Green Hermit Print

One of the hummingbird sessions, instead of the normal photographing the birds with a nice greenish background.  We tried a different technique, a high key photograph.  At our setups for our "normal" photography.  We were utilizing a ISO of 320 and the f-stop was between 11 and 13.  For this session, we utilized a ISO of 1000 and an f-stop of 5.6.  We utilized a white background and high-speed flash synchronization.
I really like the effect and captured one photograph of a a Green Hermit that I decided to convert to a Japanese-style picture.  I am going to print it on rag paper and offer the prints for sale.

Taking the original print, I first cropped the photograph to to a 2 x 3 vertical crop, next I exported the photograph from light room into Photoshop, and added some canvas to the bottom.




In the meantime, I had Googled the words green, hermit, and bee to obtain the correct Japanese symbols.


I adjusted the symbols in Photoshop to the proper dimensions, and in a new layer, moved the symbols into position on the print.  In another layer I drew the rectangle around the symbols for the Green Hermit and turn them rectangle into a red border.  By increasing the campus size by a quarter of an inch and having the fill is red.  I created the border around the whole picture.  Then I added a note other half inch of campus all away around the picture, but utilized white as my fill color.

I will be offering Prints for sale, Printed 0n Red River Aurora Art Natural paper 17x25 Print size is 11x 19.5 inches. Cost unframed delivered in a rolled shipping container $100.00 plus 12.50 shipping and handling
If interested contact me at mborn@photobee1.com

My Diary of My Trip to Costa Rica. Episode Three

Agoutis

What a difference a day makes, especially with a change in location.  We have traveled from the low lands rainforests would all it's heat in humidity to the cloud forest, where we were at 5000 feet and the weather was much cooler, requiring us to use extra layers of close.  Upon awakening, taking our cameras with us.  We went out to explore around the lodge and to photograph anything we could see.  On the hillside agoutis were rummaging around looking for food. Hummingbirds were flitting all over the area at the feeders that was set up, and also feeding on the native flowers.  Fresh coffee was available at 6 AM, I love Costa Rican coffee, drink it all in time, and have it shipped to me at home.

Settin up for Hummingbird Photography

The meals at the lodge were excellent, 3 courses and for breakfast, the first course was fresh fruit.  After breakfast, we were given information instructions on how the next few days would be conducted, and which equipment, we would need. We were divided into three groups, far our turns at the multi-flash hummingbird setups.  Each session would consist of one half-hour and they would be 2 sessions in the morning and 2 sessions in the afternoon.  We were shown how to set up the wireless flashes and their location.  What the settings should be on manual for the flashes and how to set up camera camera.  Some of those species that we were able to photograph were the violet sabrewing (Costa Rica's largest species), the purple-throated Mountain jam, and the green-crown brilliant.  In between sessions.  We try to photograph the elusive black-bellied hummingbird and the scintillant hummingbird (The Scintillant Hummingbird is the smallest hummingbird within its range, which includes only the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama).

Green-crowned Brilliant

"Waiting"   Green-crowned Brilliant waiting for the sugar water

Violet  Sabrewing

Black-bellied Hummingbird

Scintillant Hummingbird

In between sessions, we photographed the landscapes, macro subjects, and other bird species. 

Running water

Black Guan

Caterpillar (A number of Costa Rica's Caterpillars are Poisonous)

Bromeliad

Rufous-naped Sparrow

Moth

After supper, there was opportunity to photograph the moths and other insects that gathered at on the white cloth that was hung on the side of the building illuminated with a blue light.

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Fantastic Costa Rica

Costa Rica-a Country Filled with Beauty

I arrived in Costa Rica on March 21 and was transported to the Hotel Bougainvillea. After checking in, I went and spent the afternoon photographing the orchids and other tropical flowers in the expansive tropical gardens. I also observed a large number of new species of birds for me. I also met other members of my tour group.

View of the Garden

Tropical Kingbird

Rufous-naped Wren at Nest on a cactus

Enjoying the Gasrden

Rufous-necked Wren

Clay-colored Robin, this is the national bird of Costa Rica not so much for its looks but for its melodious songs

 The next morning after breakfast, we loaded the van and traveled to the Turrialba area in the Atlantic slopes of the Costa Rica's central volcanic mountain range and arrived at Rancho Naturalista. We spent the next three days there photographing the hummingbirds, utilizing a multiple-flash setup. We also photographed the scenics and other species of birds.

Green-breasted Mango female

White-neck Jacobin female

Volcano Terralba

White-neck Jacobin

We left Rancho Naturalista to travel to the higher cloud forests of the northern Central Volcanic Mountain Range, to arrive at Bosque de Paz where we will spend 3 days photographing the flowers, scenic’s, hummingbirds and animal life in the area.

Violet Sabrewing

Coati 

One evening, we went looking for frogs and were able to find one and utilized our macro setups to photograph it. We were also able to photograph a number species of moths.

We again utilized multiple flash setups to photograph the hummingbirds.

On our seventh day we went to the nearby Toro waterfall, which is the highest waterfall in Costa Rica and offers many photographic opportunities to do scenic, panoramic and HDR photographs. We also were able to set up hummingbird setups in the restaurant to photograph the species of hummingbirds that occur at this lower level. We had all this and a great meal besides.

waterfall Toro

In the morning after breakfast and saying goodbye to hosts and staff at Bosque de Paz we traveled to the Arenal volcano area. On the way we stopped and did scenic’s of a mountain stream that is blue in color, secondary to silica colloids that are coming down from a nearby volcano.

At the Arenal volcano we stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, which offered fantastic views of the mountain, however, the entire time we were there the top of the volcano was shrouded in clouds. A good number of species of birds were present and were able to be photographed.

The next morning, we again photographed the birds from the patio of the restaurant prior to proceeding full lunch and afternoon of photography at the snake zoo. I will discuss I photography at the snake zoo in a separate blog.

After breakfast, the next day, we again loaded the Van and started our trek back to San Jose. On the way we stopped at the Danaus Wildlife Reserve, we were able to photograph boat-billed herons and we were also lucky enough to see and photographed three-toed sloth.

We finished our day at the hotel Bougainvillea where after settling in, we met for a farewell dinner.

The next day after breakfast and for a few before breakfast we were transported to the airport for our flight home. A fantastic time was had by everyone, and new friendships were made.