A low bar

Al Denelsbeck

As mentioned earlier, Friday’s outing also produced some sunset colors – more so than normal, but that’s not hard to do in this region of NC, at least. Somebody set the ‘Clearing’ setting for the sky to ‘Sunset’ and so the skies are typically wiped free of clouds at about that time. This time around, the cache was a bit slow in emptying and there remained just a little to work with.

But not much in the way of foreground interest, so I struggled to find something, which is also evident.

unidentified beetles against twilight colors
The sun itself went down still bright and yellow, and it took a while for the high-altitude clouds to change color, so I played with what could be found on the still-bare branches of the trees along the lakeshore. I have no idea what these beetles were, but they were tiny, at least enhancing the presence of the new buds.

unidentified spider silhouetted against sunset color
And a spider, placed against the background striations meticulously. Which just goes to show, there’s only so much you can do with some subjects, but I was just waiting out the meteorology.

waxing crescent moon alongside woodpeckers' nest tree
I felt a little obligated to do this one, since that’s the woodpeckers’ nest from last year (the one on the right; the one on the left is the moon.) Between those two branches alongside the moon sits the opening, though facing away from us since I was on shore to get this framing, and the opening isn’t visible from shore. Venus was likely becoming visible at this point, but it would be hidden behind the trunk. What you might have found, beneath that upper branch, is a jetliner catching the sun over the horizon.

waxing crescent moon and Venus against faint pink clouds
That’s Venus down towards the bottom of the frame. It shows phases too, but it largely takes a telescope to see them, so I checked with Stellarium – this time it was a gibbous. I’ll nail a crescent one of these days.

And finally, the wide shot to show off how well the sky developed:

sunset colors over Jordan Lake showing crescent moon and Venus
That’s… okay, enough to make the wait worthwhile, but it could easily be better. Gets that tropical vibe without anything even remotely tropical in the picture. Well, that’s not true, because the climate of Venus (which is visible in there, but you have to look hard) could be considered, “tropical,” if you weren’t familiar with the term, “blast furnace,” though even I’ll admit this is stretching a bit. Overall, a nice spectrum of color, so it works just well enough.

Tripod holes 13

Al Denelsbeck

Full Throttle Formation Team flying over Skyfest NC, Johnston Regional Airport, Smithfield NC
N 35°32’44.44″ W 78°23’22.69″ Google Earth Location

Today’s tripod hole comes from… yesterday, while I was attending Skyfest NC, a small airshow not too far away. Note that the location is where I was standing, and not exactly where the subject of the photo was, which would be quite hard to pin down without someone to triangulate at least. This is the Full Throttle Formation Team, or four of them at least, flying Van’s RV-8 aircraft if I have the details right – the website for the airshow itself is perhaps the most pathetic that I’ve seen in quite a while, so this information is provided by my astounding webbernets savvy, and the fact that I briefly pulled up the flight radar app on my smutphone while there.

More photos will be along shortly, but not a lot; as airshows go, this was pretty thin, plus the performance area was southeast of the attendee area, thus putting most of the performances against the rising sun, which was soon tempered by overcast skies – not an improvement. I left early as rain was threatening, not so much to avoid getting wet, but I’d prefer not to expose the camera equipment to serious moisture while trying to photograph aircraft, and I knew the parking area was bound to become a quagmire if it rained in earnest. The static display aircraft were minimal, and no major aerial demonstrations were scheduled. I tried my hand at video again, but using the 7D and the Tamron 150-600 just ain’t gonna work for that.

However, Wings Over Wayne is coming in May, and I may be refining my techniques before then. We’ll see what happens.

On our way

Al Denelsbeck

While we had several warm spells far earlier than normal, interspersed with some overnight lows dropping below freezing, I think spring is getting a toehold now, and the critters and plants are on schedule. The Insoluble Mr Bugg and I went down to Jordan Lake Friday for a late afternoon and sunset shoot, and there were a few subjects to be found, though it’s not quite the active season yet. I’ll be displaying a couple of full-frame and cropped shots for comparison herein.

Only a few bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) peeked out, and I’ll feature a sequence later on, but for now, the juvenile that appeared.

juvenile bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus cruising overhead
This is full-frame at 600mm, with the eagle roughly 60 meters overhead, give or take far too great a margin – I’m just guessing, really, and have no way of measuring with any kind of accuracy. Suffice to say that it was just close enough to know that it was an eagle, and not a vulture or osprey. But now the closer look.

juvenile bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus displaying curious plumage pattern, possibly transitioning into fourth year
That coloration doesn’t fit any of the depicted phases of development that I have, but I believe we’re seeing an eagle entering its fourth year, as they gain their well-known adult plumage of deep brown body and white head and tail. There’s a faint hint of the eye-stripe that denotes their third year, but none of the belly mottling and only a smidgen on the wings, so I think it’s time for the mitzvah. You can also see a new feather coming in on the right wingtip.

Did a little better with the osprey (Pandion haliaetus,) who have just started appearing in earnest.

osprey Pandion haliaetus passing overhead
Full-frame again, and given that osprey are perhaps 2/3 the size of eagles, this one is clearly half the distance away, or less. But this isn’t close enough for a crucial detail, so we shamelessly crop (or at least I do) to show off something that I didn’t recognize at the time.

osprey Pandion haliaetus overhead with small fish capture
We saw nothing at all of the action, but this one clearly had a little snack that it was carrying to a good perch, probably a perch. Okay, I have no idea what it is, because my knowledge of fish species is abysmal, probably only slightly better than the osprey’s knowledge but with considerably less skill in catching any.

Another, because of course I had to.

overhead osprey Pandion haliaetus giving stinkeye
Cropped a bit, but the sun nicely showed off the osprey realizing it had been made. By the way, all of these, I think, were shot with a full stop overexposure to compensate for the brightness of the sky, which retained the blue while still preventing the undersides of the birds from dropping too deeply into shadow. The sky was scattered haze and high-altitude clouds, so the colors varied a lot depending on the direction that we were facing.

The red-headed woodpeckers (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) were only occasionally visible, and I don’t think we’ve yet entered nesting season for them, but it’s close.

red-headed woodpecker Melanerpes erythrocephalus perched on perforated pine
Full-frame once again, and this time I could have determined the distance much better, had I tramped through the bracken to the base of this tree, though that wasn’t really the purpose and it would have spooked all of the woodpeckers from the area. It’s funny – I would have easily said this one was much closer than the osprey or eagle because I could walk there, but the evidence is that it was only a little less distant as the eagle, and notably further than either osprey. We’re used to measuring things horizontally, but vertically (and with no frames of reference) is much harder – from having worked on ladders more than enough, I can attest that determining how high up I am is wildly inaccurate. But let’s go in closer:

red-headed woodpecker Melanerpes erythrocephalus with possible nest cavities
Clearly an adult now, but recently an adult (as in, last year’s brood) or not is impossible for me to say. This was within a few dozen meters of the nest that I observed at length last year, which itself is showing no signs of activity, but then again this particular tree may be in use before too long. I would approve of that – it’s much easier to view than the one last year, requiring no wading into the lake, and sits in enough of an opening in the canopy to have good light for a decent portion of the day. I’m keeping an eye on it (well, not right now, because I’m typing, but whenever I’m down there at least.)

One of the osprey nests that we observed last year appears to be occupied again.

pair of osprey Pandion haliaetus perched alongside nest in tree
This is from well around the shoreline of a small bay on the lake, while it is possible to get a much closer look through the tree about 90° off of this angle – but then, they can also see me, and this might make them antsy. Either way, the angle isn’t sufficient to see anything except the last week or two before the young fledge out of the nest, and I missed that last year, but I’ll try to make more trips this time around. There’s evidence that the other nest that I viewed two years ago is occupied as well, though it’s considerably farther away.

And now, for some shitty pictures but a sequence of behavior that I was at least pleased to witness. I saw a raptor heading away into the distance but, looking essentially up its tail feathers, I couldn’t determine what it was, so I just locked onto it and tracked it through the long lens. In moments, it converged on another bird, and they did a quick spiral or two as they met, at least letting me see some wing color as it happened.

bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus harassing osprey Pandion haliaetus into dropping fish
This is full-frame again, obviously quite distant – like several hundred meters. Going in closer lets us see one crucial detail better, though:

bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus harassing osprey Pandion haliaetus into dropping fish
That’s enough to see that it’s a bald eagle on the right, an osprey in the center, and an abruptly dropped fish on the left. Thirty years ago in raptor rehabilitation training, I’d been told that eagles often nested near osprey to harass them into dropping fish to save themselves the trouble of catching their own, but had never once witnessed the behavior. Until now.

bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus veering off from osprey Pandion haliaetus to pursue dropped fish
The intent was very clear, as the eagle immediately turned to pursue the falling fish.

bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus diving after airborne fish
This is full-frame to give an idea of my view through the camera, and it wasn’t until now, when the flashing fish passed in front of the darker trees, that I fully realized what had happened. I wished that I had it on video but immediately realized that, without a lot of specific prep, the video clip would be garbage, worse than these photos even.

The eagle turned back in our direction and passed reasonably close by, yet autofocus proved to be balky again, so this is softer than it should be.

bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus clutching tiny stolen meal
The fish isn’t really visible here, but the clutching talons no longer tucked neatly up under the tail feathers say enough, as if that smug little smile didn’t. This is our national bird, people – dwell on that.

The sunset photos followed immediately after this, but the post is long enough and they’ll be along tomorrow. Gotta milk it, you know…

Just in time

Al Denelsbeck

We (meaning the Iconoclastic Mr Bugg and I) actually had an outing today, er, yesterday, whenever, and I have plenty of pics from that. Though I have another outing tomorrow, er, today, which should result in even more pics, but I need to get some sleep before then, so right now I’m just featuring some quick captures from this evening dark period.

I noticed when out at the lake that the moon was still a small enough crescent, close to the now-disappeared sun, that some earthshine should be visible with the right exposure. but I did not have the tripod with me at the time and attempts to brace against a tree proved worthless, so I got out the tripod on returning home and tackled the subject properly. First, the crescent in relatively normal exposure:

waxing crescent moon about 4 days old
I need to note here that Wednesday (two, uh, three days ago, whatever) just after sunset, the moon was going to be less than 2% illuminated and right alongside Jupiter – nice little goal for a pic, if I could locate it in the twilight. And if the skies weren’t dismally overcast, which they were. I’d been thinking about it for a week ahead of time and had ruled it out that day because the sky remained grey the entire time, but then right before sunset it started clearing, and I rushed down to the lake (the best view close to the horizon.) Yet despite being blinded by the lowering sun on the drive there, not ten minutes later the sky was again a solid grey blanket without a break to be seen. What the hell, man?

solid overcast near sunset on Jordan Lake
But anyway, on to tonight/not. The crescent was larger than ideal for such a thing, throwing a lot of light around in the exposure that would bring up the earthshine, but it still worked just fine.

overexposed waxing crescent moon showing earthshine and lunar features
That’s not too bad really; Tycho is visible to the left, and most of the lunar mares are pretty distinct. And there’s that speck up above the moon, which really is a star – HP13579 to be exact (what an odd yet even name.)

Seeing this in the LCD after the exposure, I trotted inside to check Stellarium and confirm my suspicions. You see, while the moon is moving ‘downward’ in the direction of the crescent, that’s due to the rotation of the Earth; it’s actually moving upward, retrograde, but very slowly. Which means that the star would overtake it, and in a short period of time as well.

[Short digression here: Quite close to the moon was also Uranus, which I saw when checking Stellarium but didn’t check closely, thinking it would be too dim. It was actually magnitude 5.83 while that star up there was magnitude 7 – notably dimmer. I could easily have adjusted my framing and captured Uranus with the moon, had I looked closer before dashing back out to get the shots. Dumbass.]

There were also two stars emerging from the crescent side of the moon almost immediately before HP 13579 was to disappear, and I made the attempt, but they were magnitudes 9 and 10 and simply got lost in the glare from the crescent. But I did indeed catch HP 13579 disappearing, and made a five-frame animated gif (pronounced, “gar-çon“) to illustrate this:

animated gif of HP 13579 being occulted by crescent moon
The gif optimization appears to have played with the brightness of the star a little, because it was noticeably dim right before disappearing and was probably captured half-occluded. Note that all frames were firmly fixed on a tripod, so the motions you see here are actual, at least from our reference point, and the frames are each roughly nine seconds apart. Also note that the specks to the left and down below the moon are merely sensor noise, from shooting at ISO 3200 to get the earthshine without motion blur.

Nice little quick capture for the evening, but rest assured, more images will be along as soon as I can get it all together. Right now, sleep (for me, anyway – you can do what you want.)

Tripod holes 12

Al Denelsbeck

baby American alligator Alligator mississippiensis alongside mother's tail, Shark Valley Florida
N 25°44’40.24″ W 80°45’59.67″ Google Earth Location

The location of today’s image is, well, within a few hundred meters of exact, let’s say. It was taken in Shark Valley, a visitor access point on Tamiami Trail (Rt 41) to the sprawling Everglades National Park, on a walking path that ran alongside a looonng, straight channel, and there are no landmarks along it, anywhere, to place even an approximate position. I just know I was a decent hike away from the parking area, at least a kilometer, but beyond that I couldn’t say, and wouldn’t recognize the precise point even if I walked it again while it looked identical to when I was there, which was 23 years ago this month.

Notably, this was not only very close to the walking trail, there was nothing preventing me from stepping forward and picking up this little guy, which is a very young American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis.) Well, okay, nothing except the mother curled around it, and my common sense which told me that this would be the stupidest thing I could try. I was actually a decent distance away using the Sigma 170-500 on the tripod, remaining as unobtrusive as possible and keeping a wary eye on the mother, but they had chosen an open spot way too close to the trail for their nap. Several other babies within the brood had popped into the water at my approach, but this one at least was being as mellow as the mother, who gave no sign that she even knew I was there, perhaps to lull me into a false, stupid-tourist sense of security. I wasn’t biting, and so, neither was she.

They are remarkably cute at this age, and I really need to return and capture video, because still photos can’t convey the little sounds they make, like newborn puppies. This was my second encounter with babies, the first being at Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, on the same route some seventy kilometers to the west, a year or two before – again, way too close to the path. It would be nice if I could count on finding them at either location on returning, but I suspect both instances were blind luck. Still, I’m going to try again, soon*

* Don’t ask me for a specific definition of this word. Before the next transit of Venus, at least.

Alas, not this year

Al Denelsbeck

Zefrank is back with his Animal Awards (actually I’m not sure this isn’t the first, but he still returned, from wherever he goes when he’s not actively posting videos, and we’re torturing idioms now I believe,) and while I didn’t win the award for “Nature Photographer I Want To Party With,” I have to respect his choice. So without any standup monologue to drag things out (besides this, I mean,) we have the latest vid:


Now, you are on a blog, which means it’s perfectly okay to redirect attention back to the owner – expected, even – and who would I be if I shirked that responsibility? Someone else, most likely, probably someone with a life and much less ego. But while watching that, I not only recognized the peculiar trait of the sharpshooter leafhoppers, I recognized a previous capture that had never been identified.

This ended up taking more than 90 minutes. I wasn’t sure if I’d featured the image on the blog before, but I was fairly certain that it had been prepped for web display at least. Thus I was searching the blog folders as well as the ‘Archive’ folder used for larger versions, and even into the main stock folders when those were coming up empty. Well, certainly not empty, but devoid of the image in question wherever I was looking, anyway. The original image would certainly reside in stock but could still be ridiculously time-consuming, since the Arthropod folders alone contain over 24,000 images, and the one in question wouldn’t be cropped tighter so the subject might be quite small in the frame. It did not help that I was misremembering (old, you know) the approximate time period in which it had been shot. But eventually it was run to ground and is now presented here. All that, for a literally shitty bug:

possible Chrysomelidae larva encased in feces
I know what you’re thinking: “Boy, what kind of weirdo photographs bug shit?” but know that it was moving when I spotted it, so there was reason to believe it was more than bug shit. Asshole.

Anyway, this would appear to be in the Family Chrysomelidae, probably Sub-Family Cryptocephalinae, the case-bearing leaf beetles. It almost appears to be bearing both other arthropods and perhaps eggs, which is possible I guess – the original image at full resolution still isn’t conclusive, and that’s now more time devoted to this singular image. Sheesh.

Meanwhile, the sharpshooter thing was covered some time back, but began long before that when I spotted a leafhopper in the NC Botanical Garden that appeared to have an anti-collision light. No, seriously, the millisecond appearance of the droplet at the hind end was catching more light than I believed possible in the shadowed conditions, and it was flashing. Just a trick of the light, unless some of the plants in the garden are more radioactive than normal. Yes, they have banana plants in there, but no, this wasn’t on any of them – good thinking, though.

time-exposure of broad-headed sharpshooters Oncometopia orbona flinging excrement
Those efforts were almost a decade ago, and I’ve been meaning to tackle them again to see if I could improve on the results, especially given that I can do video now. Unfortunately, even though my motivation is peaked at the moment, the sharpshooters won’t appear for a few months yet. And don’t think you’re clever by suggesting I get some practice in anyway, because I already thought of that, and am knocking down the tea as I type. Be sure to check back!

Out there right now

Al Denelsbeck

It’s 1:00 AM, 15°c right now, and raining, which means it’s just enough for the frogs to be happy, and I provide proof:

impudent green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus among azalea leaves
When first spotted in the headlamp, this green treefrog (Dryophytes cinereus) was in a better pose, but I didn’t have the camera in hand then and so we get this one after I returned twice more trying for a better shot. If you look close at the at one finger, you might believe that the frog was offering commentary, and it wouldn’t be the first time. It still makes me wince – not from the impudence which I’m well used to, but the idea that mine won’t bend that way without distressing sounds, from the joints and from me.

Atop the greenhouse, another viewed my perambulations with a jaundiced eye. Or maybe not – do you think I read too much into these?

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus atop greenhouse
Don’t ask me why I notice things like this, but the frog is maintaining a more level position while perched on the sloping greenhouse roof, and it occurs to me that, despite seeing them clinging in countless vertical positions, when they turn to face horizontally in any way they seem to get close to level. I would surmise that awareness of gravity helps them calculate their trajectories when jumping, but that’s the best I can offer at the moment. Nonetheless, it seems to happen even in the absence of visual cues.

Given the size, coloration (which isn’t too much of a indication, since it can change for individuals,) and location on the greenhouse, I’m assuming that this is the same individual as our spring herald – who may be getting annoyed at this point because we’ve dropped below freezing in the intervening time, and will likely do so again in the next few mornings. Still, no snow, so no complaints here. Well, about the weather, anyway…

yellow pansies Viola x wittrockiana showing raindrops
And the pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) that The Girlfriend planted in late December, after faltering a little in the last Indian Winter, have bounced back and provide a splash of color for the season with some drop caps for the evening/morning. They all gave me just a little to shoot while waiting for the better conditions.

Resting on my laurels

Al Denelsbeck

Well, it’s safe to say that I’m not reporting from a National Wildlife Refuge right now, despite the anniversary – it’s cold and not worth a special trip at all. I’ll make up for it some time this summer.

But for the sake of it, we’ll have a couple of photos from wildlife refuges, or actually just one refuge, which is Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, immediately adjacent to Cape Canaveral. Right now I’m trying to tally in my head how many refuges I’ve been to, and I think it’s eight – not anywhere near enough.

You might recognize this photo:

tricolored heron Egretta tricolor fishing in shallows showing feet and reflection
This appears in the header of the home page, but deserves a closer look. I’m fairly certain it was taken not long after I’d decided on the domain name, and when I saw both the heron’s reflection and its feet showing through, I knew it was an appropriate illustration of the theme. It never made it onto any of the business card designs (I have over a dozen,) because there’s not enough blank space around it, and it would thus be cluttered with the lettering. By the way, this is a tri-colored heron (Egretta tricolor,) which I don’t think I’ve ever seen around here, just coastally – maybe once or twice out at the Outer Banks, a few times in South Carolina, and otherwise in Georgia and Florida. They tend to like wetlands rather than beaches, and that describes Merritt Island distinctly. You can see here how shallow the water is, as it remains throughout most of the refuge, and if there were just one that I had to recommend to photographers (don’t you like how we set these nonexistent game-show challenges to ourselves?) it would be Merritt Island, with JN ‘Ding’ Darling on Sanibel Island not far behind.

And the other:

flock of roseate spoonbills Platalea ajaja in Merritt Island NWR, Florida
On this date two years ago, I featured a pair of roseate spoonbills (Platalea ajaja) and said it was possibly the only time that I’d photographed them to date, which only shows that I should have looked into the database or at least made a quick pass through the slide cabinet, because I’ve photographed them on half a dozen different occasions, this being one of them – I’d even prepared this one for inclusion in a potential package to a client (the package sold, but without the spoonbills, though I think they took the tri-colored heron above.)

Despite not remembering that I had these, I thought the lighting seemed familiar, and I confirmed that they were in sequence with other images known to have been from a particular trip to Merritt Island, but those slides have no date stamp. I’m thinking probably 2002 or 2003, when I met another photographer there and the only time I’ve visited in overcast conditions. Or so I claim now – we’ll see what comes up in two years.

Anyway, here’s hoping that you had your chance to visit a refuge, or celebrate in some (more) appropriate way.

Tripod holes 11

Al Denelsbeck

golden silk orbweaver Trichonephila clavipes in Creef's Cut, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
N 35°51’43.29″ W 75°51’25.61″ Google Earth Location

Yeah, really inducing people to plan their own trips out to this location just to see species like this, aren’t I? Call me “Mr Incentive!” I originally had something else scheduled to go up here, but replaced it with this one for a particular reason and bumped the other back to next week. You see, Tuesday March 14th is the 120th anniversary of the first National Wildlife Refuge in the US – that would be Pelican Island NWR on the Atlantic coast of Florida. I may attempt to get out to one myself that day, but as I said last year, the nearest is still about 3 hours away, so not sure about that yet. Which brings us to this photo, because it was in consideration for the Tripod Holes topic when I remembered that this was actually taken within a National Wildlife Refuge – to wit, Alligator River NWR in North Carolina. And now as I type this, I recall that so is the one that I bumped to next week, but that’s okay, we’ll bracket the holiday. The next one will be cuter, but that really doesn’t say much, does it?

This is a golden-web spider, or golden silk orbweaver, or really, every variation of those that you can think of as well as banana spider and killthatfuckingthingwithfire – the scientific name is Trichonephila clavipes, at least. And it is big, the leg-spread spanning a little less than my palm if I recall, the web not quite a meter across. Until last year, I had not seen any as far north as NC, but have now found them in three locations – all more towards the coast, but if you’re not having any trouble sleeping at nights, know that it’s only a matter of time before they move further inland. Or maybe not, since they definitely seem to prefer marshy areas.

NC doesn’t have too many species that I would consider, “exotic,” for whatever definition that you prefer, but this is now one of them, large enough and funky-looking enough to carry it well out of the ordinary. And even as I leaned in close with the macro lens, practically brushing against the web, it never twitched, and I never expected it to; no spider species is aggressive to humans, and rarely even get defensive except to scamper away. I fully comprehend arachnophobia, having possessed it myself for much of my life, but it’s actually something that can be overcome, with exposure and knowledge about the species and even handling. Then, they become damn cool things to find and examine. So yeah, go ahead and plan that trip, and start the process!

Judge not, lest

Al Denelsbeck

It’s no secret that I think very little of spectator sports, unable to get involved in watching someone else throwing a ball around, and the concept of an athlete’s ‘personal best’ is remarkably silly – “I set a new record against myself,” yeah, w00t. I also couldn’t care less about people’s daily meals or restaurant experiences and don’t go to those types of blogs.

But then, I get involved in stuff like this.

wedding couple exiting reception hall with guest in the way
At the very first wedding that I photographed, done as a favor, the happy couple was exiting the reception hall as they do, and I’d taken up position on the opposite side of the waiting car, to have a good view of things. This seemed fine up until another guest stepped into the frame at the crucial moment, resulting in this image. Worse, no subsequent frames were any better, as people continued to shift around and the couple ducked into the car. Shit.

Some months later, I was reviewing the scans and began to wonder if this one could be ‘fixed,’ and so, set to work with the ol’ Photoshop machine puttering away. The eventual result was this:

heavily edited version of previous photo
I’m pleased with the result, though it was strictly an exercise – the amount of work that went into this is not something that I’d typically undergo, and not worth the effort or potential income. Better to ensure that you get the right photo right off the bat (shit, that’s a sports reference, isn’t it?), which is why wedding photographers charge more than Your Cousin Larry. But I kept this as a demonstration of my skills, and we’re going into it in mild detail here because blogs are an exercise in thinly-veiled narcissism.

The color tweak and the perspective correction helped a lot, but are trivial compared to the rest. It’s easy to forget that this is merely a two-dimensional representation: removing someone from the photo doesn’t mean that you can see what was behind them. Seems obvious when said, but it’s a crucial part of editing images. You don’t remove someone, you replace them with appropriate details.

original image with blank where unwanted details were
The question was, were there enough appropriate details within the frame to work with? And I can tell you, everything except the groom’s hand, I believe, came from this frame alone. While the guest in front is obvious, less so was the head of a child above/behind him that I knew I wasn’t going to fill in, so they were removed too. And so, what were they replaced with?

  • Brickwork on the steps was copied over, but you’ll notice that there’s a perspective thing going on, the alignment of the mortar lines changes from left to right, so patching these in had to be specific – mostly, the front faces were used and the top mortar lines hand-painted in.

  • The bottom of the column is merely the top, inverted and resized.

  • The bottommost sidelight pane along the door is merely the second one copied over, and even the bottom of the one above it came from the topmost. The wood panel and plant beneath them are reversed from the opposite side.

  • Individual bubbles were dubbed out or copied over to be ‘random.’ Since they show the background colors to a small extent, they had to come from similar backgrounds; the ones in front of the white column actually came from the bride’s dress.

  • The sweater of the woman on the extreme right was copied over in tiny patches from what little could be seen, though the edge of her hand was simply hand-painted in.

  • The same can be said for the groom’s leg and foot, and the floor mat. More bubbles dubbed in over top. The guest behind the column was simply removed, easy enough to copy the siding pattern.

  • Finally, the remaining ‘shoulder’ of the intervening guest (left in because creating the entire background there was problematic,) couldn’t just be left as it was, because it was originally his back and the shadows were wrong/nonexistent. The slopes of the shoulder had to be recreated with careful shadowing with the Burn Tool.

    • Not anywhere near as labor intensive as a restoration, but still a lot of fiddling around that turned out fairly well, in my opinion. Then again, I do bug portraits, so what’s my opinion worth?

    *      *      *

    I’ll add in a couple of pointers, just for the sake of it. When doing editing work that involves cutting-and-pasting elements of any kind, Feathering the edges of the selection is very important – sharp edges betray pasted portions quickly, and it’s rare that specific details within any frame are that sharp anyway. The amount depends on the resolution that you’re working in, but a minimum of 5 pixels at least.

    And if you’re shooting photos where bubbles are being blown around, fire off a sequence of frames if you can. Those damn things get everywhere unpredictably, and can obscure faces or other details and even diffract the flash lighting. This naturally becomes a challenge when you’re in darker conditions and have to rely on strong flash power, which then has to recharge between shots. Man, what was wrong with rice?

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