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Friday, May 13, 2016

Fun and more fun

As much sugar water as I provide the Lucifer Hummingbirds, if no one comes to see them it feels like watering a garden full of tomatoes and watching them go to waste. But not today! A couple of ace photographers visited and got some great shots of the Lucifers. And even more fun was when they let me put my memory card in their camera and shoot a few shots myself. And what a difference their cameras, setup and flash make! Here's a photo taken by my camera from behind them at what they were shooting. The first one is just cropped. Second one is brightened on photoshop.



Compare that to one I took a few minutes later with their camera, pre-focused, flash, and the proper settings. I did nothing on photoshop except crop.


This is not acceptable. I simply must do better photography even if it means learning flash and all that. (moan!) 

Words can't express my gratitude to Larry Ditto and Paul Denman. They are first class super persons. And guess what? Larry will be doing a Lucifer photo workshop here in August in conjunction with the Davis Mountain Hummingbird Festival. Anyone interested in signing up will have an experience of a lifetime. Here's a link for more info:  http://www.fortdavis.com/2016-Hummingbird-Registration-Form.pdf

And here's Larry's website to check out his awesome work and also contact him regarding the workshop:  http://larryditto.com/

I have plenty of rabbits around the oasis but seldom photograph them. Yesterday I couldn't resist this one relaxing in the shade.


If you didn't see this Sleepy Orange butterfly land on this Evergreen Sumac leaf you would never, with the naked eye, know it wasn't a leaf. What awesome camouflage!


And I was easily entertained by a White-winged Dove doing it's courtship display. It would perform facing one direction, turn and repeat it facing another direction, around and around. So much wonderful stuff to see in nature.


                                 
                           


2 comments:

  1. Fantastic. Great photo. Know Larry from long ago at TAMU. Excited about being there at CMO Thursday with Jenni's cousins, Karen and Tom, of Maine. Read Dan Jones' blog and he said boats were on Lake Balmorhea. Are power boats now allowed on the lake? Very discouraging if this is true. Just too many people for this old birder. We will be at the lake Monday afternoon so I'm hoping no boats will be stirring up the birds. Look forward to seeing you soon.

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  2. I'll find out about boats. I've been in a boat there but don't remember if we used a motor.

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