11/29/12 - Ferruginous hawk, the largest hawk; best viewed in the largest sizes; as you can see, he was fluffing up his feathers. He did this by shaking and fluffing them at the same time. The docent told us that it is very important to the birds to keep their feathers properly aligned so that they can make the needed adjustments as they fly and the fluffing is how they accomplish this alignment. Thanks so much for making my shot of the great horned owl the #1 shot for the day! Quite a thrill for me to see it in that position. - FotoEffects Photography

These are images that I shoot on a daily basis and submit to the dailies forum on Dgrin.

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12/5/12 - An old Chevy, captured in August but just processed. Some of the bg was quite busy and distracting, so I selected it and blurred it out. A also played around a bit with a few of Nik's filters. I think I may have used "solarization" on this one.

Thanks for all your comments on my shot of the small sculpture at the San Xavier Mission. You guys are the best! As always, there were some amazing shots that you folks put up today. Keep up the great work!

12/4/12 - Taken at the San Xavier Mission, this is a small bronze statue diplayed within a glass case, standing in the middle of a room. As soon as I saw it, I wondered if I could take a photo that would make it look like a man on horseback moving across an arch. I think I did a fairly decent job of that, except for the bronze base of the statue, which I probably could have blurred a bit so that it would look more like the ground. I also see a little reflection that I had not noticed earlier that I did not get rid of completely. The room was rather dark but did have that nice light coming from the window just behind the case. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for your warm response to my shot of the rusted card, which I think was a Jaguar. I did do some pp on it, mainly just tonemapping, but I really did not alter the colors. It actually was those colors. As soon as I saw it, I knew I could make it look pretty interesting. Those are the finds us photographers live for....right?

12/3/12 - In the back at ReINcarnation Auto, the folks that restored our 1975 Porsche. Taken in August but just processed.

Thanks for the support on my shot of the prairie falcon. Much appreciated.

Hope you had a great weekend!

12/2/12 - Prairie falcon; I hope you all are not getting tired of all these bird shots, but I did get a lot of them and there are quite a few that I like. I like this one because of the light through the tail feathers and the position of the hawk. The prairie falcon is a fairly small hawk. It captures its prey about 1/4 of the time on the ground. During the free fly, it actually caught something on the ground and had a sort of funny hopping action down there. I did not get any shots of that, as it was slightly behind some plants and I couldn't get a clear shot. The Sonoran Desert actually supports a wide variety of bird and animal life. In the desert around the museum, the vegetation is quite dense. The desert around our RV park, conversely, supports very sparse vegetation. Around the museum are a huge variety of cactii, lots of saguaro cactus, and trees like the palo verde, which performs photosynthesis in the branches and the trunk. This tree will only have leaves when rain has been more plentiful. There are also lots of different grasses and many other varieties of plants. Nearly every saguaro you see has holes in the trunk which serve as homes for many birds and aniimals. We saw an exhibit of saguaros of different ages and a three year old plant is only about an inch tall and about the same in diameter. They grow extremely slowly and can live a very long time.

Thank you all so much for making my shot of the owl flying the number one shot for the day. That is three days in a row...a first for me, I think! There were so many other terrific shots on smugmug today, including many other wonderful bird shots. Thanks again!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

11/29/12 - Great horned owl; this shot was not as sharp as I'd have liked but I did like the intense look of the hawk, which was focused on a piece of food placed by its trainer on a brach not too far away.

You all have been awfully good to me the last few days. Thanks for making one of my shots the #1 for the day again. I do appreciate every comment.

Have a great weekend!

11/29/12 - Ferruginous hawk, the largest hawk; best viewed in the largest sizes; as you can see, he was fluffing up his feathers. He did this by shaking and fluffing them at the same time. The docent told us that it is very important to the birds to keep their feathers properly aligned so that they can make the needed adjustments as they fly and the fluffing is how they accomplish this alignment.

Thanks so much for making my shot of the great horned owl the #1 shot for the day! Quite a thrill for me to see it in that position.

11/27/12 - Ferruginous hawk at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum's flying free raptor program. It is the largest of the hawks. In addition to getting to see this hawk flying back and forth above our heads, we also got to see a raven, a prairie falcon and a red tail hawk today. The museum has the flying free raptor program twice a day. A different set of birds fly in the afternoon. Most of these birds are ones that have been rehabilitated after injuries. The birds always have the option of flying away but choose to return to their trainers. This prairie falcon has occasionally gotten caught up on a thermal and flown across some of the mountains and been unable to find its way home. All of these birds wear a radio transmitter. The trainers tracked him down and when they found him and called to him, he came to them immediately. I took this shot with the D800E and my 100mm - 200mm lens. It is a heavy lens and I took all the shots of the birds without a tripod. Because of the number of other viewers, all standing close to one another, using a tripod for shooting these birds just wouldn't work. I was pleasantly surprised that I could hold it steady enough to get sharp shots, even while moving it around tracking the birds.

Thanks for your warm reception to my shot of the inside of San Xavier Mission. I hope to share some more of those shots with you.

11/27/12 - San Xavier Mission; the large chapel includes a number of arched ceiling areas, all of which are painted. The mission has been in use continuously since the 1600s and is extremely well maintained. The colors are quite rich. I loved the old wood seats with the curved backs. Because it was fairly dark in the sanctuary, I bumped the EV up to +5 and used a slower shutter speed, as well. This was handheld.

Thanks for your comments on my shot of the seedpods. Much appreciated.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

11/29/12 - Ferruginous hawk, the largest hawk; best viewed in the largest sizes; as you can see, he was fluffing up his feathers. He did this by shaking and fluffing them at the same time. The docent told us that it is very important to the birds to keep their feathers properly aligned so that they can make the needed adjustments as they fly and the fluffing is how they accomplish this alignment.

Thanks so much for making my shot of the great horned owl the #1 shot for the day! Quite a thrill for me to see it in that position.