Author Archives: Laura Meyers

Snowy Egret

Leave a reply

Snowy Egret

The picture of this Snowy Egret was taken at the Oceanside Nature Center. It is hard to go wrong with a capture of a Snowy Egret especially if you get them, while they are foraging in such a rich area as the Marine Study Center where this bird was out and about.
The coloring and lighting is a very good reflection of the actuall conditions that the picture was shot in. I am not sure that is the most interesting way to show such a magnificient bird. But so far, my intent is to present a bird withinin the enivironment as close to the natural colors and lighting as I can get in a digital world – “digital nature reality”.

Clapper Rail

1 Reply

Clapper Rail open wing

The picture of this Clapper Rail was taken at Oceanside Nature Center, Hemstead, NY. This beauty with wing extended came out briefly from the salt marsh undercover so that I was allowed to get a good capture of what seems to me as the quintessential salt marsh bird. The Clapper Rail is one of the species critically affected by the BP Gulf Oil disaster.

Least Tern with eggs

Leave a reply

Least Tern with eggs

The picture of this Least Tern with eggs was taken at Nickerson Beach, Lido Beach, NY.
One of my most favorite wonders when taking digital pictures with my Canon 100-400 zoom lens is the ability to see so many of the details of the animals. When I took this picture of the Least Tern, I had no idea that the bird’s eggs were showing.
I am not sure which is more rewarding being out in the field taking the pictures or going through them on the computer and making wondrous discoveries such as this.

Least Tern in flight

Leave a reply

Least Tern in flight

The picture of this Least Tern in flight was taken at Nickerson Beach, Lido Beach, NY. I think I am starting to resolve some of the noise problems with the CANONEOS7D in the final picture. Most of the CANON EOS7D noise problems show up in the light areas of the pictures. It really helps to get the perfect settings during capture but with birds in flight, it is more difficult to be right on.
I use Noise Ninja when in Adobe Photoshop and then use the history brush to “bring back” the original sharpness of the subject. I found that when in Noise Ninja, using the history brush, I change the opacity of the brush many times in order to control the amount of noise or sharpness remaining in the final picture.
In this picture of the Least Tern, I left all of the Noise Ninja filtering in the white areas and was selective in the gray areas so that I could get the impact of the feather detail.

Yellow Warbler JBNWR

Leave a reply
Yellow Warbler

The picture of this Yellow Warbler was taken at the Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge. As a result of the lesson I took with Lloyd Spitalnik this past week, I have learned how to work more carefully in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop when processing my pictures. The main emphasis is to clear up the noise issues that I have with many of my pictures taken with the CANON EOS7D and to sharpen properly.
I have been using Noise Ninja – but I now will use it as early as possible when processing the pictures in Adobe Photoshop. As for the sharpening, I was using the smart sharpen option in Adobe Photoshop but was not cranking it up as much as I could. Of course it totally depends on the picture. The main culprit for me as far as the noise is the very light whitish area where the noise is most apparent.
The colors and the capture of this picture made is suitable for alot sharpening.

Great Egret in flight

Leave a reply

Great Egret in Flight

The picture of this Great Egret was taken at a Nature Conservancy in Southampton, NY June 5, 2010. I am really enjoying the effect of having the bird against a white sky and desaturating the “noise” to create a more “artistic” style. It is hard to go wrong with a good capture of a Great Egret in Flight.
Instead of fighting the noise from my CANON EOS7D with the 100-400mm lens, I am starting to really enjoy working with it – at least in this type of capture.
A couple of days this week I put the CANON 70-200mm lens on the CANON EOS7D and the results were so very different. I will include some of the pictures in some of the next posts.

Eastern Towhee

Leave a reply

Eastern Towhee

The picture of this Eastern Towhee was taken at the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge in Shirley, NY June 4, 2010. I used my CANON EOS7D with the 100-400mm lens to capture this bird in the low light of the forest. I used the CANON Speedlite 580EX II flash.
The Wertheim National Refuge contains a beautiful nature trail that goes through a White Oak forest. It was very easy walking on a very well maintained trail. There were a few box turtles about. We saw many Eastern Towhees and lots of Catbirds.

Least Tern

Leave a reply

least_tern_mortonnwr

The picture of this Least Tern in flight was taken at the Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Southampton, New York June 5, 2010. I visited some of the Refuges and Conervancies on the south fork on Long Island this weekend. The Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge was very special because it covered a very pretty pond and a beautiful stretch of closed beach. Much of the refuge is situated on a peninsula surrounded by Noyack and Little Peconic Bays. Federal and New York State designated endangered/threatened species which use the closed beach areas include piping plover, least terns, roseate terns, common terns, and osprey.

Solitary Sandpiper

Leave a reply

Solitary Sandpiper

The picture of this Solitary Sandpiper was taken the at Jamaica Bay Wildlifre Refuge. There is actually only one perch at Big John’s Pond at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. The water is really high so you really need to be there at the right moment to catch the sandpipers perched. I spoke to one of the rangers at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge to request that more perches be “planted” in the pond. The blind at Big John’s Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful place to view and photography birds,
This pictures was taken with my CANON EOS7D with the 100-400mm lens. It is interesting to see the water reflected on the bottom of the Solitary Sandpiper

Canada Goose Baby Chick

Leave a reply

Canada Goose Chick

The picture of this Canada Goose Baby Chick was taken at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. After watching all of the attractive birding plumage displays and and listening to the sexy bird songs – well here we have it – the next generation. A baby chick in any plumage is a miracle to behold. I used the CANON EOS7D with the CANON 100-400 mm lens for this capture.