Mokka mit Schlag

The moths are starting to wake up from the brief Southern California winter (Actually, some never went to sleep, but they didn’t make good pictures.) so let’s see what’s on the memory card. First up we have a beautiful Unciella primula from the Tamarisk Grove Campground in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park:

Unciella primula – Hodges#10111

This seems to be a little known and perhaps uncommon species. This was BugGuide’s first record, and the first live image for the Moth Photographers Group. I have not been able to find much information about it. Butterflies and moths of North America doesn’t list any records. It is in the California Moth Specimens Database under its previous name, Oncocnemis primula.

Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias
San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, 2009-03-08

San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, 2009-02-26

My photography is definitely improving. Just compare to this shot from a little over a year ago. Of course that was a cloudy winter day in Brooklyn, and this was a bright sunny day in southern California, but still the difference is remarkable. I still have a long way to go before Arthur Morris has anything to worry about.

One thing I still have to figure out is proper gamma adjustment. This picture looks great on my Mac but is much too dark on my Ubuntu/Gnome desktop. Haven’t checked Windows yet. Is it possible to make a photo like this actually work across all platforms? I know the Mac gamma is about 1.8 and the PC gamma is about 2.2. Not sure about Linux.

Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna
Irvine, CA, 2009-02-20

Spring comes early in Southern California. Still this lepidopteran is a year-round visitor. I found it in the cabinet where I keep my bird seed, pet food, and other dry goods. Fortunately it seems to be a singleton since the caterpillars of this species can do real damage to such products (hence the name).

Indian Meal Moth, Hodges#6019 Plodia interpunctella
Irvine, California, 2009-02-09

Thanks to Charley Eiseman for the ID.
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It sounds like most folks think Lightroom 2.1 is the way to go. However it’s still missing the autofix controls from Elements:

Auto Smart Fix Corrects overall color balance and improves shadow and highlight detail, if necessary.

Auto Levels Adjusts the overall contrast of an image and may affect its color. If your image needs more contrast, and it has a color cast, try this command. Auto Levels works by individually mapping the lightest and darkest pixels in each color channel to black and white.

Auto Contrast Adjusts the overall contrast of an image without affecting its color. Use when your image needs more contrast, but the colors look right. Auto Contrast maps the lightest and darkest pixels in the image to white and black, which makes highlights appear lighter and shadows appear darker.

Auto Color Correction Adjusts the contrast and color by identifying shadows, midtones, and highlights in the image, rather than in individual color channels. It neutralizes the midtones and sets the white and black points using a default set of values.

Auto Sharpen Adjusts the sharpness of the image by clarifying the edges and adding detail that tonal adjustments may reduce.

Auto Red Eye Fix Automatically detects and repairs red eyes in an image.

Are there any plugins to add these capabilities? Could someone write one? Has anyone documented what these actually do at a technical level?