I'm Beginning to Enjoy It!

I'm losing my reluctance to mess with my images. In fact, I rather like turning them into something a little artsy or using techniques to mute busy and distracting elements. No purist am I.

This is an image of a really tiny wildflower that was growing in my yard. I liked the original image well enough, but it was just a decent shot of a little wildflower growing in my yard. I can see numerous uses for this version.

The Whooping Crane is the tallest North American bird. The species can stand up to 4.9 feet and have a wingspan of 7.5 feet. After being pushed to the brink of extinction by unregulated hunting and loss of habitat to just 21 wild and two captive whooping cranes in 1941, conservation efforts have led to a limited recovery. As of 2011, there were an estimated 437 birds in the wild and more than 165 in captivity. (Wikipedia)

Breeding populations winter along the Gulf coast of Texas, near Rockport, on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. You can take a boat tour to their breeding grounds and, if you are lucky, get to see these magnificent birds. We took the tour, the weather was nice and we were thrilled to see quite a few. I took several images, but the surrounding vegetation competed with the birds in the photos. I hope I have managed to subdue the background enough to make the birds the star of these images. The first bird was just coming in for a landing and the second was just taking off.