Looking for Twos

I walked around the yard this week looking for 'twos'. Part of an assignment, so I guess this is officially homework week.
This is a Lightroom template I use when I do my calendars. I've made a multitude of them. It helps speed things up.

Linking up with Walk and Click Wednesdays.

Walk and Click or should I say Drive?

I shot from the car today as I drove out into the country. It did not disappoint.

I love bare trees against the sky. And soon it will be spring so I'm capturing as many as I can.

The clouds were glorious and a string of geese were cooperative also.

 I'll share a great Lightroom tip at the end about the photo below.

I happened upon a gaggle of geese feeding very close to the road and they became quite nervous.

Fly away, fly away. At least they aren't eating the winter wheat.

 I also stirred up a large group of birds playing in these tall grasses.

I thought they'd all be sparrows, but when I zoomed in, there were red-winged black birds in the mix. I don't see how they keep from running into each other. They are so fun to watch as they swoop here and there.

I love these little sparrows in the weeds.

 There always seems to be some old machinery around.

 And an old truck by an awesome tree.

 And a totally cool tree all by itself. (Well I did clone out a pile of dirt in the left corner.)

All photos edited in Lightroom using split-toning. (I love to make my skies more turquoise.)

Here's what I discovered today:

On the photo I mentioned earlier, the horizon was not straight. But when I tried to straighten it, I felt it cropped too much off the right side of my tree. (my preference) Here is the before:

I opened the Lens Correction Panel and played with the horizontal slider until I got this. It did change the shape of my tree so you'll need to be careful about what subject matter you dare to distort. AND if you look closely part of the photo is now 'missing' in the lower right corner. So a little more crop off the bottom was in order.

I did try it on the 'lone' tree above but didn't like the result. When I straightened it normally, it made it look like he tree was leaning. So I'm pretending we actually have a few hills around here.

Linking up with Walk and Click Wednesdays at Lissa's blog. Get out and shoot and join us there.

Here's to seeing the beauty around you, even if it's a dreary winter day (like here). At least we got some badly needed rain last night.

Walk and Click, Our Yard

Linking up with Walk and Click Wednesdays with Lissa. Come join us.

After our little January snow I had to take inventory around the garden. The rising sun was beautiful that morning but didn't shine for long.

I edited this in Lightroom and used the preset, Colorful HDR Effect.  Colorful is the last thing I'd call it, however there was not much color in my images to start with. Speaking of Lightroom, there is a new magazine available only on the iPad and the first issue is free. Check it out on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips.

Walk and Click -First Snow

We had a nice dusting of snow which can be very rare here. So I took advantage and went for a drive. Less than a mile brings me to sorghum fields and cotton fields with some semblance of stubble to attract the geese. We have bazillions winter over here in the north part of Texas. Armed with my iPhone and 70/300 lens, this is what I captured. (All DSLR photos processed in RadLab.

This lone tree is where I stopped. (iPhone, forgot what I processed this with. Must take better notes)

70-300mm, at 300mm

1/500 sec;   f/10;   ISO 800

As I scoped in my view, I discovered a few interesting things.

70-300mm, at 200mm

1/350 sec;   f/5.6;   ISO 320

iPhone, Picfx, Snapseed, I actually prefer this one.

70-300mm, at 90mm

1/350 sec;   f/4.0;   ISO 320

70-300mm, at 235.0 mm

1/350 sec;   f/5.6;   ISO 250

And right before I left I noticed the tree was full of birds. 

Calamity texture by Kim Klassen.

70-300mm, at 100mm

1/500 sec;   f/4.0;   ISO 100

Yes I most definitely took the blue bottles home with me. (But not because I'm a trash picker-upper)

Can't wait for some more snow!

Linking up with Walk & Click Wednesdays.