PAW 21

Gonzales, Louisiana calls itself the “Jambalaya Capital of the World” and celebrates this status with a Jambalaya Festival every year.  This year’s events included a car show.  I snapped this shot while walking around on a very hot and bright day.  The owner and customizer of this Mustang had also made a model exactly like his pride and joy.  Even though shaded by the open hood, there are quite a few hotspots and reflections but our mind’s eye recognizes and accepts this as “chrome”.  G12 at ISO 80, f2.8, 1/100 second, processed from RAW in ACR.

PAW 20

This simple picture was taken with my G12 at ISO 80 in Av mode at f5.6 at 1/400 second – a little overexposed according to the “Sunny 16” rule but it seems about right.  The starkness of this dead, burnt tree against a bright sky grabs my attention as I drive past it regularly.  I kept thinking “Stop and get its picture. It won’t be there much longer.”

PAW 19

For Mother’s Day, we decided on a non-traditional cookout.  In the process, I grabbed this shot of the burgers with my 7D, 15-85mm and 580EX II flash.  In Av mode at ISO 200 and f8, the shutter speed was 1/250 second.  I turned down the flash exposure compensation to –1 and also had the flash in high speed sync.
Usually my shots of food on the grill do not turn out well but I liked this one.  I think the flash made a significant difference.
… and the burgers were great!

PAW 18

This little shore bird, a Stilted Sandpiper (I think – let me know if otherwise), slowly worked his way towards me as I both waited patiently and fired away with my Canon 7D fitted with 100-400mm IS zoom.  This picture was one of the better views and the bird was so close that little cropping was required.

An interesting aspect of this shot, taken in RAW mode, is that serious desaturation was required in ACR in order to have a realistic image.  My first attempt at post processing produced an over saturated image which, although I liked it at first, did not look right the next day.

Gordon’s Top Ten

I have a gallery at SmugMug in which I maintain my ten best photographs.  I’ve not changed those top ten very often.  When I check the statistics developed by SmugMug, this picture, “Plantation Bedroom”, invariably gets the most views.  This is an HDR picture developed blending (as I recall) seven shots at varying exposures.  I like it a lot.

PAW 17

This is the first time in my PAW series that I had a pre-conceived selection.  I’ve been anxiously awaiting the first Easter Lily blossom.  Actually, I thought the first blossom would pop out last week and perhaps even on Easter Sunday but no such luck.  Taken with my G12, on closer inspection, this uncropped image includes a “bonus” bug.