High Dynamic Range

The human eye can see a greater range of light than a camera sensor. In a nutshell this means that in a situation where you have a lot of dark areas and light areas in a view you have to sacrifice detail in either the dark or the light areas. You cant have both. Take a picture inside on a sunny day and the camera will expose for the inside of the room and any views through the window will be totally lost, just a white window. Expose for the view out of the window and the inside of the room will be dark. Your eyes can see both at the same time, a camera sensor at this point in time can not.There is a technique called HDR High Dynamic Range which will allow an image to show both. What you do is to take 3 or more exposures, one for the dark areas, one for the mid range areas and one for the light areas. You then use special software to blend all three shots together. Simple. Here's an HDR I took a few years ago in Yellowstone NP.

Madison River

Just one more

Now not a lot of people know this but there's a lot of water in Florida. Not only is it near the sea but it rains a lot as well as nasty hurricanes. Consequently there's a lot of water birds to see. These are a selection of images from 2009 and 2012.

Anhinga

Corkscrew Swamp

Brown Pelican

Lovers Key

Burrowing Owl

Cape Coral

Cattle Egret

Gatorland

Great Egret

Gatorland

Great Egret

Little Estero Lagoon

Red-Shouldered Hawk

Corkscrew Swamp

Reddish Egret (White Morph)

Little Estero Lagoon

Reddish Egret

Little Estero Lagoon

Tricolored Heron

Little Estero Lagoon

Yellow-crowned Nightheron

Little Estero Lagoon

Little Blue Heron

Little Estero Lagoon

Yellow-crowned Nightheron

Sanibel Island

Florida Birds or should that be Floridian Birds?

Florida has an assortment of pretty weird and wonderful birds. Here's a few more from April 2013.

Black Vulture

Anhinga Trail
Everglades NP

Double-crested Cormorant

Anhinga Trail
Everglades NP

Great Blue Heron

Blind Pass
Sanibel Island

Roseate Spoonbill

Little Estero Lagoon

Snowy Egret

Blind Pass
Sanibel Island

White Ibis

Little Estero Lagoon

Wood Stork

Little Estero Lagoon

Florida Birds

Last April we had a week in Florida mainly taking pictures of birds. The birds in Florida are TAME, they just walk up to you and pose for a picture. These pictures were taken at various places up and down the Gulf Coast at Little Estero Lagoon, Fort De Soto and Sanibel Island.

Black Skimmer
Fort De Soto

Black Skimmers
Fort De Soto

Black-bellied Plover
Little Estero Lagoon

Semi-palmated Sandpiper
Little Estero Lagoon

Ruddy Turnstone
Little Estero Lagoon

Sanderling
Sanibel Island

Snowy Plover
Little Estero Lagoon

Willet
Sanibel Island

Willet
Sanibel Island

On Reflection

Here's a bit of an artsy one. I was just going through some pictures from last years trip down to Florida and came across this one.

Snowy Egret

And now for something completely different

Well maybe not completely different but I've not posted any butterfly pictures before so somewhat different.

Common Buckeye

Monarch

White Peacock

Storms coming

Last night we could see the storm coming down from the North so I grabbed the camera and tripod and out I went down to the bottom of the drive. I stayed out until the rain started and the carbon fiber tripod started glowing and my hair was sticking straight up.