Potoshop CS5 Content Repair

The top photo is from Ric Hunter, taken in Florida on a recent trip to escape from Burnsville, NC while his wife was in Italy.
I have to specify that Ric lacks timing. I would have waited until he could have taken a photo without the gator dragging the distracting stick on its nose.
Having performed editing miracles for Rick on some of his previous wildlife photos, this was a piece-of-cake for Photoshop CS5's content aware repair capabilities.
The challenge was to remove the stick and other distracting elements from the photograph. Other enhancements not evident were added, i.e. sharpening, white balance, and adding a sparkle to the visible right eye of the gator

Mission accomplished!

Sunrise in Whitestone, VA

This is an HDR image taken on the front lawn of our dear friends, Clyde and Hazel Lee Kizer during our visit last October (2009). My wife, Caroline alerted me to the sunrise that was revealing itself.
Luckily, I happened to be cleaning my D90, 18-200 mm lens and getting my tripod attachment onto the camera.
I have since added the photo matte using colors selected for the inner and outer matte directly from the photo. Click on the photo to fill your screen.

Just Don't Take A Picture - Make A Picture

Rick Sammon implores his students to make a picture. So I took his advice and took this photo yesterday while the sun had moved west and the wild Flaming Azaleas were at peak bloom. I thought that getting a photo of the bird bath and azalea plant with scattered ground cover blossoms in the periwinkle would comply with Rick's dictum.

But I noted that the bird bath was lacking a bird. I use a free stock photo exchange called Stock.xchng and typed Gold Finch into the search window. I selected two photos and made selection that I copied to their own layers. I tried placing both photos on the bird bath but decided two was one too many. Don't forget to click on the photo to fill your screen.

My Oldest Daughter's Quest For Her Ancestry

Tracy is my oldest daughter and is here pictured with her younger sister, Leslie with their great-grandmother, Mary Szuch on September 23, 1962. Mary Szuch was born in Hungry on June 25, 1894. She died in 1982.

I remember clearly that she would articulate that this was the last time she would see us -- no matter how many times we would see her. She attended every family event including my two graduations from the University of Alabama in 1955 and again in 1967.

Tracy is really into tracing her ancestry with ancestry.com. And since I have in my possession our journey through life recorded photographically since about 1933 - the year after my birth, it makes it possible with modern technology to preserve, in digital form, our unique family history. The website ancestry.com provides the tools to access world-wide data that allow integration into a historical family record.

Tracy has made significant progress in tracing my mothers side of the family. She has become somewhat obsessed and a bit driven in her quest to answer the question: "Who am I, and where did I originate from?"

I personally wish her success so that when she finds the answer to her question she will have also answered the same question for me.

I love her dearly.

Red-bud Apple Tree and Dogwood In Full Bloom

Another HDR image to capture the full bloom of the Red-buds, Apple Tree and Dogwood trees in full bloom.

Until someone suggests that I stop with the HDR photography - I will continue.

What beauty there is within our sight - just look around you and have with you the best camera you have, i.e. the one in your hand and record what you see and share with me.

Remember to click on the photo to see it full screen.

Patch Our Wonderful Dog

Patch, our 5.5 year old mixed breed female (fixed), is never far away if we are out and around our property. Caroline was photographing our newly planted pink dogwood.

Apparently, something caught Patch's eye. She loves running the 2 miles of gravel roadways in our Wildwood Acres development.

Oddly, we have yet to see any ground squirrels or rabbits that are normally numerous in the area at this time of year. We have seen a normal population of tree squirrels that attract Patch's attention. Of course she trees them immediately and foolishly stares at them expecting that they will return to ground level.

Caroline is responsible for the photo while I did the Photoshop work.

Click the image for a larger view

Butterfly's on an Azalea Bush

Two butterfly's on an azalea bush in full bloom. Caroline is responsible for the photograph using a Sony A100 DSLR that was our first mid entry level camera.

Because it was both windy and the butterfly's were flapping their wings I set the camera to shutter priority 1/250 and increased the ISO to 200.

Click on the photo to enlarge.