David's Images of the Day Photoblog
There will be two sets images for today. The first group will be some very small wildflowers, a grass seed head, and thistle flowers. My eyes are healing after cataract surgery, and I am getting better and used to being out in the sun (with wrap-around sunglasses).
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.
Two weeks before my “Gone to See America 2006 Trip” I bought my first DSLR camera (a Nikon D200, based on a recommendation from my brother) and two lenses. I admit I didn’t know how to use the camera, and the manual was not much help. As soon as I got back from the trip I knew I needed to learn a lot more. Even back then I could tell that there was good and really bad information on the web. Tom Hogan’s D200 book was much more helpful than the Nikon manual supplied with the camera.
Today I am including a before and after image from that trip. When I went on the “Gone to See America 2006 trip” I didn’t know any better, and only saved JPG images — which meant there was much less information available later for reprocessing. Since then, I only saved the RAW image data. You need to look at the full images to see the difference of nine years of better programs, and better knowledge of how to reprocess images (and this was using the out of the camera JPG image, not the full RAW image data which I didn’t have). I have to admit since then I have saved every image — good, bad, and ugly. You learn from the bad and ugly. Never know when a new program will be developed to convert it to something useful. You also get ideas if you ever go back to the same location.
I hope to hear from viewers if they do see a difference in these images.
Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly Getting Some Sodium/Salt From the Mud Near the Pond. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 80-400 mm VR II lens (ISO 1000, 400 mm, f/11, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Nik Define, and Photoshop CC 2014.
Female Grouse Hiding in the Grass. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/16, 1/50 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC. It was really hard getting close to the bird with a wide lens… Note that I initially thought this was a Ruffed Grouse, but after reviewing location maps, think it is a Sooty Grouse. Thoughts???
Portrait of a Puffin with its beak full after a successful morning fishing trip. Cape Ingolfshofdi (Ingólfshöfði) a private nature preserve on an isolated headland half way between Skaftafell in Vatnajokull National Park and Jökulsárlón ice lagoon. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 80-400 mm VR II lens (ISO 360, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec).
