Sunday, June 3, 2012

Catching Up :: Part One

A swim in the sun with Mom


I wonder what Mom and Dad are discussing?

What happened to the last two months and eight days???!!! I blame it on Winter and the fact that I am only now recovering from it :-) I have a lot of catching up to do! Despite my absence, several of my lovely blog friends have checked in and left comments on my last post, and I can't tell you how much that means to me!!!

During the month of May we actually had some gorgeous days here in my little patch of the Pacific Northwest. What a difference some sunshine and warmer temperatures make! Whenever the sun's out, I'm usually out with my camera :-) 

One of the things I looked forward to all winter was visiting Dawson Creek Park in the Spring and seeing the baby ducks and geese! So far, it looks like three broods (is that the correct term?) of both ducklings and goslings have hatched in the past few weeks. I'm sure more will be hatching soon!

The park is my favorite place to take pictures right now, especially since it's only five minutes away from  my condo. I have to check up on the babies a couple of times a week! The first brood of goslings is almost full grown!

For both images, I made some basic edits in Adobe Camera Raw before opening them in Photoshop. You wouldn't know it if I didn't tell you, but I did a lot of healing and patching and cloning to make both of these photos presentable. There was a lot of gunk in the water with the ducks and a lot of you-know-what on the grass around the geese. Let's just say I have to watch where I step :-)

I gave up on shooting only in Manual. I'm trying out different modes--even Auto--as well as settings and lenses, and I'm having more fun again! I actually used my Canon Powershot G11 to take these pictures. I have lots more photos from the park to process, as well as some from a Google Plus Photowalk that I went on in April! I hope it won't take me another two months :-)

I hope you're having a lovely Spring! I'd love to hear what you've been up to :-)





P.S. You might have noticed that I gave my blog a bit of a makeover! I'm working on a tutorial about how to make round images in case anyone would like to know!

14 comments:

hootnonny said...

Welcome back! The images of these family are sweet. Nice work in your editing.

I finally went back to Auto when shooting indoor school events just to get decent images! I'm doing my grandson's formal sixth grade lunch today in a dark space (but he has limited me to one shot...but his mom says not to pay attention to him!)

Pink Tree Studio said...

Thanks, Betty! Glad to be back :-)

You're so blessed to have your Grand Darlings to photograph! Hopefully your grandson will be too busy having fun to notice you taking more than one photo!

Lisa Gordon said...

Elaine, your blog looks just beautiful!! I love the color scheme you are using here. Soft, springlike, and perfect for "Pink Tree Studio!"

These photographs are just precious! How fortunate you were to be able to photograph them.

Sending you wishes for a most wonderful evening!

xo.

Pink Tree Studio said...

Oh, Lisa~~thank you so much!

I have so much fun photographing the babies~~I even talk to them :-)

I hope you have a lovely evening, too!

Dawne Boynton Polis said...

Hi Elaine;
I can just imagine how much fun you had out there with that ducky family! Pix look really great, and I had to smile at how you cleaned up the "poo" in Photoshop!! True, anywhere ducks gather around a pond you wouldn't want to walk barefoot!
I love my Canon G10, BTW. I don't want to move up to the 11. But I'm glad you love yours.
Thanks for your nice visit to F@H. Did you see the Paris pix on Quiddity2? I sure wish you were going with us this summer:/
The blog looks really spiffy!
Enjoy this beautiful June!
xx
dawne

Pink Tree Studio said...

Thanks, Dawne! I just love the babies :~) Now there's a mama duck siting on her nest that I've been checking on every few days! hopefully I can get over to the park when the babies are newly hatched!

Evelyn S. said...

Hi Elaine! I'm saving your blog address so I can keep tabs on you! I don't do very well with Flickr photostreams. I think I just get overwhelmed with all the contacts .

Pink Tree Studio said...

I know what you mean, Evelyn!!!

As a matter of fact, I'm in the process of Un-Contacting people on Flickr who haven't made me a Contact, too. I've gotten into the habit of ignoring new uploads on Flickr altogether! I hope it will be less overwhelming when I'm finished :~)

I've been a sporadic blogger of late, but I hope to get back into the swing of things next week, so check back then :~)

sandy said...

awww so sweet! it looks like they let you get pretty close! i always get so excited when I see baby ducks or any ducks (geese) at all!

lovely photos!

love your new look! simple and pretty!

Pink Tree Studio said...

Thank you so much for both of he compliments, Sandy!

I may be developing a reputation at the park as being the Duck Lady :~) But babies of almost any species warm my heart!

Red Rose Alley said...

These pictures are lovely. The second one reminds me of my mom and her five kids. I have a Canon Powershot too. Jess just bought the Canon Rebel, and has been having fun with it. I'm glad you're back. I missed seeing your delightful photos.
~Sheri at Red Rose Alley

Pink Tree Studio said...

Thanks so much, Sheri! I need to play catch up again :-(

The geese are so fascinating~~the mom and dad are always with the little ones!

I'm glad Jess likes her Rebel! Which Powershot do you have? The G11 comes in handy when I don't want to carry my Nikon around :-)

Unknown said...

Oh my, I didn’t see these photos – I can’t get enough duck and geese photos – they are so gosh darn cute! Especially the babies :)

Hey, I love what you have done with your blog – the clean white background, the font you used in your header, and the pretty pink round buttons on the side. Awesome!

Pink Tree Studio said...

LOL, thanks Sheila! I've just fallen in love with the little darlings :-)

There's a new family at the park , but my photos of them haven't turned out very well. Hopefully I'll get a good shot or two before they get any bigger. Unfortunately, it looks like one of the babies might have died because a couple of weeks ago there were eight duckings swimming with their mama but the other day there were just seven :-(

Maybe I should start a whole blog with duck and geese photos, or a Flickr group :-)

And thanks so much for your sweet words about my blog! There are a few more tweaks I want to make, so I like that fact that a blog can be a work in progress.