Sharing some photos from our latest trip...

[Avivasmom]

what do you think?

and my favorite from Animal Kingdom...

Some from MGM...

 

[ashef]

WOW! Your pictures are just stunning. I especially like the ones taken on the safari. Thanks for posting them.

 

[hjd0411]

I agree with ashef - your photos are great! I love the lion one too - and the gorillas! Unfortunately they didn't want to co-operate when I was there!!

Well done - any more??

Heather

 

[Avivasmom]

WOW! Your pictures are just stunning. I especially like the ones taken on the safari. Thanks for posting them.

Thank you Ashef...we got lucky with the lion and the giraffes.

 

[Avivasmom]

I agree with ashef - your photos are great! I love the lion one too - and the gorillas! Unfortunately they didn't want to co-operate when I was there!!

Well done - any more??

Thanks Heather...the gorillas were great. I have more but not as good as these...will get them together and post some more.

 

[boBQuincy]

Your photos show a good eye and good timing. Welcome to the board, and keep posting!

 

[Avivasmom]

Your photos show a good eye and good timing. Welcome to the board, and keep posting!

Thanks boBQuincy....I appreciate the compliment.

I try my best.

 

[orchjoe]

Great timing... I have to remember to track when I go in a couple of weeks..... Great job

 

[DVC Jen]

I really l love the expressions you captured on the gorillas. They were one of my favorite animals to photograph. You did a really good job.

 

[jann1033]

nice photos although the guy with the giant camera really should have stayed in his seat....some people just have no consideration!

 

[alan]

Excellent pictures! Well done - beautiful timing and first class work on the gorillas in particular!

If you have access to an image editing program, however, I think that you could improve the pictures even further - adjusting "levels" on the first picture would help make the dark parts of the gorilla darker, and a trim of the giraffe picture would get rid of the edge of the person at the bottom right corner.

regards,
/alan

 

[Amy]

Nice shots, Avivasmom! Hope to see more.

 

[Avivasmom]

Great timing... I have to remember to track when I go in a couple of weeks..... Great job

Thanks Joe!

 

[Avivasmom]

I really l love the expressions you captured on the gorillas. They were one of my favorite animals to photograph. You did a really good job.

Thank you...I love my new camera.

 

[Avivasmom]

nice photos although the guy with the giant camera really should have stayed in his seat....some people just have no consideration!

Thanks Jann1033...you gave me a good laugh.

 

[Avivasmom]

Excellent pictures! Well done - beautiful timing and first class work on the gorillas in particular!

If you have access to an image editing program, however, I think that you could improve the pictures even further - adjusting "levels" on the first picture would help make the dark parts of the gorilla darker, and a trim of the giraffe picture would get rid of the edge of the person at the bottom right corner.

regards,
/alan

Thanks Alan...loved the gorillas too.

I have to get a photo editing program and learn to use it. Any recommendations?

 

[Avivasmom]

Nice shots, Avivasmom! Hope to see more.

Thanks Amy...we are going back in 25 days for my DD 7th bday and definitely going to try to get some interesting shots.

 

[alan]

I have to get a photo editing program and learn to use it. Any recommendations?

Well, if you're on a PC I'd have to start with Picasa. It's from http://picasa.google.com/ and it's free, so that's a great start. I got my parents, who are definitely not computer people, using it and they now are routinely editing their pictures when they take them out of the digital camera.

I find that many of my holiday snaps suffer from one or more of the following; all of which can be corrected in Picasa.

1. The horizon isn't level
Use the "straighten" tool to fix it

2. The photo is correctly exposed, but Auntie Maude's face is in shadow
This may not always be a bad thing but if you want to choose it use the "fill light" slider

3. The subject is too far away, or something is visible near the edge of the picture that shouldn't be there
Use the "Crop" tool to focus in on what you want (this is where all those megapixels are a good thing

4. Everything looks a little bit washed out
Use the "Shadows" and "Highlights" sliders to get everything looking just right. Alternatively, try the "Auto contrast" button

5. It's too dark
Try the "Fill light" and "highlights" sliders to get it looking good

6. The colours are a bit washed out
Use the "Saturation" tool to adjust the colours.

So, with Picasa you can cover a lot of basics. You can save to web albums directly from the program so you can share your pictures, you can print to your own printer or send pictures off to an online service to be printed. And best of all, nothing is actually changed in the pictures - Picasa just remembers what changes you have made. So if you decide that you don't like what you've done, you can always go back to where you started.

Here are a few minor edits to your pictures in Picasa. Yours are very good to start with, so the edits are very small and the differences possibly too subtle to notice.

1. The gorrilas - I've darkened down the shadows to make him look blacker, also a touch of sharpening:

2. The giraffe - I've removed the body part from the lower right hand corener

3. The stunt show - I darkened the shadows a touch, then did auto-saturation

I make no claims to vast improvements in any of these - they were great to start with!

regards,
/alan

 

[donaldduck1967]

Very nice shots. Thanks for sharing.