My Life, my photography, my passions
Nebraska during February and March can be very dull without much contrast in the scenery, browns and grays dominate. Even when the sun comes out it is still weak, so with a little help from On One Software in Photoshop I enhanced the sun just a tad and made it pop.
You know spring is close when the Canada and Snow geese start heading back north. Nebraska is in a migratory flight path for many species of birds, including geese, who use the corn and wheat fields as feeding and resting grounds. So on my 100th day I bring you the great Nebraska goose migration.
This year, because of my 365 project, I had a purpose for driving around chasing after thousands of geese and getting a photo of this spectacular site. Thousands of geese fly over and then start to gather and spiral as they descend in what actually looks like an organized landing pattern. They are very skittish and typically chose sections of land that are difficult to gain access from the gravel roads.
Trying to walk out and sneak up on them is not easy. Goose hunters normally set decoys and sit in blinds waiting for hours. I don’t have that much patience, and you never know where they are going to land. So you watch the skies and chase the clouds of birds in the air. Many of my photographs the past couple of days were part of my goose chase.
The geese don’t stay long in one spot, some flocks will stop and rest and others will be taking off and continue heading north. In less than a week hundreds of thousands, if not millions of geese will fly over.
Below is a video a friend across the road from her house at a neighboring pond. Turn up the volume to enjoy the sounds of nature.
I went chasing migrating geese today and snapped this framed view of the cornfield. Played with various affects in Photoshop. Enjoy!
My Mother had a collection of Lady Liberty silver dollars from the late 1800’s and I thought this was a good example on how photo editing tools can subtly improve on the original.
I used the Super Sharpen, and Fill Flash tools on the PhotoTools 2.5 Free Edition then spot lightened to the hair on Lady Liberty and the stars to give them more definition. In the regular workspace of Photoshop I cloned out the dust and artifacts on the left side.
Can’t wait to play around more with the program. This is fun! (Maybe I’ll even post my son’s senior party invitation from the pages and templates download)
Yup, almost midnight and I forgot my picture of the day. Oops. I quickly get out my camera and snap a quick pic of my favorite snack, in the dark, couldn’t even see through the window. So it’s blurry, but I like the arrangement, so it goes through Photoshop. Is there any improvement? Probably not, but it’s a reason to play around with effects. You be the judge, open to suggestions. This can be a lesson how to make a blurry, crappy photo look decent.
By the way, did you know that Party Cheese, cheese in a can, squeeze cheese is actually real cheese? I thought it was fake cheese, nope. First ingredients: milk, whey, water, milkfat. Wow! I’m impressed!
Used the On One Phototool plug in tools I just downloaded thanks to the suggestion of my blogging friend at 365Project . Just used the color boost and sharpen, with a fill flash, as you can see you can’t make a blurry picture sharp. I haven’t had a chance to really the program on a special photograph yet, but the free tools there are awesome and work in CS2 and up. Below is the original straight out of camera (SOOC)
