Hummingbird on the Clothesline (Dry Brush Filter)

The hummingbird was hanging out on my clothesline, moving its head back and forth. It's a tiny but magnificent creature. Thanks for stopping by!

Eastern Phoebe in the Green (Dry Brush Filter)

I'm pretty sure, from the pattern in its wings, that this is an Eastern Phoebe. I've seen this bird here in my yard before, although, comparing notes with my bird book, this one seems more gray (as compared to the one pictured in the book which seems more brown.) I like these little black/white/gray birds. Thanks for stopping by!

The Noble Oriole (Dry Brush Filter)

I'm not quite sure that the oriole is regularly described as a 'noble' bird, yet this pose seemed to suggest to me something of nobility. I think it has something to do with the way that the bird is holding its beak high in the air. (Within the next second or two, it would crouch down low again for take off...) Thanks for stopping by!

Chipping Sparrow with a Bright Green Bug (Dry Brush Filter)

Here is a chipping sparrow, helping to keep in check the local population of bright green bugs. Good job, chipping sparrow! Thanks for stopping by!

Hummingbird on the Feeder (Dry Brush Filter)

For what appears to be the third day in a row, I have found a hummingbird picture to post. What drew me to this photo was the view of the hummingbird's wings; this is one of those rare photos in which they are not moving. It was perched on the feeder, taking a rest perhaps. Thanks for stopping by!

Hummingbird on a Wire (Dry Brush Filter)

After spending some time at the feeder, the hummingbird came to rest on a cable wire that stretches across my yard. It offered one of those rare occasions where it holds still long enough to get a picture without blurry moving parts. Thanks for stopping by!

Hummingbird

The hummingbird is one of the trickiest birds for me to try to photograph, since its wings move so fast. Here, I was shooting at ISO-100 with an exposure time of 1/200 sec. (My exposure bias was set to -1 step.) This was one of many that I had shot at a speed shooting mode; this is the one where the wings came out the clearest. Thanks for stopping by!

Female House Finch Posing on the Clothes Line Post (Dry Brush Filter)

The title says exactly what this is... a female house finch posing on... well, she probably wasn't exactly posing. She was probably more stopping to decide whether or not she wanted to pick up some jelly from my oriole feeder. But, she did pose very nicely while I took her picture. Thanks for stopping by!

Female Oriole by the Jelly Jar (Dry Brush Filter)

I had been setting a small jelly jar out on my deck. Sometimes when the feeder was busy with other birds, the jelly jar on the deck would get a visit, as you see here with the female oriole. Thanks for stopping by!

Blue Jay in Flight (Dry Brush Filter)

Here are several pictures that I happened to be in the right place at the right time to see a Blue Jay as it was flying. I really like the blue color in the bird, and here - the seeing the bird with its wings spread. Thanks for stopping by!

Blue Jay in Flight (Sponge Filter)

I keep trying to capture an image of a bird in flight, which isn't always the easiest thing to do with my NEX-7. This, however, was one of those instances where the camera happened to be pointed in the right direction at the right time as the Blue Jay came flying by. At ISO-100, I was shooting at a -.3 exposure bias, and with the lighting being what it was my exposure time came out at 1/320 sec. Had I bumped up my ISO to ISO-200, the resulting image would have perhaps been more crisp (the one here, which was not as crisp as I would have liked, was rendered with a sponge filter in Photoshop.) Practice, practice, practice! Thanks for stopping by!

Colorful European Starling (Dry Brush Filter)

Given the right lighting (and post-processing,) the European Starling turns out to be quite a colorful bird. Thanks for stopping by!

Chocolate Bunny Pose (Dry Brush Filter)

As I saw the rabbit in this pose, it reminded me of the many chocolate bunnies that I have consumed over the years around Easter time - hence the title: "Chocolate Bunny Pose". Thanks for stopping by!

Rabbit Looking Over Shoulder (Palette Knife Filter)

If I remember correctly, the rabbit was scratching its back, but the view made it look as though the rabbit was looking over its shoulder. I liked the shape of the rabbit's body in this picture and thought that it gave some visual interest to the shot. Thanks for stopping by!

Rabbit by the Tall Grass (Dry Brush Filter)

Among my rabbit photos, I found a few where the rabbit was out in the grass, nibbling its way through the lawn. I liked the smallness of the rabbit next to the very tall grass. Thanks for stopping by!

Rabbit (II) (Dry Brush Filter)

After the rabbit woke up, I saw him out in the field. (Or maybe this was another rabbit. There were several making the rounds at the time.) Thanks for stopping by!

Sleeping Rabbit (Dry Brush Filter)

As I looked out the window, I happened to notice this rabbit under a nearby bush. As it fell asleep, it continued opening its eyes, no doubt wary of predators. It didn't notice me with my camera on the other side of the window, allowing me to make the photograph that you see in today's photo post. Thanks for stopping by!

Hummingbird in Flight (Dry Brush Filter)

I really liked the detail on the head/beak and the left wing of the hummingbird in this image, which I've posted with the dry brush filter added (above) and without the dry brush filter (below). (You'll notice that the right wing is a brown blur in this photo.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Oriole at the Jelly Feeder

I very much liked this oriole photo the way that it came off my camera, so that I only applied a minimum of editing (crop and auto-fix) without any painting filters like I usually apply. (The dry brush filter was ok, but I liked the photo better without it.) You can also see in this photo the pile of jelly that I use to attract the orioles (and other birds) to my feeder. Thanks for stopping by!

Oriole Flying in to the Feeder (Dry Brush Filter)

My shutter speed wasn't completely there for this photo, but it was close. This is a male oriole coming in for a landing at my jelly feeder. Here's another from the same landing:

Thanks for stopping by!

Oriole at the Feeder (Dry Brush Filter)

By this point in the summer the Orioles have stopped coming by my feeder, so I'm working back through my photos from earlier in the summer. Here I managed to catch the Oriole before it maneuvered itself into the feeder. Thanks for stopping by!

Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Dry Brush Filter)

I was pleased to see the ruby throat on this ruby-throated hummingbird. I keep trying to get my shutter speed high enough to get the wings crisp, but as you can see here, I'm not quite there yet. Nevertheless, I liked this picture well enough to post it for today's daily photo. Here's another one below that's closer:

Thanks for stopping by!

European Starling Looking through the Grass (Dry Brush Filter)

Somehow, this European Starling came off with a slightly blue hue in the processing. I liked the angle of the bird and the view of its back as it was coming towards me as it was looking for worms in the grass. Thanks for stopping by!

Unusual Pose Chipping Sparrow (Dry Brush Filter)

There's nothing unusual about the pose of the chipping sparrow in the first photo, but the bird went on to do some weird twists (as seen in the second photo.) Preening? Scratching an itch? Thanks for stopping by!

Scarlet Tanager Posing (Dry Brush Filter)

I realize that this has become the story of my blog, but... as I was going through my older pictures, I found another very nice image of a Scarlet Tanager. I like the bird's pose (here on my clothesline post) and the detail that I can see in its eye. Thanks for stopping by!

American Goldfinch on a Pole

Here's another picture of the goldfinch from yesterday's post. Here, the bird was taking a break from dipping into the jelly/sugar water in my feeder. Thanks for stopping by!

American Goldfinch on the Clothesline (Paint Daubs Filter)

The American Goldfinch is one of my favorite birds. I don't see them very often, but when I do, its yellow color usually stands out against the background. I tried setting out a thistle sock this year to see if I might attract more of them to my yard, but since I set it up -- I've had no luck. Thanks for stopping by!

Female Oriole with Jelly in her Beak (Dry Brush Filter)

This is probably not the most patriotically appropriate post for the Fourth of July. It's not red, white, and blue. It doesn't have a flag, or anything relating to the American Declaration of Independence. Perhaps, the closest tie in to the Fourth of July that I can come up with is the Freedom of Speech, adopted as the First Amendment to the United States Constitution in the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791. Because of the Bill of Rights in the U. S. Constitution, which you can trace back to the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, I can post a picture of an oriole (sorry, didn't have a bald eagle) with jelly in its mouth on Independence Day. Happy Independence Day everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

Female House Finch on the Feeder (Dry Brush Filter)

In between when the orioles stop at our bird feeder, we get house finches that stop by to take the jelly. (At least, we did a while ago when the birds were still coming to our jelly feeder.) Thanks for stopping by!

Male Oriole at the Feeder (Dry Brush Filter)*

Yesterday, I posted about the order in which I sent my image file through the various programs that I use for post-processing. In today's post, I have some images to compare as I processed them in different orders through my programs.

The first image is the version that I cropped in Paintshop Pro.

I took the above cropped image (as a TIF file) over to Photoshop Elements and applied the Dry Brush filter (and a quick fix edit), for the following image. To my eye, the edits here helped to take some of the 'dullness' out of the previous picture.

Finally, I processed the above image in Photomatix, which helped to make the bird's eye stand out.

For kicks, I also processed the cropped image in Photomatix without the Photoshop's Dry Brush filter:

I like the Dry Brush filter at least in part because it sometimes helps to smooth out some of the noise in the picture. (I also like it when I can get a picture to look like a painting. Again, personal preference.) The image above looks a little bit cleaner than the one previous that included the Dry Brush filter.

Thanks for stopping by!

Scarlet Tanager in a Tree (Dry Brush Filter)

Normally, when I process my photos, Photomatix is the first place I take my raw image file. Then, I take the resulting TIF file over to Paintshop Pro for crop/straighten (and other edits), and then to Photoshop Elements for some sort of filter application. For this picture (and a few others as of late), I brought the image file back to Photomatix last in the process.

Something I am beginning to learn to watch out for is the purple fringe that you sometimes get with the HDR processing. Paintshop has an edit to automatically take the purple fringe out, but this edit doesn't always leave you with a clean edge (sometimes leaving behind the non-purple elements of the fringe.) Photomatix does have an option at the end of the process that you can tone-down colors that you don't want (to get rid of the fringe on this image, I had to take out the purple, blue, and magenta); however, you have to make sure that you don't want those colors elsewhere in the photo!

Thanks for stopping by!