First Post - Mandarin Drake

Lurking . . . Leaping in . . . Hopefully with a nugget or so to share . . .

A bit about me . . ."Old" school photographer (Pro for over forty years) Studied w Adams - taught photography and the zone - Traipsed around the American West w 8 x 10 and 4 x 5 and Hasselblad . . . B & W "wet" darkroom (Developed by inspection) - Cold head and condenser Enlargers . . . Large PRO Studio . . .

I have been"Under the weather" . . . OK more than Under the Weather - for the past four years . . . Better but "miles to go"


I'm going to begin with a very subjective image I took a bit ago - One of a series of images I made of (Aix galericulata) the Mandarin duck.

The background caught my attention first . . . (Pond near our Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee) . . . Robust vibrant brilliant colors . . . Koi reflections . . .

I sat my equipment, for the background (Canon camera on Manfrotto Tipod) and the Mandarin Drake literally swam out from some willows and in to the frame . . . A few hours later the image began to develop . . . And with the setting sun very low on the horizon the colors began a last dance of deep saturation . On my last few images of the day the drake came into the image with the final moments of light highlighted the Drake . . . Click . . .

Image . . .Canon 10D [1.5 factor] (still one of my favorite D-SLR's -Canon 70/200 ƒ 28 w 1.4 extended (I never take it off) One shot - AV mode - 1 1/3 EC (or we used to call it "Underexposure" deepening the saturation and bumping the histogram LEFT) 100 ASA (Ok ISO) 1/320 @ 6.1 - Saturation purpose-able . . .

Post . . . Photoshop CS 3 generally following my "Wet photography" workflow - (Not in order) Dodge/Burn - Crop - Color Correction - Contrast/Saturation Control - ( I build a lot of Actions ) - Digital image sharpening (custom) etc.

My post is rather two edge . . . ALL of my images from the moment I take them are for PRINT . . . Into the cauldron of web posting I have been having a FIT with my web images (they looked awful-totally unacceptable) This submission is my latest incantation . . . It is, I think, a rather reasonable representation of the print . . . "well I'm still not totally pleased"

Question: Is the information I provided too much and/or is there anything I need to add?


Dewey
deweyjacobs@comcast.net
Memphis, Tennessee

You're just showing off now Dewey Fantastic colours and all looks great on my monitor. You can post at 720px on the longest side. That can give us all a better view of images. Nope, you description is great. Interesting as well! Nicely done

Dewey - OLD SCHOOL ROCKS

Wet photography - oh I can smell a warm C41 handline right now, and hear that nice reassuring hum from the head of a DeVere 504 - HAPPY DAYS

It's on heck of a colourful image Dewey - gorgeous

If it were possible to like it more then I would if the PoV was at the ducks eye-level, but other than that I think it's brilliant

Can't wait to see more Dewey - keep 'em comming

All the best

Andy

PS - nice white-tail in your avatar

C41 is not bad Andy, although hypam fixer always did it for me

Glorious colour Dewey, and although it maybe a steepish shooting angle for some tastes, its a nice little shot in my book!!

Alan

Blimey that's a lively picture!!
I bet you guys still have all your old 78s as well.

Horray for the Old School, when to become a photographer, you had to learn everything from camera controls, film properties, exposure fundamentals, light control, and then the awe inspiring "darkroom craftmanship" just to get an acceptable photograph.
Beautiful photo. Looking forwward to future submissions.

Thanks . . . The image is,I think, still a bit off on CC - and saturation . . .

I can still smell the stop and hypo - I do have some old 78's and an old Victrola "His masters voice" from pre WW I days passed down in the ages . . .

In Re: height of shooting angle - I shoot level - in the water - on the ground and on a ladder . . .on top of a truck - I'll illustrate with later postings . . .

I notice a good number of Mandarin (Introduced species) rather all around the Memphis area - we are on the edge of the major flyaway in the US and I have noticed a number of the ducks on UK (http://www.georgemccarthy.com/) and European sites . . .

I'm doing an essay on "Old School" and Digital - I let ya'll (Southern speak) know when its done - BUT - YES it was a wonderful time to get into photography - I was most fortunate to learn w some masters - My OLD (early - mid sixties) school instructors insisted on technical proficiency - a view camera was a must - Exposure (Zone) critical - we souped wih D 52 (made it ourselves with mortar and pestle) - we sometimes would just sit and look at an image for hours without touching a camera - visualize

In my opinion all apply to digital - and you get instant fed back and histogram -

A histogram - Ansel would have loved it . . .

I saw a lovely image on this forum "Windswept' by Paul Ashton I can "See" this image . . .


Dewey

Nice mixture of colours and a very colourfull subject.
Frederic

Thank God digital came along!!!
Lovely image Dewey. A lower shooting angle would have made it awesome. The myriad of subtle colours all complimenting the bird is lovely. Cracking first post.
Dave

Dewey thats a fabulous shot, I really like the reflection and water colours, I found 5 of these in a small section of woodland river a few months ago and as usual they all did a runner when they saw me stomping towards them. An exemplorary shot.

Wonderful colours, as said a lower viewpoint would be nice, but that is only a personal thing.... good to see you posting here and looking foward to more....

Another old school photog

Thanks again . . .

As I mentioned I have been keeping an eye on this forum for months before I put up a post . . . Ya'll (southern speak) do seem a rather put together group and your critique is, I think, informed,serious analysis . . . Funny too . . . Ok - Lighthearted . . .

" Spot on" (Oh I couldn't wait to go there) , , ,

I do have one curmudgeonly point of order - - - What in the world are those smily - twistie - jumpie - waving
Geegaws . . . And what are they doing in the scholarly discourse of photography (Awh just funning ya'all)

I appreciate you welcome and I look forward to learning and passing on a few morsels of phototech and skill sets and CREATIVITY . . . A bit wordy here so Ill address the comments regarding height of the shoot with a later post

Dewey

Cracking colours indeed, and look forward to seeing some more soon.

Mark

Love the colour in the water great shot.

Dan