I noticed this challenge before taking off on holidays, and thought it would be a great chance to showcase a series of photos I had edited and saved in a folder titled water birds.
I hope you enjoy!
A rufous bellied heron.An African darter drying its wings.An egret stalking in the shallows.A mixed group perched in a dead tree, including African spoonbills and sacred ibis.An African jacana.A grey heron standing very close to a nile crocodile.A brown hooded kingfisher.A pair of malachite kingfishers.A hammerkop.A pair of pied kingfishers in the Okavango Delta.
Please note, I’m away for several weeks, so I have scheduled some posts in advance. I will moderate and respond to any comments just as soon as I am able.
I am hoping to be taking loads of photos, so if you would like to follow along, please feel free to give my page a like on Facebook @jennifersawickyphotography and a follow over on Instagram at jensawicky.
I had fun going through my archives for photos that would fit this challenge, as I was able to select ones that may not have ever been worked on otherwise.
I hope you enjoy, have a great evening.
A grey heron takes a pause atop a group of hippo. Timbavati Reserve, South Africa, May 2015. 1/200sec, f8.0, ISO 640A pair of pygmy kingfishers are small no matter how you look at them. Chitwa Chitwa Lodge, May 2015. 1/1250sec, f5.6, ISO220A woodland kingfisher is dwarfed by the buffalo weaver nest he is sitting next to. Chitwa Chitwa Lodge, May 2015 1/800sec, f5.6, ISO 560Some of the largest animals in the world look tiny when viewed in the vastness of the Okavango Delta by air. How many animals can you spot? Stanley’s Camp, Okavango Delta, April 2015 1/1250sec, f9.0, ISO 1100
A young elephant drinks from the Chobe River in Botswana, under the protective shadow of her mother. This little one had already lost her tail; whether it was missing at birth, or lost in an attack by a predator, only she knows. It was amazing to spend time watching elephants; the antics of the little ones in the river brought us so much joy. 1/1000sec, f5.6, ISO560
I decided to go back and re-edit some old photos, as I wasn’t inspired to get out and shoot this weekend. Here is a photo taken at Chobe Park in Botswana while on a boat tour. I see lots of possibilities for editing it.
Base image, with only basic Lightroom adjustments for chromatic aberration and lens profile correction. 1/250Sec, f10, ISO100 April 8, 2013 at Chobe Park, Botswana
To me, the elephant at the far left of the photo looked out of place. I cropped it out, and edited the photo with Colour Efex adding a polarizing filter effect.
Edited with Colour Efex Pro
Edited with Colour Efex Pro
For the edit above, I used the same polarizing filter effect, but cropped in just to focus on the elephants crossing their trunks.
Edited with Silver Efex Pro
Finally, I did a black and white conversion with Silver Efex Pro, on a cropped version of the photo showing several elephants with their tusks in alignment. I added in vignetting and a border to help obscure the elephant far right that was heading out of the water.
Thanks to my landscape photography instructor Jim for reminding us to always look for the picture within a picture. 🙂
