I took my phone and walked onto the Franklin Ave bridge where I had a good view of the city. I took photos and a couple of time-lapse videos. I opened one of the photos in Photoshop, cloned out orange highway cones, duplicated the layer and used screen blending mode masked to affect just the headlights on the vehicles. I darkened the sky, added contrast to the clouds and lightened the center buildings. Lastly, I increased the saturation of the yellows. I was done and happy that I went out in the rain.

I would have to drive over three hours to a large desolate area in northern Minnesota with no guarantee of finding the hare. At the end of November, I drove to the area. When I got there, I relaxed and walked slowly, quietly in the woods at different areas looking for the hares. I had been looking for two hours before I saw a snowshoe hare. Shortly after I spotted it, it ran away-lost in the branches and bushes. I waited quietly, walked around until I saw it again. This time it sat on the ground partially obscured by branches. We looked at each other. I got down low and aimed the lens through the branches at its eye. I liked the photo because the eye was sharp and there was detail in the fur. I used manual mode and overexposed one stop since it was a large light colored object. 

The lighthouse photos were disappointing because the winter wasn't cold enough to form ice along the Michigan shore.

At the Holland lighthouse I spotted long-tailed ducks in the entrance to the canal. I saw fishermen walk to the end of the narrow, icy pier. I followed them wearing ice cleats and carrying a tripod and 600mm lens. I got some photos of the ducks and while I was waiting and hoping they'd swim closer, a boat came through the canal. I watched the ducks fly away, out of sight.

I went back to the car, got a landscape lens and tripod. I stood on the pier close to the lighthouse; and while I was waiting for a long exposure to finish I saw two long-tailed ducks on the other side of a small building on the pier. Back to the car again to switch lenses and tripods. I hid behind the building on the pier and set up my rig, then moved to the front of the building to, hopefully get some photos. When I set the rig down, a railing on the pier was at the same height as the lens and blocked my view of the ducks. No! I moved quickly to an unobstructed spot; and as the ducks started to swim away I got some photos.

  I use a neutral density filter to make the water look smooth. When the water is smooth, reflections are more defined. I use Photoshop 2020 for my photo  edits to decrease the saturation of most colors, or maybe to add saturation in  a certain area. I use the camera raw filter for many edits: to add light in an area, to decrease contrast in an area, or to increase texture in an area. I like to decrease contrast and add haze to far elements, and to add light and definition to the near elements in an image. For this image I used a gray gradient with the soft light blend mode and the Nik High Key filter at a reduced opacity.

  To achieve simple compositions, it is often necessary to crop and clone out elements. I often use Nik Color Efex High Key filter to simplify elements. I keep experimenting with different filters and effects to get the look I want: simple, smooth, soft.

There are a number of techniques I used to do this: changing the camera's white balance to an infrared custom setting, blurring the background of the photos, changing the color of the background, adding a texture, adding another photo to the butterfly photo to make a composite. Once I started making the photos, ideas came to me. There were many creative possibilities. I used photoshop to edit the photos. Now it's September, and I'll have to wait until next summer to make more butterfly photo art.

Before I unloaded all my gear, I took a peek at the scene. Ice floating in the canal! I knew a long exposure would blur the moving ice. I grabbed my tripod, backpack, and camera. I saw the steps to the pier covered in snow and ice. I held onto the handrail. Even though I was walking slowly, when I stepped onto the walkway, I fell. I was okay, just very sore.

I took a few photos without a filter, nice, not great. I then used a three stop Formatt Hi-tech ND filter, AV mode, ISO 100,f/16, 30 sec. exposure- much better. The ice had a nice flowing blur, the lighthouse was sharp and clear, the color vibrant. I was happy, even though the ship coming into the harbor was still too far out to be seen that well.

I had a plan: I would arrive early, stand on the bluff overlooking the river and bridge, and wait for the balloons to enter the scene.

I was there before the sun came up. The sky was hazy and had soft pink and blue tones. I took photos and waited and waited. No balloons. Someone told me that the balloons launched and were heading in the opposite direction from where I was.

I drove around and saw many balloons. By now the sun was up and the sky had lost the soft, pink tones. I took photos of individual balloons against a plain blue-gray sky. I knew these photos by themselves wouldn't be impressive. Maybe I could use them in a composite. 

I was driving home and an idea occurred to me to use one of the photos I took in the early morning as a background for the individual balloons. I knew it would be hard to make them blend into the sky.

I opened the background photo in photoshop and make adjustments until I was happy. I then took each individual balloon photo and composited them on the background photo. I used photoshop's blend-if function to do this. I adjusted the color, brightness and clarity of the balloons. Each balloon was resized and positioned where I wanted it in the background.

Lastly, I adjusted the contrast of the overall image. It worked! I created the photo I dreamed about.

I followed the directions on google maps. I was driving in the fast, left lane with cars behind me, when I was instructed to turn left where there was no road- I couldn't do it. It seems as if I'm always trying to do the impossible.

Instead I went to a place in the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge where I saw nothing. Later, as I drove back to Lake Havasu City, I noticed that the turn off to Topcock Gorge was just an ATV  trail. I talked to some people who told me that they knew of no hiking trails in the gorge.

Two days later, I was at the marina on Lake Mead where I talked to a game warden, and asked him where I could go hiking or driving to see a bighorn sheep.He told me that they came down to the Boulder city, Nevada to eat grass. Jackpot!

At the park, I saw about twenty sheep. They were not skittish; they were waking around, eating grass, resting. I heard a young boy say, " They are enjoying life".I used a 400mm lens to get photos of the sheep that were better than I had imagined. It was a magic moment when I used my lens to look into the eyes of a bighorn sheep.

I went for a drive around Lake Gervais, north of St. Paul, MN. I was looking at a little peninsula jutting out into the lake and decided the composition was nice and that it would make a good long exposure photo. I had five minutes to wait for the exposure to finish, so I looked around the lake and noticed a bird that looked like a grebe- strange. I thought, "It's a red-necked grebe".

After the long exposure was complete, I got my telephoto lens and tripod. I took photos of the grebe, went back to the car and used I Bird to look up grebes. The bird that I saw was a horned grebe in non-breeding plumage- not a common bird near St. Paul, and the first one I had seen in winter plumage. Beautiful -  and I wasn't even looking for it.

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up my rig a half hour before sunrise at Mounds Blvd. overlooking St. Paul, MN. Once I was happy with the composition, I started taking different exposures and finally used a thirteen second exposure for the image.

At home, I took the image into Photoshop and made a selection of the left side, copied it onto it's own layer, edited it to flip it horizontally. Now I had the curving arc of lights and part of the bridge on the right side of the image, creating a symmetry.  I then used a layer mask to hide the upper part of the symmetry.

I decreased the highlights with Adobe Camera Raw, made a selcetion of the central buildings and used NIK Viveza to increase the structure and brightness in this area. Next, I made a selection of the upper half of the building with the first sign - used the transform tool to make it larger and the move tool to position it.

I brought an image of a moon into Photoshop, made a selection of the moon, positioned it in the main image, scaled it smaller and decreaed the opacity.I used NIK Color Efex Indian Summer to saturate the lights, and NIK Darken/Lighten to add a slight vignette.  I liked it. Whew!

They can live to be sixty years old, only come ashore to breed, and have very long wingspans. I found them to have beautifully dark lined, penetrating eyes. I watched their breeding dances, saw them take off and land, and groom each other.

Hawaii works hard to protect these birds. At Ka'ena Point, where I hiked one has to enter through a gate, no dogs allowed, and  the nesting areas are roped off, but the birds are easy to view from the trail. I was so happy that I made the effort to go see these birds.

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Northern Flickers. I wanted to try to get a flight shot, so I raised my shutter speed to 1/3200s, Auto ISO, Manual mode. The trees blocked out a lot of light, so I knew my ISO would be quite high. I got the shot and it appeared acceptably sharp- not too much noise.

I looked at the file- The ISO was 12,800! I used Neat Image Pro Noise Reduction software to process the photo and the photo was beautiful. I remembered those photos of flickers and was happy to have my own.

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The next day I went to Stillwater early in the morning. I went to a spot next to the water, hoping to get a long exposure shot. I went to the park- in both places my 24-70 mm lens  and my 400mm lens just didn't give me the correct focal length for an attractive photo. Last fall I sold my 100-400 mm lens; what was I thinking? That was just the lens I needed now. I was so discouraged. I went home and looked at photos of bridges. I really liked the black and white photos of bridges in the fog. This morning when I woke and saw the forecast for fog, I knew I had to go back to the bridge. It was so foggy when I arrived the only hope I had of getting a shot was to park my car and walk onto the bridge and try to get a close up shot of the suspension cables. I got a few shots, processed one in black and white, added contrast and a selective blur. Wow! I liked it; I was happy. One good shot so far. I plan to go back in a few days to get more shots from different vantage points. Who knows what will happen- good shots don't happen every day.

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excited to learn how to use the Alien Skin software plug-in and am always learning Photoshop techniques. I can see my photos improve, so it's worth the effort.

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The next morning I set off at 04:30, muck boots on, flashlight in hand ( to follow reflectors) and camera gear. As I walked, I flushed up ducks, it was that wet. I just hoped that I didn't sink too deep and ruin my camera gear. I finally made it to the lek. I told myself that the hike was better than sitting at home watching TV.

I was so quiet; I could hear the prairie chickens making a deep, loud sound. Since the trail was so wet, I abandoned my plan to use my Canon 600mm lens mounted on a tripod with flash bracket and flash. Instead I would have to use my  easier to carry Canon 400mm f/4 lens. At the last minute I remember that I had a flash bracket for it. Once in the dark blind, I could not get the flash head onto the bracket. Damn! I tried ten times. Later, in my hotel room where there was some light, I got the flash attached on the first try. So now I would have to wait until it was quite light before I got decent shots.

I watched the prairie chickens move around about 30 feet in front of the blind. I watched the males repeatedly raise their neck feathers above their heads and inflate their orange throat sacs. I got some good shots, but nothing great. As I watched the prairie chickens, a moose trotted past. A moose, unbelievable!

I will go back next year to a different lek where I don't have to walk so far.

This is an uncommon bird for the United Sates, so I decided to look for it when I would be in AZ. in Feb. 2017. I had detailed directions to the place where the birds had been seen. I met a man in Green Valley and told him where I was going. He said, " Be careful, it's easy to get lost and the trail is steep and rocky". I thought that I would find the spot- I was wrong. I was not in the right spot the day I hiked up the trail; luckily, I met some people on the trail who knew the way. I followed them and we did not find the bird.

I returned to Az. this April and decided to look again. I hiked up the Florida Canyon in the early morning, following two persons who were also looking for the bird- again no luck. The next day I arrived at Battiste B and B in Hereford, AZ. The owner, Tony told me that he knew a guy who could help me find the Rufous-capped warbler in Hunter Canyon. This man had an excellent ear and could hear the birds before he saw them. We hiked up the canyon in ninety degree heat to a place where he had seen them- they weren't there. He said, " They are probably in the upper canyon". More hiking. Finally he heard them and "phished" them out of the bushes onto some higher tree limbs. What a joy to see a rufous-capped warbler! One moved around in the trees ten to twenty feet from me and I was able to get excellent photos.

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I tried to enjoy the drive in the country by driving slowly on the dirt roads, sometimes listening to music that I like, always binoculars and photo gear ready.

I stopped for a pheasant on the side of the road eating gravel. I got out of the car, flight lens in hand hoping to get a

flight shot. As I walked closer, he took off too soon and I missed the shot.  I scanned the fence posts and small trees in the fields looking for owls. Off in the distance, I saw of herd of about twenty- five deer. This was an incredible sight for me since  I usually just see one or two. A flock of about twenty-five snow buntings flew up and away as my car approached. They were too far gone to get a photo. I came over a hill and to the right on the edge of the woods was a Red-tailed hawk eating a raccoon. Finally, I was able to get a good shot.

I continued to drive slowly and saw what I thought was a herd of reindeer! It was an elk farm. There must have been about fifty  elk- a beautiful, unusual sight for Minnesota. I took a photo of an antlered elk backlit in the sun.

Even though I saw no short-eared owls, I enjoyed the morning and will continue to look for them. There is so much that I find beautiful in the stark winter fields: short stubbles of corn husks in the snowy fields- rows of yellow and white contrasting colors, pale yellow grasses, weeds and thistles. Someday I will take the time to photograph this beauty.

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compared with  20.2 of the 7D. I have only had the opportunity to take a few shots of birds, but I have noticed the difference in detail and sharpness of my photos.  I was always hesitant to use high speed continuous shooting with the 7D when shooting RAW because the mirror slaps open and closed with each shot - this temporarily affects the AF.

With the 5D, I can switched to Silent continuous shooting drive mode where the mirror is locked up. Also, I love the 

 touch screen, particularly for image review where I can pinch and zoom to see image sharpness in a particular area. I don't shoot a lot of video; I heard the 5D isn't the best for video. As I continue to use the camera, I'm certain to discover more features that I like or not.

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There has been much to learn: exposure, exposure composition, autofocus modes, aperture, shutter speeds, ISO.

There has been many technical aspects related to my lens, cameras and speed lights. And there has been and still is a

lot to learn about digital photo editing. I took it step by step, kept practicing and learning and just trusted that I would get better as time passed- I did get better. Today I almost did something inelegant, and I almost did it twice. Someone 

reported that they had seen a short-eared owl. This is an owl that I have been wanting to see very much. It would require drive time, search time and photo time, in all- about three to four hours. I was tired and thought about going-twice.

The more I thought about it, I decided that it wasn't the right choice. I have a better plan to wake in the morning and go when I'm not tired, when the light is better, and when I can take my time and enjoy everything about it: the drive, the looking and hopefully the photographing.

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I stayed in Long Beach, rented a car, as drove south as far as Dana Pt. stopping at various points along the coast to photograph birds, piers, waves and the rocky coast. It felt so good to be outdoors hiking in the 60 degree temps.

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have been hiking and driving looking for one, but have not seen one until today when I went for a walk at the Woodlake Nature Center in Minneapolis.  I wasn't even thinking about a Norther Shrike; I was looking for owls. On a trail, on a tree branch about

thirty feet ahead of me, I saw a bird. I raised my lens, looked, and saw a Northern Shrike! I was able to get five shots; the lighting wasn't the best, the bird was somewhat backlit and in the shade. I was able to make adjustments to the exposure, highlights, and shadows post-production and  finally had a good photo of the bird. Not great, but good.

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Another problem is deciding where to set the focus limiter switch. Sometimes it needs to be set at the closest setting,if the bird is close- if the bird moves away you miss the shot. The Full setting includes the minimum focus distance to infinity, so the will work for all ranges, but autofocus is slower. I'm always trying to decide what is best. Small bird photography is challenging, but so rewarding when one gets it right. 

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sod farm and saw some sandpipers in a field near a ditch covered with weeds. I was trying to get close and thought that I could walk through the ditch to get to the field. What I didn't realize was that the weeds were hiding how deep the ditch was and that it was filled with water. As I walked in the weeds, I sunk into muddy water which came over my knees. I was lucky that my gear didn't get wet. Yesterday I drove over an hour to a spot - it started to rain hard, more than the showers forecast. I turned around and came home.  Most of the good shots that I get are the unexpected ones. Maybe today I'll have better luck on the difficult trail to get a good shot.

travelled 1000 miles to a place near Durango, Mexico to find an Eared Trogon.  They encountered difficulties and disappointments, but eventually found the bird. When Ken writes about finding the Eared Trogon nest and seeing a baby Eared Trogon looking at him, I got a shiver up my spine. I guess I'm becomming a birder.

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I look at many photos, study photography, and photo editing. This prepares me for when I see something, then an idea comes to mind how I could edit

the photo.  I had a photo of a cresent moon that I took  a couple months ago. This morning I went out; it was still dark. I saw the St. Paul cathedral and decided to stop and take a photo.  It then came to mind that I could merge the moon photo and the cathedral photo. Since the sky was dark in both photos,

the two blended well. I was pleased.

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got in and drove across the road to another parking area. I saw an old beat up Honda with a man slinked down behind the steering wheel. He wasn't getting out to go fishing. Was he a field worker killing time before work? Safety first, and I definitely did not feel safe here. I will have to look for the cerulean warbler in another place. The next day I went to Shaar's bluff, where I feel very safe and photographed an Orchard oriole.

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discover flowers and birds that I have never seen before, and if it weren't for photography I never would have made the effort to go look. I've

always lived in Minnesota and never saw bluebells growing wild- I discovered these on the North shore, near Two Harbors, MN. This week I 

saw a bird called a Scarlet Tanager. I looked for a year for this bird. Not only did I see the bird, but with some effort, got a beautiful photo. It's

so wonderful to discover these things.

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so I was stopping by the roadside frequently to photograph them. I enjoyed talking to the other bird photographers that I met.

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to see Bluebonnets.  I discovered wild flowers blooming here in Minnesota while walking at the Northfield Arboretum. I found blue Silla blooming in the woods, got many photos, had fun editing them: adding Topaz glow, motion blurs, soft blurs and highlights. I was pleased with the results and was so excited about taking photos of wildflowers. I went to the Carpenter Nature Center on Friday and saw Prairie Smoke starting to bloom.

I got a good photo, and after editing was pleased with the result. I e-mailed the photo to Carpenter Nature Center. The woman working there thought it was gorgeous and wants to use it in their newsletter. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of hiking looking for wildflowers.

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conversation with him and before long he told me, " I could do this all day." I know how he feels.  Today it is too windy and cold to hike. I just don't know what photo opportunities can be found. I have a plan to drive around in my car, with camera gear ready- looking. This past week while I was just

looking, I took a photo of a male bufflehead duck. The photo wasn't great until I edited it; the iridescent colors on the neck popped and it became a beautiful photo. One never knows what will present as a photo opportunity, so I go looking whenever I have the chance.

when I saw a roadblock and a highway worker. I stopped. He told me, " The bridge is closed to Bradenton because of the fog. You have to go back to Tampa and take Interstate 4 East." This was a 40 mile detour in the fog and dark. I did not relax until I got to Bradenton. Once there, I enjoyed taking photos of the Royal terns on the beach.

My favorite place for bird photography was Fort de Soto State Park. I saw such a beautiful tern with a light pink breast (breeding plumage) and 

soft gray feathers. I marveled at the beauty of the world.

The last day at Fort de Soto , I was presented with a gift- the sighting of about ten American Avocets. They also had their breeding plumage.

I watched them for so long through the viewfinder, keeping my finger on the shutter button that my arm was sore. My favorite was that of a Ibis

catching a worm- I was surprised to see that I had captured  a photo of the worm suspended in it's open beak. Photography really does capture moments. I wonder what I will see this week in Minnesota.

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It takes courage- to get the shot. Although I was following the "Texas  Birding and Butterfly" map of the Rio Grande, I was told by the border patrol to leave an area- it wasn't safe. Most of the time I was driving along the US-Mexican border in rural areas. Often I was not sure where I would arrive, but most often I arrived at state parks and wildlife refuges where the people were nice and the birds interesting.  I would definitely recommend the Rio Grande Valley of Texas for bird photography.

never seen before: armadillos, javelinas, chachalacas, fulvous whistling ducks, and others.

I had never seen a black-crested titmouse, so when I saw one, I rushed to get a photo and my tripod hit an overhead branch which broke apart the off-shoe flash cord. I tried to find a replacement in the nearest large city- McAllen, Texas and had no luck. For the next seven days, I had to 

take photos without the flash, and I missed many good shots when the birds were in the shade. 

Early this morning the mist was rising off a body of water that I was walking near. Ahead of me, I saw a coyote; as he turned his head to look back, I got the shot of the day. After trying for four days and I finally got a good shot of the black-crested titmouse. 

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sightings of a Merlin. I was driving through that small town and saw a bird high on a wire. I was certain that it was the Merlin, so I turned my

car around and when I looked through the binoculars, I saw that it was a Kestrel! A Merlin, now a Kestrel. I guessed that there must be grain bins

in Miesville. I sat in my car because it was cold and because I didn't want to scare the bird. By aiming the lens out the window, I was able to get a

beautiful shot. I edited the photo in Photoshop and was surprised how well it looked.  One never knows what will be discovered when going out

to take a photo.

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set up the domain name and website with Zenfolio.com  I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts about photography and also my experiences in the

field. I recently travelled to Arizona from Minnesota and saw so many birds that I'd never seen. I truly was in heaven driving the backroads of Tucson

photo-hunting.  A bobcat crossed the trail in front of me; this did not happen in a zoo!

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