World Lion Day

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I was busy photographing some lion cubs at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium when I heard this massive roar behind me. It was lunchtime for this young male lion, and he certainly let the whole area know. I was fortunate enough to fire off a few photos for a stunning portrait session. I just love the deep gold of this lion’s eye. Lion imagery is so important in the texts I interpret, and simply visiting the local zoo from time to time helps give me a deeper appreciation for this creature.

A Wild Time in the North Dakota Badlands

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It’s been about a month, but we are finally around to processing some of our favorite photos of our Dakota adventure. The first  stop in North Dakota was Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where we encountered the “badlands” as well as some great wildlife. Here is one of our early views of the landscape:

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A black and white rendition of the North Dakota Badlands landscape. I’ve always been fascinated by sedimentary rock. I also could not keep from saying, “It’s sedimentary, my dear Watson,” to Michelle.

We also encountered our first bison of the trip while in the park. Here are a couple of portraits:

I love their orange eyes!

I love their orange eyes! Print Available.

Mmmm, snack time. Processed in Tonality Pro by MacPhun.

Mmmm, snack time. I processed all the monochrome images in this post using Tonality Pro by MacPhun.

One of the highlights of the trip, by far, were the feral horses in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We came upon this group of horses on our first morning drive of the loop road.

This was the first horse we came across. It seemed to keep a distance from the rest of the herd, thought there was one other gray horse with it.

This was the first horse we came across. It seemed to keep a distance from the rest of the herd, thought there was one other gray horse with it.

This colt was laying beside it's mother, having a snack on the grass.

This young horse was laying beside it’s mother, having a snack on the grass. Print Available.

The horse herd seemed to work together as a family unit.

The horse herd seemed to work together as a family unit. Print Available.

“Marching Orders.” Fed up with the loitering photographers, the herd decided to hike up the mountain for some alone time. Print Available.

A bit later we ran into a family of deer.

A bit later we ran into a family of deer.

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I wonder what these two prairie dogs were conspiring about. Print Available.

This was one of my first attempts at stitching a panorama. I made this photo out of about four or five individual shots. Print Available.

This was one of my first attempts at stitching a panorama. I made this photo out of about four or five individual shots. Print Available.

All images ©2015 by Garber Geektography

Photo of the Day: Not so Killer Croc

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The following is a crocodile that my family encountered on our River Wallace boat tour in Belize. I used this croc to play a bit more with the forthcoming texture pack by Karen Hutton and Tanya Wallis. I found a texture that contained a cool/warm tone split that conveniently ran along the same line as the fallen tree. I was going for a crocodile in Dagobah feel with this one.

Here is the croc as I processed it without adding textures.

Here is the croc as I processed it without adding textures. I used all the normal processing tools I normally use to try to enhance the texture of the croc’s scales.

Here is the croc as I added a two tone texture from Karen Hutton's and Tanya Wallis' forthcoming texture pack. The texture had a nice split tone from warm to cold that conveniently mimicked the line of the croc on the fallen tree. I like how the minty portion of the two-tone gave the background the Dagobah-like feel I was trying to suggest.

Here is the croc as I added a two tone texture from Karen Hutton’s and Tanya Wallis’ forthcoming texture pack. The texture had a nice split tone from warm to cold that conveniently mimicked the line of the croc on the fallen tree. I like how the minty portion of the two-tone gave the background the Dagobah-like feel I was trying to suggest. I also cloned out the distracting branches on the left side. The warm center of the texture, coupled with the vignetting also helps draw the eye into the subject more.

The Evolution of an Iguana

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The original image of the iguana with only a few basic adjustments in Lightroom.

The original image of the iguana with only a few basic adjustments in Lightroom.

Over the past few weeks different people have asked me what I do when I process my photos, so I thought I’d share a bit of the madness behind my method (if there is one). We had a great time over the holidays with my family on a cruise. One of our excursions was on a boat ride down the River Wallace in Belize. We enjoyed spotting some wildlife and saw loads of iguanas along the way. This is one of the better images I got, especially since his eye was in clear view. I made some initial adjustments to the lighting, contrast, and clarity of the photo in Lightroom, but several things were bugging me about the results.

 

A tighter crop of the iguana, but the background still left me feeling, "meh."

A tighter crop of the iguana, but the background still left me feeling, “meh.”

So I ran the image past a few members of my cohort in the Arcanum. It’s always great to have a community of individuals with similar interests but different visions to help you hone in on your creative mojo. They ran several suggestions by me, most of which were to help me focus on the story of the image. This meant a major recomposition through cropping. I felt like I did when I write: it is very painful to cut down an image (or a piece of writing), but it often makes the work tighter and more impactful. So in order to avoid casting Mr. Iguana on the cutting room floor, I had to sacrifice his tail. This new crop eliminated much of the clutter that was distracting the viewer’s eye from the iguana’s face. Continue reading →