Every Spring we wait for the arrival of one of Wyoming's most striking birds.  In anticipation of the male Bullock's Orioles coming into the Wind River Canyon for the season, I put out hummingbird feeders the last week of April or the first week of May, weather permitting.  These orange birds nest in the immediate area and love my homemade nectar (a strong 4 to 1 with only real sugar please).  We also get Black-chinned & Broad-tailed Hummingbirds not long after the Oriole's arrival, with the Rufous & Calliope Hummingbirds showing up the first week of July.  I go through fifteen pounds of sugar during our warm weather nesting season, yet these sweet loving birds aren't here because of my hummingbird feeders.  

     All babies need a protein source to grow big and strong, even birds, and many species nest and live in the Wind River Canyon because of a readily available protein----bugs!  My homemade nectar is a wonderful way of observing the behavior of a member of "Mother Nature's most beautiful list."   Bullock's Oriole-Wind River Canyon,WyomingBullock's Oriole photographed in Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.        At one time the Baltimore Oriole and the Bullock's Oriole were combined under a more common name, the Northern Oriole.  It's since been determined that the two species are distinct and not commonly related.  The Baltimore Oriole is an eastern bird and, the Bullock's Oriole a western bird, but where their territories overlap they have been known to interbreed.  

     Orioles are sexually dimorphic, which means males and females look different.  Both sexes Bullock's Oriole,female-Wind River Canyon, WyomingPhotographic Portrait of a Bullock's Oriole female in the Wind River Canyon, Wyoming. sing and will defend the nest and raise their young.   Bullock's Orioles are seasonally monogamous and do not mate for life like Canadian Geese. The female Bullock's Oriole is often mistaken for the male because of her bright yellow and silver coloring. Here is a portrait of a female Bullock's Oriole photographed in the Wind River Canyon.

     The morning of the now famous Wind River Canyon Mudslides it was raining again.  It was raining again and had been for weeks.  No one could have guessed that rainy Sunday morning, May 24th, the impending disaster to come that afternoon.  I was busy again photographing our orange visitors.  Orioles are shy and very challenging to photograph, and I have shot many thousands of frames over many years with these colorful and animated birds.  It's like a good game of chess that I never loose.  

     I've always used our home as a blind since it sits in a wilderness; what could be more convenient?  I was dry and he was soaked.  I had coffee and he had nectar out-of-the-rain.  Of all the frames I shot surreptitiously, only one captured a male Oriole's personality.  He was soggy but, his hairdo was really cool the way it was spiked up.  I didn't get back to the picture till much later in the week, because the mountains came tumbling down!  When I finally got back to working on this frame, he showed such an attitude.  Last week at five in the morning a creative idea sparked my imagination.  I'd only tried this technique once before.

     The RAW file (picture) is initially worked in Canon's Digital Photo Professional and saved as a TIFF file, I touched it up in Adobe Lightroom and added metadata and my watermark.  The portrait of this Oriole was different with attitude.  Then that crazy idea to spotlight my subject came flooding in like the mudslides.  

     Open the file in Adobe Elements and choose the "quick selection tool."  It's not really all that quick, and does take some time to isolate your subject.  Use the plus and minus buttons, and change the size of your tool as needed for your main subject.  It can get tedious at times, but just keep at it until your favorite subject is chosen (isolated) from the background you want to make black and white.  When you've got your main subject "surrounded" right-click and choose "select inverse."  Now your subject will remain in color as you change the rest of your photo to black and white.  Give the background some contrast, and be creative with the monochrome; black and white has a wide latitude; save your work.  

     This process is a bit tedious, but can yield some surprising results.  It cannot work miracles and I obviously don't use it very often.  This bird is something orange and special, the rest of the frame is forgettable.  Now this bird really sings.  And how about that hairdo? Bullock's Oriole - Wind River Canyon - WyomingBullock's Oriole in the rain, Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.        It's fun photographing children here in the canyon among the daisies or by the creek, and this technique would be fun to try with a portrait of a child.  I suppose a classic car in a bold color would also make a good subject for this software trick.  This software technique is a magical way of combining the old with the new in a new way of seeing.  I'm sure my old art professors would just smile.

     Thank you for reading this week's blog, I hope you learned something new.  Writing, photography, digital darkroom and website by Michael John Balog - Hogbats Photography - HogbatsPhotography.com