I’ve been so busy the past few weeks with travel to Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio for meetings and assignments, I haven’t had much time for personal photography. But I did manage to edit a few recent images in between magazine deadlines, including this swan that I stalked.

One of the benefits of being a member of The Arcanum is having access to hundreds of tutorials and educational videos in the Grand Library. Whenever I have a spare moment, (especially when I’m doing time on the treadmill!), I watch a video on post-processing or a critique to learn some new and different skills.

More recently, I’ve also enjoyed spending time on the MacPhun software website watching the educational videos and webinars about their software products. My Arcanum Master Laurie Rubin works for MacPhun as an educator, and it’s been a bonus to learn from her about these great tools and how they can be used to enhance your images.

For example, the lovely swan above wasn’t as pretty in reality, as the feathers underneath and at the waterline were dingy brown. Therefore, I decided to edit this image in black and white in MacPhun’s Tonality Pro to help disguise the off colors and instead draw the viewer to the swan’s gorgeous head and neck. I also used MacPhun’s Snapheal Pro to easily remove some debris in the background.

This swan was a good sport while I photographed it for about 45 minutes as it meandered around a Virginia pond feeding. But after I received this look and then the swan tucked its head underneath its wing for a nap, I realized my time was up, so I headed back to my computer so we could each continue our afternoon activities.