Showcasing the beauty of Mother Nature
When I saw teal or turquoise pop up for the colour challenge, I knew I would post this photo. It’s something I posted before, but the colours work perfectly, and who doesn’t love a baboon gazing at the ocean?
I didn’t think I would be entering any photos for this challenge, as I couldn’t think of any subject to photograph. Then, a couple weekends ago, I signed up to go for a hike to Ancient Forest. We had a beautiful day for a hike in the forest, and lucky for me, a member of one of the local hiking groups accompanied the group I was with, to give a talk about the area.
Certainly if you are in the Prince George area it is a beautiful place to visit, and a very unique ecosystem in the region. Some of the cedars in the forest were in excess of 5 metres in diameter and over 2,000 years old.
This weeks WordPress photo challenge is half and half, and the first thing I thought of was all the sunset photos I took during an Okavango Delta sundowner cruise. We stopped the boat in a tiny bay, and had a beautiful view of this small island with the sun setting behind it.
I think my favourite place (so far) where I have seen land meet water, is the beautiful Okavango Delta. Experiencing it by helicopter is truly a breathtaking experience. Here is my choice for the photo challenge Travel Theme: Land Meets Water
Here is my photo for Cee’s new Colourful World challenge. The colour of the week is lime or bright green. This little bee eater, perched amongst the bright green leaves of several different types of plants, seems a good fit.
Partway through our game drive on our last morning at Chitwa Chitwa, I spotted a fairly large bird in some trees a short distance from the vehicle, and our guide Surprise quickly realized that it was a hawk that had been successful hunting. We headed closer but the hawk was definitely not too comfortable with our presence and headed for a new tree as soon as we got too close. After that happened twice, we moved on to allow him (or her) to enjoy breakfast in peace.
It was such a cool sighting and I am very grateful I was able to capture it.
Have a great evening!
I’ve not had the opportunity to work on many star trails (only twice before this past trip) and while we had clear skies almost every night, there wasn’t always an opportunity to photograph the stars. Most places we stayed had covered decks plus tree cover, and at almost every property it was against the rules to leave your room unattended after dark due to things like lions and leopards. And the few places I did have the chance to work from my room, I didn’t necessarily have the best view of the stars, and it wasn’t advisable to leave the camera outside over night working, so I was limited to my waking hours (and when getting up before 5am, those aren’t too late). Now add to all those limitations the fact that once I finally had the chance to stack the photos, I realized I got the settings wrong. Heavy sigh. 🙁
But…
I still like this composite. I obviously set the period between photos far too long, as when you zoom in, you can see black spaces between the stars instead of a perfectly smooth trail. To me though, when zoomed in it looks like a macro photo of some type of fabric. I also like the way the curves are different from one side to the other.
This is a technique I definitely need to practice A LOT more, and I am looking forward to learning the proper settings.
If you been following my blog for any length of time, I think you’ve probably noticed that I enjoy silhouette photos. Especially of birds. While staying at Chitwa Chitwa, we stopped for a sundowner and just as I picked up my glass of wine, I noticed the vulture in this tree. Actually, there were two, but the photo of both of them didn’t work out so well (perhaps if I had the 150mm-600mm then…)
I’ve included here both the cropped image as shot, with only a pass of Nik’s output sharpener as my editing, and one that has been further enhanced with both Silver Efex and Colour Efex. I’d be interested to know if there are any preferences. I like both (or I wouldn’t post them!).
Have a great evening.
