Birds Wintertime birding in SE Texas

[Chris Summers]

When I haven't taken pictures in awhile I get Creative Fever. Sort of like cabin fever from being inside too long but for me it's a lack of creativity behind with my camera taking pictures. So I went down to a local park and did some birding with my Canon R7 and Tamron 150-600mm lens. Our weather has warmed up a lot so I have been seeing more cardinals and other springtime visitors. And as I am along a river there are always the usual shore birds.

The light was hazy with few shadows which was perfect. I found a Great Egret preening his feathers and taking a bath and then a pair of cardinals. The male was just so bright in front of the winter foliage.

I edited a few in Lightroom. Love that new masking tool, it gets better with each Adobe upgrade. I usually select the subject, in this case the birds and adjust exposure, highlights and shadows and then do some sharpening on the eyes and facial feathers. Then make another mask for the background. I usually lower the exposure to put more emphasis on the birds, decrease the clairity a bit to soften the background and decrease noise if it is more than I like.

My creativity fever is gone for now!

 

[Devin]

Same! Also I have liked the effect of knocking down the 'black' instead of the exposure in the background mask. Similarly the texture instead of the clarity or noise.