An Opinion. Everyone’s Got One.

Please excuse my b####ing and complaining!  Somewhere along the way it seems like I have become a prude.  Anyone who has known me a long time would never accept that premise.  I mean I have not lived the life of a prude.  Why is it so difficult to create a modern sitcom that is not 30 minutes (well 17 minutes) of vulgarities and sex jokes?  I am not talking about cable shows, only the four networks.  I can predict each and every punch line well before they deliver it.  I am better surprised by my 200th viewing of a re-run of I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners.  Just a few years ago many of those words would only be used in an actual XXX (NC17) rated porn movie.  The lack of talent among writers on television is overwhelming. There are a couple of shows that are exceptions to this but I guess we are eating these shows up, so they will remain.  We have been told that this is the way of the world, and we watch like dutiful little comrades. No I do not accept the premise that we have to keep up with the rest of the world. Maybe we were already ahead of them. I am not speaking of censorship.  I am talking of a being a people with class. I am very grateful that I do not have to raise a child in today’s America.  Of course while are entertained by a dictionary of words that describe sex organs and sexual acts, political correctness rules on absolutely every other subject.  That is unless you have a cartoon/sitcom.  The sitcoms that are most watched by children get to be homophobic, sexist, anti Christian, racist, and more.  That is in addition to the same sex jokes that appear in live action sitcoms.  The problem just might be that the wrong people have migrated to the top of Hollywood and we sit by and accept it.

Enough whining, now let us turn to nature photography.  The first few images below, look forward towards spring.

Certainly one of the signs of spring in this (Wisconsin, U.S.) area are migrating birds.  The return and the song of the Eastern Meadowlark is a very special sign.  I complain from time to time about too many photographers making too many digital alterations, too often.  I am not speaking of the obvious digital creations, but that which is made to look like nothing has been altered.  Having said that, I do make some alterations and the ML picture below is one such example.  I actually made a rookie mistake and underexposed this image.  I shot (aperture priority) at zero compensation when I needed about 2/ 3rds of over exposure to compensate for the direction of the sun.  When I got home I added brightness via software and brought the exposure on the bird back to how it really looked to my eyes.  Now the sky was overexposed and washed out, lacking any of the blue that existed that morning.  Working on one section of the sky at a time and using Photoshop, I took the Magic Wand tool and clicked on those separate sky areas in the scene.  I then went to the contrast/brightness adjustment and reduced the brightness by 29 clicks.  After that I used the color balance adjustment to add 22 clicks of blue.  The scene now looks as it appeared to me in the field.

I rarely make the kind of alterations that I did below and admit that I sometimes criticize others for doing too much of this.  That is an out of focus house in the background and between the bird and that house were two very blurry and distracting branches.  It was not discernible as to what kind of tree those branches belonged to.  I used the cloning tool to remove them.  Normally I only use the cloning tool to remove an out focus branch that is in the foreground of the image, and then I only take out badly out of focus foliage that imparts no information.  I have shared this image before and have shown it both ways.  In fact at one time I had both pictures on my website at the same time. I made no changes in the bottom RWBB photo.

Another sign of spring in North America is when herps and some mammals wake up from their winter’s sleep and join the outside world.  Such was the case with this Eastern Chipmunk.  The photo was made in my backyard.

One of the truly wonderful things about spring and summer is the color that is sprinkled throughout the land.

There are more ways to look at a flower than any subject in nature.  The top flower is a Lily, the second photo consists of wild Columbine and the final flower is Spiderwort, accompanied by a Hover Fly.

Let us move on from spring.

Skyscape?  I have always been on the lookout for those “big sky” days.  Add a field of flowers, or a row of autumn trees, or some rock formations, at the bottom of the frame and that sky becomes visually balanced.  Such was the case on this stormy day in Monument Valley.

It is always nice to be able to get down to eye level with a wildlife subject.  It evokes a more visceral response from the viewer.  This is a female Goldeneye.

Our final picture is that of a favorite bird of mine, the Red-bellied Woodpecker.

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.   Paul Valery