Magee Marsh

[Dennis Bishop]

Magee Marsh is one of several prime birding spots along the southern shore of Lake Erie east of Toledo, Ohio. In the middle of May, it's a stopover for warblers migrating across the lake. Based on personal accounts from folks who've been there, then, the number of warblers may be exceeded only by the number of birders and photographers. The shots for this image were taken near the end of last March. I found out, later, that migrating Tundra Swans begin arriving in late March and stay through April, but I must've gotten there before they did. I also learned, after putting the Canada Geese in the image, that the marsh was one of the original sites for reintroducing them into Ohio in the 1960s. (For some reason, this shows up here darker than it's meant to be. Maybe because of the low quality setting required??? I might try reposting at a smaller size and higher quality to see if that helps.)



Nikon D3S, ISO 400, f/22, seven-exposure HDR at 1 EV increments, zoom lens at 17mm

processing highlights

• flipped horizontally and cropped a small amount from the top for composition
• The actual clouds were low but not this heavy. The basis for this sky is a Photomorphis texture.
• Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset, partially masked
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light blend mode, 33% opacity
• The geese started with a brush from sd-stock at DeviantArt. They were done in two slightly offset layers. The first was white; the second brown. Black was added with a saved Topaz Simplify edges preset.
• Photo Filter adjustment layer -- Warming 85, masked to vegetation and geese
• two masked Belle Fleur textures -- one on two layers at Hue and Overlay for the sky, one at Hard Light for the vegetation
• Fractalius -- three saved black & white presets; two at Multiply, one at Divide
• Snap Art -- saved black & white Line Art preset, masked, Multiply and Divide
• Simplify -- saved black & white edges preset, masked, Multiply and Divide
• gradient vignette

[Cheryl Slechta]

Signature Dennis I'm not sure it suffers from being dark - gloomy weather would look dark. There is a pinkish cast in the very center of the vegetation and also on the upper left vegetation that doesn't quite feel right. From the textures? And the interesting thing is that when I look, it will be there one minute and gone the next. Maybe I need to have my eyes checked!

[Nancy Bell]

Definitely Classic Dennis! Beautiful and as always, the additions & adjustments are so subtle and well blended that it all appears perfectly natural. Very lovely repeating layers of blues and whites interspersed with the browns and tans of the old vegetation. Excellent to include the run-off of snow on the diagonal from the mid to foreground.

I have been one of those gazillion birders at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding a few years ago. On Saturday the boardwalk was SO packed with people that I literally could not move! But the warblers were there as advertised.

[Dennis Bishop]

I have been one of those gazillion birders at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding a few years ago. On Saturday the boardwalk was SO packed with people that I literally could not move! But the warblers were there as advertised.

Thanks, Nancy. If I'd had to guess, I probably would've said that you'd been there. I go whizzing past the entrance reasonably often but don't get to stop nearly as often as I'd like.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . There is a pinkish cast in the very center of the vegetation and also on the upper left vegetation that doesn't quite feel right. From the textures? And the interesting thing is that when I look, it will be there one minute and gone the next. . . .

I suspected one of the textures right away because I put some pinkish color in the sky with one of them. When I checked the layers, though, that texture was masked to affect only the sky. The other texture, which is the one I used on the vegetation, could be the source, but I don't think so -- not with the mask I used, the location of a subdued sort of pink color in the texture, and the fact that the rest of the texture is a fairly intense yellow/orange/sort-of-green combination.

Hmmm. It's interesting that you don't always see the pink, and maybe that's a clue. I just tracked down something I'd read a while ago (but maybe in a different book on color) on afterimages and successive contrast. It has to do with looking at one color or set of colors for a little while and shifting ones gaze to a different region of color. It changes the apparent color in the second region. Perhaps you're looking longer one time than another, and that's why you don't always see the effect. Or maybe not.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Ummm, interesting.

[Anita Bower]

I do love your work, Dennis! A joy to see. I like the bit of pink in the sky. Everything works here. Sorry I'm not being more descriptive--just trying to catch up.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

A lovely pastoral scene. Even the clouds are in the right position! I might lighten up just a bit on the vignetting especially around the bottom left and right. An ordinary scene converted into something quite beautiful, a moment in time........

[Judy Howle]

Nice work as always Dennis!

[Dennis Bishop]

I think you're right about the vignette, Jackie. Thank you.

Earlier in this thread, in response to Cheryl's comment about the pink in the vegetation, I relayed something I'd read that might account for that. (Emphasis on might.) This could be a bit late, but I scanned the page in the book and moved things around a bit to make the important parts as large as possible. The book, in case anyone wants to know, is Color and Light, A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney.