Jane Austen Book Club

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)
Another DVD from the Wal-Mart bargain bin.
I didn't love it, but it is worth a watch.
I liked Emily Blunt (as Prudie Drummond) best. She's interesting to watch. Does angst very well. I remember her from Devil Wears Prada. She was also in Sunshine Cleaning.

Here's some screenshots and quotes I created from the DVD movie.

Favorite Robin Picture

This is now my favorite Robin pic.


Pondering:

Squirrels

I guess I've never posted any squirrel pics yet.
Here's some from this year.


Warmed by the sun:



The next three I dug out of my photo archives.


Almost "scrolled" off my camera view before I took the picture:


Squirrel Alert:

Trails Out of The Archives

Digging around in my photo archives for trails, paths, roads theme.
I tried some post-processing effects on some of these to see if I could improve them.

Didn't do anything to this one.


With these next two, I know I took dozens of pics at different times trying to get a good exposure because of the very high contrast. These turned out well because it was a little later in the day so more sunlight, plus I zoomed in and eliminated the sky because that would have blown out.




Can't decide if I like this color boost or not. Plus the road is kinda ugly, but too hard to fix.


This color boost I like.


No color boost but I fixed the trails on these next three because they had lots of tar patches on them and looked ugly. I used the cloning feature in Paint Shop Pro 9.


Soft Light layering boosted color and contrast a little on these next two cloning trail jobs.



Soft light and sky gradient on this one:

All In a Days Walk

Different trail views of my walking path one day.
I love photos of trails, paths, roads, etc.

Start at the dirt trail


Thru the tunnel.
I added a little bit of zoom radial blur just for a fun effect.


Curvy:


Rest Stop:


Trees Overhead:

Foggy Morning Walking Companion

I have tons of photos of geese and robins since they are abundant right now.
I don't post unless it's something unique.
I thought this goose would fly away, but instead it kept skittering along in front of me like my walking companion or something.
I got a chuckle out of it.
I kept walking and snapping photos when its wings would come up and out.

Silly Goose and Boats

I thought this was an interesting composition because of that silly goose.
There is a fishing tournament coming up and there has been tons of boat activity on the river.
I can hear a boat coming, so I compose the shot and wait to snap the pic as the boat(s) goes by.

Trees

I like these pics because of the soft cloud background and the way the branches branch out.

Mallards

Don't have any mallard pics posted to my blog either.
Here's the couple:


Quack, quack, quack:





In flight (not very good, but I'll post anyway):


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UPDATE: 23 May 10
More, different views of the mallard.
Same place, maybe not same duck.
These were taken with the XSi and tele, so a little closer. I did some layer masking to sharpen duck and soften background a little more.

Wood Duck

My first pic of a wood duck.
The males do look like wooden decoys instead of real ducks.

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Ducks at a Distance
A Waterfowl ID Guide - Wood Duck

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New Leaves

Still taking pics of buds and new leaves.
I thought this was pretty...


Not sure what kind of tree it is, though.

This one reminds me of hanging jewels:


Here's another one I like:

Garden Statues and Tulips

I don't usually go for this kind of thing, but I thought these were cute.
Close to someone's front door.
I'd be afraid someone would steal them.
I had to do some masking work to retain the color on the duck cuz it was a lot brighter than the rest of the picture.

And along the side of the house...tulips.




I think this was the same house. Not absolutely sure.
I love tulips. One of the things that says "spring" to me.