I have been suffering from "robin envy" after seeing Pam Knowler's ( @pamknowler ), Graham Thresher's ( @thresheg ), and others' shots this week. Today, I could not believe my luck -- a flock of robins landed in the tree next to the deck right outside my home office. I was already in winter coat, boots, and gloves since I was about to leave for school, and my tripod was right there and ready as I hadn't put it away from a few days ago. I grabbed it, went outside, and shot about 200 photos. At work, on a break, I popped in my smart disk to, I thought, admire my work. Then reality hit: (a) my vision is poor on manual [very near sighted], (b) the birds were not holding still, and (c) auto focus liked tree limbs better than the birds. So, after deleting about 90% of them, I combed through the rest. This one was decently focused, but the background was boring -- the cement wall of our neighbor's deck. Pathetic. Then, I found this burst on pic monkey. It's a little over the top, but it captured how I felt to see a robin in focus! I know the robin would be proud too.
Main album -- the usually uncooperative squirrel cooperated today: http://365project.org/taffy/the-also-ran-ph/2013-11-26
hahahaha i am thrilled for you and think it suits perfectly - also glad to see others suffer envy ------mine is lens envy hahahahaha - it occurs often when at highly photographable ( it is a word - in my dictionary ) events lol
Creative processing! And great detail on your robin! I often have days of 200+ bird shots, they're so darn uncooperative! Last week, I looked out and saw four of them having a pool party in the bird bath, but my camera was upstairs....
Oh Taffy I am so thrilled I have inspired you! How funny! I love your story and can understand exactly what happened as I did the same thing with a kingfisher in a tree! Auto focus just does not work as it keeps hitting the branches in front of the birds! This shot is brilliant! Great focus and I love your processing! I must find burst on picmonkey! I kept looking at your robin and realise it is different from the UK one - no red face! So pleased you got such a great shot! A big Fav from me!
These are all the same problems I have when trying for bird shots. So frustrating! This is fantastic though... and the background is far from uninteresting now! =)
Splendid! I know what you mean about the old eyes. I struggle in live view on my camera - I am forever having to increase the magnification to see if I have got the focus right!
Love the robin pic and your story about how you processed it. I want to graduate to the next level by learning how to remove unwanted backgrounds. Half my photos I never use because of awful background distractions. Is pic monkey an app or software?
@redy4et Thanks for the kind comments. Pic monkey is software that is free that you can use on the computer for editing (not in iPad or iPhone). There is an upgrade version that gives you more options. I've just started using it here and there and find it has a few things that are quite a bit of fun.
When you said you had taken over 200 photos of a robin I had no idea you were serious! It paid off -- this is a fabulously focused robin, and you were right in taking a boring background and making it glow!
It was such a GORGEOUSLY blue sky day today I wanted to go on a photo walk but I have 7 college students and my mother at the house, and no time for photography while driving around. I think I've only taken between 1 - 9 photos a day this week.
@cathrinemitch@genesis_one
Catherine and Corrie, thank you so much for your kinds comments and your favs. I really appreciate it! This was my first time using that burst effect and I had no idea how others might respond to it. Your favs give me confidence!
@jo13 Jo, thanks so much for the kind comments. I didn't do anything more than move the little plus sign in the middle of the circle so it was centered on the robin instead of the middle of the page. Not hard, in the end.
cool! : )
Isn't it a great feeling to get the shot you dream of
Catherine and Corrie, thank you so much for your kinds comments and your favs. I really appreciate it! This was my first time using that burst effect and I had no idea how others might respond to it. Your favs give me confidence!