Woodpecker, Foliage, and a Duck

[mwild]

Here are a couple of my latest (except the foliage shots are re-edits of photos taken this summer.) I always feel so uninspired when winter comes! I guess I need to change my perspective!


woodpecker river 055 by ♠GollyWild, on Flickr

to work 085 by ♠GollyWild, on Flickr

[
movies ducks 057 by ♠GollyWild, on Flickrurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/gollywild/8137197910/]to work 082[/url] by ♠GollyWild, on Flickr

 

[WesternGuy]

First impressions: (please number your images as this makes it a lot easier for reviewer to comment on them without having to flip back and forth to make sure he/she is commenting on the right one - thanks.)

Woodpecker - this looks terribly over sharpened.

Foliage - #1 -too much of it is out of focus to make a good image - you need to think about your aperture settings in these kinds of conditions. #2 not bad, but it really does nothing for me.

Duck - all the "branches" sticking down from the top are a bit distracting. You would also be better placing the duck on the right side of the frame and leaving some "negative space" on the left side of the frame so that he duck can be "seen" to be paddling into it. You might want to check out the "rule of thirds" for the placement of subjects in an image.

As far as getting inspired over winter - well, not sure what part of Alberta you live in (you can pm me if you don't want folks to know), but I find a lot of things to photograph in the winter, they are just different from what I photograph in the other seasons when there is no snow on the ground - mountain scenes for one. Lots of things to do indoors - try your hand at macro - you can do this with a relatively inexpensive set of "extension tubes" and a regular 50mm lens - not knowing what you have in the way of equipment that's all I can recommend. Buy a bouquet of flowers from the local Superstore or Safeway and practice photographing them - with flash, with indirect window light, etc. and use various backgrounds - you can get good coloured background sheets at any Michael's store. This will help you understand this aspect of "lighting" a bit better. Go out right after a snowfall and grab images of the newly snow-covered vegetation, etc.

Check this one out: Main Things To Know About Winter Shooting

You can also "google" - winter photography ideas - and you will probably find all sorts of things to keep you busy. It is also a good time to brush up on your skills in Photoshop, or whatever Software you use.

WesternGuy