With this last article my Snowy Owl journey has come to an end. As the expression goes: ‘save the best for last’ which is what I hope I managed to achieve when I took that lucky shot of miss Snowy Owl gliding right towards my viewfinder in those early evening hours on a snowy plain in Alberta, Canada…
The journey also includes a key creative component; i.e. finding a way to bring back from the images the tones and shadows that are somewhere captured deep in the original RAW files. A decade or so ago I would not have been able to pull this off anywhere near I do nowadays. And strangely enough I cannot actually reiterate the steps I go through to get the end result (I get questions on ‘how do you do it?’). It’s as if there is no ‘fixed formula’ – each step in the creative process (using Adobe Photoshop CC) simply triggers the need for another corrective/reactive step, and there are endless permutations based on the changes made in all steps (layers). Therefore, I am not able to create the same image twice: if I start again from scratch the outcome will be quite different the next time. So what is next?
“The Peek”
Nikon 600mm f/4E FL on Nikon D4S, f/8, 1/2500 s., ISO 1250, +1.0EV exp. comp.
Well, coming up we have 2 weeks of ‘Frisian Flag’ international fighter jet exercises from NATO countries and partners. After 2 years of absence due to corona a lot of aviation enthousiasts will be looking out for that one! Hopefully I’ll manage to capture some cool moves and if so, will be posting these in my next article(s).
“The Glide”
Nikon 600mm f/4E FL on Nikon D4S, f/8, 1/2500 s., ISO 1250, +1.0EV exp. comp.
With the introduction of Nikon’s Z mirrorless platform I’m also slowly transitioning from my current gear to that new platform, which means I have to let go of my current main DSLR and absolutely wonderful 600mm super telephoto-combo and start finding resources to invest in Z camera(s) and matching lenses.
This will definitely take some time – Nikon has this unfortunate habit to announce new gear and only actually supply that gear many months (or even years) later. Not much we can do about that I’m afraid. So in the meantime I’ll dig into my archive of Nature images and see if my current creative skills are at the required level for a nice new post.
And as always, just drop me a note on enquiry@fliek.com for any queries or for any (general) comments, send a mail to feedback@fliek.com.
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