As Promised … Part I. And new Used Gear listings including a 1DX. « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

As Promised ... Part I. And new Used Gear listings including a 1DX.

What’s Up?

I made it safely to Guayquil on Sunday evening.

I will be without internet access from 8 AUG through late in the day on 22 AUG. There will be a blog post every day in my absence.

Please call the office at 863-692-0906 on weekdays and speak to Jim and Jennifer about all things BAA Online Store- and IPT-related. And anything else that you might need help with or would like to chat about.

Please continue to patronize the BAA Online Store and to use my B&H affiliate links. Both are hugely appreciated.

with much love, artie

The Streak

Today marks seventeen days in a row with a new educational blog post. This blog post took about two hours to create.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to my terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can see all of the current listings here.

New Used Gear Listings

Canon EOS-1D X

Multiple IPT veteran Carlotta Grenier is offering a used Canon EOS-1DX camera body in excellent condition for the BAA record low price of $2358. The sale includes the original box, the front lens cover, one extra battery, the cables, the strap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Carlotta via e-mail.

Two 1DX bodies served as my workhorse camera bodies for more than three years. It is fast and rugged with a great AF system. And more than a few folks who purchased a 1DX Mark II are wishing that they never sold their 1DX … artie

Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens for Canon EF

Multiple IPT veteran Carlotta Grenier is offering a never used Sigma 50-500mm lens F 4.5-6.3 APO DG OS Sports lens for Canon EF in better than like-new condition for the BAA record low price of $998. The sale includes the original box, the front cover, the rear cap, the protective case, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Carlotta via e-mail.

Lots of folks on recent IPTs have been using this relatively new Sigma lens with excellent results. artie artie

Sigma 50-500mm lens F 4.5-6.3 APO DG OS Sports lens for Canon EF

Multiple IPT veteran Carlotta Grenier is offering a new in the box Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS (optical stabilizer) lens for Canon EF in new condition for the BAA record low price of $748. The sale includes the original box, the front cover, the rear cap, the protective case, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Carlotta via e-mail.

I have seen many sharp images made with this popular lens on several IPTs. This item sells new for $1659 at B&H so you can save more than $900 by grabbing Carlotta’s lens. artie

artie


Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for the UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward.

Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.

Revamped

I finally updated the IPT page to properly reflect the recently completed trips. If you doubt that I am really slowing down do click here to see the meager IPT schedule. Right now there are only two US-based IPTs on the schedule. Best news is that I turned up the missing registrant for the Fort DeSoto IPT so that will run. Do consider joining us if you would like to learn from the best.

Photographers Wanted

If you would like to learn to be a better bird photographer, consider joining me on either the Fort DeSoto IPT in late September or the San Diego IPT in January, 2018. With just one person signed up, DeSoto will offer practically private instruction. And you can tack on the In-the-Field/Meet-up Workshop Session on the morning of Tuesday September 26, 2017 for free. Click here for IPT info and the current but abbreviated schedule.



Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

Please Don’t Forget …

As always–and folks have been doing a really great job for a long time now–please remember to use the BAA B&H links for your major and minor gear purchases. For best results, use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.

This image was created in Kukak Bay in Katmai National Park on the Bear Boat Cubs IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 148mm) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops off the water: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Daylight WB.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

Two rows down and three AF points to the left of the center AF Point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point just caught the forward part of the Orca’s fin and was the key to the success of this image.

Do click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

Orca in habitat

As Promised … Part I

I’ve been talking about the great luck with had with several Orcas so I figured that I might as well post my best one. I have seen Orcas on many occasions but never really had a good chance to photograph them in this hemisphere. I did get some great images of the Gerlach-straight eco-type Orcas down in the Southern Ocean a few years ago. That race had grey backs, not black.

Anyway, it is rare to see Orcas in a bay — usually they would be cruising outside in the Shelikof Strait. We were in the big skiff when our guided spotted them and he deftly put us in great position time after time. Thanks to participant Anita North who came up with the idea of zooming wide for an environmental type portrait. As noted above, the key to getting the image design that I wanted was my choice of AF points. Since I wanted the Orca down and to the left I selected and AF point in that area. When the animal surfaced close to us, I was ready and made the shot. They are so big that they are much slower than dolphins. The dolphins are so sleek and fast that I usually feel as if I have zero chance of making a good image of them.

Exposure Note

Plus 1 2/3 stops off the water resulted in a very few blinkies on the white patch on the side of the Orca. With all those BLACKs, that was a perfect exposure. Restoring the detail in the bright whites was easily dealt with during the RAW conversion in DPP 4 by lowering the exposure by 1/3 stop and then moving the Highlight slider to -1.5.

Image Design Question

Why was it important for me to be relatively tall and to get as tall as possible when creating this image?

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac/Photo Mechanic/Photoshop workflow that will make it easy for you to make your images better in Photoshop (rather than worse). That true whether you convert your images in DPP 4 or ACR. See the blog post here to learn lots more and to read a free excerpt.

You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a Paypal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand.

Everything that I do to optimize all of the images that you see here on the blog plus tons and tons more is detailed in the new BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Learn more and check out the free excerpt in the blog post here. Just so you know, the new e-Guide reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. Do note that you will find the RGB Curves Adjustment Color Balancing tutorial only in the new e-guide. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.

You can learn how and why I and other discerning Canon shooters convert nearly all of their Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 using Canon Digital Photo Professional in the DPP 4 RAW conversion Guide here. And you can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair. Folks can learn sophisticated sharpening and (NeatImage) Noise Reduction techniques in the The Professional Post Processing Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly.

If In Doubt

If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

Facebook

Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

12 comments to As Promised … Part I. And new Used Gear listings including a 1DX.

  • avatar Elinor Osborn

    Agree with Tony Z. It’s amazing that the background is as sharp as it is with f5.6

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      A result of the short focal length and the distance to the shoreline and mountains.

      with love, artie

      ps: shutting the lid now and signing off for a while.

  • Hey Arthur, I would say what the others have said here about the fin. Safe travels.

  • avatar Jake

    Hi Artie, I really like this image. Going slightly wider shows the environment that the animal lives in. The muted colours also go very well together. The sea looks very blue, was it like this straight out of the camera or did it need to be enhanced? If so what did you do? I agree that one reason for needing to be tall is to stop the dorsal fin from overlapping with the shoreline. Another consequence of being to low would have been the orca obscuring some of the mountains behind. The image would also have lost the shape of the wake in front if the orca. I like the wake because it shows that the orca is moving and makes sure that you know which direction it is going in. I might prefer to have a little more space on the right, but it is hard to know.
    Jake

    • avatar Jake

      Have a great trip

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      Thanks. I probably boosted the vibrance a bit. The water in the bay looks more CYAN than BLUE, probably close to what I saw in life. And yes, everybody loves the wake.

      See you when I get back.

      with love, artie

  • avatar Ed

    You need to be tall to avoid bisecting the dorsal fin with the horizon. Have a good time in the Galapagos.

    Ed

  • avatar Tony Z

    Nic shot!
    You were tall here to keep the water in the background behind the top of the dorsal fin, avoiding the fin over top of the shoreline.

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      Correct-o-mundo. We will be on our way out of the door in a few minutes for our flights to the archipelago.

      with love, artie