#anhinga trail

Taking a Step Into Things Wild and Wondrous (Everglades National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting that looks to the east, with a beautiful pond covered in lily pads. I was walking around and exploring the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park, a definite highlight to the first day in this national park!

Exploring Birds Along the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the east-northeast while taking in views of some nearby Double-Crested Cormorants perched on a walkway railing. This was along the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park. My thought on composing this image was merely to center the birds in the image, metering and focusing to bring out later in post-production all the details present with the feathers, especially along the wings and as well as other features around the beak, mouth, and eyes. I did use the Photoshop generative tool to remove some people present in the backdrop of the image. I found it very helpful to use that tool rather than typical cloning or healing that most post-production software applies.

My First Explorations of Everglades National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: As I walked along the Anhinga Trail and explored this area of Everglades National Park, I was mesmerized by the picturesque scenery that unfolded before me to the north. To my front was a pond coming off the freshwater slough around this area of the national park with a backdrop of mangroves, other small trees, and plant-life. The rest of the composition was just moving around until I captured a look with the lily pads.

Magnify Nature and Wildness Outside in Everglades National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the east while taking in views across a pond covered with lily pads. This was while walking around and exploring the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park.

Two Double-Crested Cormorants and a Great Blue Heron Meet in Everglades National Park by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: As I began to walk and explore the Anhinga Trail, I was taken in with this setting to the east-northeast, where two Double-Crested Cormorants and a Great Blue Heron seemed to meet. This is located in Everglades National Park. My initial thought for capturing this image had been to zoom in with the focal length so that only the birds and a nearby fond filled this narrow field of view. Even though I had closed down on the aperture, I found that the Cormorants weren't that in focus, but from the heron back to another one off in the distance, seemed to have a sharpness for the image captured. I did some initial post-processing work making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation in DxO PhotoLab 8. I then exported a TIFF image to Nik Color Efex Pro 7 where I added a Polarization, Foliage, and Pro Contrast filter for that last effect on the image captured.