Entries Tagged 'Phriday Photo' ↓

Have a wonderful Fourth of July and celebrate this great country. We may have our problems (who doesn’t?) but this is still a great place to live (and not just for the birds).

In order to take High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos of birds you have to be quick and they have to be pretty still. Movements on either end make the photo a bit junky, although a little bit is correctable.

Photo 1 - Underexposed (-2)

Photo 2 - “Normal” Exposure (0)

Photo 3 - Overexposed (+2)

Finished Product of a Red-headed Woodpecker in HDR

Now, this isn’t a perfectly done shot but we feel it often makes the colors “pop” and adds a little artistic quality to already beautiful birds. In a way, it helps to produce a more realistic image of what the bird looks like, although it can often be overdone making the image look a bit odd (which some may think this one looks).

Regardless, it was nice to find this Red-headed Woodpecker, as it is the first one spotted at Deer Run Forest Preserve this year. It is a shame these awesome birds are in decline.

Side note: these photos cost Birdfreak some lost blood as a cloud of mosquitoes decided outstretched arms with a camera in them make a wonderful buffet.

One of our favorite birding spots is Rock Cut State Park. It consists of over 3,000 acres of prime birding habitat and attracts a lot of visitors (which is good and bad).

This photo is HDR - High Dynamic Range - which is a unique way to photograph by merging various exposures into one, “high dynamic range” shot.

Note: Birdfreak and Arizona are camping this weekend and hope to find a lot of nesting warblers along the Sugar River in western Winnebago county.

This Killdeer parent was discovered at Deer Run Forest Preserve and had four young chicks. The chicks mistakenly came out in the open, but were well protected by their aerial mom (or dad).

Our 3,000th photograph on the photo-sharing website, Flickr is no other than a first summer male Orchard Oriole

We have seven species of vireos in northern Illinois but this is probably our favorite.

Perhaps our favorite warbler for two reasons: 1) He looks cool and 2) Only time we’ve ever seen him is in our backyard!

Just add water and warblers magically appear!

Note: We are out in the field for our 72-hour bird count. We will recap the three-day event in a few days. Besides checking bird sightings we will be away from the computer.