Playing with Osprey Photos

I had a nice sequence of an osprey landing on the osprey nest and decided to make a sort of movement image of it by adding the photos together.  It is far from perfect, but it was a fun learning experience combining a batch of layers.  

The Sequence Photo Challenge

We had an interesting theme for the St. Mary's County Camera Club August Competition-make a sequence of photos all included in one picture.  The basic idea was to show a moving subject multiple times, while the background remained the same.  This only works with multiple exposures or several layers in a photo creating a composite of pictures.

I chose a photo that was meaningful to me.  Every year, I wait with baited breath to photograph the osprey juveniles as they learn how to fly.  I never know how lucky I will be.  Will they learn to fly at noon, when the light is poor?  Will the juveniles learn to fly on a rainy or foggy day?  Will they learn to fly while I am away from the nest?

This year there was one juvenile.  She learned to fly on a Saturday around 9:30 am.  Lucky me.  They usually flap their wings vigorously and hop up and down a lot!!!  I had watched her practice for a few days.  Finally she took off at a shallower angle than usual toward the south.  (Generally, the experienced birds fly more west and at a steeper angle.)  I managed to get the flight on film with four still shots.

I spent quite a lot of time trying to come up with another sequence photo to add to the competition, but I didn't succeed.  I tried using amusement park photos, but there was lots of equipment that seemed like it would ruin the photo, since the rides were always attached and couldn't be separated to create individual images instead of blurs.  In the end, a blurred looking train photo was the winner.  I took second place with "First Flight".  I think if I did the photo again, I would only show 3 images of the osprey, so she wasn't flying out of the photo so much.  Which photo do you prefer?  The face is fairly hidden in the highest image.  Altogether, it was an interesting challenge.

Second Place photo- 4 images layered

Photo of 3 composite images

Great Blue Heron Portrait Session.

After the osprey leave our nearby nest, other birds such as bald eagles and great blue herons often visit to look around and “play” in a borrowed nest.  I wanted to share a sequence of photos of this great blue heron. It was feeling lively on the particular day I photographed and I was thrilled with the various poses that resulted.  It was almost like having a family portrait session. Now let me see your right profile, your left profile and please lift your right leg, thank you!   I was glad I had the patience to wait for all of the ways it moved.   Now if only I could do it again with a longer lens.  These are all heavily cropped from the originals.

This last photo was taken on another day when it was windy, but I think it is the same heron posing.