Last night I went to the monthly meeting of The Placer Camera Club, which meets in Auburn. I submitted my first photo for evaluation by a guest judge who is a professional photographer, which photo was first published in this blog on January 23, 2011 (Brown Pelican Makes A Splash ). I cropped it and made a levels adjustment that I didn’t make when it was first published. The judge gave me an 11 out of 12, which I was thrilled about, then he said that I should crop out the splash at the back, crop out the feet and focus on the wings and the head. I should note that he gave no ratings under 9 but at least I was in the top 75th percentile. One of the funniest comments made during the evaluation of more than 100 photographs last night was “this is Ed Sullivan if he were a bird.” That remark brought down the house. It was made by the photographer who took the photograph of a Snowy Egret hunched over in the typical Ed Sullivan hunched pose. By the way, the egret photo was rated a 9 because it wasn’t doing anything. A static pose was considered uninteresting except for something like Peterson’s Guide to Birds.
Late this afternoon, I finally got around to taking Mady for a walk at Mahaney Park near my gym As we walked through this wetland preserve in between a high school and some residences, I watched a snowy egret fly in and land in a nearby dead tree. I had my 28-300mm lens attached so I was prepared for birds. I stopped and took quite a few photos. One was sort of like the Ed Sullivan bird from last night and I decided I had to use it. Then, I discovered one view that looked like Beaker, one of the Muppets, and another where the egret looks like Albert Einstein. It goes to show you just never know what you’ll find when you’re out and about with a camera.
N.B. Sky photos always seem to show the “spot” that must be on my sensor. I guess I need to take it back to Action Camera for cleaning. I cannot imagine what that is. And the fact that it only shows in blue sky is weird. I could edit it out but now I’m trying to post SOOC photos again.
Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
f/10
1/250
SOOC
Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
f/10
1/250
SOOC
Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
f/14
1/160
SOOC
Fabulous! The composition is PERFECT (Karen would be thrilled!) and the focus and detail is PERFECTION! That last shot- ahhh another one to frame! The white feathers against the blue sky- with the bare branches- BEAUTIFUL. I’m envisioning a nice white matting with a frame! Love all of them!