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FEATHER PHOTOGRAPHY |
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This is my first update since building this website, and many changes have occurred.
I spent much of the last half of 2004 refining my skills at stitching multiple photos into one to make large prints with high detail. Originally, I used the photomerge option available in Photoshop Elements 2, but found it lacking in many ways. Wanting more control, I moved on to Max Lyon's program PTAssembler and have been very happy with the results. To date, the largest print I have made is 30" x 50" with wonderful detail. With a higher resolution camera (see below), much larger prints are possible.
Although I still print some proofs at home, I have all of the actual prints printed at professional labs now. I have used Costco some, but more recently I have been almost exclusively using White House Custom Color
Originally I processed photos with Photoshop Elements 2, and then moved on to Picture Window Pro. This allowed me to use curves and advanced masking techniques. Picture Window Pro was a great program for the cost, but was very limited in several ways. At the beginning of this year, I moved on to Photoshop CS and am very impressed. Photoshop CS is a wonderful program, and despite it's cost is also a great value
After several years of faithful service, I finally decided it was time to trade in my trusty refurbished Nikon Coolpix 880. I debated long and hard over whether to purchase a digital SLR, or stick with a digicam. I very much wanted to continue digiscoping, and finally settled on the prosumer Nikon Coolpix 8400. At low ISO` settings, I am very happy with this camera. I have only added a few photos to the gallery as of this date, but should be adding more in short order.
I am an amateur photographer. By profession I am a veterinarian, but love to bird as a hobby. My interest in photography grew out of my interest in birds.
In addition to binoculars, many birders own a small telescope, or spotting scope, for bird watching. After pining for a scope for some time, I finally took the plunge and purchased my first spotting scope in early 2002. I don't remember the exact date I became aware of digiscoping, but I believe it was sometime in 2001. As an avid birder, I was intrigued to see that other birders were taking pictures by holding a digital camera up to a spotting scope.
Not long after purchasing my scope, I stumbled across Ann Cook's website of absolutely stunning digiscoped images of birds, Birds of Manitoba, and was immediately hooked. In June of 2002, I purchased a digital camera and began trying to digiscope images of birds. My parents have a wonderful assortment of birds visit their home in Arizona, and I spent many hours there working my way up the learning curve. It took a bit of time to learn the camera and how to use it with the scope, but eventually I was able to take images that were worth holding on to.
In the fall of 2002, shortly after moving from Arizona to the State of Washington, I purchased an ink jet printer and tried printing some of the better images I had. At first, I was very unhappy with the results. The pictures were poor representations of what I was seeing on my monitor, and I even considered returning the printer. Fortunately, Norman Koren's site, Norman Koren Photography, came up when I was searching the web for help, and I spent a good deal of time poring over his tutorials on how to edit and print digital images.
For some time I had thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I could find a way to write off some of my birding expenses." (Birding is a great excuse to travel!) By mid-2003, my prints had improved to the point that my wife and friends were recommending that I sell them, and this website is the result.
Working toward high quality prints has increased my awareness of, and interest in, photography. But, I still primarily take pictures by going birding! If I find a cooperative bird, or locations where I can photograph a bird without scaring it away, that is even better. Birding takes me to many beautiful locations, and I'll continue to photograph scenery and other enjoyable parts of nature as I come across them. Birding is often best early in the day, and again at the end of the day. These are good times of the day for interesting lighting for photography as well.
I currently use a Nikon Coolpix 880 Camera. For the bird photographs, I handhold (rarely) or attach (usually) the camera to my Nikon Fieldscope III ED 60mm Spotting Scope.
There are wonderful adapters made for attaching digital cameras to spotting scopes these days, but I initially started with a homemade adapter and haven't gotten around to upgrading it. The adapter I use is a rubber coupler (normally used to join two pipes) with several band clamps on it. I've adjusted the clamps so that when I slide the adapter onto my camera, and then the camera and adapter to my scope's eyepiece it is held in place by friction.
I process the photographs initially with NeatImage to remove noise levels, and then "develop" them in Photoshop Elements II. I typically rotate and crop the photos as needed, adjust levels, and sometimes adjust hue and saturation. I've also been using a lot more contrast masks since reading about them on Norman Koren's site. I then print the images using Epson's C82 printer.
In the future, I would love to add a higher resolution, SLR, digital camera. (It is very hard to photograph birds in motion by digiscoping.) I also hope to upgrade to Epson's 2200 printer.