Headed Home From Bosque

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I had fun in the snow on the early morning of Sunday, November 30. Photo copyright and courtesy of Robert O'Toole.

It is 6:50 am on Wednesday, December 2 and I am sitting in the Albuquerque Airport headed for Denver/Orlando. I will be home for four whole days before heading to Long Island for the NWPLI program on December 8th and three weeks of winter photography and visits with my Mom and my two wonderful daughters and their families.

It snowed fiercely on Sunday morning past and I struggled to find some geese in the predawn. I added two stops of light to my exposure to push the histogram to the right. Here is what the image looked like on the camera’s LCD:

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Many folks would simply delete the image, especially if they were not aware of the amazing potential of digital image files. Below is the optimized image. As always, click on the image to view a larger, sharper one.

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Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/50 sec. at f/6.3 in Tv Mode.

Simple Levels, Curves, and Hue-Saturation adjustments after an ACR conversion (as detailed in our Digital Basics File: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=32) transformed the image as I knew that it would. I wish that the wind had been from the east/northeast rather than from the northwest as I would have preferred the birds flying towards me rather than away.

Gotta go! We are taking off now. I actually had an internet connection while sitting on the plane! I made some corrections and updated the post in the Denver airport.

Jim Heupel

December 3, 2009 at 6:37 pm

Artie,
The magic may have left Bosque for the time being … but it has not left you! You are still the Man!! Even though the snow geese were a quarter of the normal numbers — the same with the cranes — you still managed to come up with truly superb images. And, more importantly, you were always on top of finding spots to go to when things were slow at the refuge. I doff my hat to you, my friend!!!

birdsasart

December 4, 2009 at 7:42 am

Thanks Jim. And thanks for all of the help that you provided. I am listing you as a co-leader for next year–same exact time frame: Friday to Friday around Thanksgiving. Let me know if that works for you. I am planning on announcing it in today’s Bulletin.