My Yellow friend
Feb, 2020Views
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Awards
Curator's Selection
Top Shot Award 21
Summer 2020
Superb Composition
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
All Star
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Impressed
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in my front yard. I had started a tradition with my daughters by feeding the birds in the winter. So we would gather pine cones which are easy to find in East Texas, smear them in natural peanut butter, and roll the cones in bird seed. We made 10 or so and they would last a week or more. This process brought regular visitors like our friend here the Pine Warbler. He became very comfortable with me and let me get in pretty close to capture some great shots. This being one of them.Time
It was early after noon around 3pm. It was a cold and cloudy day in East Texas. We don't experience much of a winter as far as snow is concerned, but it was bitter cold day. I was actually going outside to redo the cones with birdseed and my friend flew in. I hurried to grab my camera. As I came back out the front door Mr. Yellow Feather was actually hanging upside down getting whatever left over scraps were on this pine cone. He let me get within 5 feet of him.Lighting
Lighting is such a difficult task to master and I don't think any photographer will ever master it if we are being honest with ourselves... That is the beauty of photography. Anything can change at any moment and we are blessed to be in these moments as they are captured. As I had said it was cold and cloudy, but in this moment the sun was trying to break through. It created a glow on the chest of the bird and slams the yellow in your face so to speak.Equipment
My trusty oldie but goodie FUGIFILM FinePix S9400WInspiration
This past July 2019 my family was in a horrible car accident. My fiancé and our 3 youngest daughters rolled 6 times and my youngest daughter Sophia was thrown from the vehicle and she passed away. She was 5 and often was the one who was with me when I went out on photography adventures. I sustained major injuries from traumatic brain injury, broken neck, back, 10 of my ribs, ankle, arm and shoulder also. A halo brace was screwed into my forehead to brace my neck which was pretty much a cage build around my head. I had a lot to recover from physically and emotionally and as you can imagine photography wasn't on the forefront of my mind. But by November had healed enough to start dabbling again and was heartbroken that I didn't have my daughter tagging along. By faith I know she is in heaven and that gives me a deep peace... Well I was crying one morning as I was calling out to the Lord about the pain my heart was in and Mr. Yellow Feather showed up. I hadn't seen him yet that year as he was a regular. He was one of my Sophia's favorite birds to see. She would get so excited and would come find me if she saw him outside. This gave me strength to start shooting again, because I know my daughter wouldn't have wanted me to stop.Editing
I did use the dehazing feature in my photo editing software because it was a list misty and I wanted that yellow to shine through. And some cropping.In my camera bag
I have no bag, just my camera. Very simple and basic. I am hoping to have a great set up one of these days.Feedback
Always going to be the same. You have to have flexibility and patience. It's not always going to be " the best shoot ever " Be aware of all of the wonder and beauty that God created for us to enjoy. Breathe and click.
