Photo ABCs

Merry Christmas!

A short break from Day of the Dead pictures.

It was a rainy Christmas day in San Diego, until mid-afternoon when the sun came out. A Brown Pelican provides a nice silhouette just after sunset near La Jolla Cove.

White-faced Ibises

A flock of White-faced Ibises flies to its evening roost. One ibis struggles to keep up. (tap or click to enlarge)

Photographed in December of last year at the Salton Sea.

Common Raven

A Common Raven lands on a desert agave plant.

Photographed in Anza Borrego State Park in February of this year.

 

Great-tailed Grackle

A silhouette of a Great-tailed Grackle, showing how it got its name!

Photographed earlier this month near the Salton Sea.

Dark-eyed Junco

A silhouette of a Dark-eyed Junco, photographed a few weeks ago near Idyllwild, California.

Indian Peafowl

a.k.a. Peacock!

There is a large populations of peacocks in and around the Los Angeles Arboretum in Artesia, California.

Here is one silhouetted in a tree, when all of the peacocks were returning to their roosts in the evening. (converted to black and white)

 

Eurasian Collared-Doves

A silhouette of Eurasian Collared-Doves, photographed recently in San Quintin, Baja California.

Great Blue Heron and Hooded Oriole

A Great Blue Heron preens and a Hooded Oriole stops to rest on a dead tree. Photographed recently in Chino, California.

I made the photograph shortly after sunset, and converted it to a black and white silhouette in Photoshop.

 

American Crow

Three American Crows return to their roost near the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine, California.

One of my favorite things in bird photography is to try to place a bird in front of the rising moon or setting sun (very occasionally a rising sun or setting moon!) And yes, in the camera, not in Photoshop...

In the right setting, it is not as difficult as it would seem, though a bit of luck certainly helps. (It also helps not to leave once the sun sets!)

For instance, every night, well after sunset at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, hundreds, if not thousands of American Crows fly from west to east looking for their evening roost. On a night with a nearly full moon, such as last Wednesday, in the right position many of these crows will appear to fly in front of the moon.

Since the crows were somewhat distant and difficult to focus on, I pre-focused on a crow in a group flying past. I then waited for another group at a similar distance to fly in front of the moon, shot, and hoped for the best! This was the most successful of the images, since the bird is "entering" the moon, rather than leaving it, is in a bright area of the moon, and has its wings up in a pleasing position.

Processing the image in Photoshop is a bit of a challenge. Due to the very low light in the sky, there is a lot of digital noise present (though with the new Nikon D500, not nearly as much as would be present from an older camera). I applied very heavy noise reduction only to the sky, but not to the moon. Keeping the sky dark (as it was in person) keeps the appearance of noise to a minimum as well. I then increased the contrast in the moon to bring out its features.  I am pleased with the result. (tap or click to enlarge)

Here are links to three of my earlier attempts at birds in front of the sun or moon. Here, here, and here!

 

 

Osprey

An Osprey perches atop a cardon cactus as the sun sets in the desert south of San Felipe, Baja California.

I saw this Osprey perched on the cactus just as the sun was setting. I placed myself so that the bird would be in front of the sun, and waited, hoping it would fly, for a more dramatic picture. I waited until it was nearly dark, and the bird had not moved!