Twenty-three visitors viewed the 1500 words challenge post but only two voted. I mean, I get it; it was a holiday. An eating holiday, at that. In retrospect, that wasn’t what one might call good timing. Same for today; people immersed in a spending frenzy aren’t likely to spend their break reading stories and pondering on the relative merits of the narratives before casting a vote.
Still, them Readers Awards won’t mean much if there are no actual readers voting. So, if you can muster the physical and mental energy for it, please read the short stories and cast your vote before noon, December 4th.
At 1,500 words, reading each story should take no more than seven minutes to read and I realize that’s a huge time commitment in these days of near-instant gratification.
And that’s enough of that . . .
Today’s post is about an old hawk. Not age-wise old; photo old, as in 2012. This was a rare capture for me; a hawk who dropped from above onto a random spot in the snow. I missed the actual moment, but I have the aftermath . . .
All photos are cropped from larger originals. For instance, this is the original of the above . . .
I wanted to test out Topaz Sharpen AI some more, so I processed all the photos using Sharpen AI and Adjust AI. (NOTE: Topaz Lab is having their Black Friday sale of all their AI modules and Studio 2. I don’t get anything for providing the link, but in case anyone is interested, HERE.)
Anyway, Sharpen AI lightens the photo for reason I don’t yet know and to which I don’t object.
You can see how much I cropped the photo. I could have pushed it a bit more but that’s about the 100% view of the photo.
Adjust AI — as mentioned a couple of posts ago — does a good job processing the photos . . . so that’s what I used. These are my favorite two photos of the series . . .
I can’t force you, but you might want to click on those; you get to see a larger version.
Here’s the gallery of all the photos from that series:
Why would I grab some old photos to process?
First, because I like them. Second, because I wanted to see what my current processing tools could do.
Here’s a gallery of the photos that were originally shared contrasted with the newly processed versions:
The comparison is not always fair because of the different cropping and the size differences in the posted photos back then and now.
The captions are from the original post, and while the crops aren’t the same, you can see the processing differences.
By the way, February 2012 was a prolific month as far as photos go. For example, here’s a gallery of the other hawks from that same post . . .
Those are hand-held with the 70-200mm f/2.8 and the 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lenses. Overall, pretty good, I think.
And, just because it’s a day of excess (Black Friday and all) here’s a gallery sampling other photos from February 2012 . . .
Obviously, not all shot in February 2012, but published that month, and this is just a small sample. Where did I find the time to process all them photos?
That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.
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Note: if you are not reading this blog post at DisperserTracks.com, know that it’s copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intentions, like attracting you to a malware-infested website. Could be they also torture small mammals.
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Disperser Tracks 
Love the pictures, especially the hawk with its wings spread. And the geese walking along, appearing to be arguing with each other about the way they should go.
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Thank you, Sandra. I hope the holidays find you well.
And yes about the geese . . . except I imagine them asking “Why are we walking?”
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Guilty. It’s a busy time. So as moments between other ttd I’ll be doing some reading. I like the extra sharpness from the Topaz Sharpen AI. Hope you and M had a Happy TG. M -:)
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No problem, and it’s OK if you don’t get to them be it because of time or preference. As dm says in the next comment, it’s a genre some people don’t read or like.
I think the kids who suggested the endings might have been influenced by the proximity to Halloween, and we, in turn, followed them down that line. Had I more time, I’d have gone down the humor lane with mine, but I wrote that in a little over two hours and I took the path of least resistance.
And, thanks; yes, we had a nice Thanksgiving, and I hope it was likewise at your household.
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I read the stories. However, I found they all were good reads and worth the effort, They were not in a genre I usually read, so forgo the vote. Nuances are what make the differences among the three of them. I rather suspect if you want more votes, give your potential voters an incentive. Warmest regards, Ed
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It’s good to have an outside perspective as I don’t find them all that similar.
As for giving voters an incentive, I’m at a loss as to what I could offer. Plus, you know the saying; compensation should flow to the author, not from the author. Besides, the bigger effort by far is reading them. Voting is a mere click, almost an afterthought.
In fact, the ability to vote is almost a reward itself. I mean, how many readers get to vote on the books they read? They have to pay ahead of time for the privilege to read the book and then can’t get their money back or even let the author know how they liked it. Even if they review the book (story), the odds the author would read their review is very small. Here, the vote is a direct conduit to the authors.
But, I understand if you don’t feel comfortable voting. It would be like me voting on poetry; I’m not qualified by the fact I have zero interest in it. We thank you for reading them and I hope they weren’t a complete waste of time.
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A great gallery of most of my favorites!
And I read the previous post’s three stories . . . and voted.
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Thanks, Ann . . . and thanks, Ann.
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These photos are amazing, Emilio!
And I GREATLY enjoy when you add words of thought, explanation, captions, etc. to your photos!
The kid and the cat made me snort-laugh! Your sense of humor often slays me!
You capture life so beautifully! Thank you for sharing it, especially close-up, with us!
HUGS to you and Melisa!
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Thank you, Carolyn. Very kind of you to say.
I sometimes forget my old posts and when I revisit them, I marvel at how much better I was at nearly everything before I got old and decrepit. But, that was the point of them; to entertain me in my old age.
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You’re not getting old and decrepit…you’re just getting more well-seasoned. And that’s good!
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It’s good relative to no-seasons but debatable otherwise. Again, not complaining. In part, my focus and attention are different from what they were even five years ago.
No one is the same person they were yesterday and with each day, although incremental and thus unnoticed, we change into a future self we can’t even imagine, let alone predict.
Wow . . . that’s deep!
. . . maybe I still have a bit of whatever I had way back then.
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Nice
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Thank you.
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