Terns at Nickerson Beach

On the south shore of Long Island, not far from JFK airport is beautiful Nickerson Beach.  It's a birding location I kept hearing about and it was high on my list of places I needed to check out.  It's a favorite spot for birders and nature photographers as it is a nesting area for terns, plovers, and skimmers.

Today I made my first trip there with a friend and we were not disappointed.  There is a huge skimmer colony there but they were very quiet and mostly grounded.  I think they're all nesting now.  But the terns were active and there were baby terns everywhere.  Lori and I just planted ourselves on the ground and enjoyed watching and photographing the bird behavior.









Linking up today with Carly's Photo A Day...

Photo Art Friday - The Country Place

Fridays seem to roll around so quickly!

Photo Art Friday is featuring vintage treatments.  This is a picture of one of the homes that dots the shore of our little harbor here in Stony Brook.  There are quite a few big expensive places right along the shore.  Some are modern but some are elegant older estates.  I photographed this one from the water as I was kayaking by.



I did most of this treatment in Silver Effects Pro and Color Effects Pro by Nik Software.  There is also a layer of texture from Shadowhouse Creations blended in for the wrinkles and tears.

I call this house "the country place".  II think of it as a "little" get-away home for a wealthy family residing in Manhattan.

I'm also linking up to Carly's Photo a Day. 

Four Blackbirds

Actually, I think it's only two...
:)

This morning found me in a world of worry and sadness.  Things are not improving here and the stress level continues to rise over concerns about job and house and finances.  But what was most distressing today is that our worst scenario for our son seems to be playing out and he's going to fail a couple of his classes.  He's always struggled in school and we've had a terrible time working with the district to get him the support that he needs.  He completely fell off a cliff this semester....I'm sure that all the uncertainty here at home just exacerbates things for him.  If we can turn him around, he will still probably be able to graduate with his class next spring.  But we are SO worried as we just can't seem to get through to him how serious this is for his future and though he's pleasant, he just can't seem to get with the program where school is concerned.

I found myself up early and so overwhelmed with this that I had to just leave the house and distract myself to save my sanity.  I headed to a nearby park/preserve that has a HUGE meadow.  The flowers are just starting to bloom and it will be just gorgeous in a week or so.  Today my thoughts were of the first blossoms and the birds.



I'm especially proud of the four images I'm posting today.  I've always found red winged blackbirds to be especially challenging to photograph.  They're skittish and you can barely look in their direction before they fly.  I've tried for years to catch good shots and have only had limited success on a couple of occasions.  Today, even though I was still a good distance from them, they stayed around long enough for me to get a solid focus and shoot.  I was on my game...my exposure straight out of the camera was spot on!  All they needed was a crop and a touch of sharpening. 




The birds were a true distraction from all that's challenging me right now.  And the sense of accomplishment gave me something to feel good about.  I hope it can hold me over now for a few days....the heat wave is on it's way.  Today, it was gorgeous with a high of 79.  Tomorrow they say 97, and Thursday....102!!  Next week, that meadow will be spectacular! I'll post a little preview tomorrow!





I've missed linking in with Carly and her photo a day project for at least a week now. So, Carly....here's four pics to catch up!

Negative Space - Photo Art Friday

Photo Art Friday is featuring work with emphasis on negative space.  I took this picture today from my kayak.  This heron was hiding in the grass and with narrow depth of field I was able to turn the vegetation around him into this colorful, textured negative space.  No additional textures were used this time around.  I duplicated the background layer and adjusted the saturation just a touch.




Lots of interesting and creative work at Photo Art Friday.  It's worth a visit!

Photo Art Friday / Black & White 6/9/12

Wow, the last week has really flown by.  Seems like every moment has been consumed by getting my son through these last couple of weeks of school.  I had hoped to get out and do more shooting, but this week was pretty slow from a photographic point of view.  But I wanted to participate in Photo Art Friday and the black and white challenge.

I found it more challenging than a lot of the other photo art I've done.  I didn't want to go abstract but I certainly wanted it to look like I'd done more than desaturated the color.  There are a lot of layers in this piece with a lot of tweaking and masking.  I used a couple of textures that were desaturated but I also used some art filters in photoshop to enhance the outline of the subject and mute the background.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the other artists have been able to create.




I hope you'll visit Photo Art Friday and enjoy the fabulous work shared there.

Photo Art Friday 6/1

This photo was shot on the same early kayak outing the morning this image was taken.  It was a little soft as it was taken while the light was still a bit dim and the boat naturally doesn't lend itself to great stability.  But I thought it would be a good candidate for a little texture play.  With Bonnie's Mauve Magic and some tweaking in Nik Color Efex 4...I think I got just the right mix of dreaminess and bokah while holding on to the little detail on the egret and water's surface that the soft morning light would allow.




Linking up today to Bonnie's Photo Art Friday.  There are many wonderful digital artists to visit there if you are so inclined.

Also linking to Carly's Photo A Day.