Doing things differently

Recently, I have been trying to do things a little bit differently.  One comment that this provoked was something along the lines of not being able to see as much detail on the animal...  I suppose that they're right.  But thinking about it, provoked me to experiment with it more.  So... here are a few images that are a little bit different.

Chaffinch backlit

Here a Chaffinch was watching me carefully as I photographed some Redpoll.  The light was coming through the clouds behind the Chaffinch so I decided to try and get a silhouetted shot.  In post processing, I deliberately increased contrast and darkened the shadows whilst increasing the highlights to create the image as I saw it.

Chiffchaff backlit

I was out photographing with a friend when we saw this Chiffchaff on the end of the branch.  Again, the light was behind him but I tried to do as I did above.  Fortunately, I had just pressed the shutter as he jumped off the branch.  The processing was the same as above except that this one was converted to monochrome.

Marsh Harrier at dusk

I was sitting in one of the hides at my local nature reserve a few weeks ago just at the light had dropped.  I saw a Marsh Harrier gliding across the sky - typical, just as the light had dropped...  But the colours in the sky were beautiful.  I therefore went for a silhouette... again...

Black Swans

I'll admit, this is a bit weird.  This is a Black Swan it's two cygnets.  The overhanging willow tree was acting as a food source as the parent bird reached up and plucked the buds and leaves off the branches and placed them carefully into the water for the cygnets to eat.  The light was going to be difficult to try and get an exposure to show the feather details.  So I underexposed in camera and followed up with similar post processing to that of the Chaffinch and Chiffchaff.




I hope that you like these...

Matt