Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART » Links to Blogs, Photographers, and Web Sites

The Super Super Store

Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:42:56 +0000

Visit the B&H super store and you get to try before you buy. Be sure to have fun when you visit but remember to use the BAA B&H link as a way of thanking us for all of the free educational info that we provide in the blog and in the Bulletins and to earn free BIRDS AS ART International Bird Photography Competition entries.

The Super Super Store

I’m not sure exactly when, but I did visit the old B&H store. Late 1970s? Early 1980s? I am just not sure. What an experience. A single long counter, many, many dozens (or maybe well more than 100) customers stuffed into a small store on a hot August afternoon each vying for the attention of one of the only ten or so busy salesmen….. I am not sure what I bought but I do remember the thrill of getting waited on.

Before we get on to the visit lets take a peek at the history of B&H. It opened in 1973 as a storefront film shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The shop was run by Herman Schreiber and his wife, Blimie; the name B&H was derived from their initials. They quickly outgrew their humble beginnings and moved to a large loft on West 17th St. in the Photo District (the site of my first visit). The super store was born in 1997 and in 2007 a second sales floor was opened above the first: at 70,000+ square feet and with more than 1,500 employees B&H today is more of an attraction than anything else. On an average day more than 2,000 folks are served with many thousands more making purchases on line every day.

At first all of the store’s employees were observant Satmar Hasidic Jews. (The store is closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays and web site orders are not processed on the Sabbath–Shabbat–or the holidays). Only NYC’s Diamond District employs more Orthodox Jews. As the years rolled B&H hiring practices become all encompassing and today a melting pot of a sales staff is there to help. The change was not entirely voluntary as there were several lawsuits along the way. If you visit tomorrow you will surely encounter some of the staff dressed in their black coats or vests with a yarmulke (skull cap) perched on their heads and their beards and peyot (sidecurls) quite evident. The great majority of the employees that I encountered were happy to have their picture taken by this bird photographer.

On August 26th, 2011 Denise Ippolito and I were invited to the B&H super store at 420 Ninth Avenue, NY, NY (that’s Manhattan for you non-natives) for a behind the scenes executive tour. We met my affiliate Adviser Yechiel Orgel and he introduced us to our tour guide, Isaac Buchinger. Isaac was low key funny and quite knowledgeable. Our aamzing tour lasted more than two hours. When we were done, I realized that to call the recently expanded B&H a super store super was still a bit of an understatement; the store is pretty much a Disneyland of camera gear, professional lighting equipment, binoculars and scopes for the birders, computers, all types of electronics, portable and home entertainment products, and all types of video and audio gear from basic consumer stuff to the absolute top of the line equipment used by CNN, National Geographic, and by Hollywood film crews. You will be amazed not only by the range of products in each class, but by the complete line of accessories and by the knowledgeable salesmen who not only know how everything works and fits together but how to use it. Many of the salesmen are experts in a given field and there presence is augmented by manufacturer’s reps (including those from just about every major camera corporation).

As we made out way through the various departments on the first floor and then up to the photography section on the second floor we each found the range of products to be staggering. Simply put, B&H carries everything. Business was surprisingly brisk at the film counter! The frustration that you feel when you need help in a WalMarts is non-existent as there were several salespersons eager to help in most every department. The only exception was in the camera and lens department where customers queued up to await service from one of the dozens of sales folks behind the long counter. Whatever your wants or needs, chances are that you will be able to try before you buy, to handle the cameras, change lenses, and even create a few images.

Yikes, I almost forgot to mention the famed conveyor belt delivery system. The item that you wish to order is delivered in a green plastic box that rides on a moving belt. After you place your order it travels in the same manner to the checkout counter waiting for you to arrive with your order sheet. Once you pay it makes one last journey to the pick-up counter where it is yours for the ride home. Techies interested in learning about the system will surely enjoy visiting http://www.hoftronics.com/.

A sampling of the smiling faces awaiting you at B&H.

Here is an telling excerpt from a blog post written by Joel Spolsky. You can read the whole article here. Joel Spolsky is the co-founder and CEO of Fog Creek Software and the host of the popular blog Joel on Software.

B&H opened in 1973, and it’s an amazing place. If you are in Manhattan, you should visit the store, on Ninth Avenue at 34th Street. The first thing you will notice? The place is humming. Originally a camera store, B&H has grown to carry more than 250,000 items, including all kinds of pro audio, pro video, and computer gear. The company is closely held and somewhat press shy, so it’s hard to know how successful it is. “Our business remains strong, particularly considering the overall economic climate,” a spokesperson says. I suspect that’s an understatement. The store is always packed with customers, browsing through hundreds of varieties of camera bags with every possible combination of lens compartments; the room full of telescopes; and, of course, enough lenses to burn all the ants in the Sahara to a crisp. The electronic superstores in Tokyo’s Akihabara district are the only other places where I have seen so much gear under one roof.

And what a roof it is: The whole operation is a crazy Willy Wonka factory. If you want to check out a product that’s not on display, a salesperson orders it by computer terminal from a vast stockroom in the basement. Moments later, as if by magic, the product arrives at the retail counter, via an elaborate system of conveyor belts and dumbwaiters. You can try out the gear, see if you like it, and, if you do, the salesperson puts it in a green plastic box and places it on another conveyor belt, which runs, above your head, to the pickup counter. There, an employee bags your purchase. Meanwhile, your salesperson gives you a ticket, which you take to a payment counter. After you have paid, you get a different ticket that you take to the pickup counter to get your merchandise.

At first, this all seemed like incredible overkill to me. But then, as I thought about it more, I developed a theory as to why B&H operates this way. With all the expensive electronics and cameras and lenses and laptops floating around the store, the system creates a series of checks and balances — typically, five employees are involved in every purchase — in order to reduce shoplifting and employee theft. That it works at all is not the most amazing thing about B&H, however. The most amazing thing is that the prices are so low that I don’t even bother to comparison-shop anymore.

No, wait: The most amazing thing is that the salespeople at B&H really know their stuff. When I recently bought a portable digital recorder, the salesperson knew that some gear was not compatible with flash memory cards larger than 2GB and spent a few minutes surfing the Web to make sure that the 8GB card I wanted would work with it.

No, wait: The most amazing thing is that I have often gone into B&H to purchase a specific product, only to be talked into something cheaper. For example, once I went in to buy a field video monitor to use for some interviews I was conducting. I expected to pay $600 until the salesperson said, “Why don’t you just get one of these cheap consumer portable DVD players? They have video inputs, they work just as well, and they’re under $100.” This was no accident. “The entire premise of our store is based upon your ability to come in, touch, feel, experiment, ask, and discuss your needs without sales pressure,” B&H’s website says.

But wait: The conveyer belts, the prices, the smart salespeople, the fact that they recommend cheaper products almost as a rule — none of these is actually the most amazing thing about B&H. Really, the most amazing thing is that because the owners of B&H are Orthodox Jews — Hasidim, in fact — the store closes every Friday afternoon for the Jewish Sabbath, and on Jewish holidays. Moreover, B&H’s website, which reportedly accounts for 70 percent of sales, shuts down, too. Bhphotovideo.com is, to my knowledge, the only major online retailer that closes for 25 hours every weekend.

Bowls of Zaza Chewy Fruit Candy are a B&H tradition.

B&His frequented by large numbers of professional and amateur photographers and videographers, by large numbers of everyday consumers looking for the best prices,and by large numbers of tourists visiting this great New York institution. While we do hope that you get a chance to visit as I did, we hope that you do it just for fun and make your major purchases using our B&H link as a way of thanking us for all of the free educational info that we provide in the blog and in the Bulletins and to earn free BIRDS AS ART International Bird Photography Competition entries.

Don’t Screw Up

Recently, we have had more than a few folks making major purchases from B&H e-mailing for their free contest entries only to be denied because they either failed to use the preceding link or because they used the link to search and then ordered by phone…. Please avoid disappointment by using the BAA B&H link to start your online searches, by clicking on one of the many B&H logo-links on the blog or the web site, or by clicking on one of the many product-specific links that appear in both the Bulletins and the blog to purchase.

The always smiling Yechiel Orgel is the BAA B&H affiliate adviser and hosted our visit to the super store.

IPT Student Getting Too Good? Part II with Image Critiques

Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:51:59 +0000

Coastal Brown Bear Cub with salmon sliver, Geographic Harbor, Katmai National Park, AK. Image courtesy of and copyright 2011: Clemens van der Werf. This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode.

Critique 21/32. I love this one a ton. So sharp, the salmon scrap could not be better, and tons of detail in the fur. Perfect head angle. You could deal with two or three of the round white areas in front of the bear with a large 40% Opacity Clone Stamp Tool. The larger white area behind the hump will be harder to deal with as it merges with the fur…. I’d use the same tool and try to work very gently around the fur surely having to settle for losing a bit of detail in the fuzzy fur. One of these years I will learn to use Refine Mask from Tim Grey.

IPT Student Getting Too Good?

Many regular readers learned of Clemens van der Werf in this post: “Mystery Photographer & Experience Level Revealed!” The short story is that Clemens has been on virtually every IPT since attending the 2010 SW FLA IPT. He has been on the Homer IPT, the Bosque IPT, the San Diego IPT, the JBWR/Nickerson IPT, and most recently he attended the 2011 Bear Boat IPT. He is still so eager to learn that he will be returning to Bosque with us this year. (Hey, we still have a single opening….) Prior to his first IPT he had photographed only sailboats, his dogs, and his daughter. His skills have improved steadily.

The problem is that he has gotten too, too good.

His Coastal Brown Bear images from the last Bear Boat IPT (we have several openings for next July’s trip) relect continuing growth in all areas of his photography. His exposures are pretty much spot-on, he has perfected his sharpness techniques, and he makes all the obvious images. But his biggest area of improvement is in seeing and creating new and different images. See the first and third images here as prime examples.

You can now click here for IPT information.

Coastal Brown Bear dreaming sweet dreams, Kukak Bay Katmai National Park, AK. Image courtesy of and copyright 2011: Clemens van der Werf. This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 1250. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6.

Critique 24/32. You outdid me by miles on this one with perfect image optimization and a killer pose. Your perspective was perfect allowing for the nice use of the grass in front of the bear and a sweet background. Just enough depth of field wide open to leave both sets of claws sharp enough.

Coastal Brown Bear sipping, Geographic Harbor, Katmai National Park, AK. Image courtesy of and copyright 2011: Clemens van der Werf. This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 2000. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/9.

Critique 29/32. Another winner. Perfectly framed with great detail in the fur. Note that Clemens went to f/9 as he was a lot closer than he was in the two images above. By exposing to the right at ISO 2000 noise was minimized beautifully.

Part II with Image Critiques

To follow along on the next 13 image critiques first open a new window here. This will bring you to Clemens Coastal Brown Bear gallery. Clicking twice on the right-facing triangle will bring you to image 17/32. Return to this window to read the critique and then repeat the process for the next 12 images.

Critique 17/32. Sharp with a perfect exposure as expected. Nicely framed and I like the low perspective. Getting even lower if possible would have placed the bear’s head (and the clam) against a background of blue, o-o-f creek and the image would have been that much better.

Critique 18/32. Technically perfect as expected. Love your angle into the cub, the perspective you chose, and that momma is looking directly at the nursing cub.

Critique 19/32. You were in the right place at the right time! Timing exquisite as are the fish and the splashing water. Love the placement of the bear in the frame (with the animal looking just to your right) and even the careful framing to “give the rock (in the lower left corner) a border.”

Critique 20/32. Though the sharpness, EXP (you handled the somewhat harsh sidelight well), and framing are perfect and the pose rather powerful I am so jaded that this one does not get me terribly excited.

Critique 22/32. You handled a difficult exposure well. Based on the far shoreline, it looks as if it might need a bit of CW rotation. You might opt to create a version with a pure black silhouette. You must have been out of position when this guy was running after the salmon.

Critique 23/32. A wonderfully conceived and executed zoom blur with a nice sharp face on the bear. Love the strips of color and the degree of blurring. I’d evict the one dark stone just to our right of the bear’s snout as it is distracting.

Critique 25/32. A superbly executed portrait with a wonderful background. Simple but exquisite. Love, love, love the BKGR and your choice of perspective. Beautifully seen and executed. The direct stare and the open mouth are the icing on a great cake!

Critique 26/32. These shaking off the water images are very difficult to pull off. The face is pretty darned sharp and I love the drops. Framing is a bit tight on our left and the right eye looks weird; the eyes are almost always problematic in these….

Critique 27/32. This one has a very forlorn look about it. The image is nicely designed with the subject placed perfectly. From here it looks as if the dark fur could be opened up a bit.

Critique 28/32. The degree of blurring here is very nice and the head looks pretty good. When creating pleasing blurs the head is often a huge problem as they are often too blurred…. Zooming wider or panning slower to get the bear farther forward in the frame would have been better as it would have let us see more of the spray.

Critique 30/32. Nicely done. I like yours a bit better than mine because you included at least a bit of each rear paw. I had no idea that you were behind me and slightly to my left on this one! I thought that I was alone.

Critique 31/32. Great to go wide here. I love the action and the bears in the BKGR. Raising the lens a bit would have resulted in better framing. As presented I would crop 3/4 of the empty space on the bottom of the frame.

Critique 32/32. Sharp with yet another perfect exposure. Wonderful timing with the cub’s tongue out. Nice as it is it would have been better had you pointed the lens to our left so as to include all of momma’s near fore-leg with a small border.

You can learn more about Clemens here or check out his home-page slide program here. While doing so be sure to visit some of his other galleries. If you missed the first 16 image critiques you can find them here.

Earn Free Contest Entries and Support both the Bulletins and the Blog by making all your B & H purchases here.

More and more folks are earning multiple contest entries with their B & H purchases. See here for details on that. Eleven great categories, 34 winning and honored images, and prize pools valued in excess of $20,000. Click here to visit the competition home page.

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear Clemens used to create the images in today’s blog post. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens. Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
Canon 1.4X III Teleconverter. The new 1.4X TC is designed to work best with the newer Series II super-telephoto lenses but it works just fine with the current lenses.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. Like me, Clemens travels with two Mark IV bodies that serve as his workhorse digital camera bodies.

And from the BAA On-line Store:

LensCoats. I have a LensCoat on each of my big lenses to protect them from nicks and thus increase their re-sale value and so does Clemens.
LegCoat Tripod Leg Covers. I have four tripods active and each has a set of LegCoats on it to help prevent further damage to my tender shoulders And so does Clemens.
Gitzo GT3541XLS Carbon Fiber 6X Tripod At 6 foot, six inches Clemens uses the tripod that Todd Gustafson has popularized for the tall folks.
Mongoose M3.6 Tripod Head. Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head. (Note: Denise prefers the Wimberley head to the Mongoose.
CR-80 Replacement Foot for Canon 800. When using the 800 on a Mongoose as I do, replacing the lens foot with this accessory lets the lens sit like a dog whether pointed up or down and prevents wind-blown spinning of your lens on breezy days by centering the lens directly over the tripod.
Double Bubble Level. You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
Be sure to check out our camera body User’s Guides here.
The Lens Align Mark II. I use the Lens Align Mark II pretty much religiously to micro-adjust all of my gear an average of once a month and always before a major trip. And yes, so does Clemens. In fact, he drove up here a few months ago and we worked together micro-adjusting everything in sight. Having a partner for this makes it easy to center the red circle in the target; one of us stayed a the laptop while the other adjusted the LensAlign Mark II sitting atop the Giotto’s tiny ballhead. Enjoy our free comprehensive tutorial here.
BIRDS AS ART Camera Body User’s Guides. Why spend $2-5 grand on a camera and not learn to use it properly and efficiently?

Juvie Sanderling: Capture, Clean-up and Cropping Lessons

Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:42:19 +0000

I created this image while seated behind my tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the 1.4X III TC and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/10 in Manual mode.

Lens/TC/camera body Micro-adjustment: 0.

Juvie Sanderling Capture Lessons

As regular readers know, wind against sun conditions on clear days make things very challenging for bird photographers. With the birds flying into the wind and away from the light flight photography opps are limited to banking birds and even when the birds land they will almost always face into the wind to avoid unnecessarily ruffling their feathers. Denise Ippolito and I were at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY on the morning of August 24th. It was clear right from the get go but with a stiff breeze from the west southwest photographing the skimming skimmers was simply a waste of time. With the tide dropping we noted decent sized flocks of Sanderling with a smattering of other species feeding on the wet sand left by receding waves. We lowered our tripods and sat along the edge of the surf. As Denise was working with the 500 and the 1.4X II TC while I enjoyed a much longer focal length we chose different locations on the beach.

Feeding shorebirds are not affected much by the wind so we had lots of opportunities to photograph the foraging shorebirds. That’s the good news. The bad news was two-pronged. First, most of the Sanderlings were worn, molting adults; they did not make very attractive subjects. Second, feeding Sanderlings run up and down the beach rarely pausing even for an instant to grab a tiny invertebrate morsel. A bird landed among a group of about 15 feeding birds and immediately caught my attention: it was a Sanderling in fresh juvenal plumage looking sleek and bright. The feathers of the bird’s upperparts exhibited a consistent checkerboard pattern.

I love shorebirds. And I love juvenile shorebirds even more. And I love birds in fresh juvenal plumage most of all so I concentrated exclusively on the silver, black, and white gem. For the most part it was a frustrating endeavor. I wound up keeping seven of more than 120 images of the bird with only two that made me really happy. This was pretty much par for the course with fast feeding shorebirds.

If you would like to learn more about ageing and identifying North American shorebirds be sure to order a signed copy of my Shorebirds; Beautiful Beachcombers from the BAA On-Line Store.

Juvie Sanderling Clean-up Lessons

Clean-up of the glistening wet sand was rather straight-forward using the Patch Tool along with a bit of Spot-healing brush work. Bill clean-up was accomplished in similar fashion but I also used a 50% Clone Stamp Tool. All as described in detail in Digital Basics (a PDF sent via e-mail that includes my complete digital workflow and dozens of great Photoshop tips).

Is the cleaned-up image level? How would you crop it? (Not that in the original capture the bird is centered.)

This screen capture of a BreezeBrowser main view page shows that the central sensor was active when the image was made. (When using rear focus the active sensor does not show when “Show Flashing Highlights” is checked.) Note also the perfect histogram. You can learn why I use BreezeBrowser every day for sorting, editing (selecting the keepers), and storing my images by clicking here.

Juvie Sanderling Cropping Lessons

In an ideal world I would have had the central sensor on the bird’s neck; this would have placed the point of focus on the same plane as the bird’s eye. With the active sensor on the bird’s side it is a good thing that I was at f/10; the bit of extra d-o-f from wide open rendered the bird’s eye plenty sharp. (Note that with the 800/1.4X TC combo that only the central sensor is active.) Despite the Bubble Level in my hot shoe the image needed a bit of CW rotation. To determine the exact amount I drew a line with the Ruler Tool from the edge of the water drop to the edge of the reflection of the water drop. It needed about .9 degrees of rotation. (Note; when working on a sloped beach in soft sand it it hard to keep everything level even when occasionally glancing at the Bubble Level.)

I cropped know that I would be moving the bird back in the frame. The key was leaving only the very top of the reflection as everything below the center of the head was too distorted to do the image any good.

After cropping I expanded canvas right and used an APTATS II technique to drag the upper layer (and the bird!) back in the frame. Then I used the Eraser Tool to smooth the seam. You can learn this and similar techniques in Robert O’Toole’s APTATS II. (APTATS stands for Advanced Photoshop Tips and Techniques.)

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of he gear used to make the three mages in this post. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Support both the Bulletins and the Blog by making all your B & H purchases here.

Remember: you can earn free contest entries with your B & H purchases. Eleven great categories, 34 winning and honored images, and prize pools valued in excess of $20,000. Click here for details.

Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens. Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
Canon 1.4X III Teleconverter. The new 1.4X TC is designed to work best with the newer Series II super-telephoto lenses but it works just fine with the current lenses.
1.4X II Teleconverter. Most folks including me believe that the 1.4X II TC is as sharp as the 1.4X III TC.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. My two Mark IVs are my workhorse digital camera bodies.

And from the BAA On-line Store:

LensCoats. I have a LensCoat on each of my big lenses to protect them from nicks and thus increase their re-sale value. All my big lens LensCoat stuff is in Hardwood Snow pattern.
LegCoat Tripod Leg Covers. I have four tripods active and each has a Hardwood Snow LegCoat on it to help prevent further damage to my tender shoulders
Gitzo GT3530LS Tripod. This one will last you a lifetime.
Mongoose M3.6 Tripod Head. Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head. (Note: Denise prefers the Wimberley head to the Mongoose.
CR-80 Replacement Foot for Canon 800. When using the 800 on a Mongoose as I do, replacing the lens foot with this accessory lets the lens sit like a dog whether pointed up or down and prevents wind-blown spinning of your lens on breezy days by centering the lens directly over the tripod.
Double Bubble Level. You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
Be sure to check out our camera body User’s Guides here.
The Lens Align Mark II. I use the Lens Align Mark II pretty much religiously to micro-adjust all of my gear an average of once a month and always before a major trip. Enjoy our free comprehensive tutorial here.
BIRDS AS ART Camera Body User’s Guides. Why spend $2-5 grand on a camera and not learn to use it properly and efficiently?

Photographic Risks and Rewards on Safari: A Guest Blog Post by Todd Gustafson

Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 14:43:59 +0000

African Lion cubs at play. Nikon D3, 600mm f/4, and 1.7 converter. 1600 ISO. Matrix metering at zero in aperture priority: 1/400th sec. at f/6.7. Image copyright 2011: Todd Gustafson/Gustafson Photo Safari.

Photographic Risks and Rewards on Safari: A Guest Blog Post by Todd Gustafson

Let the Photo Come to You

By Todd Gustafson

Being a proactive nature photographer and letting the photo come to you need not be mutually exclusive concepts.

As a photo safari leader I see people caught up in the event of being in East Africa and missing the actual experience of making great photos. So many photographers (amateurs and veterans alike) own lots of high end photo equipment and have the energy and know-how to make crisp, well composed photographs. When they finish their safari they have a lovely portfolio of representative images of Africa. My goal as a leader and teacher is to teach them to move beyond those initial successes and put people in position to make not only beautiful portraits but to be able to capture the decisive moment and images that reflect the human condition.

The best way for me to do that is to teach folks to understand these elements of natural history and geometry:

1: What is my chosen subject capable of doing?
2: What is the subject most likely to do?
3 Where do I want the action to take place? Consider the background, the foreground, and the direction and quality of the light.
4 Where do I want and need to be at the decisive moment?

Some people move constantly (and sometimes thoughtlessly) while trying for a better angle on a subject while others stay rooted in one spot because they have a good view of the subject at the time. I prefer to photograph some of the action and get a feel for the subject’s behavior. If it’s a fluid situation, as with these lion cubs, I will move to the place with the best situation and the most open view and wait for the action to come my way. If I try to move when the peak moment arrives, I inevitably miss the shot.

This image of the lion cubs playing at first light (above) was captured because of a proactive move made well before the decisive moment. I had made lots of images of the young cats playing in a half-way decent situation, but what I didn’t like was the angle of view; we were looking down into a grassy creek bed six feet below us the safari van. A bit farther down the creek there was a flat, clear space with no brush and a green background that I thought would make an ideal setting for the same behavior. I opted to move to the better setting. Leaving the cubs playing in the creek bed was a difficult decision that was rewarded 3 minutes later (and right on cue) when the cubs climbed the bank and resumed playing, this time in a far better setting while bathed in soft early light . (Note: Todd often knows what the animals are going to do before the animals know….)

Having captured lots of great action in the perfect situation I was able to safely gamble on a higher risk set of shots. The cubs were practicing take-down and kill behaviors by chasing each other around the banks of the creek. Low light and fast moving subjects are the perfect recipe for creating pleasing and dramatic blurs. Note: Todd contributed several spectacular blurs to A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly; each is accompanied by a short write-up. Note to Todd: it is best when creating pleasing blurs at slow shutter speeds to reduce the ISO to 100 or lower if possible. This will allow you to use a much wider aperture. As a result, dust bunnies (like those in the upper right corner here) will be either minimized or eliminated. As we suggest in the Blur Guide .

Chasing leopards can be frustrating. If they are intent on a destination their movements almost always have a certain momentum to them. They usually are not going to stop and strike a dramatic pose just for you. Chasing them rarely offers many good chances. Being proactive by moving away from the subjects along a hoped-for route can often give you enough working distance to execute a dramatic shot. In this case a mother leopard and her 3 week old baby were out for a stroll near a safari track. As is often the case, vehicles in the area congregated to see these beautiful and elusive cats. Rather than joining the traffic jam we positioned the vehicle 500 meters away adjacent to what we hoped would be their path. Five minutes later they did in fact walk past our vehicle 10 feet away. Shooting out of the lower window offered this eye level view of the cub. Who would have guessed she would have chosen that exact spot to stop and play with a grasshopper?

If you are seeing a theme of risk and reward here you are indeed correct. In the image of a silver-backed jackal above the principle of risk and reward again holds true. The “real action” was a team of hyenas that killed a wildebeest calf in the predawn. When the jackal made off with this scrap of wildebeest fur I saw an opportunity. As he reached a safe distance from the kill he carefully bundled the fur in his mouth and proudly trotted off. Anticipating a golden sunrise and taking advantage of the pause in the jackal’s movement, we had been able to move quickly into position so that all were able to capture this tiny slice of life.

Single zebras are graphically beautiful subjects simply because of their stripes but a large herd of zebras can offer dramatic behaviors that can be a challenge to photographic well, yet these situations can deliver huge rewards if the photographer is able to capture the action. It is important to be proactive on a safari drive. Don’t expect your driver to spot all the action for you. Scan groups of animals for any signs of neat behavior that might occur. When a group of young zebra stallions starts nipping and kicking, have the driver stop the vehicle and see what develops. Here a group of zebras were sparring in the cool of the morning. It was impossible to guess which two stallions would go up on their hind legs and really go at it. The best bet was to move the vehicle to a spot with an unobstructed view of an open area. These two zebras ultimately chose that spot and jousted for a short three seconds. I opted for a 400mm shot that captured the dance-like quality of the interaction. Again, chasing the subjects would have resulted in many missed opportunities. Being proactive and then waiting for the photo to come to me was the key to success.

Thanks a stack Toddi for guest-blogging for me . Todd is the author of A Photographer’s Guide to The Safari Experience. If you head to Africa for the purpose of photographing the animals there without having purchased and studied this great guide you are making a huge mistake. To learn more about Todd, to see more of his great images, or to explore the possibility of joining him on safari or elsewhere, visit his web site here.

TODD GUSTAFSON ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TELEVISION

Safari photographer Todd Gustafson is the on-screen expert in one of the three segments on episode 105 of Nat Geo’s “Wild Case Files”. The show features riveting narrative interviews, HD video footage, and stunning still photographs. Watch as Todd tells the story of the 2007 mass wildebeest drowning at the Mara River. A must-see for nature lovers and photographers. This episode will air on April 11, 2011 at 9:00pm eastern time on Nat Geo Wild. Synopsis: Investigating a mass squid invasion on the California coast; Australian mouse plague; mysterious wildebeest deaths in Africa.

You can see the promo here. I clicked on a few of the promos and all that I can say is that I will be TIVO-ing the series! I gotta find out about the Montauk Monster.

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear that Todd uses regularly. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Nikkor 600mm f/4 VR II lens. There is no link for this product as for all practical purposes members of the general public are unable to purchase this lens.
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II lens. This is a newer, sharper version of a very versatile lens.
Nikon D3 S Digital Camera Body. This professional body has replaced the D3.

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Gitzo GT3541XLS Tripod. This is the tall man’s tripod. At 6′ 8″ Todd loves his!
Wimberley V2 head. Todd uses the Wimberley head full time with his 600.
Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. These high capacity cards are fast and dependable.

Conversations with Paul; Photoshop Info and Philosophies & Gear

Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:43:19 +0000

Conversations with Paul; Photoshop Info and Philosophies & Gear

First off, I need to say that folks who read the comments with each post are getting some great educational and photographic/philosophical info. For example, take a moment to scroll down and read the comments on the original Paul Mckenzie post here. The comments include a nice note from Paul.

In any case, I would like to share Paul’s response to an e-mail question that I sent him. The question (Can you shoot me a paragraph on your approach to image optimization, what you will do, what you won’t do, and what you’ve done?) was generated by a reader’s comment.

Here is Paul’s reply:

Raw conversion is done with Adobe DNG. In Adobe raw, I’ll adjust temperature, exposure, recovery, fill light and clarity (pretty much as you recommend in your Digital Basics File). Then I open in CS3, crop if necessary and fix colour casts (I’m fine if there are blacks and whites in the image, but admit that I often struggle otherwise). Sometimes I will use levels and curves but increasingly I find myself gravitating to Nik’s tonal contrast in Colour EFEX pro and Nik’s Viveza 2 for selective lightening & darkening. I regularly use Nik’s Define 2.0 for noise reduction – sometimes selectively brushed on. On occasion I’ll go back to CS3 and use quick masks for lightening irises. I use an actions command for resizing and sharpening (i.e; pretty much all sharpening is done generically).

On rare occasions I may remove a blade of grass or for example an out of focus raindrop (usually using a combination of Quick Masks, and the Patch and Clone Stamp tools. I do not introduce elements into an image and never change the natural history of the image.

I would add that I still consider my image processing skills as being no more than adequate. I still have lots to learn. Pretty much everything I know about post processing I have learned from your publications as well as those from Robert O’Toole.

Hope this helps. Paul

My comments on the above: CS-3 cannot convert the RAW images from the Mark IV. To avoid having to purchase CS-5, Paul converts his CR.2 RAW files to DNG files using Adobe DNG Converter. Once this is done, he is then able to convert his DNG RAW files using Adobe Camera RAW (just as I have been doing for the past few years). This is a great tip for folks with newer cameras (both Canon and Nikon I believe) who have not upgraded to CS-5.

I’d suggest to Paul that he try Robert O’Toole’s Average Blur Color Balance Trick (as detailed in the last Digital Basics File update. If that fails (as it does on occasion) you can work the RGB Curves (pulling down the BLUE curve is great for removing a BLUE color cast), you can reduce the saturation of individual colors in Hue Saturation, or you can play around with Selective Color.

As I said in a comment on the original post, Paul’s digital philosophy is quite similar to like mine though I am surely a bit more aggressive when it comes to removing distracting background elements and repairing wing-tips. As regular readers and Bulletin subscribers know, I always let folks know when I have done anything beyond ordinary image optimization and our images are captioned to indicate same. Both Paul and I believe in keeping our images true to the natural history of the situation.

For those who missed the original post, you can see more great images and read the complete story of his amazing trip–hordes of mosquitoes and all, by checking out Paul’s blog here.

Below is Paul’s Indonesia Gear Bag (with selected comments). (Note: the links will take you to the latest gear if the older version is no longer in production.)

Canon 1D MK 4
Canon 5D MK 2
Canon 16-35mm II f2.8 lens – always with the 5D MK 2 as I want a full frame body with this lens
Canon 70-200mm IS f2.8 lens
Canon 1.4x extender (version II)
Canon 300mm IS f/2.8 lens (version I)- I ended using this only once so wasn’t necessary
Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens (version 1)
Canon 580 EX II speedlight
Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24 EX flash (for use with macro subjects)
LumiQuest Soft Box – a plastic softbox that you attach to the front of the 580 EX speedlight with velcro. I used this with all wide angle shots of the Orangutans whenever I used flash. The idea being to dampen the flash and spread it as wide as possible. Most of the time I was very close to the Orangutans when I used the wide angle lens and I never went above minus 3 for flash compensation. The low flash output in conjunction with the softbox was also aimed at minimising disturbance of the Orangutans.

Thanks a ton to Paul for sharing both his wonderful images and his thoughts with us. Safe travels my friend.