Just a Light Touch: Story Behind the Photo

By Bill Webb

Just a Light Touch – by Bill Webb

 

This great heron was photographed at the Colleyville Nature Center as it flew above Angler’s Pond.

I had been watching this particular heron for quite a while and using it as practice for birds-in-flight photography.

I had come to recognize the signs that it would take flight, and I felt that it would fly over this pond and toward another one. That helped me anticipate where it would go.

Sure enough, almost on cue, it lifted off. With my shutter release set to continuous high-speed, 1/1600s, f/6.3 and ISO 1000, the camera clicked away, and I was able to capture the beauty of this heron’s flight as the wing tip barely grazed the surface of the pond.

I’m still practicing and learning how to capture birds in flight, and this is my favorite image so far in that quest.

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Photography on the Go

Ballard Locks – before

By Mangesh Sangapu

On a recent trip, I challenged myself to take, edit, and post my photography while still on the trip!

Normally, my editing process does not begin until I reach home. However, our toddlers require naps, and this turned out to be great for my photography workflow. During the downtime, I went through my camera to screen, transfer, edit, and share the photos.

I tweaked this image using several features: brush, white balance, color adjustment, highlights, and shadows.

After we returned home, I went through my normal workflow and found only two additional photos needing edits. While my process is not unique, I wanted to share in case it may be of help to someone else.

Getting connected

Transferring the photos from a camera to a mobile device can be done in numerous ways. Some options are: OTG card reader, Wi-Fi, and USB direct connection.

OTG card reader

The OTG card reader and USB direct connection require an additional hardware component in order to use.

For simplicity, I am a proponent of Wi-Fi. It’s one less item to carry and maintain. However, these are all good ways to transfer, and your workflow should include whichever one works well with you.

Editing Apps

Snapseed Tools Menu

Editing the photos can be done via mobile apps such as Photoshop, Snapseed, and others. For my workflow, I mainly use Snapseed, which is available for both iOS and Android.

Snapseed users can edit photos using swiping gestures. Users can edit history and revert to any prior actions. It has multiple filters and special effects like drama, grunge, vintage, center-focus, frames, tilt-shift (which resizes photos), lens blur, glamour glow, HDR scape, and noir. The interface is simple and easy to use.

Sharing the photos

If you can transfer and edit the photos on your mobile device, then sharing the photos should be a cinch!

There are many popular sites today for sharing your photography! I say do it with a group of people who are as passionate about photography as you are.

Snapseed users can directly share the images on social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram. Text/email attachments and uploading to the cloud are also great options.

For this transformation, I used rotation, highlights, shadows, and an image filter.

Final thoughts

Next time you are on a trip, see if you are up for the challenge. Transfer, edit, and share your photography on the go! See how it compares to your current workflow. It might be something you find yourself incorporating more often than you think.

Thirsty Hummingbird

To get this image from the one above, I used a phone app to crop tighter and adjust the white balance, highlights, and shadows.

Happy photographing!

Mangesh Sangapu is the creator of OpenFilmmaker.com, where he blogs about photography and film.