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Borrego Springs, CA

Friday, January 7, 2011

New photo assignment

I got another email from Stephanie today asking if I could now take pictures of the different habitats found on the refuge to go along with the snails, birds, and mammals I had previously taken.  I told her I’d give it a go before I move on.  My plans today were to force myself to work on the education program office work, which I did.  NOT!!!   It was a no brainer for me… sit in the rig and work on the computer, or go out taking pictures!

 

I packed up Emma and my camera, and off we went!  I decided to take my own vehicle so Emma could go along.

IMG_8333First was a trip around Shoveler Pond to get pics of a fresh water marsh.

IMG_8336Stephanie and I had agreed that I would take plenty of pictures, and she would later determine the exact kind of habitat.  I’m not sure I know all the fine nuances between the different habitats.  To me, it’s just a vast marsh.

IMG_8338 _MG_8340

Next we headed down to East Bay on the large Galveston Bay.  This is where I took the snail shots a while back.  I was hoping for high tide, but it turned out to be low tide.

_MG_8342It seemed like Emma had to sniff out each shell in this 4’ pile of oyster shells located near the shore.  It made me think about those shell piles or mounds that can be found in Florida.  I believe those came into existence from the many shells shucked by early Native Americans.

IMG_8348If I ever get a picture of a river otter, this would be a likely spot to find one.  About a thousand snow geese just happened to be flying overhead as I reached this spot.

_MG_8356 _MG_8362

Of course, I couldn’t pass up the chance to get shots of the pied-billed grebe and common moorhen as we were making the habitat rounds.  :)

IMG_8352They were both found working their way along this ditch next to the road.

IMG_8364Hard to notice in this shot of the moist soil units, but out there are thousands of ducks, geese, and shorebirds.  Notice how flat everything is around here?  Just so you know, the altitude of Anahuac NWR is 7’.   I’m thinking that’s at it’s highest point.  :)

IMG_8366Last, but not least, is this shot of yellow rail marsh.  It just goes on and on, and harbors all kinds of rails out there.  I sure wish I could have another air boat ride over the marsh.  It’s hard to visualize it’s vastness from the side of the road.  Maybe I’ll suggest just such a thing to Stephanie so I can get the ultimate marsh picture.  She’s kept me pretty land locked this year.  :)

 

On a final note for tonight, I’d like to mention that something called Picnik has shown up on my Picasa 3 photo editing program.  I think I kind of remember RICK talking about this program in one of his posts, but I’ll have to check.  I haven’t had time to tinker with it yet.  Anyone else tried it?

 

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy

21 comments:

  1. Believe it or not..I did get into Picnik...not my thing...but you need to look at it yourself...Great photos again today...as usual!!

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  2. The pictures of the marshes are really interesting, and I'm sure being out there certainly trumps sitting inside working on a computer!

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  3. I used Picnik to fix the glow in the dark alien eyes of Skittlez. But that's the only thing I've used it for.

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  4. I find the variety of habitats interesting. I can see why Stephanie wants to get some good pictures of them. I can imagine that your pictures will be a valuable educational tool for the wildlife reserve.

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  5. hello from lubbock, there neighbor!!

    I looked at picnik for the scrapbooking aspect, but it gave me a headache...

    keep pressing for outside work!!!

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  6. I love seeing .... and taking .... pictures of nature, and yours are no exception. Very nice!

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  7. It was fun seeing the different habitats in our photos today. I did play with both Picnic and Picasa and it does have some tools that come in handy however having a MAC computer I abandon Picasa in favor of using iPhoto and Adobe Photoshop Elements if I need more power in the editing. If I had the money I'd have Adobe Photoshop Lightroom which gives incredible tools to manipulate RAW photos but it is not in my budget. I had it on the Windows pc before we went to a Mac and it is my favorite program for dealing with large groups of photos.

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  8. That is one very large pile of oyster shells. My dogs would have been rolling in it! ;-)

    I have played with Picnik but it's not my thing either.

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  9. A lot of great pictures there, Judy! Google bought Picnik a while back and are offering many of its features for free.

    The real value though is in the 'advanced' or 'premium' package which gives you access to Photoshop like editing including a great 'cloning' tool. I signed up for it and I think it was pretty reasonable if I remember correctly.

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  10. great marsh shots, Judy!..Emma looked like she was looking for a 'pearl' in that pile of oyster shells!!!..as for Picnik?..I have looked at it..but not used it as yet!

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  11. The visitors center has been enriched by your presence.

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  12. Used the free version of picnic to fix the eyes on one of Sadie's pictures, it's kind of neat with a human, and pets position in the red eye fix. be safe out there. Sam & Donna...

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  13. I have Picnik & it costs about $25 a year. It does have a bunch of things you can use & a lot of things I will probably never use. It does allow you to get into a bunch of glitzy stuff like fancy framing & seasonal stuff. Kids would use it a lot. On the serious side I have used it for cloning, dodging & burning, & a few special effects. If I was a little more serious about my photography I would probably use it more. Bottom line....if your happy with your basic Picasa program then it's probably all you need.

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  14. Very nice habitat photos, I am surprised at the noticeable diversity. I am wondering how large of an area Anahuac NWR is. Wow, that is some pile of oyster shells!

    John
    relaxedrush.blogspot.com

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  15. Great pictures, as always. Love the picture of Emma on the shell pile. If I had got up and sang, it would have cleared the whole park... :)

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  16. Great photos of the marshes. We went for a walk at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge a couple days ago. Thought about you often, especially when we saw the two RVs parked in their volunteer lot.

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  17. Great photos Judy. They make me remember the first time we came to Galveston Bay. Now we live here and I drive by marshes all the time but rarely "see" them.
    --Rod

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  18. You are going to be sorely missed when you move on! You've definitely left your mark in Texas!

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  19. Great pictures, love the different colors in the marshes, and in winter no less. Beautiful.
    Jan

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  20. For those of us with few camera skills (that love point n shoot cameras), Picnik is great for finetuning colors, dark photos, light photos and getting rid of red-eye (human and pets). It's integrated with my SmugMug membership but I've also gone directly to the site.

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  21. We have lots of shell mounds here as well. The Karankawa Indians left them at their sites which include Galveston Bays. One of my favorite places to paddle is Cotton Lake. We go south, east, and then south again to get to the put-in. Then we paddle down to Trinity Bay and eat lunch on the ancient and now extinct oyster shells. That's the shell bank I remember but I've seen them in other places as well.

    Here's a link to a picture of them
    http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2049553440031168545DVqoPP

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