Bird Paintography. Birds have feathers as you know and feathers can look good when paintografied, is that even a word? Well it is now. But remember you must start with a very clear and sharp picture for it to come out looking good.

Paintography of Great White Egrets at Dawn.

 Paintography is about using a piece of software called Pixel Bender by Adobe. But I believe it only works with CS4/5. You can download it from the Adobe website and there is a small Paintography Tutorial and some videos here on my True Portraits website.

 The photos above and below were shot in the Florida Everglades near a place called Sweetwater Strand it is off the Loop road which is off the Tamiami Trail or US41 between Naples and Miami. The Loop road is a 32 mile scenic drive through the Florida Everglades. Best at dawn for the softest light if you are into photography. Be sure to go slow and keep your eyes open, not all wildlife is obvious.

Paintography of an Egret and Black Water Reflection.

Of course there are lots of other things that make good paintography subjects, just look around my blog here or pop over to my website at True Portraits all of my photos are paintography. But I love photographing the swamp birds, like Egrets and Herons.

Also remember when shooting white birds to get your exposure correct use spot metering and expose for the birds white feathers if you don’t you will get a washed out picture where the white has no details. Spot focus and spot meter all your shots.

Great Blue Heron with a Crayfish for lunch.

 When shooting the birds like the Great Blue Heron above, you must be as patient as he is. Don’t just pop off a shot and then go on somewhere else, wait for him to make a strike and catch him eating lunch, or maybe wait for for him to take off and catch him in flight.

Great Blue Heron taking off

 Be sure to watch out for the smaller birds like the Little Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets and try to get into a real good position to take the shot as composition is the key to a good photo. Sometimes you just have to grab a shot and hope for the best like the Herons above and below. It is usually the back end you get as it fly’s away from you, but they do not usually fly very far, just follow and try again.

Paintography of a Great Blue Heron coming into land

If you can try to catch the birds reflection in the water, one of the reasons why dawn is a good time to shoot there is usually less wind to ripple the water. And the Everglades has black water so reflections are usually pretty neat like the Little Blue Heron below

Paintography of a Little Blue Heron and Reflection

Lots more birds on my website here. Paintography of Everglades Birds

And join in with my #WadingBirdWednesday photo theme on Google Plus.