Hello...

[John R.]

Greetings, all...I'm John, a new volunteer based in Lake Worth, FL.  There are loads of wildlife areas in all directions from where I live, and I can practice my hobby of photographing birds--along with the 5,000 or more other amateur (and professional) bird photographers in the area <g>.  Sometimes we are tripping all over each other, and over our tripods, on the boardwalks.

I came to use Photoshop in 2004 as a tool for enhancing my own photos, then started using it to enhance/restore old family photos.  When I learned about OPR a couple of weeks ago, it appealed to me as a way to share my Photoshop ability, such as it is, for a good cause.  And it is already teaching me, or pointing out the need to learn, a lot of new PS skills.

Pat suggested I post a couple of my favorites among my bird images.  So, here are my 2 favorites from the past 8 years.



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Photo 2 - 2012-12-23 by BirdPics, on Flickr[/img]
--John R.

[Pat]

John these are absolutely wonderful photos!  Thank you for sharing them with us.

Pat

[Mike S.]

John,

I am very impressed with your pictures.  What camera, lens and F-Stop were you using or normally use.  Sharpness and depth of field are outstanding.

Mike

[Mhayes]

John, what beautiful pictures, but please tell me the pelican was not supper for the alligator?

Margie


P.S. Please no photos of Bambi (not our distributor) being eaten by wolves.  :cool:

[John R.]

Thanks, guys.  I've still got a lot to learn about birds, photography, and bird photography. But I am trying.

Yes, Margie, the pelican became supper, but not for that particular alligator.  This gator quickly lost his prize to a larger gator, and then an even larger gator took it away from that one.  There's a whole series of shots of the sequence of events, but the dramatic action for most of those took place just below the surface of the water.  In this one shot, I at least "got teeth."

Mike, I'd have to go back to the original files to get the info on the f/stop and other settings.  I know both photos were taken with a Canon 20D and Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS zoom, and I believe the pelican/gator was, also. 

[Mhayes]

John, that was a great shot and when you look at the reflection below it looks like he was about to swallow him whole. Interesting how it ended up. When I was contracting at Gulfstream in Savannah, GA I would go out to a park (old rice patty?) that had marshes and it was fun watching the birds and the alligators---especially when the young ones would hit the water and it sounded like a whip cracking.

I too use the 20D and as much as I would have like to upgrade to a Canon 5-D, the 20D has been a great camera. On special occasions I have rented lenses that gave me a chance to enjoy lenses I couldn't afford.  

Margie

[kiska]

NICE pics!

[Hannie]

Hi John welcome to the forum!  Your photos are beautiful, the one with the "teeth" is very impressive.

Hannie

[Tori803]

Hi, John. Great photos! You'll find restoring photos to be a very fulfilling, albeit challenging, activity. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

Tori

[glennab]

Wonderful photos, John!  The 'gator vs pelican is a gem.

Happy Holidays
GK