New Life

Cygnet

The kids and I went out photographing yesterday and the fun part was photographing a family of goslings and a family of cygnets.  The interactions between the adults in the youngsters was interesting.  The Canada geese, adults, both monitored their goslings while the mute swan female was in charge of the cygnets.  The cob mute swan job was to protect them and he spent his time chasing Canada geese.  Nobody got hurt in the interactions.  The one thing we can hope for is that the little ones have a chance to grow up.  The biggest problem is in Jenney pond, there is a large snapping turtle that lives there and in previous years decimated the population of cygnets.

Goslings

Cygnet

Mute Swan With Her Cygnets

Mute Swan Cob Chasing a Canada Goose Who Is Trying to Protect Its Goslings

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Aggressive Behavior

American Black duck and if you look closely at its speculum the border is black

Yesterday, I showed you how to remove and replace backgrounds.  Today's blog is just discussing the shoot at Jenney's Pond on Friday.

The swan gander and one of the Canada geese ganders were aggressive.  The mute swan would chase Canada geese.

 Mute swan with its wings half raised, known as busking, is a threat display

As other Canada geese started to come in where the Canada goose gander was it became very aggressive and chased them away.  It even chases them into flight.

Canada geese threatening each other

Canada goose, chasing another Canada goose into flight

Of all my pictures that I took on Friday, only 6% made it into keepers. I deleted all the pictures that were out of focus and tagged the 6% by color and star.  I am becoming more critical of what I keep.  Of the remaining pictures which are not tagged and at this point, not worthy, but I keep them.  Because postprocessing keeps improving.  I am still reviewing old the pictures and reprocessing a number of them, and then tossing the older processed pictures away.

How I Replace Backgrounds

I was going to show you how I set up to do night photography of the Milky Way, utilizing apps.  I selected the Myles Standish Monument in Duxbury, Massachusetts to scout out during the day and determined the appropriate set up to photograph the Milky Way around the monument.  However, the best the plans fell through.  The monument was closed, and we could not approach it.  So we went to Jenney Pond photographed the interactions among the waterfowl along with some ring-billed gulls.

The ring-billed gulls are starting to get into breeding plumage with bright red rings around the eyes and red around the opening of the beaks.  After I reviewed the photographs on my computer.  There was two of them that I liked, but the backgrounds were either busy or dirty.  So I decided to isolate the birds, utilizing StudioMagic I https://www.layercakeelements.com/studio-magic/pro-panel ((I have no relationship with Layer Cake, who developed StudioMagic).  I have been using StudioMagicI to replace backgrounds and liked it.  Okay, here is how I do it.

After adjusting the photograph in Lightroom, I exported the photograph to Photoshop.  StudioMagicI is an extension in Photoshop.   The background was very busy.  I use the Quick Selection Tool to isolate the bird.  Then in StudioMagicI, I use the detailed cut out to help refine the edge of the bird.  After clicking okay.  The bird shows up in the layers palette as a gray object with a black on white mask.  Also, a new background layer is created.  Next, I select the black on white mask and using control-which invert the mask, allowing the bird to be seen.  In my catalog, I have a collection of backgrounds and textures, which includes clouds, moons, and some different out of focus backgrounds of plants and flowers.  I will choose one of the backgrounds to bring it into Photoshop, floated all in Photoshop, selecting the background and using the move tool drag it into the photograph in which I want to put a new background.  Next, that layer has to be dragged just above the new background layer and then, utilizing the free transform tool to fill in behind the object.  There you have it, the isolated object with a new background.  It does take a little time to learn the process, but once you use it, It goes fast.

Here are the originals and then the same with the backgrounds replaced.

Original 

Original

Background Replaced

Background Replaced

The directions on how to perform the task.

Use the Quick Selection Tool utilizing refined egg

Utilizing Refine Edge

Creating the Mask

Image with Mask Inverted

Mallard Duck Courtship and-and Mating

Pair of Mallards

It is winter and is the time for ducks to choose their mates.  The drake ducks perform their courtship ritual for the females since the female who chooses, with whom she wants to mate.

Mallards have a couple of different courtship behaviors such as head-pumping, head-up-tail-up, nod-swimming and grunt-whistle.  The other day when I was at Jenney Pond, I observed both a hen and drake mallard doing head-pumping right in front of me.  They would dip their beak into the water, bring it up with the water drops dripping from the beak.  When that was concluded the mallards perform their mating ritual, which has the drake holding on to the head of the female keeping her submerged.

Mallards Performing Head-Pumping

Mallards Performing Head-Pumping

Mallards Performing Head-Pumping

Mallards Performing Head-Pumping

Mallards Mating

Mallards Mating

Mallards Mating

Mallards Mating

Mallards Mating

The reason I knew this would happen is not only just photographing the subjects but also paying attention to their behavior.  The more you know about the behavior the more you know what to look for and be prepared for in order to capture the picture.

NANPA MeetUp at Jenney Pond

Great Blue Helen Dragging the Tip of Its Wing in the Water

Today, February 21.  I held an NANPA Eastern, Massachusetts, MeetUp group meeting at Jenney's Pond.  I was joined by Steve, who is a landscape photographer and wants to get into wildlife and birds.

The only problem with Jenney Pond today was that almost all of the ice has melted and so the waterfowl were scattered all over the pond, rather than being concentrated as it is when most of the pond is frozen over.  However, we had a great time.  First and foremost they  were to great blue herons, which gave us some great flight shots.  Most of the blue Heron flight photograph you see the herons flying from left to right or vice versa.  Today the Heron flew in circles and gave some interesting poses.

Great Blue Heron Flying at You

Great Blue Heron Flying with One Wing down

Great Blue Heron Flying with Its Wings Sidewards through the Trees

To help Steve with his flight shots, I utilize some cracked corn tossing the corn into the water and this caused the mallards to fly and give us some chances at flight shots.  I like that trick from Artie Morris and Glenn Bartley.  At least the corn is nutritious for the waterfowl rather than the bread that people bring to feed these birds.

Hen Mallard Flying toward Us with the Sun to Its Back

Drake Mallard Flying toward Us with the Sun behind Us

After we finished photographing, we all went and had a nice breakfast at a restaurant in Plymouth.  All my blog readers are invited to join the Meetup group, which is free and you do not have to be a member of NANPA.

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Why I like Jenney Pond

Plymouth Grist Mill

Plymouth Grist Mill Sign

One of the great places to photograph waterfowl and other birds in Plymouth, Massachusetts is Jenney Pond, because it is the location of the Jenney Grist Mill.  Its actual name is Arms House Pond and is located in Town Brook Park. Year-round, there is a resident population of Mallards, Canada Geese and Mute Swans.  In the warmer months, Wood Ducks can be also be found there.  There are chances of seeing mammals such as muskrats and turtles in the pond.  There is a bridge bisecting over the pond from which you can photograph.  Black-headed night herons breed at the pond in the summer, along with mute swans and Canada geese.  The waterfowl that remained year-round have become somewhat tame since people come and feed them.  One problem, however, is that the people usually feed bread.  So when I see people feeding bread I talked to them how this is unhealthy for the birds and that corn is a much better food and more natural for them.

Feeding

Once fall and winter arrives, the number of species found there increases. In fact, you never know at any one day what you will find. I have seen and photographed Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye’s, Ring-Neck Duck, Hooded Mergansers, Red Breasted Merganser, Gadwall  and some other species. The best time to photograph is when there has been a number of days with the temperatures below freezing so that the pond ices over, but the lower end usually remains ice free and concentrates the waterfowl making it easier to photograph them.  In the winter.  There is a lot of courtship display among the ducks which give you into resting subjects to capture.

Mallards Mating

Hen Hooded Merganser Feeding

Ring-necked Duck

Drake Wood Duck In Eclipse Plumage

Mute Swan under the Bridge

An overcast day is better than a sunny day, because of the location of the sun, since the pond runs in an easterly to a westerly direction.  Portions of the bank are elevated above the water, so you need to get down low, but you are still shooting down on the birds. Other sections of the bank are just above the water and you can shoot directly at the birds.

Bridge over the pond

photographer photographing in the bushes

Because it is a town park, there is adequate parking and the only major problem is people walking their dogs. So if you have a chance this winter and are in the vicinity of Plymouth, Massachusetts, come and visit Jenney pond and enjoy the scenery and all the birds that are in the area.

Muskrat

Belted Kingfisher

Black-crowned Night Heron

Red-tailed Hawk

Map

Using the coupon code mborn you will receive a 15% discount on any or all of the Topaz plug-ins.



Help Support my blog by purchasing from Amazon. Clicking on this link and utilizing the link does not cost you anything.