Animals | Andrew's Blog

Posts from the ‘Animals’ category

On A Wing

A Turkey Vulture searches for carion in and around the quarry at Rib Mountain State Park

I had looked at photographing these magnificent flyers as a change both for me and the focus tracking system on my D-80. To my amazement, I was able to track these birds in flight with my 70-210 f4.5-5.6 Nikkor zoom pushed out to the max with an ISO setting of 500.

Last time I did this, my end results were not so good. But the focus points were lighting up in my viewfinder and the camera was picking the birds up. What an amazing day!

Green Valley Road

I spend a lot of time taking rides into the countryside northeast of Wausau. The roads up there are quiet save during the weekday when the granite quarries are active. There are only two industries in the Town of Texas and they are farming and mining. Not much other development is encouraged.

I like riding bike up there because of the low traffic and the closeness I feel with the environment around me. I had a laughable experience the other day when I found myself directing a steer back to his herd. He had broken through the barbed wire fencing that was keeping the rest from wondering off the field and into the roadway. This animal found his way across the road from the herd. I waved and pointed my finger to the others while keeping eye-contact on this animal. He got the message and rejoined the herd.

Perhaps maybe we are like the steer when we wander away from safety into dangerous situations with our lives. We too need someone to point the way back home.

Enter My Lightroom!

The Quarry in Black and White.

: Carriage pull competition at the Draft Horse Invitational in the 2011 Wisconsin Valley Fair

Adobe is known as the premier producer of imaging software. CS and Photoshop are their best known brands of photo editing software. Add to that the Lightroom series and they have cornered the market.

I once took in Photoshop 7 on a trial basis. It opened up like a Hollywood production with all the names of the software developers who worked to put it all together. It works in layers (for those of you who remember film) each color is in a layer and how you expose it or under expose it affects the outcome. I loved the software. I just could not afford it.

Lightroom is a different kind of imaging software. Because it has its own separate folder, it has separate storage for the images that were worked on with it. It does not exactly replace a regular editor software, but it can enhance the images and, if wisely used, improve workflow.

I am just beginning to learn how to use it. Watch this blog and see what I learned.

I am learning a lot in Lightroom. I will be able to add on Color Efex 4 to the software. That is something I could not do with just Capture NX2 which is no longer in production.

The Strenght of Farming

: A gathering of cattle each taking there time at a watering hole.

It is amazing what you can see on a ride through the country in Central Wisconsin. Dairying and Beef are big things in Wisconsin. So the site of cattle is a common thing. With these sites and sounds, you know you are in the country.

Man’s Best Friend

This is the dog my family loved.

Teddy is a German Shepherd that my nephews bought as a puppy. For seven years he became a member of the family and the guardian over their house. German Shepherds are known for their loyalty among many other things. He strayed only once .

He was so much fun at family dinners. If you wanted to keep him distracted so he didn’t grab the turkey or the ham, just get a handful of carrots off the relish tray and he would jump for them even “speak” on command. He was my sister’s best pal and she would walk him all around the west side and through the downtown riverfront. He wasn’t the “big baby” in the family, but he loved attention. All dogs do, I guess.

He was laid to rest a few months ago. Canine cancer is not easy for owners to see. Dogs tend to hide their pain well. Its a trait they retained from wolves that they do not show weakness lest they lose their position in the pack. I’m sure the good Lord will find a dog just like him for my sister when she too passe away.