Bird in the Haystack And Nifty White Balance Trick!

This is a photo of Imp holding his little birdy. He found this tiny little glass bird (smaller than a dime) in a crack between the carpet and the wall. We don't know where it came from, but he carries it around everywhere. And constantly loses it.

You can't imagine how many times a week
 we help him hunt for this tiny bird. Imp forgets it is in his hand and it falls in random places all over the house. Then he frantically begins searching for it.   I don't know how he does it, but he always finds it. This bird is so tiny that I can't see it on the ground, and Imp better be thankful I don't vacuum as much as I should or that little bird would be gone forever.

One day I made a big mistake and let him bring it outside on his redneck playground (a haybale in the middle of our field with an old metal ladder leaning against it). The kids love to play on this more than their fancy playset that Daddy spent days building for them.  Insert Daddy's sigh here.

It is cool now so I am not so worried about snakes nesting at the bale's base, and  it is surrounded by soft grass so if they fall it is no big deal. However, I never realized how dangerous the redneck playground could be if you are a tiny glass birdy.

Imp brought his birdy up on top of the haybale and promptly forgot it was in his hand and birdy went missing. We spent a good thirty minutes searching the top, sides and base of the bale, but birdy was gone. I think it would have been easier to find a needle in that hay than that darn little bird.  I was somewhat relieved because our endless search for that annoying little bird seemed to be over forever.

Finally we gave up and went inside. Imp said his birdy was gone for good and Duke and I had to agree. Imp was a bit sad, cried a few tears, but promptly forgot about his best little pal.

A month went by. We had a few rainstorms and the weather changed. One sunny day the boys were playing on their redneck playground when suddenly Imp started screaming in excitment. I ran over and he proudly held up little birdy! Yes, he found that tiny little bird under some hay on top of that haybale. That kid can find anything...

Now birdy is sitting safe and sound on the fireplace mantle waiting for his next exciting adventure.  Maybe I should get him a compass for Christmas. 

I was taking a picture of birdy for this post when I came upon a little trick. The image below was the SOOC image (straight-from-the-camera).

This was a RAW and the white balance is obviously not adjusted. I was editing this in LR2 and suddenly realize that I could use the white balance eyedropper and the gray in the dime to set the white balance! Yes, next time you are doing a photoshoot with questionable light and you don't have a gray card, just take one photo with any dime/quarter/nickel you find in your pocket to use for later adjustments.

You can even use the coin to adjust a jpg image in PSE or Photoshop. Just open a levels adjustment layer and use the middle gray dropper and click around on a neutral gray part of the coin until your white balance looks correct.

I love simple little cheap tricks.  :-)  And I love birdy, even though I stepped on him the other day when he was lost on the kitchen floor and cut my foot.  That little birdy is sharp and I think he doesn't really like me.  I think he is still upset that I wrote him off that day when he was lost in the hay.  Get over it birdy.  ;-)

And I am coming out with a free polaroid web action this week!