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Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2023 4:49 pm
by clovishound
Visited the Audubon Swamp at Magnolia Plantation today. I was talking to one of the other photographers when an anhinga popped up with a fish almost too big for him to swallow. The was a bream, so it is a broad fish. He was very close, but unfortunately, the sun had just come out from behind the clouds and this black bird was badly backlit. I was able to save one of them by making the background a warm color, even though it was green. The slightly greenish grey looked awful. I need to dig into Photoshop to see how to fix this and preserve the natural color. It's not really a good candidate for salvage, other than the interest of the action.

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This is what it looked like without cranking up the exposure in the camera to compensate for a BADLY backlit subject that was very dark to begin with. I have a better one in this series, but it won't load as an attachment. Been having issues with some photos not loading lately, not sure why. Maybe the forum is tired of me posting too many pics. :P
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Caught this little guy on the way out.
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Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2023 5:15 pm
by markiver54
More great pics. Not tired of them at all. I personally enjoy them and look forward to them. 🙂👍

Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2023 5:40 pm
by clovishound
Well then, here's a few more.
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Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:06 am
by clovishound
OK, got my head screwed on a little straighter this morning and redid a couple photos I posted yesterday. Note to self, don't post pictures too soon after taking them. Edit, let them rest a while, and then view them for issues, improvement, and then post them.

First of all, that horrible background for the anhinga. These two are now acceptable images.
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And a subsequent refinement of the other from this series.
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I also further cropped the red tailed hawk. I like this tighter crop better. I was rather surprised at how much I was able to crop this image and still retain a lot of detail. It helped that it was full sun, which means low ISOs. The more monochrome birds don't preserve detail as well with heavy cropping.
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Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2023 4:45 pm
by clovishound
The Pup and I made it back to the Audubon Swamp this morning.

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Got a few birds in flight.
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Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2023 5:34 pm
by markiver54
More great pics! Keep em coming clovis. I always enjoy them.

Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2023 2:30 pm
by clovishound
A few more:
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Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:05 pm
by markiver54
Very nice. I love showing them to Carol. She's a bird lover...of all kinds.

Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2023 7:39 pm
by Sir Henry
Glad I came back to see the new pictures.

Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2023 11:43 am
by Hatchdog
Very nice, I was just thinking about your pictures the other day. Looks like nest building in SC is going strong.

Thanks!

Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2023 1:03 pm
by clovishound
Hope they got a building permit from the county. Come to think of it, since it may well be in a historic district, they may need approval from the Board of Architectural Review.

Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2023 7:32 pm
by clovishound
Dang, I keep looking at the raw images I shot Sunday, and keep finding more and more to process. I think I've about exhausted everything, but several of the ones I discarded earlier have turned into keepers with a little work.
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Re: Biting off more than he could chew.

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2023 1:55 pm
by clovishound
To add a little humor:
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And so as not to waste the rest of the post, a couple more:

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