Japanese Maple and White Birch

Japanese Maple and White Birch

Since I was a little bored, and I got some new Photoshop plugins, I decided to play around a bit. Normally I try and keep any adjustments in PS to a minimum and really try to take the photo ‘in the camera’ with the correct composition and exposure. It is fun to use the massive editing power of Photoshop sometimes. I really don’t have any set work-flow, I just keep trying things until it looks right.

This picture was taken with the 50mm/1.8 lens in my backyard on Thanksgiving Day. The Maple is in my neighbor’s yard and it turned the most stunning color. He just cleared some trees from around it and in the six years I had been living here I hadn’t noticed it. It was hard to miss this year. November 22nd is a little later than most Japanese Maples usual fall color timing. It sure was a strange and extended autumn. The White Birch is in my yard and is quite a distance from the Maple. I thought the contrast between the two was nice. A day or two later when I looked out the fading sun on the two was even more beautiful.


This second photo didn’t turn out the way I wanted and also underwent heavy editing in Photoshop. The process is called selective color and it sometimes works out. On this one there was heavy glare from the glass in front of the bird, which caused some noise and faded color. This Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco) was at the Bronx Zoo’s World of Birds and seemed quite curious of both my camera and I. It’s native to parts of South America and is not a threatened species. It is one of my favorite tropical birds.