Sunday Vibes – Back to the Islands

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 2 Comments

This week I’ve been working a little on processing photos from our Caribbean cruise. I took sooo many landscape photos that I’m having a hard time sticking to the task at hand. Not to mention there may have been a little daydreaming which doesn’t help!

One photo I’ve been working on is a view from our ship looking out at the harbor of Martinique. Off in the distance to the left is Mount Pelee which is a volcano that has been dormant since the 1929 – 1932 eruptions. What inspired me about the landscape was the lush greenery with the shadows of the clouds dancing on the hillside, the city harbor nestled in the valley and the sailboats moored out in the deep blue of the waters. Simply put, it was breathtaking.

What I liked about how I took the photo was the perspective of the bow of the ship pointing into Saint Pierre. Unfortunately, like many photos you take, the camera never sees it quite like the human eye. To me it’s dark and lackluster, nothing like what we saw in person.

I began experimenting with the usual edits: exposure, curves, contrast, saturation, etc. Nothing quite worked to my liking. I then started experimenting with the “Tonal Map” option in Affinity. The “Tonal Map” option gives images an HDR (high dynamic range) look and feel.

My first attempt wasn’t bad, but I feel like it was a little too unrealistic and the ocean turned out a little grainy. In my attempt to boost the color of the rooftops, the red color seems to be too much.

My second attempt was much better. I feel like I nailed the colors better and the ocean took a deeper, bluer tone. But it was still missing the “pop” I was trying to achieve.

They say, “3 times a charm” and I think I may have hit the mark with this version. The landscape has the vibrancy I remember; the ocean could still be worked on a little bit more. But I can live with it. Or so I thought.

If you’ve hung with me this far, thank you. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the last shot, so I decided to merge all three (3). Voila! If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! I’m glad I did. The colors and the pop are there!

Here’s a look at the original and final images.

Now I really want to go back to the islands!

“I wanna be there
Wanna go back down and I’ll get high by the sea there
With a tin cup for a chalice, fill it up with good red wine
And I’m a-chewin’ on a honeysuckle vine.” ~ Jimmy Buffet

Until next time,

~donna

Sunday Vibes – After the Rain

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 8 Comments

We’ve had a lot of rain, here, lately. I’m not complaining because it has been a much-needed relief. I just hope that it doesn’t come back to bite us in June and July. We shall see. Despite the rain, we’ve managed to get our daily 8 – 9-mile walks in. Yes, there have been a few times where we’ve had to either duck for cover or just walk it out.

At the beginning of the trail we take there are two (2) magnolia trees growing wild. They’re not massive but large enough that they are producing some beautiful blooms. You can tell the trees have been there a while by all the brown leaves on the ground.

Earlier this week I noticed they were blooming and made a mental note of how pretty they were and to take some photos on the way back.

This was one of the days when the rain caught up with us. We were a little soaked when we returned, but I didn’t mind when I saw how pretty the magnolia leaves were with the rain droplets.

Ultimately, I had a vision for this photo and that was to convert it into a dreamy black and white image. I’m still learning Affinity photo, but I feel pretty good about how this conversion turned out. What do you think?

The original images were taken with my Samsung Galaxy Note Phone, so I’ll be linking to Journeys with Johnbo Cell Pic Sunday as well.

Until next time,

~donna

Sunday Vibes – Jumping into the Deep End of Summer

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Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the states. It’s a national holiday which marks a day of remembrance of our fallen soldiers who died while serving in the military.

Memorial Day also marks the official start of summer and I think these cute little birds are definitely feeling the summer vibes. Don’t you?

Until next time, here’s to our fallen and to a summer full of belly flops, flip flops and floaties.

~donna

Sunday Vibes – Humming Along

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 4 Comments

If you’ve followed along with my blog for a while, you know that one of my all-time favorite bird is the hummingbird. They are cute, swift and very challenging to photograph.

Except for the occasional scout, they were a little late showing up to the garden this year. But finally, this past Monday we had an emerald green hummer land on our feeder.

As you might imagine, Hummingbirds get their name from the humming sound their wings make when in flight. They hover at rapid wing-flapping rates, which vary from around 12 beats per second in the largest species to 99 per second in small hummingbirds (source: Wikipedia).

The feathers on a hummingbird don’t come from a specific pigment. Instead, the top layer contains prism-like cells that reflect the light (source: Hummingbird Info). Look how shiny and multicolored this little guy is.

I’m a little rusty when it comes to capturing these cute garden fairies in flight. Normally, they fly at a speed of 25 – 30 miles per hour and when threatened they have a burst speed of 30 – 50 miles per hour (source: Hummingbird 101).

This was a lucky shot of this guy getting ready to leave the feeder.

I hope you enjoyed the fun facts about hummingbirds, today. Rest assured there will be more posts this summer of these beautiful creatures so stay tuned.

Until next time, have a great week and keep humming along.

~donna

Sunday Vibes – Keep Calm and Chirp On

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 6 Comments

Happy Sunday, everyone! I’m still hanging out back with the bird feeders this week. There’s always lots of activity around them which makes for great photography opportunities.

Today, I’m featuring this cute fella which is a Tufted Titmouse. He’s a charming little songbird that belongs to the Chic-a-dee family.

According to Cornell Labs it can be found in the Eastern forests and is also a frequent visitor to bird feeders. An interesting fact about them, is they can’t excavate their own nest cavities. Instead, they are dependent on natural holes left by woodpeckers. I guess you could say this is a great example of “one man’s (um, bird’s) trash is another man’s treasure?!”

Hmmm. It looks like they’re also talented in gathering their food upside down. I really don’t know what this was about, but, hey it seemed to work for him. Who am I to argue?

I hope everyone has a great week!

Until next time, “keep calm and chirp on.”

~donna

Sunday Vibes – Dine and Dash

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 2 Comments

“I asked a bird for advice. It said to just wing it.”

There was a group of finches hanging out at the feeder the other day. They all seemed to be having a good time, except for the middle one.

He was either uncomfortable with the company or was in a hurry to get to another feeder, because he never really settled in to eat, except for just a few bites.

As quickly as he arrived, he was taking off.

Oh well, nothing wrong with a little “dining and dashing.”

Until next time,

~donna

Sunday Vibes – Any Which Way You Can

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 3 Comments

We have a VERY relentless squirrel hanging out around our bird feeders. He’s rather cute to watch as he comes scampering out of the woods across the lawn to the feeders. He even stops to snag a few droppings at the base of the feeders.

Quite honestly, I don’t understand why he feels the need to scale up the pole to the feeder. It seems to me it would be a whole lot easier for him to just grab from the leftovers. But hey, it is a squirrel after all.

He’s really quite funny to watch as he wraps himself around the feeder trying to get the optimal morsels of food.

Even the cardinal looks at little baffled as to why the squirrel is making it harder than it needs to be to get to the food.

Oh well, to each his own, “any which way you can.”

Until next time,

~donna

Sunday Vibes – Love is in the Air

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 6 Comments

“A House Finch sings of joy, resilience, and the beauty of community — a reminder to stay hopeful, connect deeply, and express your truth.” – unknown

Until next time,

~donna

The Tree – Granada

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 5 Comments

Back in February we took a much needed 7-Day Caribbean Cruise (more on that for another time). We started in St. Maarten and concluded in Barbados. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, and the cruise itself was beyond our wildest dreams.

While we were docking into our next to last port of call in Granada, Michael and I were standing on the bow of the ship checking out the city. The colors and lines of the various buildings peppered the mountainside flowing, as if, into the blue waters of the Caribbean coastline.

As we scanned the landscape, we took note of a tree, standing tall on the highest peak of the horizon. A single tree rising up through the brush like a great conqueror of the mountain. Can you see it?

Fortunately, I had packed “the big lens” and was able to zoom in closer.

With the exception of what looked like new, seasonal growth, it was fairly bare compared to the rest of the landscape growing at its base.

Very quickly, and almost in the same breath, Michael and I both commented that it would make a great black and white photo. And so, I switched up my camera settings and took a few shots using the in-camera monochrome setting.

It isn’t a bad shot, but even with some basic modifications it just seemed flat and a little generic. It wasn’t the dramatic, storytelling shot I had envisioned. The clouds to the left of the tree really irritated me in black and white.

So, I went back to the original color photo and played around with the editing settings. After several edits I finally landed on what feels like the tree took on a whole new dimension. Plus, an added bonus of no more clouds to the left of the tree. What do you think?

There’s a lot to be said for the “picture within a picture.” As photographers we learn that multiple perspectives can be found in a single image. This image started out as a landscape photo of the city of Granada and ended up telling a “story” about a single tree off in the horizon.

Until next time,

~donna