Ryan (Magnumphotography) convinced me to roll out of bed at an ungodly hour in the hopes that we might be able to shoot some sandhill cranes staging in the Ottawa area, before carrying on to their final winter destination.
However while a few cranes did eventually turn up, they didn't stay and were miles away. Discouraged we drove around a bit, then decided to go further into Mer Bleue Bog. Never saw any while we were in there, but it was still early so there was plenty of frost around. I began shooting foliage and these leaves turned out nicely, so here they are!
PP: RAW-TIFF conversion, crop, minor cloning, shadows, brightness/contrast, vibrance/saturation, resize, save for web
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Post-challenge...a little disappointed that this didn't ribbon. It started very well at 7.5 the first night, and stayed at around 7.1 or just under until the last two fateful hours of voting :-/ Then it sank to 6.9xxx.
However, it did finally break 7, get me an HM and a new PB, so I can't really complain :-)
Oh yes, all those out there who think you need super-duper PS skillz to do well here....this image is Basic edited, the only *Advanced* thing I did was to clone out some tendrils on one side. Feel free to PM me for details.
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Thanks everyone for all the faves and nice comments! The morning we shot this I was not a happy camper. I had worked very late the previous night, then had to drive into town to Ryan's place. And for some odd reason, he didn't believe me that it was the night that the clocks rolled back.
So when we staggered into the local Mac's for morning coffee before driving out to Mer Bleue, the clock there read a few minutes to 6...not a few minutes to 7!!! Then at the location, it took forever for the cranes to appear and they were far too far away to be shootable. But we did see them fly back towards the Bog. So hoping to catch them in there, we found a footpath and followed it. Not a damn crane in sight, it was pretty chilly, I was tired and just not feeling much like doing anything except sleeping. But the path was well shaded so even though it was now around 9ish, the light wasn't too hard just yet. We got some nice rainbow bokeh shots and I began focusing more and more on the leaves. I really liked the way that these leaves (sorry, don't know what they are) held their shape and weren't yet withered up, and the chevron pattern that the frost formed on them. I thought this image might get me a mid 6 or so, but things played out a lot differently!! :-)
Statistics
Place: 5 out of 161 Avg (all users): 7.0000 Avg (commenters): 8.0000 Avg (participants): 7.0476 Avg (non-participants): 6.9508 Views since voting: 3439 Views during voting: 264 Votes: 124 Comments: 26 Favorites: 9 (view)
Congrats on the HM! I love the play of light upon these frosty leaves. The level of detail in the leaves and the ice crystals made my teeth chatter from the chill.
I am surprised this didn't ribbon! One of the first images that Kapowed my eyes in the thubnail and even more when I opened it! The frost detail, lighting is Perfection!! It looks like a sugar coated treat!! Congratulations Susan on an OUTSTANDING PHOTO!!!
Since the color of the leaves isn't really spectacular, I think this might have been a bit stronger as a contrasty b'n'w to focus on the texture of the frost.
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