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Landing Lights


	Landing Lights aperture f 4.8, shutter 1/60, lens - 120 mm, location- San Diego. The eyes were so dominant in the shot that I decided to take the rest of the picture's color away. I did use a duatone to give a deep sepia tone and reintroduced the yellow eyes back into the composition. The eyes seemed like landing lights - therefore the title... Gunther Allen

Donna W. Neal

Outstanding capture and darkroom work!
Love this one Gunther!

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April 05, 2004

Joy Brown

Absolutely awesome, Gunther!

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April 05, 2004

Marie Fields

Terrific image! Love the selective coloring!

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April 05, 2004

Murry Grigsby

Great job Gunther!! The eyes really dominate your design but the felling of action is powerful also! Terrific catch and PS work.

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April 05, 2004

Gunther Allen

Thank you for the comment Murry, Marie, Joy, and Donna. I guess I spent hours trying to select the photo that best captured the essence of this owl. Listening to the trainer describe how great of a hunter the owl is, and how they have the best ratio of kills for a bird of prey compared to other hawks and eagles for example- made me want to try to catch how the owl would swoop down on it's victims. Although the trainer is actually still holding the bird here. He lifted his arm, held out some meat, and then dropped it to simulate how the owl would take off with concentrated determination and will.

It seemed fitting to accentuate the fixed attention of prey to victim. -G

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April 05, 2004

Robin L. Wehrman

WOW, this is outstanding, excellent detail and closeup. well done Gunther!!!!!!!!!!

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April 05, 2004

imagenesdemiscaminos.com - Viveca Venegas

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Caramba!!this is a real marvelous austanding shot. Bravisimo!! Viveca.

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April 05, 2004

Gunther Allen

Well thank you Robin and Viveca. You make it worth my efforts! :-) If I may ask you what in this shot attracted you the most? Is it the actual capture of the owl, or the manipulation of the sepia tone and the reintroduciton of the yellow eyes? So you think it would have been as affective as just a color shot?

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April 05, 2004

mandrphotoart.com - Michael Wehrman

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Great job Gunther

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April 05, 2004

imagenesdemiscaminos.com - Viveca Venegas

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Gunther, it is my opinion that it would not have the same effect in color. I love the sepia and the way you manage to capture the owl itself. I myself have encoutered four times this amazing birds with camera in hand, and have not been even half fast to capture it. Viveca.

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April 05, 2004

Larry D. Jackson

Gunther,great work.
Larry Jackson

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April 06, 2004

Gunther Allen

Thank you Larry for your recent comments on both my owl pictures. I find them fascinating and love taking pictures of the bird of prey! -G

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April 06, 2004

Paula Showen

Gunther, what an amazing capture and beautiful manipulation! I love the way you made the eyes stand out! Outstanding image!

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April 06, 2004

Deborah Sandidge

This has to be my favorite photo! I think the sepia really sets it apart and brings all the attention to his eyes - very dynamic! I'd love to learn the duotone effect. Fantastic image!

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April 13, 2004

Marie Fields

Congratulations, Gunther!!!

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May 13, 2004

Nancy Grace Chen

Really incredible capture. Captivating. Congratulations on your finalist.

Nancy
nance.c@poboxes.com
nacespace.com/photos

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May 13, 2004

imagenesdemiscaminos.com - Viveca Venegas

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Hey1 good luck with the coming prizes, this one can make it. Viveca.

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May 14, 2004

Robin L. Wehrman

Congratulations again Gunther, this is Outstanding!!

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May 14, 2004

Gunther Allen

Hi Deborah Sandidge,
In response to your request I'm posting this for everyone to see and use. The duoatone effect was achieved using Photoshop and if you follow these simple steps you'll find it quite easy to do. First of all once you've opened a photo, make sure you're on a the top layer in your layer's palette > go to the Image tab and select the drop down menu and you'll see the mode tab > select the the grayscale command and you'll get a box that tells you that all the layers will be flattened into one. Make sure that you've saved a copy of the exact size and resolution, which you will use in a minute. After you've turned the photo into a basic black and white > you now go back into the Image tab > Mode> and select duotone > pick the two colors that will give you the sepia quality. Usually I pick black and a brownish tint. I often use Trumatch 8-b. Click OK and you have your sepia toned photo. You will now need to adjust the contrast in your Image> Adjustments > levels or curves command. Now to re-introduce color back to your photo you need to select the area in the copy that you made and make a copy of the selection. All you do is paste it back into the sepia/manipulated version. But, there is a trick! You must make sure that you've changed the Image> Mode > back to RGB mode in order for the color to be re-introduced. That's really all there is to it! Sounds more complicated than it really is. If I showed it to you on the computer you'd catch on in a second. E-mail me directly if you have any problems! - Thanks Gunther

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May 14, 2004

- Kelly Abernathy

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Still love it! Congratulations! -K

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May 14, 2004

Deborah Sandidge

Congratulations Gunther!
Thank you very much for taking time to respond regarding the duatone manipulation in Photoshop! I really appreciate it, and will keep your notes handy. I'm anxious to give it a try. Your owl image is quite the inspiration!
Thanks again! ~ Deb

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May 14, 2004

Jill Battaglia

Awesome! I love what you did to this!! Congrats!!

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May 14, 2004

Leanne M.E. Boyd

I'm going to quote Jill "AWESOME"

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May 16, 2004

Gunther Allen

Thank you Leanne and Jill for such an AWESOME review! Again thanks to K.S., and Deborah- I hope you have fun trying this technique! -G

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May 16, 2004

Cathy Barrows

Congrats on your win!