fotoeffects, the photography of Judy Horton

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Great Blue Herons

A female great blue heron sees her mate approaching; I watched this nest for many hours and everytime she saw her mate approaching (even before I could see him), she would assume this posture and her neck feathers would flare around her.  Best viewed in the largest sizes.

Most Popular Photos

  • Day 132 - The morning sun strikes rock formations in the Grand Canyon, as seen from the North Rim in Arizona; detail in this image is best viewed in a larger size.  This shot of the Grand Canyon is one I recently rediscovered in my archives from the early fall and reprocessed.  I used a number of different effects, including Topaz Adjust, Color EFEX Pro, and some regular Photoshop filter and blending effects.  If you view the large size, you will really see some detail!  I'm going to post this and go to bed.  I hope you all have a really nice day!  It is supposed to be quite warm here today.  It got up to 65 degrees in Colorado Springs today, not a good day to sleep away.  Oh. well.  Oh, if some of you should like to look at the other North Rim Grand Canyon shots, they are here:  http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/6698528_KNq6d#476011624_efKkk.
  • Day 17 - A hummingbird exhibits amazing acrobatic flying skills
  • Water drops on Fir Tree Needles
  • As we were driving home from dinner out last evening, the sun suddenly broke through some holes in the clouds and created this scene.  I hopped out of the car and quickly captured a few shots.  This is one of them.  I'm glad so many of you like the shot of the two hummers.  Thanks for taking the time to comment.  I sure enjoyed all your shots today...lots of wonderful images.
  • Cucumber beetle on a straw flower; best viewed in the largest size.

Thanks for the commentary on my shot of the liquor bottle on the grave.  It is nice to know so many of you felt as I did about the gesture.  Hope your week got off to a good start.  It is quite a bit colder here today but no snow so far.  Have a good day!
  • An early October snowstorm in Colorado Springs; best viewed in the larger sizes.  I think it is always challenging to try to capture the actual snow falling so that it looks natural.  In the largest sizes, you can really see the snow falling, so I was pleased with this.

I sure appreciated your comments on my shot of the snow at the hospital parking lot.  This community is always so encouraging.

Hope you had a good weekend!
  • This image shows a the water in a water balloon just after it has been punctured by a pin.  Best viewed in the larger sizes.  This was captured at 1/1000th second shutter speed.  My grandson and I had an entire day of photography.  We started early in the morning photographing red-wing blackbirds, swallows, and ducks at a little retention pond near his home.  Then we shot more birds in his back yard.  Then, we came to my house and punctured balloons, water balloons and played with giant bubbles.  We had a ball!  Spencer is a budding bird photographer and I hope to feature a few of his shots in the next few days.

We are having new carpeting installed in part of our upstairs today.  Lots of fun moving furniture and books to make way for the carpet layers.  Hope you have a fun day, too!

Thanks for all the nice comments on my most recent shot of the peony tulip.
  • The morning flyout of snow geese at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in NM.  This is actually a tiny proportion of the snow geese that were part of the main flyout.  When that happens, the sky is pretty much covered totally with birds.  There are some shots of that in my "Birds" gallery.  They're not as interesting as photos, but they are pretty interesting in terms of understanding the flyout event.

I was amazed by your response to my shot of the cookware with the reflections.  Some of you wondered where I was, since I didn't show up much in the reflections.  I was off a bit to the side.  Unfortunately, that nice cookware is not mine.  I took the shot at Williams Sonoma.

Hope your week started well and that you have a great day!
  • A view of my yard after a winter snowstorm - this is one of a small file of photos that I discovered this week on one of my external drives that had never been processed.  I processed them and added them to my "Snowy Days" gallery this week.  We actually have not had this much snow at one time this year.  THIS SHOT REALLY NEEDS TO BE VIEWED IN THE LARGEST SIZES.

Thanks to those of you who commented on my shot of the froggie in the window. And another weekend is here and I hope you are able to enjoy yours.  Cheers!
  • John Moulton's Barn must be one of the most photographed spots in the Grand Tetons.  Nonetheless, I was anxious to try to capture it.  The morning was quite cold and dreary.  The mountains were pretty well shrouded in clouds.  As I set up my camera and tripod, I thought I had almost no chance of getting a good shot and then, suddenly, the clouds lifted, the sun peeked through and I got a few decent shots.  Hope you like this one.

I was very busy today and did not get to comment on too many of your shots.  I'll try to catch up with everyone tomorrow.  Enjoy your day!
  • A hummingbird feeds one of its babies; best viewed in the largest sizes.

Thank you to those of you who commented on my photo of the female cardinal today.  I don't think too many of you even saw it, but I am especially grateful to those of you who did find it and comment.  It was a gorgeous day in the Phoenix area.  After doing some laundry this morning, we spent the afternoon visiting a bunch of galleries in Scottsdale and looking at some terrific art.  Enjoy your Sunday!
  • A male great blue heron has just returned to the nest with a branch, which he is presenting to his mate.  This image is best viewed in the largest size.

Thanks for the comments on the shot of the aloe seedheads.  Enjoy your weekend!
  • Getting the shot at Horseshoe Bend.  Not my preferred view in which to be photographed.  Since I am the family member who is rarely captured in photos, the reason that I was preserved for posterity in this unflattering position is that I am terrified of heights and, after hiking about 1/2 mile to reach the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, I discovered that the ONLY way to get a shot of the bend in the Colorado River here is to get out to the absolute edge of the sheer cliff dropoff.  No way that I could make myself get out there in a standing position.  Even then, without a fisheye lens, you would not be able to get the whole bend in the picture.  Luckily, I had my fisheye lens.  After walking all around the edge and confirming that they only way I could get a shot of the famous bend was to be on the edge, I lay down and inched myself out so that I could hang my camera over the edge to get some shots.  The shots I got are here: http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Northern-Arizona/11896740_iVsC7#842028150_NVySM.  Not fabulous and I'd like to try again on a cloudy day or at sunset.  My hubby, who was holding my other camera, decided to take advantage of me (not for the first time) and took this shot.  I intended to post it right after returning from the trip but other shots kept getting my nod, so I forgot this one until I ran across it this evening in my Northern Arizona gallery.  Hope it gives you a chuckle!

Thanks for the comments on my shot of the milkweed pod and seeds.  Hope your week got off to a good start and that you are finding a few moments to take some shots.
  • The Wonder of Childhood - Two small children are entranced with the fish in a small pond at the Denver Botanical Garden.  There is nice detail if you want to look at it in the largest sizes.  We're off this morning to go camping near Crede, Colorado with our kids and their families.  It is supposed to be pretty chilly up there.  Anyway, I'll miss commenting and posting for a couple of days until we get back.  Hope you all have a great weekend!
  • While trying to capture some ants and aphids in my garden, I noticed this little spider (about a half inch across) with a large fly.  The spider was already sucking the insides out of the fly, which was already dead or paralyzed.  I managed to bring this pair into the house, where I experimented with a number of different lighting arrangements...trying to get the details of the spider, while maintaining a good dof.  It was very difficult and I never succeeded in getting the kind of sharpness and clarity that I wanted.  However, I think the subject is sufficiently interesting to use one of these images for my daily.  The other images from this effort are in my macro gallery (under the "other" category).  I think for this shot, you should probably view it in the original size.  The whole time I was shooting this the spider was moving around on the white paper.  Thanks for your kind comments on my iris pic today.  There were a lot of wonderful images posted today.  By the way, has anyone heard from Dave Dedman?  I haven't seen anything of his in a while and I know he had pneumonia.  I sure hope he's ok.  If some of you are communicating with him, give him my best wishes.
  • Maggie can fly!  My daughter teaches ballet and gives pilates classes at her own studio in Denver, which is co-located with the Denver Dance Center.  A few weeks ago, the center which has only been in existence for a bit over a year, had its first performance.  Maggie is an young adult who still loves to dance and can, obviously, still perform.  Flash was not allowed during the performance and I sat way over on one side, but I managed to catch this shot of her during one of her leaps.

Thanks so much for the comments on my latest Grand Canyon shot.  I'm still processing those shots.  I think I have about eight folders of shots and I've processed only about one and a half.  I'm really enjoying it and it is making me think I want to go back to the Grand Canyon and spend more time there.  So many places, so little time...

Have a grand weekend and Halloween!
  • A mother moose seems unperturbed, while her baby looks over at all the people gathered to watch and photograph the pair as they forage in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming; best viewed in the largest sizes.

We just got back from our trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  We did not have access to electricity where we camped, so I managed only to upload my files of photos each day to the laptop, but did not get any processing done at all.  No Internet access the entire time.  We had a great time, even though it was often cold and rainy.  We got two inches of snow one night.  I'm anxious to get back to looking at all your great shots.  Hope you like this one of the mother moose and her baby.  We saw them just as we were about to leave Grand Teton National Park.  I was able to watch and photograph them for about ten minutes and was not too far away.  Typically, the baby would let its mother get about fifteen feet away and then it would run at breakneck speed to catch back up to its mom.
  • Sunrise in Big Bend National Park in Texas; I took this shot on our recent trip to Big Bend.  There were a number of lovely sunrises while we were there, but I think this one is my favorite.  Another week has flown by and Easter is almost upon us.  Hope you are able to do something enjoyable this weekend.  I'm off to bed as soon as I post this.  Thanks, everyone, who commented on my shot of the green heron with its damselfly.  It is really gratifying to get such nice comments from such a terrific bunch of photographers.  I am constantly amazed by the talent here on smugmug.
  • Hey, Mom, isn't this how YOU make soup?  Last week I had my first ever photoshoot with a baby.  Chyler is an adorable six-month-old girl and has to have one of the best dispositions ever.  I shot pictures of her for over an hour and she never fussed at all, except when her mom was changing her outfit for the second time.  This is one of the images from that shoot.  If you are interested, the rest are here:  http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/8414425_vn5R3#P-1-12.  Thanks for all the nice comments on my hubby's picture today.  There were sure a lot of terrific shots on the dailies today.  We are going to a breakfast and preview of a show of the work of Fernando Botero, a Mexican artist, at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.  Botero sculpts and paints and is known for his characterizations of rather rotund people.  We're looking forward to seeing the show.  Have a great day, everyone!
  • 08-17-11
Ruby-throated hummingbird; best viewed in the largest sizes.  Taken in Teal Campground in southern Colorado.

Thanks to those of you who found my photo for yesterday and liked it well enough to post a comment.  Much appreciated.

Have a great day!
  • Ride 'em cowboy! - This statue, which is lifesize, or even bigger than lifesize, stands in front of the Rodeo Hall of Fame here in Colorado Springs. I shot this with my 24 - 70mm lens, shooting from ground level.  I did not actually have to lie down to get this angle.

Thanks for your support of my shot of the freestyler.  I processed new photos all afternoon until my mouse quit working.  This is the third wireless mouse in a year that has quit working with my mac and I cannot really work with the track pad for very long.  So, tomorrow, I guess I'll have to go in and get another mouse, unless I can convince the Apple store to replace it for free.  It is snowing here a bit and we have to get out really early tomorrow, as Phil has a doctor's exam (just a checkup).  Hopefully, the roads won't be too bad.  Hope your Friday is a good one!
  • Day 90 - The late afternoon sun highlights the clouds over the front range and Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs.  This image is better viewed in  a larger size.  Have a great Wednesday, everyone!  Thanks so much on your comments on Spencer's jumping pic, as well as all the ones on the scene outside Victor.  I really appreciate each and every one!
  • Day 21 - A late evening sky at Spruce Grove in Colorado; the image has been enhanced in Photoshop
  • Memory of Innisfree - I created this image for the last Dgrin megachallenge, which I was honored to get to participate in.  The original shot was of the waterwheel and shed like building.  I then added the water and, finally, added the brush and hand, which was cut out of another shot.  Then I gave the image some treatments that I thought made it look more like a painting.  I'd forgotten about the image when I came across it today and decided I'd like for you all to see it.

Thanks for the comments on my little macro shot of the branch and place where the pine cone had fallen off.  Hope your week has started off well and that it continues to go well.
  • Day 26 - A lioness photographed last spring in a wildlife park.
  • A different perspective on the statue of the horses.  Someone asked if the horses were meant to be wild horses and i believe they are.  It truly is a magnificent statue, one I pass almost daily.

Thanks for all the comments on the fireman climbing the ladder statue shot.  I really appreciate your input.  The week is nearly half over...hope yours is going well.   Amazing group of shots today and i loved perusing them!
  • I just finished processing the images from my first ever photo shoot with a young, aspiring model.  Heather is a lovely young woman and I was very lucky to be able to do this photoshoot with her.  This is one of my favorite images from the shoot.  If you are interested in seeing the others, they are in the following gallery:  http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/8572425_qAADT#564825381_oE9Qd.  I'd love to hear your suggestions and comments, as many of you have so much more experience than I do.
  • 3/19/13 - Old locomotive at Old Town Tucson.

Thanks so muich for your warm response, making my shot of the Presidio arches the #1 shot for the day.  A few more of you preferred the color version, but quite a few thought the b/w version was better.  Thanks for sharing your opinions with me!
  • 8/19/12 - Black bear; best viewed in the largest sizes.  Photographed at Bear Country, SD.  When I took this shot, there were probably about forty bears within the range of my camera.  They were all moving around.  It was a hot day; this one has just gotten himself wet down by a hose. I found the bears to be difficult to shoot, as their faces were so dark.  I had to use the exposure compensation to lighten the face enough to pull out the detail there.

Thanks for the comments on my daughter's cat.  Much appreciated.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.
  • Cormorant with a fish - the comorant has beaten this fish against the ground and, as you can see, the fish is covered with dirt and sticks.  I liked the incredible teal eye and the wild look of the cormorant in this shot.  Best viewed in the larger sizes.

Thanks for all the comments on my shot at the mall.  You guys are the best and you continue to amaze and delight me with the shots you put up.  Today was no exception!
  • Day 113 - A stellar's jay, captured in my yard, as it was trying to get peanuts from a wreath peanut feeder.  Although the light was quite bright when I took this shot, using my 400 mm lens at 1/8000th of a second, it was not bright enough to keep the image from being noisy.  I have cleaned up most of the noise because I like the bird's position, but there is still a tiny bit of noise in the image.  We have lots of stellar's jays in the Black Forest of Colorado where I live and a few regular blue jays.  It is almost midnight and I have been processing images almost for eight hours straight.  I'm going to post this and go to bed.  Have a great day!  Thanks to everyone for their comments on my iris and peony images, as well as my image for the "Liquid" challenge.  I really appreciate the time you all take to provide feedback and support.
  • Inside the TicToc Diner - The TicToc Diner in Lake City, CO, is one of only a few surviving diners called Valentine Diners, which were ordered from a catalog.  Today was the day when I could have gotten the shot of a lifetime, but didn't.  After our father's day breakfast at I-Hop, we decided to take a drive over to the Woodland Park area in our old restored 1975 Porsche 911.  Apparently, everyone else in Colorado Springs had the same idea because traffic was incredibly heavy, although moving along at a fast clip.  We're tooling along at about sixty miles an hour and I have my camera in my hand, when out of the corner of my eye I see these big brown shapes.  I swivel my head to look and realize I'm looking at two large brown bears....eating on grass or some other plant.  They looked incredibly cute and rolly polly.  There was no shoulder on which to stop and the traffic was so thick that it was impossible to stop.  I was sick about it.  By the time we got back around, they were gone.  Oh, well, c'est la vie!
  • South Rim View, Grand Canyon; best viewed in the largest sizes.

I appreciated the comments I received on the shot of the aloe buds.  Tremendous number of wonderful pics on smugmug today, although there is certainly not anything unusual about that.  However, I continue to be amazed by the talent and creativity displayed here.
  • I photographed this turkey vulture in Big Bend National Park in extreme south Texas on our recent trip.  I stayed on my knees for about an hour photographing this vulture and another on a nearby telephone pole.  I believe this one was the female.  She meticulously groomed every single feather on her body...one at a time!  She did every feather the way she is doing this one, running her beak along its length.   Look at this image in the largest sizes and you'll see some marks on her feathers.  I'm not sure if they are parasites or something else.  Her feathers were, on the whole, gorgeous and I think even her head is not ugly like many people think. You can see the little hairs on her head.  The other vulture did some grooming, as well, but he was not nearly as meticulous and some of his feathers were pretty ratty.  I wanted to get the vultures taking off and by the time I finally got those shots, my legs were shaking, as were my arms from holding my position for such a long time.  I shot this with my 200 - 400mm lens and it is a big sucker to handle.   I'm going to post a bit early, as my sciatica is killing me.  It is great to be back posting and looking at all your wonderful images.  Hope your weekend is terrific.  Tomorrow we'll have to dig out from our recent blizzard.  Hoping the sun melts a lot of it.
  • 8/14/12 - Rufous Hummingbird, best viewed in the largest size.  I spent some time yesterday shooting hummers.

Does anyone know how Phil Nix is?  I've tried to find out but haven't learned anything.  I know he was ill and I'm worried, as he has not posted in a long time.

Thanks so much for your encouragement and critique of my shot of the old bikes.  Much appreciated.  Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Have a good day, my friends!
  • Day 32 - A lazy bear is resting but eating at the same time, photographed at the Denver Zoo.
  • Parachutists Before the Game - at the Air Force/Army game Saturday, a pre-game performance by parachutists from the Air Force Academy and West Point.  The man with the flag is a retired Air Force parachutist and a double amputee, who lost both legs in a mid-air collision with his partner, who died in the accident.  The other parachutist in this shot is a West Point cadet.  Please view this image in the largest sizes to see the detail of the parachutists, including the prothestics of the man with the flag.

I was amazed at the response to my shot of part of our yard during a recent snowstorm.  You all have made me consider using it as our Christmas card this year.

Hope everyone has a good day today!
  • My granddaughter, Quinn, posed for me after Christmas.

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday weekend!
  • Reflections in a Wheel; best viewed in the larger sizes.  This particular reflection was one of my favorite takeaways from the car show!  

Thanks for your comments on the shot of the father with the little girl playing with the slot cars.  Keeps me going!
  • A view of our recent snowstorm from an upstairs window.  

The reunion is over.  Our dinner party was a lot of fun, but I'm pretty wiped out.  Tomorrow, though, I'll be back to my regular routine and I hope to catch up on everyone's photos.  Have a good beginning to the week.
  • Larger than lifesize sculpture of horses near the Briargate Shopping Center in Colorado Spring; shot lying on the ground looking up with a fish eye lens.

Thanks for all the comments on the shot at the skateboarding park.  It was a busy day and I didn't get around to commenting until late at night, but, as usual, there was lots to inspire and admire.  Hope your week gets off to a great start!
  • Sandhill cranes flying in the early morning at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in NM.

Thank you all for your positive comments on my sunrise shot of the snow geese.  Really made my day!  Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!
  • "The Boy in the Bubble" - song by Paul Simon.  This is the redone version of this.  I took a new photo of a bubble and, instead of cutting out the bubble and putting it on a different background, this time I kept the bubble and the background intact.  All I did was add the boy.  If you look at it in the largest sizes, you'll see the reflections in the bubble now reflect the actual setting in which it was taken --- although you'll see the pine trees in my garden, which do not actually show in the background itself.  You can also see that there are reflections both in front of and behind the boy.  Having done all that, I'm not sure this is really that great an image.  The boy does not pop out at you.  You have to look carefully for him.  However, I think this may be about as good a job as I can do on this idea.  I'd appreciate your thoughts regarding whether I  should enter this or the great balls of fire shot that I posted on the dailies two days ago.  Thanks, as always, for your comments, which I value a lot.  I did learn quite a bit doing this little project and that, of course, is never wasted effort.  Have a great day everyone!  My hubby and I are going up to Denver to help our daughter put up drywall in her new ballet studio.
  • A black-chinned hummingbird; best viewed in the larger sizes.  This shot was also captured at Teal Campground in southern Colorado --- about 25 miles outside Pagosa Springs.

I sure appreciated all the comments on my shot of the damselflies mating.  Thanks so much!

Hope you are having a good week.
  • A total eclipse of the full moon, which occurred began in Dec. 20, 2010 and finished on Dec. 21,  2010, the winter solstice.  There have been many excellent shots of the lunar eclipse already posted on smugmug and quite a few terrific composites.  Mine is certainly no better than those, but I'm going to post mine anyway.  A case of "I photographed it", so "I'll post it," I guess.  Since I stayed up so late last night photographing the eclipse, I'm going to post a bit early and go to bed.

Thanks, as always for your support and comments.  Only a few more days until Christmas.  I hope everyone is nearly finished with their preparations.  I'm getting there, too.

Oh, I forgot to tell everyone what the last two kaleidoscopes were created from.  The first was part of a closeup of a motorcycle and the second was part of a shot of the glass house at the Denver Botanic Garden.
  • Colorado Balloon Classic - We went to this event very early this foggy morning.  The balloon launch was delayed several times, but eventually, around 8:30, the balloons starting launching.  There was apparently almost no wind aloft, so, after they launched, the balloons just hung around in the air over us for a long time.  This shot was early in the first wave of launches.  The shot was taken with my fisheye lens.  I still have many, many shots of this event to process, but if you'd like to see a few of the others, they can be found here in my "Colorado Balloon Classic" gallery, which is in the "Other" category:  http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/Other/Colorado-Balloon-Classic/9540120_hQhxe#641316963_fagpa.  I actually entered a different shot from the balloon festival in the Dgrin Challenge "A Different Perspective."  I have not had any success in the challenges so far, but it is such a good learning experience that I keep trying.  My train shots were done with the thought that I might use them in the challenge.  With regard to the train shots, I actually took pics of two different trains.  The first was not moving too fast and I got pretty cocky that I was completely safe so close to the tracks.  The second train came through much faster, and, although I seemed to be fine, I must admit it was a bit more unnerving.  However, I'll probably do it again, as I really did not get the shot I was hoping for.

Thanks for the great response to my train shot.  A lot of you also looked at some of the other shots in my "Trains, Trains, Trains" gallery, under the "Other" category.  Thanks for all the comments.  I sure appreciate them.

Have a great Monday --- if that is possible?
  • Great blue heron, photographed at the Dancing Cranes Guest House in San Antonio, New Mexico, not far from Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.  Best viewed in the larger sizes.  The owners of the B&B have created a wildlife refuge on their property that attracts many kinds of birds.  I had been watching this heron for about two hours and the light had moved a lot.  I had to shoot this into the bright late afternoon sun.  Luckily, the grasses by the pond blocked the light a bit and I think I bumped the exposure comp up.  I liked the light that resulted.  Hope you like it, too.

Oh, my!  I'm so honored that you all made my sunrise shot of the geese flyout the #1 shot today.  I was just so lucky that the sunrise that morning was spectacular and took quite a long time to play out, so I got a lot of shots against the sunrise, which had quite a few different looks.  Thanks, everyone, for making my day!

Have a great Wednesday!
  • Iris with raindrops; best viewed in the largest sizes.  

Thanks so much for your comments on my shot of the fly.  It is good, although not at all surprising, to learn that so many of you also take your camera into bathrooms.  We truly are fanatics!

Enjoy your day!

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