I took a short trip to Aruba with my wife back in 2003. We spent most of the time relaxing on the beach, but we did take a little back road drive along the less populated side of the island. I caught this guy hanging out on his perch. It looked pretty uncomfortable, but I guess it was a good vantage point for hunting. I was using my Nikon D100 back then, and I’m still impressed by the quality of the images I made with it.
This photo has been sitting in my collection since 2003. I could never quite get the photo to look as I remembered the scene that morning. I was browsing through my collection with Lightroom today, and I decided to give it another shot. I was much happier with the results this time around. A key to making it work was using the Lightroom “clarity” slider… in the negative direction. Turning down the clarity brought out some of the calm and quiet that was missing from my previous attempts.
Kegs of beer were being rolled into pubs, the police were gathering on the street corners, and the Leprechauns were staking their claim to the prime views along the parade route. Has it been a year already?