Fogey

Love the background of your painting, Fuji.

Some more.

Some shots of the day at Slimbridge.

Thanks Guys. Much appreciated.

Hello and welcome, Matt. There are a few other monochrome aficionados here so you should feel right at home.

I visited Slimbridge the other day and managed to take this shot. Another twitcher said it was an Ibis, but all the research I've done show Ibises as white.

You are suffering from diffraction. A wide aperture and a long focal length don't go well together. Closing your aperture by a couple of stops will improve the sharpness. Also bone up on hyper-focal distance, to cover all eventualities.

Ah! The power of Photoshop. There is no medium as such, Cheryl - this is purely photographic manipulation. This is a photograph I took of some Bengal Tigers in a safari Park. I opened the photograph in Photoshop, desaturated it and then applied a canvas filter background and a pencil sketch filter for the detail.

Well there's detail for you. Apart from a bird, what is it?

Excellent shot. I bet that would look even better if it were raining.

Black and white sketch on canvas.

Great image. The reflection of the clouds appear to be an extension of the clouds.

Nice thought Polly.

Thanks for the feedback, Polly. How about this rendition?

There is something about this photo that ticks all my boxes.

Thank you for your comments, Kobione.

Taken on board all the suggestions and come up with another edit. One adjustment layer to selectively apply saturation and vibrance and one to selectively apply brightness and contrast.

Not at all Polly. We'd never learn without other's input.

I've been playing around and trying to improve images with the Nik software suite. Before. After.

I went to the doctors this afternoon, so I took my camera for a drive.

Your practice is paying off, Cheryl. Excellent capture.

People are travelling around England quite freely, with no restrictions. However Scotland is a different story. The First Minister, an ardent fan of independence, is still insisting on people wearing face masks, which is being strictly enforced. No mask, no entry. As foreign holidays, (for Britons), are severely restricted, Scotland as a holiday destination is much sought after and I don't see that changing in the near future; I don't think it would make much difference to you which year you decide to come, it will be busy. If you are going to visit the Upper Highlands, be aware the population is very anti Britain, so speak with an Australian twang. They are also very religious, so be careful of blaspheming. If you are going just for the scenery, then the Isle of Skye is about the best you will get. Stirling and Edinburgh Castles are well worth a visit. If it's wildlife you're after, then the Cairngorms and Trossachs National Parks are the places to go. Plan your visit carefully as there is so much history and sights to see, you could spend six months there and still not see it all. There are many places where you can stand and there will be a breathtaking panorama to be had on all points of the compass, so take a wide angle lens. For the wildlife I used my 600mm lens. Hope this helps.

Fogey? Fogey? Not guilty M'Lud.

Thank you for the sentiment, Polly. I'm as well as can be expected physically - like every winter I'm hibernating the cold months away, planning what I'll be doing in the summer. To date I have booked a session to photograph harvest mice, (Christmas present from my sister), then I will be off to Wales to photograph Puffins and seabirds. I have to fit in a trip to Oxford for some street photography, then a visit to Westonbirt arboretum together with a visit to Slimbridge sometime in the spring. I'm doing this as the anniversary of my wife's death is approaching and I want to be busy when that occurs. Then I'd like to shoot the great apes in Monkey World, then it's back to Wales to try and shoot some wild water canoeing/rafting; then we'll see what I fancy doing after that.