January 12, 2019

CATURDAY ART

Setting up a bird feeding station in our backyard about a year ago has to be one of the best things we've ever done.  It has brought hours of pleasure and fascination and has been a wonderful learning experience for the whole family.  By now we have quite a collection of bird books and on every outing find ourselves scanning the skies and looking up into the trees to find more of these beautiful feathered friends.  And of course, we have tinkered endlessly with our feeders to keep the house sparrows under control ... and to keep the squirrels grounded (we do have one "Olympian" who defies all attempts to keep him down).  And we've learned to keep cameras at the ready, or at least a cell phone in a pocket, as one never knows when a surprise visitor will arrive.  If you do any bird watching, check out the group, WHAT'S THIS BIRD on Facebook ~ it's the best, and has helped us, as novices, to begin to identify those who come to us from near and far.  Below, a red-tailed hawk.  He was seen high up in one of our trees, busily consuming what appeared to be his prey, probably a small bird.  I surprised myself, as my hands shook so much at the excitement of seeing him, it was a shock to see the photos came out reasonably well, not totally blurred as I expected ... also shot from quite a distance with the limited zoom on my DSLR.  Again, below ... the original, and then, playtime, some alterations for CATURDAY ART, sponsored by Athena Cat Goddess, Athena and Marie.


 ORIGINAL PHOTO
 ORIGINAL PHOTO: ZOOM IN and CROPPED
 CROPPED PHOTO WITH BACKGROUND REMOVED
FINAL FOR CATURDAY ART

The cropped photo is worked through Photoshop; portions of the tree desaturated,
overall exposure darkened, slight sharpening for detail, inner grey shadow percentage
applied.  Final photo slightly downsized and laid into a solid black square;
applied goldtone picture frame from from Adobe standard collection to the black background.


16 comments:

  1. That is a great capture and lovely art taken from it.
    We have a sparrowhawk that looks for an easy meal around our bird feeders. We have them next to a thick shrub so the small birds can usually escape into the branches. Sometimes he catches a sparrow or one of the various tit families that come here. It's sad, but it's nature.

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  2. Splendid artwork💗I'm still waiting for birdies in our garden, but I think they don't like me...don't know why... Pawkisses for a Happy Caturday🐾😽💞

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  3. The hawk really stands out with the background removed! Beautiful!

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  4. Those pictures are just amazing. Well done Ann.

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  5. That is some fabulous art, you did it up right!

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  6. What a regal bird! Fantastic picture. We have feeders outside our back window - Cat TV for the furbabies!

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  7. First - we feel the exact same about our feeders. Don't know why we didn't do it sooner. Second, those pictures are amazing!!!

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  8. Wow, enjoyed your art and very much appreciated the description of how you did it!!!!! Our human loves doing bird photos as well and this is a magnificent one.

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  9. You were very lucky to get a good shot of that beautiful hawk!

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  10. What amazing pictures of that beautiful hawk. I love birds and seeing these pictures have made my day. Thank you for sharing them. Hugs

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  11. That came out great!
    Purrs xx
    Athena and Marie

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  12. Incredible series of work - beautiful!!! Your work is always amazing.

    Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber

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  13. we have hawks here too and I am sorry...I just hate them :(

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  14. We really like your work. Those hawks look skeery so I am glad I am an inside kitty
    Timmy and Family

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