Cayo Santa Maria – Bird Life

On Cayo Santa Maria I found that the bird life was not abundant during my visit, but there were some photogenic and co-operative specimens to be found. There were a few small flocks of Brown Pelicans which for some reason completely disappeared during my last couple of days there. There were numerous Royal Terns, that were a challenge to capture in flight with my slow focusing 80-400 VR lens, however, by tracking them from far down the beach until they were filling the frame my success rate increased considerably. The Great Egrets and Little Blue Herons were a little on the skittish side here and rather difficult to capture. I was able to photograph a rather unique looking heron which will be the subject of an upcoming post.

Juvenile Brown Pelican

Adult Brown Pelican in flight

Bahama Mockingbird

Little Blue Heron

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

 

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Software Solutions

I am by no means a computer genius and my photoshop skills are a little limited also. I tend to learn the techniques needed to achieve the results I am seeking. One such technique I have never mastered is masking to remove complicated objects or to change backgrounds for creative reasons. Recently Topaz Labs introduced Remask 3 which really simplifies the masking process. To find out more about this useful plugin click here. I have posted a couple of before and after examples of how this plugin was used to improve the photos.

In the Mallard drake images below I have always loved the pose of this duck as it came in for a landing on the frozen water of Lake Ontario in Toronto, but the white band of snow on the ice is very distracting and has always annoyed me. After masking the Mallard I was able to easily clean-up the distraction.

Before Remask 3

After Remask 3

The Brown Pelican (Atlantic Phase) below was photographed several years ago in Cuba on the island of Cayo Largo in the Caribbean Sea. I have always enjoyed this Pelican’s humorous pose, but the out-of-focus boat in the background simply ruins this image. After applying a mask using Remask 3 I was very pleased at how the software handled the fine feather details at the back of the pelican’s head. With the mask on a separate layer I was now able to remove the boat simply and efficiently.

Before Remask 3

After Remask 3

(I also rotated the image slightly and moved the bird to the right a little for compositional reasons)

 

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