lovely colors in the morning light.   Taken at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge lat weekend - ducks are finally gathering among the many Great White American Pelicans and Great White Herons.  Migration season is here!
Texture is concrete. Enjoy!

Great White Heron

Sunday at the Refuge was once again magical.  Saw pelicans again but it was disappointing they were so far out, they are in the hundreds now.  The care takers of the refuge have plowed and planted the winter wheat and green things for the snow geese and other birds coming through this winter and it might explain why some of the Great White Herons were not in the blue grey waters.  The light was a bit harsh in the morning, not that awful bright sunlight but hazy harsh light, however  it did the most amazing thing to the wings in this photo as it shined on them making the wings like transparencies and you can see the bones!  Cheers

Migration

So what do you do when you have several great shots and can't decide what one to play with, just use them all, or at least  several together.  Birds are migrating through Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and its the first day of fall. I am planning another day out on the refuge Sunday to see what I can view through my lens.  I already know Pelicans are there now!   The Pelicans, The Pelicans!  Oh come on Edgar Allen Poe..help me out here, yes I know that was The Bells!  So for my background layer I used a cool sky as a texture then a really neat texture from Distressed Jewel called Happy Easter.  You can find many of these handles and textures over at Flicker where I hang out and participate in many of the cool sharing groups there.

House Finch, A Word of Advice

This little couple have given so many fun hours of amusement over the last months.  They play, they bicker and carry on like an old married couple.  I am pretty sure they have raised about 20 babies as the birdbath is often pretty busy.  Maybe she is telling Mr she has a head ache tonight!

I have been taking a bit of photography break with the Olympics on but I need to begin to sort through some of my images.   I have a photo contest I plan to enter offered from Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, using photos taken from the Refuge.  It will be their 3rd one and there are at least 3 categories that I can participate in.   Problem is I can not make a decision.   What will the judges be looking for!

Postcard If you are flying by!

Still playing around with the abundance of great shots from Hagerman Wildlife Refuge.  At some point I get to feel they all start looking the same so working on some fresh artistic looks.
Texture is I  believe is from Skeletal Mess and the brushes from Deviant Art.  Enjoy

Mother Load Painted Buntings

I was so happy to finally spot these little birds.  It was not

easy to find them and they were pretty shy.  Now if truth

were to be told, I might tell you this is actually just 2 birds out

of 8 shots I was able to get before they flew off never to be

found again.  They loved the middle of the road and this big pipe

where they would fly up and chatter, then fly down to the ground again.

Really comical and entertaining.  This image used a texture called

Ancient Wall which I liked as it toned down that glaring rust and

gave some softness to the busy background.  Taken in June 2012

at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge on pad L.

What Fun Is This ~ Dragonfly

Last weekend I got to visit Loy Lake, a little small secluded water area loaded with water lilys that were blooming.  I was surprised with so few birds to see, only one Green Heron and one Double Breasted Cormorant.  The dragonfly population was not fairing to well with the high winds over the last week and many were staying to the deep grasses and just clinging onto the foliage.  This one appeared to have his wings stuck together but later we could see they were not but he held them in an upright position making for a very unusual photo.

Day 38 Inspired Quotes - Life

Beyond Layers challenge is a week of inspired quotes, one word each day to put in our journal, working a photo and what it means to us.  The word was life.   I had just been out to visit Hagerman Wildlife Refuge which was teaming with life and beauty everywhere.  Living art, life at the most beautiful time of the year at the Refuge.   Robinson Jeffers  so eloquently wrote in Love The Wild Swan:

Oh pale and brittle pencils ever to try

One grass-blade’s curve, or the throat of one bird

That clings to twig, ruffled against white sky.

That pretty much sums it up ~
 

Visit to Hagerman

Had a fun trip over to the wildlife refuge Tuesday.  The big pelicans were there in the hundreds and they seemed not bothered at all with me approaching for photos.  No flowers yet but lush green everywhere.
Textures by Kim Klassen, Distressed Jewel and Kristen Frank

Goldfinches are here!

 What a fun surprise to look out at my feeders and so a flock of Lesser Goldfinches.  My camera was ready too, amazing.  This first shot is of a single little guy waiting patiently for his turn at one of the feeders.   They did not seem very shy of me and the camera, maybe because they were so excited about a free meal!
Enjoy ~

Herons and Mockingbirds

Here I have included a couple more birds for you to enjoy.  The great big Mocking Birds are so stately and commanding.  In the other photo I see the Great Heron carries the same attitude in his marsh area.  Now that we have sold our old ranch and the bird bath stayed there too, I can not imagine a summer without one.  I wonder if two bird baths will find their way to my yard!
Enjoy~

Dining In The Muck

Hi again, with birds!  Saturday I got to visit again the great Hagerman Wildlife Refuge http://www.friendsofhagerman.com/Home
and spent 2 hours just driving and walking about trying to get some photos.  Since its winter there are not many things to shoot except , what else...birds!  I got a nice assortment of birds that I will be sharing with you.  These are not Mallards but this pair kept close enough to the edge of the water to get some nice wakes behind as they paddled along the shore.

1000 Birds

I guess last Summer I got tired of butterflies and flowers, and became a Birder.   Well they are pretty darn entertaining and a bit more personality than a flower, so here is another baby from last summer's collection and its little Haiku I put together just for this baby bird.  Enjoy ~

Follow Your Heart

Last summer these two lovely birds frequented my bird bath for a couple months.  They were always together and while they do not look like make and female having the same dark coloring, its possible they are siblings who stayed together during the hot spell.  I chose this photo to work on out of all of the ones I had of them, their topaz eyes set against the dark navy feathers, the blues and violets so attractive with the chocolate brown bodies.  If anyone knows this species, drop me a note!  Enjoy.

Textures and Frames

Working through some of my old images and have always liked this little bird.  As a stand alone composition I did not like it so decided to work it over with the textures and layers in PS and add some words from a set of Dream brushes.  I love how it looks. One of the layers was a olive that brought much of the image together and allowed the little wading bird to be more of the main attraction.

At the Test Kitchen http://www.kimklassencafe.com/
there was a little tutorial on making a frame with the layers.   I tried a little studio photo of some shells and was really happy to figure out how easy it was to make this frame.  Then I added that burst of light rays which ruined it!  Oh well, after I stepped back and looked at it about 5 min later, I truly regret adding that at that strength!  But the frame is wonderful!

Humming Bird Antics

I have become so lazy, and my photos are in desperate need of organization.  I have so many interesting images and how can I do justice to each one!  I have been taking some time this last fall between selling our ranch and moving to review some of my favorite photos and moving into a folder for future work.  This is one of those photos.  Its a little hummingbird hen who constantly guarded her flower area.  She is complaining to another hummingbird who is flying above her in this composition from last summer.  Enjoy!

Seriously Brillient

Isn't this an incredible expression!  From the Alexandria Zoo this is one of the largest land birds originating from Australia and for the life if me I can't remember its species!   I had to take this through a no climb wire fence and so I had to do a severe crop on it.  After I got done with some exposure work I tried a dry brush filter on it and it really picked up the texture of the horn and the glassy eyes.  Such a great contrast. and so brillient!   

Another Editors Pick

I have been a member of BetterPhoto.com for ages
and I get so tickled when one of my photos is chosen for
the final round for their contests.   This is called
Siblings.  Taken with my 100-300 mm Sigma out my
kitchen window.  I posted a bigger version of this on
the previous post.  To see my gallery at Better Photo
http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/gallery.asp?memberID=86733

Birds!

I got to digging around some of my photos that desperately need worked on and found this great sea gull from our visit to California in November 2010.  Santa Cruz boardwalk has an abundance of willing models who love nothing more than posing for the camera.  Processed with textures.

Unlike the Seagull these little siblings come regularly to my birdbath and have some growth yet.  The parents are almost black with blue wing tips and a few spots on the chest.  I have no idea what they are but they are entertaining!  Processed with dry brush.

Time has gotten away from me.

 Lately I worked hard to restore my computer back to factory settings, and this put me behind in some photography work I was getting really hooked on.  My photos with textures and layers are getting new life in photo shop.  These two ostrich are sharing secrets and were awareded Editors Pick at BETTERPHOTO.COM

This great rusted out hub from an old tractor was also awarded Editors Pick.  Its done in textures and layers from my original photo.  Taken last spring in Boswell Oklahoma.

Here is some play that is just wild called weird lines!  Honest its a filter called Weird Lines!  Here I have a blemished daisy from last summer and just could not come up with anything to save the photo.  I began to experiment and came up with this rather odd looking thing that reminds me of an ocean creature.  Awarded Editors Pick also for May.

Some of these will be part of my Artist Trading Card swaps in the Digital Art arena.