Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

This image was created with the with the tripod-mounted Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens and the EOS_1D Mark III (since replaced by the EOS-1D Mark IV). ISO 800. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/320 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode. In the old days before I went to rear focus full time I probably used central sensor/One-Shot AF to focus on the fish’s eye but it is possible that I was in AI Servo and focused on the fish just beyond the claws and the eye of the fish…. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Lens/TC/camera body Micro-adjustment: +4. For a greater appreciation of the image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it.

My Comments on “For Your Critique: Image #4″

On August 1, 2011 I posted For Your Critique: Image #4. It was entered in the WPOTY category: Behavior: Mammals. When this bear caught a salmon and walked right towards me I was a bit frazzled as it stopped to dine only 20 feet away. At first I was confused as to what type of image to create. I did not have an intermediate zoom lens on my shoulder. I knew that I needed to remove the 1.4X TC. That done I looked through the viewfinder, saw the eye of the fish between those big claws, and visualized the image that I wanted to create. I have always loved this image and thought that it might do well in a contest or two. It has not.

Several folks inferred that the subject matter was inappropriate mentioning the “poor salmon getting its guts ripped out.” Gore sells. Gore wins contests. Bears gotta eat…. As for me, I am always rooting for the predator. One poster mentioned that images like this had (pun intended) been done to death. Though I have seen lots of close-ups of bears eating fresh-caught salmon I have never seen one even remotely similar to this. Mary Stamper as she almost always does, saw things exactly as I did when she wrote: “I like the image as it is. To me, it is mostly about the eye between the claws. I like the way my eye first grabs the red flesh and then slides down the fish body to meet up with the eye between the claw. Then you realize that it’s a bear. That’s just about a perfect visual manipulation to me. A very engaging and arresting, not to mention startling, image.”

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 used to create the image in this 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.

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

Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens. 500mm is the most popular telephoto focal length with a wonderful blend of reach, ease of handling, and relatively light weight. I owned two of these at one time and loved them to death. This focal length will soon be replaced with a Series II model that will be smaller and lighter and feature 4-stop IS. I can’t wait To learn more about the news lenses start here.
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-sales 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.
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.

This is the new Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II Super-telephoto lens that I will be taking on my Falklands, South Georgia, Antarctica cruise.

The Best Laid Plans…

Last week I had BAA Account/Executive Director/daughter (not necessarily in that order) Jennifer send a check to Canon for my new 400mm f/2.8L IS lens. They were told that there was one on the way with my name on it. Several days later when the lens had not arrived I e-mailed and learned that the expected shipment had not materialized. So it was back to square one. Though time was very short I considered borrowing a 500mm f/4L IS lens–the old version–from Canon Professional Services but I went back to my list and decided to try to get the new 300mm f/2.8L IS lens…. It would prove to be very versatile and I am anxious to see how the Series II super-telephoto lenses work with the Series III teleconverters….

B&H did not have one in stock. That ruled out buying it from them. Since Canon Professional Services (CPS) did not have any 400 f/2.8L IS II lenses to loan I assumed that they did not have a 300 f/2.8L IS II either. So, when I was still at my Mom’s on Long Island, I went online to try to buy one. I found one in stock on Amazon (through a somewhat fishy third party), put it in my basket, entered my credit card info, and selected “expedited shipping.” Unexpectedly it said, “Delivery expected December 23-28, 2011…. So I cancelled my order.

The next morning on the way home from Orlando International Airport my cell phone rang. It was Paul from CPS asking if someone would be home the next day to receive the gear that I had loaned for my Antarctica trip, a Canon EOS_-D Mark II and a 16-35mm IS L II zoom lens. I said “Yes,” and continued with my tale of long lens woe. “Hold on,” he said, “I’ll be right back.” In a moment he returned saying, “I have a 300mm f/2.8L IS II lens here and will include it right now with the shipment that you will get tomorrow.”

That was a very nice holiday present. I spent this morning micro-adjusting the lens with both of my bodies with both the 1.4X III and the 2X III TCs. The results were amazingly consistent with my micro-adjustments ranging only from -3 to +2. (I have come up with a fast, new, easy way to micro-adjust without having to tether your camera to a laptop. I will be sharing the “Non-Tethered Micro-Adjusting Tutorial” with you at some point.) See here for Lens Align Mark II info and the original Micro-Adjusting Tutorial.

After I finished micro-adjusting I took a few hand held images with the new 300 f/2.8 II and the 2X III TC: tree trunks, some leaves, and a few tight details of of my home. Wow. Though I was working at relatively slow shutter speeds, averaging about 1/320 sec., the images were screamingly sharp. I can wait to get down there. Though offering a bit less magnification at the long end most of the birds and wildlife we will be working with are exceeding tame so I should be fine for the most part. I will get to try out both Series III TCs with a Series II super-telephoto lens, and I will be saving 3.3 pounds to boot. Not to mention saving more than $12,000! I leave for the airport tomorrow–12/28/2011–after lunch. Till then….

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

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 300mm f/2.8L IS II. The new 300 f/2.8 is only a bit lighter than the previous version but it features 4-stop IS and promises to work superbly well with both Series III TCs. And as I learned this morning it is–as expected–super-sharp. B&H should be getting a few in stock fairly soon; place your order now and your card will not be charged until the item is shipped. You will be seeing lots of images made with this lens when I get back (unless I drop it in the ocean….)

Canon 2X III teleconverter. Noticeably sharper than the 2X II TC this new extender is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
Canon 1.4X III Teleconverter. Designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.

This image of a Mute Swan flapping after a bath was created at the East Pond, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, NY with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/2000 sec. at f/6.3. For a greater appreciation of the image above, click on the photo to view a larger version. Click on the enlarged version to close it.

My Comments on: For Your Critique/Image #7

On September 14, 2011 I posted For Your Critique: Image #7. This one was entered in the Behaviour Birds category of the 2011 WPOTY competition. I like this image a lot, especially for its elegance. As the contest is UK based Mute Swan images often do well. Because I choose to remove distracting background elements from so many of my avian images, I cannot enter them in various contests. This one was pretty much straight out of camera but for dust-spotting, color & contrast adjustments, and sharpening.

Most folks offered positive comments. Some folks like the brown and blue bands in the water. Others did not. I would have preferred all blue without any ripples. (The brown was reflections of the phragmites, the giant reeds, on the far shoreline.) It was suggested that I eliminate the single, large drop of water from the spray in front of the bird. I would have liked to but that is not permitted under the WPOTY rules. (Click here for an interesting discussion on digital contest guidelines.) Some folks praised the exposure and the detail in the white feathers, others felt that the white feathers lacked detail. Two folks thought that the primaries of the near wing had been damaged or clipped; though this species is introduced in the US this was a free and wild bird. The primaries of the near wing are simply foreshortened. As fr the image design and the crop, I love it as is.

Note that in North America both Canada Goose and Mute Swan are often ignored as potential photographic subjects. Though I am not a fan of introduced species like Mute Swan, I do not hesitate to photograph them and use them as teaching aids both in the field and during Photoshop sessions. When you see either species dipping their breasts in the water, get ready to create some dramatic images as they will almost always rise up out of the water and flap for all they are worth. The same goes for most bird families especially shorebirds and ducks.

For those who prefer a bit more detail in the WHITEs, I ran NIK Color Efex Pro’s Detail Extractor at about 40% on the image and painted the effect in on the bird only with a Hide-all Mask (as described in detail in Digital Basics). For a greater appreciation of the detail in the WHITEs in the image above, click on the photo to view a larger version. Click on the enlarged version to close it.

NIK Color Efex Pro 4 Recipe Tip

If missed my NIK Color EFEX Pro 4 Recipe Tutorial, click here.

You can see spectacular before and after Color Efex recipe images here.

NIK 15% Discount

You can save 15% on all NIK products by clicking here and entering BAA in the Promo Code box at check-out. Then hit Apply to see your savings. You can download a trial copy that will work for 15 days and allow you to create full sized images.

NIK Creative Efex Collection

NIK recently announced the availability of a special limited production bundle of 3 of their most popular products, Color Efex Pro 4, Silver Efex Pro 2, and HDR Efex Pro. You can save more than $200 on the bundle which is available only through NIK affiliates. If you would like additional info, please e-mail with the words “Creative Efex Collection” in the Subject line. If you have been on the fence about purchasing the plug-ins mentioned above this is a great chance to save some significant bucks.

Thanks to all who commented. Note: this image did not make the final round of judging.

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 used to create the image 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.

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.

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear used to create the image 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 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-sales 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.
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.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV User’s Guide. Learn to use your Mark IV the way that I use mine. Also available for the 7D and the Mark III here.

Is artie Nuts? Why Would He Spend $11,499 (plus 7% sales tax and shipping) On a Lens He Has Preached Against for More Than Two Decades?

Am I nuts? It very well could be but I do not think so. Here’s the story:

I am flying to Miami on 28 DEC and continuing on overnight to Buenos Aires, Argentina and then flying late afternoon on the 29th to Ushuaia, Argentina to meet the ship and the group for the Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctica voyage that I have signed up for (on my own dime). I had long been planning to purchase the Canon 500mm f/4L IS II lens (7.04 pounds) for this nearly month-long trip and have had one pre-ordered with B&H for many months. Then life intervened. The “sometime in December” release date for the 500 II (and the 600 II as well) was pushed back indefinitely:

Canon U.S.A. Provides Updates On EF Lens Availability

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., November 16, 2011 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced updated availability information for three of its EF lenses:

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens availability yet to be determined
Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens availability yet to be determined

Additional information regarding the shipping date of each lens will be made available as soon as possible.

You can read the entire press release here.

Well, there went that idea. I would not have a 500 IS II for the trip. What are the options:

Take the 800mm f/5.6L IS (9.86 pounds). Too slow at f/5.6. And a bad idea with such tame birds…. Not enough focal length flexibility.

Borrow a 500 f/4 L IS (8.54 pounds) from Canon Professional Services. Great focal length flexibility (with both the 1.4X and the 2X TCs) but I really want to see how one of the new Series II Super-telephotos perform with the Series III teleconverters.

Borrow a 600 f/4L IS (11.83 pounds) from Canon Professional Services. What are you nuts? My shoulders are killing me!

Get my hands on a 300mm f/2.8L IS II (5.19 pounds). Relatively light in weight with lots of focal length flexibility. Long enough for most folks but not for me with a maximum reach of 300 times the 2X TC times the 1.3 MIV crop factor = 780mm.

Borrow a 400mm f/2.8L IS II (8.49 pounds)from Canon Professional Services. Sorry, too new. Not available for loan.

Borrow a 400mm f/2.8L IS II (8.49 pounds) through the B&H affiliate program. Sorry, that item exceeds the $10,000 limit on affiliate loans.

Buy a new 400mm f/2.8L IS II (8.49 pounds). Great focal length flexibility (with both the 1.4XIII and the 2XIII TCs) with a nice reach: 400 times the 2X III TC times the 1.3 MIV crop factor = 1040mm. Not shabby. And I would get to see how one of the new Series II lenses works with the Series III TCs. Did you say “buy”?

Is the new Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS II Super-telephoto lens just what artie needs for his Southern Oceans trip?

But wait!

Yeah. I’m the guy who wrote, For bird photography it is always better to choose a longer slower lens than a shorter faster one. And wrote this too, The 400 f/2.8L lenses are simply not a good choice for most bird photographers unless you live out west, also do lots of big mammals in low light, and/or routinely photograph birds at very close range such as at a feeder or another type of set-up.”

But those things were written when the 400 f/2.8s weighed 13 or 14 pounds….

Consider: on a tripod it will give me 400mm, 560mm, and 800mm (all with the the Mark IV’s 1.3X crop factor in addition. It will be mesh perfectly with my 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II. It weighs a fraction less than the old 500mm (that I was able to hand hold for short periods of time. And it weighs more than 1 1/4 pounds less than the 800 f/5.6. It features the amazing 4-stop Image Stabilization system so I should be able to hand hold it (at least for short periods) on Zodiac rides when I need the reach. And I should be able to hand hold it with the 1.4X III TC for flight photography from the ship.

After much thought, and realizing that you only live once, I ordered a brand new 400mm f/2.8L IS II lens through Canon’s Explorers of Light program. In all likelihood I will be selling it after the voyage. Unless I fall in love with it. Heck, it would be great on the Galapagos too….

SEASON’S GREETINGS

Jim, Jennifer, Peter Kes, and I would like to send each and every one of you best wishes for a joyous holiday season and a wonderful, productive, rewarding, and healthy 2012 filled with great photographic opportunities and wonderful travels. Jennifer will not be back to work until 2012! Jim will be here Monday through Thursday this week (DEC 26-29). He will, however, be out of the office on Wednesday, DEC 28 from 1-4pm and all day on Friday; please leave a phone message and we will get back to you on January 2, 2012.

Please note that as I will be on a Falklands, South Georgia, Antarctica cruise from DEC 28, 2011 through JAN 26, 2012 without internet access except possibly for a day or two at the beginning and/or the end of the trip. Then I am home for a bit spending a week on the road for the sold-out SW FLA IPT. The I disappear again for a month-long (17 FEB to 13 MAR) trip to Japan. (There is lots of room there if you would like to join us.) Jim will be here to help you with your mail order and other needs and Jennifer as always will be handling the IPT registrations; do note that the Morro Bay IPT is now half full.

I simply will be unable to respond to questions in my usual timely fashion until at least mid-March so please hold off with your photography questions till then. You can learn the answers to practically of your questions in ABP, ABPII, and Digital Basics. In addition, there is a killer-good search feature on the blog, the little white box in the upper right of the blog pages. It will lead you to information both on the blog and in the Bulletins. At all times we ask that you try to find the answers to your questions either in the books or on-line before e-mailing. That said I look forward to receiving your fresh, new questions via e-mail this spring.

Despite my absence on the Southern Oceans trip blog folks will scarcely notice my absence as Peter Kes will be posting lots of great stuff for me about every other day. (I have been working hard preparing posts in advance.) I will not, of course, be able to respond to your comments until I get back. One final note, it is getting closer to the time for everyone to enter the BRIDS AS ART 1st International Bird Photography Competition; the deadline is March 31, 2012. Right now, many of the $20,000+ worth of prizes are pretty much unclaimed and there are many empty categories…. The entry fee is only $25 for ten images or see more immediately below.

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

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.

This image was created with the with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/640 sec. at f/5.6 in Av mode. Lens/Camera Body Micro-Adjustment: +2. Central Sensor/Rear Focus/AI Servo AF and re-compose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. To enjoy viewing a larger sized image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it. Finding fire in the mist at Bosque is always a thrilling experience. To learn everything that I know about Bosque del Apache NWR before you first visit, be sure to purchase and study a copy of our Bosque Site Guide. After 17 years of visiting I have learned a bit about the place and am eager to share it with you.

My Comments on: For Your Critique: Image #3

On July 8, 2011, I posted For Your Critique: Image #3. It was entered in the WPOTY category: Animals in Their Environment. The post inspired 24 comments. Every single comment was a positive one filled with praise for the light, the scene, and the photographer. Two folks mentioned toning down the several bright spots of water in the lower right. I agree of course but I believed that doing so might have put the image in jeopardy of being disqualified from the WPOTY competition; the submission of the RAW file is required for all images that make the final round of judging. There was a single suggestion to crop the image to a panoramic but for me this would have destroyed the depth and in addition, there simply is no place to execute such a crop without clipping birds.

Someone suggested that this image was even better than the original Fire in the Mist, the one that graces the cover of Light on the Earth. For me it is no contest with the original being far stronger.

My problems with Image #3:

• With the wind from the northeast, all of the birds are looking and flying away…
• The out-of-focus geese in front of the row of sharply focused (by necessity) cranes is mildly distracting.
• The three sharpest geese are on the left side of the frame; having them on the right would have been preferred as then they would have at least been flying through part of the frame rather than leaving.
• Some of the geese in the front row are showing us their butts.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Portfolio 21

I must say that this year’s Portfolio is the most stunning edition ever. Though they are understandably out of stock, you can order a copy here from Amazon. You will be helping support the Blog and the Bulletins to the tune of a few pennies and will be getting to see some amazing photographs a lot larger and more dramatically than on the web where they are pretty much presented tiny…. Once the book is back in stock I will be discussing various images on the blog (as promised previously).

B&H Specials

B&H has two great specials that run till the end of December.

Canon EOS-5D Mark II Package

You can get a Canon EOS-5D Mark II package that includes a 16GB CompactFlash Card, a Lowepro Adventura 170 Shoulder Bag, and the Red Giant B&H Video Production Software Bundle (a $719.85 value) for only $1,999.95 with free USA shipping by clicking here. The 5D Mark II is everyone’s favorite landscape camera body; see the lead image here. I took one to Bosque to create some very wide images and will be taking one to Antarctica along with the circle lens. Not to mention that it is a killer video camera…. (No questions on video please!)

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Zoom Lens

If you own a 7D, a 60D, or a 50D, and you like to do landscape and/or side angle photography this would be the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS zoom lens will thrill you. (Note: this lens will not fit on an EOS-1D Mark IV or other 1D series bodies and it will not on the EOS-5D Mark II.) The $41 instant rebate is good only till the end of the month; you can purchase this lens 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 used to create the image above. 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 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-sales 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.
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.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV User’s Guide. Learn to use your Mark IV the way that I use mine. Also available for the 7D and the Mark III here.

If you give the animated GIF above a moment to play you will note that in the course of optimizing the image I did a fair amount of digital clean-up. See more below. This image was at Indian Lake Estates, FL with the tripod-mounted Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens with the 1.4X III TC and the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV ISO 200. This is a 7-frame AEB HDR: +/- one stop around Evaluative metering at zero: 1/800 sec. at f/8. Central sensor/rear-focus AI Servo AF. Lens/camera body Micro-adjustment: -8.

Digital Manipulation and Nature Photography Competitions

I did not have to look far to find an image that would be disqualified from most international nature photography competitions; it is an HDR image that has obviously been cleaned up). As far as the ethics of nature photography are concerned my stance is a simple one: the before image is an image of a lily in a pond and the after image is an image of a lily in a pond. No lies have been told at least from where I sit.

Recently, while searching the web for information on my friend, the late Fritz Pölking, an iconic German nature photographer, I came across a link to an interesting article entitled “Manipulated Images in Nature Photography Competitions; Pure Nature or Pixel Pushing? You can find the entire article here. It is an interesting article that would be well worth reading for all serious nature photographers especially those concerned with the ethics of nature photography (like me) or those (like me) who enjoy entering (and especially having images honored by) one or more of the prestigious international competitions. The article was credited to the “GDT board of management” but at the very end included this “by Thomas Block” and this “German to English translations by Alexandra Korte” so I am a bit confused as to how to credit the authorship.

The GDT

The GDT (Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen) is based in Germany. Rather than try to explain exactly what they do I offer this from their website:

What does the GDT want?

The GDT set itself the task, to produce photographical appealing, convincing and biologically irrefutable nature photos under the compliance with the prevailling laws and to distribute them to the public by exhibitions, books, photo magazines, catalogues and lectures. That way the GDT wants to contribute to a better understanding of the nature and to advertise for her protection. For GDT members the respect for nature is the most important rule at their photographical work.

What does the GDT do?

Every year the GDT organizes the huge “International Nature Photography Festival” with slide shows by photographers from all over the world, with photo exhibitions and seminars on latest subjects of the nature photography. During the festival a unique photo market presents innovations of the film and equipment market, customized designs, numerous accessories, books and travels about nature photography. Above that, every year the GDT organizes an internal photo contest “GDT – Nature Photographer of the Year” as well as an open contest “European Wildlife Photographer of the Year”.

(I have been meaning to join the GDT ever since I visited to speak about six years ago….)

My Comments

Note: the bold italics in the “What does the GDT want?” paragraph above are mine. The choice of using “biologically irrefutable” to qualify nature photos is an interesting one that clearly implies that little or no digital manipulation (I far prefer the term optimization) is permitted. As you read the article above that implication becomes very clear. And I am fine with their stance. For the contest and for their exhibits. If I do join (I am planning to do that soon) and I enter the contest (as I also plan to do) I will of course abide by the rules.

At the end of the article they included “Statements of some (actually 3) of the members of the jury (for the 2009 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.) The first two judges towed the party line. Here is a typical remark by made by judge Theo Bosboom (Netherlands):

The second day was still pleasant, but brought also a lot of frustration. After viewing the raw-files, we had to eliminate many selected pictures, because the competition rules had been breached by the photographers. Sometimes this decision was easy, for example when all kind of objects had been removed from a picture, or when the picture turned out to be only a small crop of the original (while only 30 % cropping is allowed). In other cases, the decision was less obvious and required extensive discussions between the jury members. It is for example hard to determine whether the contrast and colour temperature of a picture have been changed so much that also “the message of the photograph” has been changed.

We could spend days discussing that single paragraph alone so I will limit myself to a single comment: It is very hard indeed to determine if an image has been “juiced up” too much especially since the judges were not there and in view of the following facts:

1-Digital images are inherently unsharp and low in contrast as they come out of the camera as compared to film images.
2-Properly exposing digital images to the right to ensure that a file of the highest quality will often result in a RAW file that looks dull and washed out.

When I read the comments of the third judge–Dr. Siegmar Bergfeld (Germany) I was, however, stunned. Here they are:

While judging this competition I was once again struck how the intensity of the images had amplified through the use of digital photography. There were a lot of great eyecatchers which were in many cases later identified as a breach of the competition rules. It was a painful task to exclude otherwise great photographs because of undue manipulations. I came to ask myself the following: should we make the creators of these photographs the centre of our criticism or our competition rules?

Back in the analogue era of photography we – as genuine wildlife photographers – accepted the numerous feeding places that we consciously did not incorporate into the photograph, the “manipulations” using graduated filters, ultra zoom lenses, flashes, blurring, a little twig removed and much more…not to
mention the work in the dark room. Now with digital photography at our hands our possibilities to improve images have been increasing magnificently. It is my opinion that we should utilize this (sic: technology) openly rather than making it a taboo (a much straighter approach would be for example to hang a small copy of the original raw file with the corresponding photograph). To avoid any misunderstanding: copying additional objects into an image, distorting the essential meaning and also any kind of composing if not stated, turns wildlife photography into an untrustworthy and interchangeable matter. But great photographs are often not created by adding something but by the art of reduction.

Wow! Stunned is an understatement. Blown away. Shocked. Though the translation (or possibly just the intended meaning) is a bit less than crystal clear here is the judge of a prestigious international competition suggesting that nature photography contests might be better off allowing things like background clean-up so long as the natural history of the situation is preserved.

I am hoping that Dr. Bergfeld proves to be a man ahead of his time….

Do note that the relaxed digital restrictions (see below) in The 1st BIRDS AS ART International Bird Photography Competition accurately reflect Dr. Bergfeld’s suggestions.

From the Rules page:

• Digital Restrictions: Entrants are permitted to remove both major and minor distracting elements from an image so long as the natural history of the scene at the moment of capture is preserved. You may add canvas, a wing-tip, or a tail-tip. Compositional elements that were not present at the moment of capture may not be added. Dust-spotting is of course permitted as are adjustments to color, contrast, and tonality. You may crop your images. Cropping shall not exceed more than 50% of the width and/or the height of the original RAW image.
• RAW files for all winning and honored images (except for those entered in the Digital Creations category) will be requested via e-mail after the close of the contest. They must be submitted in a timely fashion. Instructions for submitting the required files will be sent via e-mail. Failure to submit the requested RAW files will result in the image being eliminated from the competition.

Rejoinder

Nothing above including my comments should be construed as being critical of the GDT. Most prestigious international nature photography competitions have similar digital restrictions. I am hoping of course that in the future things may change drastically.

Your comments on any of the issues raised above are of course welcome.

B&H Specials

B&H has two great specials that run till the end of December.

Canon EOS-5D Mark II Package

You can get a Canon EOS-5D Mark II package that includes a 16GB CompactFlash Card, a Lowepro Adventura 170 Shoulder Bag, and the Red Giant B&H Video Production Software Bundle (a $719.85 value) for only $1,999.95 with free USA shipping by clicking here. The 5D Mark II is everyone’s favorite landscape camera body; see the lead image here. I took one to Bosque to create some very wide images and will be taking one to Antarctica along with the circle lens. Not to mention that it is a killer video camera…. (No questions on video please!)

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Zoom Lens

If you own a 7D, a 60D, or a 50D, and you like to do landscape and/or side angle photography this would be the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS zoom lens will thrill you. (Note: this lens will not fit on an EOS-1D Mark IV or other 1D series bodies and it will not on the EOS-5D Mark II.) The $41 instant rebate is good only till the end of the month; you can purchase this lens 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 used to create the image 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 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2X III teleconverter. I also use it a lot with the 1.4X III TC.
Canon 1.4X III Teleconverter. Designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
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-sales 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.
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.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV User’s Guide. Learn to use your Mark IV the way that I use mine. Also available for the 7D and the Mark III here.

Tundra Swans, Lower Klamath NWR, CA. This image was created was created with the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens, the 2X III teleconverter (hand held at 140mm) with the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6 in Av Mode. Central Sensor/Rear Focus/AI Servo AF and re-compose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. To enjoy viewing a larger sized image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it.

My Comments on: For Your Critique: Image #2

On July 1, 2011, I posted the image above here as #2 in the “For Your Critique” series. It was entered in the WPOTY category: Animals in Their Environment. It proved to be a popular post as it prompted 30 comments. On the whole it proved more popular than #1 in the series, the image that was honored in the Creative Visions of Nature category of the 2011 WPOTY competition; see here for details.

With Image #2 I was pretty much baffled by the comments on the composition. To my eye, this motif (as my friend, the late, great German nature photographer Fritz Pölking called the design of his images) is perfect. That is one of the main reasons that I included this image in my 20-photo WPOTY submission.

The Comments

There were many positive comments, some of which mentioned things that I did not even know that I liked about the image. Here is one of the many: Big fan. I really like the scene as it has a lot of depth. The wave, the swans, the shoreline, the fields, the hills, cloud shadow, clouds, and finally sky. A definite keeper in my opinion. I’d have to agree.

Many folks suggested a variety of crops, mostly cropping from the top, some from below, and some from both top and bottom. While creating a different version or two would surely an option I do love the image exactly as cropped. Including the entire cloud yields a powerful and complete image with a nicely balanced composition. That of course IMHO. As I write often, “If an element is worth including in the frame I almost always want to include the whole thing with at least a small border around it.” One poster summed it up perfectly by writing, “I’d keep the towering clouds as they give a feeling of depth and the expanse of the scene.”

I would have been OK with a sliver of a crop from the bottom to eliminate the small dark area in the lower left corner but I did not mind that bit of dark blue so I left it. (Covering it with a Quick Mask for entry into the WPOTY and many other competitions would not be permitted; doing so would be fine in the BAA 1st International Bird Photography Competition.)

As for the lack of a clear subject, for me the cold and the blue are the main subject. And finally, this poster wrote a fine conclusion for today’s offering: I like the image as is. It looks … like a wonderful winter wonderland. Thanks to all who commented either positively or negatively and to all who offered suggestions.

Lesson

With images like this folks often ask, “Why did you have the 2X on when you used a focal length of 140mm?” You could have removed the 2X, worked at 140mm, and produced a sharper image. They are of course correct. I was, however, trying to photograph small groups of the swans in flight as they departed so I needed to be able to zoom in tight to 400mm. Then I looked up, saw all the swans in a row with that big, beautiful cloud above the pond and the mountains, and zoomed out. When I saw that I could include all of the elements that I wanted for the image I rear-focused on the closest swan, re-composed, and pressed the shutter button. By the time I began to remove the TC the perfect grouping no longer existed….

The tale above also explains why I was at 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6 (rather than at 1/1000 sec. at f/11 for more depth-of-field….)

B&H Photo Free Overnight Holiday Shipping on Selected Canon Lenses

BAA sponsor B&H Photo is offering free overnight shipping on selected Canon lenses (including many of my favorites) from now only until Thursday Dec.22, 4:00pm EST. Any lenses ordered via this link only will be received in time to be placed under the X-mas tree (or under the Hanukkah bush).

The selection includes two versions of the 70-200 IS, my current favorite, the 70-200 f/2.8L IS II, and my old favorite, the 70-200 f/4L IS. (Click here to learn about the 70-200 IS L II with the 2X III TC.) Also included are the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens (the wide angle zoom that I am taking to Antarctica) and the EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. Also on the list is Denise Ippolito‘s favorite Canon intermediate telephoto zoom, the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS (Image Stabilizer) USM lens; lord, I made a zillion great images with that lens. In addition, there are five other shorter Canon lenses on the list. Again, you can view the entire list here.

Click on the logo-link below for free overnight shipping on Canon Powershot Cameras; they make great gifts!

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 used to create the image 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 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2X III teleconverter. I also use it a lot with the 1.4X III TC.
Canon 1.4X III Teleconverter. Designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
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:

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.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV User’s Guide. Learn to use your Mark IV the way that I use mine. Also available for the 7D and the Mark III here.

This Great White Pelican image was created at Lake Kerkini, Greece with the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens, the 2X III teleconverter (hand held at 185mm) with the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/1250 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. Lens/TC/camera body Micro-adjustment: -4. Central Sensor/Rear Focus/AI Servo AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. To enjoy viewing a larger sized image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it.

NIK Color Efex Pro 4 Tip

As stated in Capture and Beyond Workflow Lessons That You Cannot Afford to Miss, it is important to take care of your RAW files so that when you learn new techniques or learn to work with new software you can go back and re-work some of your favorites. Though I had never optimized this image before the other day it surely benefited from a visit to Color Efex as you can see by viewing the animated GIF below.

In the before and after images above note that 50% Tonal Contrast has given the image some pop, White Neutralizer has eliminated the sickly color cast, and Detail Extractor has restored density and detail to the white feathers. I just love the way that White Neutralizer makes the BLUEs in an image sing. As I have been saying, NIK Color Efex Pro has made huge changes in my workflow, made my life easier, and vastly improved the quality of my images.

Working more and more each day with the plug-in, I have been making some neat and time-saving discoveries. Recently I came up with a great way to run Tonal Contrast at 50% and White Neutralizer at 100% in one fell swoop (thanks to Denise Ippolito for the Save Recipe revelation) and to follow that up with Details Extractor as needed. It is a real time saver. Here is how I do it:

• With your cleaned-up image open in Photoshop, hit Filter/NIK Software/Color Efex Pro 4.
• Click on Tonal Contrast; move the Highlights slider back to 12%, the Midtones slider back to 25%, and the Shadows slider to 12%.
• Click on the + sign by Add Filter and select White Neutralizer. Leave the sliders at the default settings.
• Now click on Save Recipe and create a name; I used 50% TC + WH NEUTR. Hit OK after you save your named recipe.
• Now when I open an image in Color Efex I click on Recipes/Custom and then click on the icon for 50% TC + WH NEUTR. A dialog box will appear and say: “Adding a Recipe will replace all filters currently applied to your image. Would you like to continue?” Before clicking Yes I would suggest checking the “Do not show again” box.
• If I wish to run Detail Extractor or experiment with any other filters on the list I simply hit the + sign by Add Filer and continue. Details Extractor is great for restoring detail in various areas of an image especially the bright WHITEs. If you wish to tone down the effects I would recommend moving the Detail Extractor to the left.

Note: If you want to apply Detail Extractor only to part of your image you will need to apply your Recipe first, reopen the image in Color Efex Pro 4, run Detail Extractor, apply it, and then add either a Hide-All or a Layer Mask to the new NIK layer once the image opens in Photoshop. You can learn to use both types of Layer Masks in the Layer Masking for Dummies section of Digital Basics.

You can see spectacular before and after Color Efex recipe images here.

NIK 15% Discount

You can save 15% on all NIK products by clicking here and entering BAA in the Promo Code box at check-out. Then hit Apply to see your savings. You can download a trial copy that will work for 15 days and allow you to create full sized images.

NIK Creative Efex Collection

NIK recently announced the availability of a special limited production bundle of 3 of their most popular products, Color Efex Pro 4, Silver Efex Pro 2, and HDR Efex Pro. You can save more than $200 on the bundle which is available only through NIK affiliates. If you would like additional info, please e-mail with the words “Creative Efex Collection” in the Subject line. If you have been on the fence about purchasing the plug-ins mentioned above this is a great chance to save some significant bucks.

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 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 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2X III teleconverter. I also use it a lot with the 1.4X III TC.
Canon 1.4X III Teleconverter. Designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
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:

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.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV User’s Guide. Learn to use your Mark IV the way that I use mine. Also available for the 7D and the Mark III here.

This is my recently finished pool. Below some will enjoy the construction sequence. Thanks to Jim Litzenberg who created about half of the images below in my absence.

My New Lap/Kiddie Pool is Named Digital Basics….

When I was younger I loved to play three-man basketball. Fifteen or twenty hours a week in college and beyond. Thanks to my bad left knee and more, those days are long gone. In my thirties I jogged six days a week, up to six miles. Very, very slowly. The knee and a bad back put an end to that. In my forties long health walks were pretty much my only exercise. In my fifties, then living in Florida as I do now, I purchased a Stairmaster for my home and used it often when I was not traveling. Now in my sixties the walking has been about it. If I jog as few as 25 steps my left knee comes a calling, and three days on the Stairmaster has the same result.

When I was at my Mom’s on Long Island in August I started swimming laps in the community pool at Timber Ridge in Holbrook. (I had loved to swim as a kid.) It was fun, it provided some much needed cardio-vascular exercise, and it lowered my blood sugar levels a lot. And swimming does not stress the joints like basketball, jogging, and the Stairmaster. Unless you over-do it which of course I did. But I switched from the crawl to an easy breast stroke and within a week my shoulders were fine.

When I got home I began to consider building a lap pool in my backyard. Once I made the decision things moved quickly. (I quickly rejected the idea of a “small swim against the current” pool.) I hired Ron Sullins of Casual Way Pools in nearby Lake Wales despite the fact that others offered to build the “same” pool for $10,000 less… I was 100% confident in Ron from the moment that I met him. My plans for a lap pool with a kiddie pool sidecar were unique; Ron listened carefully, assured me that he could build it, and wrote up a quote. Within days a signed contract was in place. For the largest backyard pool that Ron had built in his 30 years in the business. I had thought that the pool of my dreams would cost about $35,000. The price tag for the finished pool that you see above was $67,000. Thus the name “Digital Basics.” At the time of construction we had sold about 3,350 copies of Digital Basics at (only) $20 each. Do the math… Here’s a huge thank you to all who have purchased Digital Basics (and of course to all who regularly visit the BAA On-Line store and to those who attend IPTs and seminars).

The pool was ready for swimming when I got back from Bosque. As you might guess, I dove right in and started swimming a half mile twice a day. By the fourth day I had trashed my shoulders again. When I was 12, my Mom, who is sitting beside me as I type, said, “This child does not know the meaning of the word moderation.” I guess that some things never change….

Above: trimming the one oak tree that needed to be sacrificed…

The first cut…

Timber…

A most humble beginning…

Digging the pool.

The gravel allowed them to work around the ground water; we had had record huge rains just before they began…

Beginning the framing work.

Framing complete.

Foreman Patrick and crew building the side support walls. That’s Glenn on the left and Piggy in the back.

Side support walls and reinforced steel grid in place.

Applying gunnite to the bottom of the pool.

And to the sides…

More floor work; note the roughed out steps in the kiddie pool corner.

Working towards perfection…

Gunnite shell complete.

Patrick landscaping .

The supply truck hauled just about everything to the job site.

Relocating the home air conditioner compressor/condenser unit.

A/C unit move complete.

Destroying the old “new” patio. (I added two large rooms to my home last year, my new large office with the 60 inch flat screen and a large gallery room.)

Installing the decorative blue tiling.

The completed, tiled pool shell ready for the deck to be poured.

Pouring the deck.

Finishing the deck. This crew–like the crews of all the other sub-contractors, settled only for perfection.

The completed deck.

The patio roof.

Framing for the screened-in pool enclosure completed.

Adding the screening.

The completed pool enclosure (with screening).

Applying the final blue plaster finish.

Pretty much complete but for the pool machinery and lots of clean-up work.

Heater/Chiller on the right, (saltwater) filtration system in the center.

Adding that most necessary component: water.

The filled pool after clean-up with the non-skid decorative finish applied to the deck.

A view of the completed pool from just outside my office. The lap section is 60 feet long by 12 feet wide, 4 1/2 to five feet deep in the center of the lane. The shallower kiddie pool section for my four grandkids is 15 feet by 15 feet.

Looking back down the swim lane towards my home. My office is just inside the French doors that were suggested by Denise Ippoltio before the pool was even a dream.

A view of the kiddie pool section.

A fabulous job well done by all.