The Painterly Waterfowl

Get creative with otherwise uninspiring photos by adding texture layers

Painterly blue-winged teal photographed at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, FL

I’ve just wrapped up my third bird photography workshop of the year, this time down in south Florida. When I took my clients out earlier this week, we were greeted by some significant ground fog. While foggy shots are great when you have environmental context, they get a bit tricky when all you have is a super-telephoto lens, like my OM System 150-400mm f/4.5 TC.

I photographed this female blue-winged teal, but the fog and lack of context made the shot kind of boring, with lots of negative space. Therefore, I decided to get creative by adding Flypaper Textures to the shot in Adobe Photoshop. These painterly image files allow me to create infinite combinations of unique painterly effects.

Behind the shot: How I made this image