When you run out of subjects…

The summer is pretty slow for us bird photographers in South Florida. Water is everywhere and birds scattered, plus the heat and humidity make it unpleasant to be out in the field much. So it’s time to spend time indoors processing older images, or time to hit the ground!

I had noticed a patch of grass close to home, where little yellow wild flowers were growing, so we packed our macro gear this week-end and went for the gold before the grass was due to be cut.

It was itchy and hot at ground level, and the wind keep blowing hair into my eyes, so in spite of me using live view, a lot of the images came out out of focus, which would be immaterial for the effect I was going after. I worked wide open and back lit, camera to the ground to get some color wash. Next time i will bring a polarizer, because I did get some reflections from the grass, quite annoying.

I ended up with less than a handful of usable images, but this is only the beginning of a ground level adventure. Using textures and bokeh overlays, changing blending modes, transforming, twisting and tinting, I came out with playful images that challenged the creativity and the never ending discovery.

My favorite overlays come from the UK based Digital Heavens and you can find them here;

http://www.digitalheavens.co.uk/products/texture-packs/creative-bokeh

Have fun guys, inner child is having a blast!