Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
November 23rd, 2017

Lightening and Cleaning Up an Unpleasant Dark Shadow & Another shock-the-world priced 1DX Mark II

Stuff

On Wednesday morning I headed out to Robert Moses in the rain to look for deer but there were no deer. There were lots of gulls in the parking lot rain puddles so I had fun photographing them. There were four adult and one third year Lesser Black-backed Gulls. I photographed two of the four. On the way back to Lissy’s to babysit for Ilyas I stopped by Heckscher where I found another third year lesser black-backed along with the usual gulls in the now huge rain puddle in Field 7, and spotted the godwit for the second time. The sun came out briefly after my short nap but within minutes it was cloudy black and windy so I took the afternoon off. 🙂

If you would like advance notice of a slew of used Fuji and Sony gear coming to the Used Gear page soon — including a Fuji X-T2 camera body — please get in touch with me via e-mail.

If you are interested in joining the Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT at this late date, please shoot me an e-mail or call me on my cell at 863-221-2372 (and leave a message if I do not pick up).

Canon EOS-1DX Mark II

Shock the world price #2/Reduced $800 on 22 NOV 2017!

Mansoor Assadi is offering a lightly used Canon EOS-1DX Mark II professional digital camera body in like-new condition for a BAA record low $3998 (was $4899) with only 23,000 shutter actuations.The camera was recently cleaned and checked by Canon. The sale includes the front body cap, a RRS L-plate, a LensCoat BodyBag, the original box with everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Mansoor via e-mail or by phone at 415-559-8027 (Pacific time).

The 1DX Mark II is Canon’s rugged, blazingly fast professional digital camera body. It features an amazing AF system and high quality image files with great dynamic range. It is the choice of Arash Hazeghi, one of the world’s premier birds in flight photographers. artie

The Streak

Today makes one hundred eighteen days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Enjoy the family and the football and try not to eat too, too much.

Happy Bird-day!

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales of both lenses and camera bodies have been picking up recently. There are lots of great deals on a variety of camera bodies right now, all with low prices. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto on the what turned out to be a great morning of November 11, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my favorite calidris camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop as framed: 1/1250 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB in mostly sunny, very slightly overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -10.

Center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the side of the upper breast just behind the faint grey collar, perhaps a shade in front of the plane of the bird’s eye.

Image #1: Western Sandpiper, winter plumage

First-winter Western Sandpiper

This worn young bird was hanging around with the young Piping Plover that we photographed so well on November 11. (You can see my two favorite images of that endangered species in the blog post here.) Western Sandpiper is well smaller than Sanderling and the bill is deeper at the base than the bill of Semipalmated Sandpiper. As the semis winter in South America, you pretty much never see one completely molted into winter or first winter in North America.

With this bird foraging constantly — see Sandpiper Photography Tips here — it was a matter of trying to track it as it foraged or waiting for the rare milli-second pause. Today’s featured image might have been a combination of the two. But the large, dark shadow under the forward part of the bird was unfortunate. So once the image was converted in DPP 4 it was off to Photoshop to try to do something that I had never done before.

This is the optimized version of today’s featured image.

Western Sandpiper, winter plumage

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

The Optimized Image

After bringing the TIF file into Photoshop I did my basic image clean-up with the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, some Content Aware Fill, and a small Quick Mask or two refined with a Regular Layer Mask. Then I tackled the problematic shadow under the bird. After several failed attempts I used Select > Color Range to select the dark stuff grabbing just what I wanted with careful adjustments of both the Fuzziness and the Range sliders. Then I did a Curves adjustment and followed that with a Hue-Saturation adjustment pulling down both the BLUE and the CYAN channels down about 95 points. At some point I touched things up with a few swipes of a relatively large 25% opacity Clone Stamp Tool. All of that on one layer looked a bit overdone so I reduced the opacity of the adjustment layer to about 50% and was quite happy with the results.

Though I had never done exactly that before I simply used many of the usual tools in my clean-up arsenal to achieve the desired result. Once you have mastered the use of the tools detailed in the The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) it is up to you to use those tools creatively to solve new and different image optimization problems.

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

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

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

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

The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):

  • The Wingtip Repairs MP4 Video here.
  • The MP4 Crow Cleanup Video here.

Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here.

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

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret???; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

You can see a composite of more recent images in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 22nd, 2017

Finally! I am nothing if not ...

Stuff

Having stayed up late to watch the end of the Monday Night Football game I stayed in on Tuesday morning despite what turned out to be pretty good weather: clear skies with light southwest winds. I relaxed for most of the morning, paid a visit to crack A.R.T. chiropractor Dr. Dan Holland at True Sports Care in Nesconset, and then headed back to Heckscher State Park to photograph gulls in the big puddle in Parking Field 7. After being oh for six in search of the lingering Hudsonian Godwit I had pretty much given up on seeing or photographing the bird. This tale is continued in the Finally! I am nothing if not … feature below.

I was glad to learn yesterday that Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS-1DX Mark II professional digital camera body in like-new condition for the BAA record low/shock the world price of $3999 an hour after it was listed!

If you are interested in joining the Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT at this late date, please shoot me an e-mail or call me on my cell at 863-221-2372 (and leave a message if I do not pick up). The details are below.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred seventeen days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Used Gear Sales

Things have been picking up on the Used Gear Page recently after a two-month downturn, especially with long glass. You can see the complete updated listings here.

Recent Sales

  • Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS-1DX Mark II professional digital camera body in like-new condition for the BAA record low/shock the world price of $3999 an hour after it was listed.
  • Chesley Swann sold a Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS Zoom lens (the original 1-4) in excellent condition for the very low price of $529 in mid-November.
  • Mike Lawie sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II body in near-mint condition for the BAA record-low price of $923 and his Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoom lens in excellent condition also for a BAA record low price: $448. Both in mid-November.
  • Gary Wade sold his Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens in near-mint condition for the record-low BAA price of $7449 in mid-November.
  • Multiple IPT veteran Shelly Goldstein sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens (the “old five”) in excellent condition for the $3899 a week after it was listed.
  • Peter Noyes sold his Nikon D-810 Digital SLR Camera Body in excellent condition for $1499 two hours after it was listed.
  • Multiple IPT veteran Shelly Goldstein sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Super Telephoto lens in like-new condition for $9,399 in early November before it was even listed …
  • IPT veteran Duncan Douglas sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens (the “old five”) in early November for #3699.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 21 at Heckscher State Park, Long Island, NY with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and my favorite shorebird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering + 2/3 stop as framed: 1/1600 sec. at f/7.1 in Av mode. Cloudy WB in light cloudy conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

Center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the front of the bird’s breast as originally framed, right on the same plane as the bird’s face and eye.

Hudsonian Godwit, worn juvenile plumage.

Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version.

Finally! I am nothing if not …

Continued from Stuff: The hard to find godwit was last seen at Field 7; I was thisclose to driving by Field 6 when I arrived at Heckscher. But at the last second, I said, “What the heck” and turned into Field 6. As I pulled up to the basketball courts — the spot where the bird had been hanging out for more than three weeks, I was happy to see a single worn juvenile Hudsonian Godwit feeding in the short grass. Better yet, two women out on a health walked passed within 15 feet of the object of my desire; the bird hardly noticed. I grabbed my 500 II; my 1.4XIII TC was already in place so I stuck my 2X III TC in my coat pocket and mounted the 5D Mark IV, grabbed my Induro GIT 304L tripod with a Mongoose M3.6 on it, and headed around the bird to get on sun angle. I opted not to put the lens hood on the 500 II as it was quite windy.

The bird had flown a short distance to some really nice grass. I had already lowered the tripod to sitting height so once my faint shadow was pointed at the bird I sat, adjusted the height of the tripod legs, and went to work. As I was getting in place I had put the camera into Av mode at ISO 800 and added 2/3 stop of light for the dried grasses. Today’s featured image was the fourth photo that I created just as the bird had paused and posed. I stayed with the bird for about 15 minutes eventually getting a lot closer, that after I had switched out the 1.4X for the 2X. But by then the bird was in some pretty grungy-looking grass and that fourth, smaller in the frame image, turned out to be my very favorite by far. The habitat is likely quite similar to the habitat in Chile or Argentina where this species winter on grasslands. It is another example of my developing taste for wider rather than tighter images.

After six tries I had pretty much given up but wound up succeeding; I am nothing if not persistent and determined. Today’s featured image is a small crop of the original from below and behind the bird. Thanks again to Isaac Grant for helping me keep tabs on this bird and to David La Magna for is help as well. Sometimes it takes a village. 🙂

ps: the gull photography got really good when the sun came back out. Photos soon.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret???; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

You can see a composite of more recent images in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 21st, 2017

Late Light Puddle Portrait and an Insanely Low Shock the World-priced 1DX Mark II

Stuff

I tried for the Hudsonian Godwit on Monday morning and Monday afternoon; the bird was nowhere to be seen. The morning was a total bust with strong northwest winds and clear skies so I headed back to daughter Alissa’s home where I am staying till my flight home early next Saturday morning. I visited Arna just before lunch and then did a podcast by Skype with old friend Paul Parisi of Boston for Savior Labs. Thanks to Pete Daniels for the invitation. Click on the Savior Labs link to enjoy a wide variety of eclectic business and technological podcasts. I will of course provide links once the podcasts are published.

Do consider joining me on the Early Winter DeSoto IPT. Details below.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred sixteen days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Used Gear Sales

Things have been picking up on the Used Gear Page recently after a two-month downturn, especially with long glass. You can see the complete updated listings here.

Recent Sales

  • Chesley Swann sold a Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS Zoom lens (the original 1-4) in excellent condition for the very low price of $529 in mid-November.
  • Mike Lawie sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II body in near-mint condition for the BAA record-low price of $923 and his Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoom lens in excellent condition also for a BAA record low price: $448. Both in mid-November.
  • Gary Wade sold his Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens in near-mint condition for the record-low BAA price of $7449 in mid-November.
  • Multiple IPT veteran Shelly Goldstein sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens (the “old five”) in excellent condition for the $3899 a week after it was listed.
  • Peter Noyes sold his Nikon D-810 Digital SLR Camera Body in excellent condition for $1499 two hours after it was listed.
  • Multiple IPT veteran Shelly Goldstein sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Super Telephoto lens in like-new condition for $9,399 in early November before it was even listed …
  • IPT veteran Duncan Douglas sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens (the “old five”) in early November for #3699.

Canon EOS-1DX Mark II

Insanely low shock the world price!

Like me,Robert Blanke is going all 5D mark IV. He is also offering a barely used Canon EOS-1DX Mark II professional digital camera body in like-new condition for the BAA record low/shock the world price of $3999 with less than 250 shutter actuations! The sale includes the the original packaging, the manuals, the strap, the software, the front body cap, the charger, two LP-E19 batteries, two 64 GB CFast cards, a CFast card reader, and insured ground shipping via major courier. Your new body will not ship until PayPal confirms the payment or your check clears.

Please contact Robert via e-mail or by phone/text at (813) 417-8967 (Eastern time).

The 1DX Mark II is Canon’s rugged, blazingly fast professional digital camera body. It features an amazing AF system and high quality image files with great dynamic range. It is the choice of Arash Hazeghi, one of the world’s premier birds in flight photographers. artie

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created from my vehicle at the big rain puddle at Parking Field 7 at Heckscher State Park on Long Island, NY with the engine turned off 🙂 I rested the Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens with the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III and my favorite gull photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop as framed: 1/1000 sec. at f/6.3 in Tv mode. AWB in very late afternoon sunlight.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

Two AF points up and one to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was just in front of the bird’s eye (as originally framed.)

Ring-billed Gull, winter plumage adult

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

Late Light Puddle Portrait

Whether you live by the coast or inland, you can often find gulls in rain puddles or tidal pools. Ring-billed, the common species that is seen here today, occurs widely from coast to coast in temperate North America. They often make for reliable and cooperative subjects that can provide countless opportunities for bird photographers to practice and improve their skills. When the species you were hoping for do not show up, a variety of gulls can often save the session as they did for me at Heckscher State Park on the afternoon of November 17, 2017.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret???; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

You can see a composite of more recent images in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 20th, 2017

Intermediate Telephoto Lens Versatility and Advice. And Hand Holding Tip When Working From Your Vehicle with the Engine Running.

Stuff

Billy Joel was as good as ever at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. And we sat on the floor so our seats were much better than at last month’s concert. I headed back to younger daughter Alissa’s home on the LIRR on Sunday morning. Jen and Maya arrived on Saturday and Sam is joining us soon from Boston where he is studying film-making at Emerson College. It will be the first time that I am spending Thanksgiving with my family in well more than two decades.

As I do not fly home until the Saturday afternoon after turkey day I hope to get out to do some more photography in the coming week. Do consider joining me on the Early Winter DeSoto IPT. Details below.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred fifteen days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Robert Moses State Park in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 286mm) and my favorite deer photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop as framed: 1/250 sec. at f/5.0 in Tv mode. Cloudy WB in cloudy conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to -3.

Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the right side of the deer’s neck right below the right eye (as originally framed; this is a slight crop to 3X2 from the the top, from our right, and from the bottom.)

White-tailed Deer doe

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

Intermediate Telephoto Lens Versatility and Advice

Intermediate Telephoto Lens Versatility

As you have been seeing here for about two years most every week, the versatility of the Canon 100-400 II borders on phenomenal. All of the 70-200mm lens, the old Canon 100-400, and the Nikon 80-400 (some of those with a teleconverter) are all excellent. But none match the new 1-4 with its amazing close focus, its four-stop IS, and it sharpness (especially with the 1.4X III TC).

Intermediate Telephoto Lens Advice

I have written this often: “Never drive through a park or preserve or any type of natural area without having at least your intermediate telephoto lens immediately at hand. Not seeing any birds at Moses we neglected to do that. In short order we had several young bucks with fairly nice racks starting at us at point blank range. The next minute there was one on the other side of the road walking slowly with the branches of a fairly large bush draped over him. At that point I followed my own advice …

This image was created at Robert Moses State Park in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 286mm) and my favorite deer photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop as framed: 1/250 sec. at f/5.6 in Tv mode. Cloudy WB in cloudy conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment at 400m: -5.

Two AF points to the right and one row up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the deer’s forehead slightly above and in front of the eye as framed.

White-tailed Deer young with tongue out

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

When Working From Your Vehicle: Engine Off/Engine On?

When using your vehicle as a blind, you often have to decide whether to turn off the engine or leave it running. Most folks think that it is always best to always turn off the engine but that entails two risks:

1- The subject is often alerted to your presence when you turn off the engine, often to the point of fleeing. Oops.

2- Let’s say you turn off the engine and the subject is OK with that. But, it changes its position and you need to re-position your vehicle; most modern vehicles make a loud, unpleasant, electronic beep or other piercing sound when the key is turned. These sounds will often upset the apple cart instantly; bye-bye birdie (or animal).

Hand Holding Tip When Working From Your Vehicle with the Engine Running

If you are hand holding (usually an intermediate telephoto lens) the trick to photographing from your vehicle (usually at very close range) is to not rest your left forearm on the lowered window or on the door frame. Simply tuck your left elbow into our side, hold the lens well out on the lens barrel, and fire away. I made both of today’s image with the engine on confident that the vibrations would not effect the sharpness of the images made at 1/250 second or faster.

Your Favorite and Why?

Which of today’s featured images do you like best? Be sure to let us know why.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret???; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

You can see a composite of more recent images in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 19th, 2017

What do you do when the bird takes off but you have too slow a shutter speed for action, the wrong AF point selected, and no chance of fitting the subject in the frame?

Stuff

We tried for the godwit early on Saturday morning at Heckscher without success. No sweat, I figured, we can photograph some gulls in the parking lots. No gulls in the parking lots. Let’s try Captree. No gulls in the parking lots. Lets try Robert Moses. No gulls in the parking lots. We finally did get some nice stuff on a White-tailed doe with one young one but we whiffed on some killer bucks because our 100-400s were in the trunk. My bad.

Then it was off for lunch at younger daughter Alissa’s. Then we had to take a school bus to the LIRR in Hicksville because of track work on the Ronkonkoma line 🙂 Tonight it will be Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, the second time in a month for me, the first for Anita.

Do consider joining me on the Early Winter DeSoto IPT. Details below.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred fourteen days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales of lenses especially have been picking up recently. There are lots of great deals on a variety of camera bodies right now, all with low prices. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto on the Piping Plover morning of November 11, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my favorite pelican taking off camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop as framed: 1/640 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB in mostly sunny, slightly overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -10.

One AF point to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the side of the bird behind the base of its neck.

Brown Pelican taking flight

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

What do you do when the bird takes off but you have too slow a shutter speed for action, have the wrong AF point selected, and have no chance of fitting the subject in the frame?

I had spent well more than an hour photographing the tame juvenile Piping Plover seen twice in the DeSoto composite image in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here. Near the end of that session I splayed the legs of my Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod and got down flat on the ground. When I saw this pelican I set up to make a simple portrait of the floating youngster. The first thing that I did was to go three clicks (one full stop) lighter; I did that instinctively by lowering the shutter speed. Leave a comment if you think you know why this was a mistake on my part — please explain your thinking. Then I moved the AF point a bit to the left to move the pelican back in the frame. When the bird began to take flight I thought “There is no way that I am gonna avoid clipping the wings or half the bird.”

That brings us back to the original question: What do you do when the bird takes off but you have too slow a shutter speed for action, have the wrong AF point selected, and have no chance of fitting the subject in the frame?

The answer: Push the shutter button! It’s digital and won’t cost you one penny. So that’s what I did. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the results. Especially in light of the fact that photographing action from a prone position has never been my forte.

Critique This Image

All are invited to post a thoughtful critique of this image. What do you like and why? What don’t you like and why? Any suggestions for improving it either in the field or during the post processing are welcome?

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret???; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

You can see a composite of more recent images in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 18th, 2017

The Times They May Be a Changing ...

Stuff

Midday on Friday I visited my 62-year old sister Arna in a nursing/rehab home. She is not doing well at all. It is a long story. That afternoon Anita North and I were off to Heckscher State Park where as many as five young Hudsonian Godwits had been hanging out for a month. Last week there were three left, and one of those was seen on Thursday. We had our hopes up and thanks to the kindness of BPN’s Isaac Grant we learned late in the day that the bird had changed parking fields. Alas, we did not find the bird.

On Friday evening there was a big family dinner meeting to discuss Arna’s care, treatment, and finances. Nothing was decided but by the time we all said good night everyone felt very close and loving.

I was thrilled to learn that Gary Wade sold his 400mm f/2.8 L IS Canon lens right after I suggested that a $500 price drop might do the trick. There are still lots of great camera body deals on the Used Gear Page here Do consider joining me on the Early Winter DeSoto IPT. Details below.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred thirteen days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales of lenses especially have been picking up recently. There are lots of great deals on a variety of camera bodies right now, all with low prices. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto on the morning of November 11, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my favorite endangered species camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop as framed: 1/1250 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB in mostly sunny, very slightly overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -10.

One AF point to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the front part of the faint neck-band pretty much on the same plane as the bird’s eye.

Image #1: Piping Plover, worn juvenile on clean sand beach

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

The Times They May Be a Changing …

For the past few decades, images like the one above were the apples of my eye: large in the frame subjects, low perspectives, clean and distant backgrounds, sharp focus, and shallow depth of field. Very recently I have begun leaning to smaller in the frame subjects and have come to realize that including some grasses, twigs, pebbles, leaves, or other accoutrements is not the end of the world. See below for a recent example.

Note: Both of today’s images were created while I was sitting behind my lowered tripod.

Image Sharpness

If you are impressed by the sharpness of today’s images, both made at 1200mm, note the AFA value of -10 for my 600 II/2X III TC i, and my main 5D Mark IV body. With a carefully done micro-adjustment for this rig and this rig only, the AFA of -10 will make quite a substantial difference in the sharpness of the images. You often wind up with AFA values close to zero like -1 or +2; in those cases you would have been fine had you not done the micro-adjusting. There is of course, no way of knowing in advance. So I do the work and wind up being confident that I will be making consistently sharp images with a given gear combination.

Learn more about making accurate LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustments in the log post here.

This image was created at Fort DeSoto on the morning of November 11, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my favorite endangered species off camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop as framed: 1/1250 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB in mostly sunny, very slightly overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -10.

One AF point to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on middle of the neck band as originally framed, directly behind and on the same place as the bird’s eye.

Image #2: Piping Plover, worn juvenile with turtle grass & ???

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

The Wider View

Here the bird had moved well left of sun angle but was headed back toward me so I was sitting farther from it than I had been. The bird was foraging along at a good pace in typical plover fashion, step, step, step, stop. I attempted to track him as he was stepping and with this image I succeeded in making a sharp one that included some colorful grasses in the frame. The optimized image above was cropped from three sides: below, left, and above while maintaining the original 3X2 proportion.

The Stronger Image?

Which of today’s two featured images do you feel is the strongest? Why?

A DPP 4 Screen Capture for Image #2

A DPP 4 Screen Capture for Image #2

I included the DPP 4 screen capture in today’s blog post for two main reasons:

  • 1- So that you could see the extent of my crop and how I saw the picture within the picture.
  • 2- To show you the placement of the AF point. In an ideal world I would have moved the AF point to the left so as to move the bird back in the frame a bit.

The Image Optimization

After converting the image in DPP 4 and bringing the TIF file into Photoshop I attempted to eliminate the distracting stuff while leaving most of the grasses to convey an accurate sense of place. The moment that I saw the sharp RAW file on my laptop I immediately saw the picture within the picture, the crop from three sides that would leave me with a very nice image.

As is usually the case, I used the Spot Healing Brush, the Patch Tool, a bit of Content Aware Fill, and several small Quick Masks refined by layer masks to do the clean-up work.

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

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

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

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

The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):

  • The Wingtip Repairs MP4 Video here.
  • The MP4 Crow Cleanup Video here.

Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here.

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

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret???; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

You can see a composite of more recent images in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 17th, 2017

On the Benefits of Being Truly Ready ...

Stuff

A Bronx Tale was great. Amazing music and a terrific cast, especially the young “C.” As expected, I cried almost from the opening number through the standing ovation. I had seen the movie for the first time a few months back.

Anita North and I met my B&H friends Izzy Flamm, Yosef Brown, and Nat Greenfield, we headed uptown a bit to Le Marais — “a rare( kosher) steakhouse, well done” — for two hours of fine food and wonderful conversation.

Do consider joining me on the Early Winter DeSoto IPT. Details below.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred twelve days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales of lenses especially have been picking up recently. There are lots of great deals on a variety of camera bodies right now, all with low prices. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto very early (7:06am) on the very cloudy morning of November 12, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and my favorite GBH photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 3200. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops off the grey sky: 1/500 sec. at f/4.0 in Manual mode. AWB in cloudy dark, completely overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

Center Large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system selected two AF points, one directly above the other, that fell on the bird’s upper and lower neck, right on the same plane as the bird’s eye.

Great Blue Heron with greenback (thread herring)

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

On Being Ready

It pays to check your camera body and lens (or camera bodies and lenses) as you head out for a photo session. You should be 100% sure of the following:

  • Camera on with fresh battery and clean card.
  • RAW capture
  • AF switch set to AF (not M!)
  • AI Servo AF
  • AF Area Selection mode: AF expand (with the center AF point) for horizontals, Upper Large Zone AF for both vertical orientations
  • Shutter button or rear button AF
  • Shooting mode (almost always Manual or Av)
  • Full or not full focusing range (the former for close subjects, the latter for flight and distant subjects)
  • ISO (this is totally dependent on the weather and sky conditions)
  • Chosen aperture and exposure compensation (or shutter speed and exposure compensation if in Tv mode)
  • 2-second timer off
  • High speed frame rate
  • IS set to Mode 2

If I left anything out, please leave a comment.

My Thinking …

As there was a big feeding spree going on, it looked as if Noel and I would be concentrating at first on Sandwich Terns in flight. As it was so dark, I set the ISO to 3200 so that at +2 2/3 stops I could get to 1/500 second (at f/4). As we approached the beach I noticed a GBH with a live fish off to our left and called it out. As we approached, I switched from center AF Expand to center large zone, confident that 1/500 sec. at f/4 would be perfect; even though the heron was darker overall than the terns, the silvery fish was very bright. The bird was standing by an ugly pile of grass so I made three images, checked the exposure — well to the right with no blinkies — and approached the bird slowly. That had the desired effect; the bird walked slowly away from me and then turned back into the wind so that it was perfectly square to the back of the camera, just as I had planned 🙂

I acquired focus and fired off three quick frames. Then the bird swallowed the fish and resumed hunting. I got really, really lucky with the third frame as the bird had its bill open with the fish in am almost perfect position. (Completely in midair would have been absolutely perfect.)

Notice …

Notice that by being well prepared, knowing the settings on my camera, being sure of the correct exposure in advance, and by correctly analyzing the bird’s behavior, I was able to get the shot. Had I done a single thing wrong or if I needed to fiddle with this or that, I would have been up the proverbial creek without a good image.

The Before and After NeatImage Noise Reduction

The noise on the correctly exposed RAW (CR.2) file was not bad at all for ISO 3200. The noise reduction settings in my 5D Mark IV ISO 3200 recipe took care of the color noise and some of the luminance noise. As expected and as you can see above, NeatImage noise reduction dealt with the remaining luminance noise beautifully without messing with the detail. Do understand that our eyes often perceive noise as detail. With the light-toned noise free background I did not need to select the bird and was able to do a fast and dirty NeatImage noise reduction (that as detailed in here, by sending a Paypal for $40 DB II.

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

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

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

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

The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):

  • The Wingtip Repairs MP4 Video here.
  • The MP4 Crow Cleanup Video here.

Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here.

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

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret???; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

You can see a composite of more recent images in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 16th, 2017

Catching Up Times Three: Coot, Pickerelweed, and Marbled Godwit

Stuff

It is 9:28am on Wednesday November 15 as I put the finishing touches on this blog post. I am on the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) on the way to Penn Station to see the new Broadway musical “A Bronx Tale.” Going to visit my friends at B&H on Thursday to celebrate $5,000,000+ in BAA affiliate sales. Mazel tov to all concerned. No swimming for me till I get back to ILE and 25 NOV.

Do consider joining me on the Early Winter DeSoto IPT. Details below.

This Just In

It is now 5:47am on Thursday November 16, 2017. I just spent almost an hour responding to the many comments in the Answers please: a-, b-, & c … blog post here. Even if you did not leave a comment there it would behoove the serious students to give it all a careful read. I will comment on the generalities in a future blog post.

ps: A Bronx Tale was fabulous!

The Streak

Today makes one hundred eleven days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales of lenses especially have been picking up recently. There are lots of great deals on a variety of camera bodies right now, all with low prices. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created on the 2016 San Diego IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens and the greatest-ever value in a digital camera body, the 1.6X crop factor Canon EOS 7D Mark II. ISO 800: 1/2500 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB in soft, late afternoon light at 3:59pm.

Center AF point/AI Servo/Expand AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the bird’s lower breast above the raised left foot; this was pretty much on the same plane as the coot’s eye.

American Coot running

Multiple Choice Exposure Quiz

In the Ugly as a Coot … And Multiple Choice Exposure Quiz blog post here, I wrote:

Given the lighting conditions as noted in the caption above, which would be the correct EC (exposure compensation) for this image?

A: +1 1/3 stops

B: zero (the metered exposure)

C: -1 1/3 stops

Most folks came up with the right choice. Southern Oceans group participant David Peake explained things perfectly when he wrote, The image is overall dark tones so the camera is likely to meter to bring the exposure up. This necessitates a compensation of -1 1/3. Don’t want to blow out those white highlights now.

A few folks thought otherwise. If you had any doubt, you need to study the section on Exposure Theory in The Art of Bird Photography and the section entitled “Exposure Simplified” in The Art of Bird Photography II (on CD). Please call Jim at 863-692-0906to order the downloadable version).

This 5-frame in-camera multiple exposure was created early on the morning of Thursday, November 9, 2017 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. I used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 476mm) and my favorite bird aquatic wildflower photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/160 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB in bright early morning sunlight with clear skies.

Flexi-zone Single rear button AF in Live View (for mirror lock) with the 2-second-timer. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.

No LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-adjustment is needed or applied when you focus in Live View via contrast off the sensor.

Pickerelweed, 5-frame multiple exposure

Pickerelweed Multiple Exposure: one frame, five images …

In the Free 5D Mark IV User’s Guide Excerpt. One frame, five pickerelweed images … blog post here, I posted this:

Image Design Question

Why do I wish that I had lowered the position of my lens six inches?

I was surprised that no one came up with the correct answer. By lowering my tripod and thus the position of the lens about six inches, I would have moved the out-of-focus brown strip down in the frame so that it was placed just at the top of the green stem (rather than bisecting the blossom). Yes Eleanor, there would have been more “light green in the background” but you missed the main reason.

Marbled Godwit Straightforward Image Optimization Challenge Results

In the Marbled Godwit Straightforward Image Optimization Challenge Results Offer a Tremendous Opportunity for Learning … blog post here, I posed the following questions.

  • 1-In general, do you prefer the cropped or the un-cropped versions?
  • 2-Do you think that the image needed to be leveled?
  • 3-Which image is a big overexposure?
  • 4-Which image or images have the best beach clean-up?
  • 5-Which image is presented too dark?

My Answers

#1: I far prefer the un-cropped versions. Had you asked me that same question 15 years ago I would surely have said that I preferred the cropped versions. In general, my tastes have changed– matured if you would — to preferring the bird smaller in the frame while including more habitat. Of the cropped versions, Image #7, by Rachel Hollander was my favorite. Rachel is one of the excellent moderators in the Wildlife Forum on BPN.

#2:There is no right answer here as either choice (or somewhere in between) might be correct; there are no firm indications either way. It is simply a matter of personal preference.

#3: Image #9 as presented is the only one that has been processed much too light. There are RGB values in the highlights in the 250s with more than a few 255 readings.

#4: The very best beach clean-ups for me were in Images #2, 10, and 12. Images #13 and 16 were quite good as well but just a tad behind.

#5: Image #18 was the only one processed well too dark.

In a few days, I will post a short critique each of the submitted images.

Image #1

Image #1

Image #2

Image #2

Image #3

Image #3

Image #4

Image #4

Image #5

Image #5

Image #6

Image #6

Image #7

Image #7

Image #8

Image #8

Image #9

Image #9

Image #10

Image #10

Image #11

Image #11

Image #12

Image #12

Image #13

Image #13

Image #14

Image #14

Image #15

Image #15

Image #16

Image #16

Image #17

Image #17

Image #18

Image #18

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret???; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

You can see a composite of more recent images in the DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend blog post here.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 15th, 2017

Why your silhouettes should look washed out on the LCD on the back of your camera body ...

Stuff

I woke early on Tuesday, answered some e-mails, and started packing. Then a short swim (48 lengths, a bit more than a half mile), lunch, and off to the airport to catch the 3:15 Southwest nonstop flight to Islip. I head into the city tomorrow to see a new musical, A Bronx Tale. Then back to Long Island to visit my younger sister Arna whose health has been failing for too long. No swimming for me till I get back to ILE and 25 NOV.

Do consider joining me on the Early Winter DeSoto IPT. Details below.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred ten days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales of lenses especially have been picking up recently. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto Park on the early morning of Saturday, November 11, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III and my favorite sunrise silhouette photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops: 1/200 second at f/7.1 (should have been f/6..3). K8000 just as the sun barely rose over a cloud …

Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed on the center of the base of the the bird’s bill (as originally framed). This is a small crop from the top and the left to tighten things up.

LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-adjustment: -1.

Great Blue Heron sunrise silhouette

Many of your silhouettes should look washed out on the rear LCD …

Yes, it is true, many of your silhouettes should look washed out on the rear LCD . Why? If you properly expose to the right your image files will be larger and of higher quality. A simple Levels adjustment — setting the BLACK and WHITE points and adjusting the mid-tones — should take you less than 30 seconds at most.

Scroll down to see the before and after animated GIF.

Anything Bug You?

There is one thing in this image that bothers me. Can you figure out what it is? Does anything about it bug you?

The Before and After Animated GIF

The before image here represents the converted TIF file that looked pretty much the same as the RAW file — way too light and washed out. The funny thing is that when I am looking through the viewfinder I am actually visualizing what the optimized image will look like. Remember that you can always set a warmer Kelvin during the RAW conversion.

As is always the case, the posterization is a result of creating the animated GIF file.

Digital Basics II

You can learn to make a Levels Adjustment in Photoshop in The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) here. In addition you will learn exactly how I optimize each and every image that you see here on the blog.

So what is included in DB II?

  • Photo Mechanic basics including ingesting and detailed editing (choosing your keepers) instructions
  • My filing system
  • Why RAW capture/JPEGs OK for some
  • Simple DPP 4 conversions
  • ACR RAW conversions (for Photoshop and Lightroom users)
  • Stuff you need to know before optimizing your images in Photoshop
  • Keyboard shortcuts and creating personalized keyboard shortcuts
  • My Photoshop workspace
  • A great tip on working large
  • Making selections
  • The Quick Selection Tool
  • The Magic Wand Tool
  • The Lasso Tool
  • Making Color Range selections
  • Quick Masking techniques
  • Layer Masking for dummies
  • Cropping fine points
  • Dust spotting
  • Adding canvas
  • Filling in canvas
  • Leveling an image
  • Using the Ruler Tool
  • The image rotation shortcut
  • John Haedo Content Aware Fill
  • Dealing with whites
  • Making a Color Range Selection for the Bright Whites
  • Restoring Detail in the Whites
  • Dealing With Image Tonality
  • Making Levels adjustments
  • Making Curves adjustments
  • Tim Grey Dodge and Burn
  • Denise Ippolito Brush Opacity Magic
  • Image Clean-up Techniques
  • The Patch Tool
  • Nik Color Efex Pro
  • The Spot Healing Brush
  • My NIK 25/25, 30/30, and 50/50 Detail Extractor/Tonal Contrast recipes
  • Making Color Balance adjustments
  • Making Hue-Saturation adjustments
  • Making Selective Color adjustments
  • A Selective Color Trick for super-saturated reds
  • The Average Blur Color Balance technique
  • The RGB Curves Adjustment Color Balancing technique
  • Digital Eye Doctor techniques
  • Selective Sharpening via Contrast Mask
  • Fast and Dirty NeatImage Noise Reduction (only for folks who own Neat Image and The Professional Post-Processing Guide)
  • Saving your master file
  • Sharpening basics
  • Sharpening for prints
  • Creating JPEGs

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 14th, 2017

The Poser

Stuff

Monday was mostly a day of taking it easy, working on blog posts, and thinking about what to pack for my trip to Long Island/NYC. I leave at about lunch time on Tuesday. I did get in my exercises and a 3/4 mile swim.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred nine days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales of lenses especially have been picking up recently. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS DO Lens

The Lowest-ever BAA Price!

Pradip Thachile is offering a Used Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS DO lens in excellent condition for the BAA record low price of $2097.00. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original tough front lens cover, the lens strap, an Arca-Swiss compatible lens plate, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Please contact Pradip via e-mail

I used this lens for several years with great success, especially for birds in flight and while working from various type of water craft. In addition, it would make a great prime super-telephoto lens for folks with a 7D II. The multiple-honored Gannets in Love was created with the old 400 DO. You can see that one and 13 other killer images that I made with my old 400 DO here. The title of that blog post is “The Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO Lens: Fourteen Images that Prove that the Internet Experts are Idiots.” Pradip’s lens is priced to sell. artie

Latest Used Gear Kudos

via e-mail from Robert Blanke

Hey Artie. Thank you again–the 5D s sale makes four cameras sold at fair prices and commissions, with the first three going in one day! Cheers Robert

New Listings

Canon EOS 5D Mark III

IPT veteran Carolyn Peterson is offering a Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera body in excellent condition for $1399. The sale includes a brand new Vello BG-C9 Battery Grip (an $80 value), the front body cap, one battery (with protective cover), the battery charger, the shoulder strap, the original product box and everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only.

Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Carolyn via e-mail or phone at 1-503-730-9262 (Pacific time/evenings best).

I owned and used this superb, full frame, 22mp digital body for several years. It was always my first choice for scenic, Urbex, and flower photography until I fell in love for a while with the 5DS R (for a lot more money!). In addition, I loved my 5D III body for birds with my big lenses and both TCs. I used mine to create many saleable images. artie

Canon GPS receiver GP-E2

Carolyn Peterson is offering a Canon GPS receiver GP-E2 for EOS camera bodies in Near-mint condition for $149. The sale includes the original product box and everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only.

Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Carolyn via e-mail or phone at 1-503-730-9262 (Pacific time/evenings best).

This item sells new at B&H for $239.95 so if you are interested it makes sense to grab this one and save more than a few bucks. artie

Canon EF 17-40 f/4L USM Lens

Carolyn Peterson is offering a Canon EF 17-40 f/4L USM lens in near-mint condition for ($499). The sale includes the original product box and everything that came in it including the soft lens pouch, the lens hood, the front and rear caps, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only.

Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Carolyn via e-mail or phone at 1-503-730-9262 (Pacific time/evenings best).

The 17-40 is a high quality “L” series wide angle zoom that fits both full frame and APS-C sized DSLRs (and offers 27-64mm coverage with the latter bodies). It focuses down to 11 inches so it is great for both wide angle scenics and tight mini/macro scenics. It conveniently accepts 77mm filters. artie

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto Park on the late afternoon of Friday, November 10, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and my favorite large plover photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1250. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/60 second at f/5.6. Cloudy WB in dark, overcast conditions.

Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed on the bird’s neck just catching a piece of the base of the proximal end of the lower mandible.

LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-adjustment: -1.

Black-bellied Plover, worn juvenile

ETTL fill flash at at -1 stop with the Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT on the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm via the Canon OC-E3 Off Camera Shoe Cord (2′). Forgetting my Better Beamer Flash Extender wasted lots of battery power.

The Poser

As you learned in the Sandpiper Photography Tips blog post here, shorebird occasionally pause while feeding. If you are quick, or if you can learn to anticipate their pauses, you greatly increase your odds of making a sharp image. If you are lucky, a foraging shorebird might stop for several seconds. Oftentimes I will make a squeaking sound with my lips in an attempt to get a feeding bird to hold still for a second or two.

Rarely, a feeding sandpiper or plover will stop for a nice rest. Fortunately for me, the young Black-bellied Plover in today’s featured image opted to stop right in front of me as I was seated behind my lowered tripod. And he chose to hold his left leg up. And he stayed so still that the big drop of water on the tip of his bill. Amazingly, he stayed for ten full minutes. With his leg raised. And with the big drop of water in place. With my first (seated) efforts, the shoreline bisected the bird’s belly. So when he stayed, I splayed the legs of my tripod and got flat down on the ground. This moved the shoreline nicely below its belly. As I was on a small rise I wanted to get even lower but could not. If I had brought my Panning Ground Pod I would have run back to the car to get it and could have gotten about six inches lower. When you need to get really, really low, nothing beats the Panning Ground Pod.

As it got darker and darker, I raised the flash output to zero and then to +1 getting closer to flash as main light. All of the results were acceptable.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 13th, 2017

DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend!

Stuff

I finished and published this blog post at 6:50am on Monday morning. Enjoy. You will be learning a lot from the individual images in the composite in the coming days. I did get to swim 3/4 mile in the dark on Sunday evening with the pool lights on.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred eight days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about four hours in all to prepare including the time spend on the image optimizations and the time spent assembling the composite image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not — I fly to Long Island and New York for ten days on Tuesday), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

All images from the weekend of November 10-13, 2017. From top to bottom, left to right. Friday afternoon: first winter Dunlin; worn juvenile Dunlin with seagrass. Saturday morning: Great Blue Heron at sunrise; Snowy Egret scratching; winter plumage Sanderling; winter Dunlin; worn juvenile Piping Plover with leaves; worn juvenile Piping Plover on clean sand beach; juvenile Brown Pelican taking flight (1200mm!). Late on Saturday: Willet at sunset. Sunday morning: Great Blue Heron swallowing pinfish; winter plumage Sandwich Tern with thread herring (greenback); Brown Pelican taking flight; feeding spree: Brown Pelicans, Laughing Gulls, and terns.

Facing Direction Question …

With images of single bird like most of those above, do you have a preference as to whether the bird should be facing to the right or to the left?

DeSoto Sucked This Past Weekend!

Though conditions were actually pretty bad for the most part, we had dozens of great chances and everyone made more than a few good images. After my first edit I wound up with 184 keepers. So what’s my point? With very rare exception there are lots of great bird photography opportunities at Fort DeSoto at any season. The tides are looking great for the Desoto Early Winter IPT. If you would like to get in on the fun and the learning and some great bird photography, do consider joining me.

Late Friday Afternoon

Noel Heustis and I arrived at DeSoto at about 3:30pm. It was cloudy dark with a less than ideal northeast wind. We had lots of good chances with the shorebirds. I had fun using flash for the first time in forever.

Saturday Morning

Noel and I did well briefly at my favorite sunrise spot. “Late-Lee” Sommie showed up just after sunrise. The skies were clear and the wind was pretty good, first from the east and then shifting to the northeast. Things were slow at my favorite pelican flight location so we made a wiggle to another beach where there were only a few birds. But persistence paid off and we found a very cooperative young Piping Plover along with some Semipalmated Plovers, Sanderlings, and Dunlin and a single winter plumage Western Sandpiper. Along with the ever-present pelicans. Then we enjoyed a great lunch at the Neptune Grill in Gulfport while we looked at lots of images from the morning and did some Photoshop.

Saturday Afternoon

With clear skies and a strong east wind we knew that the afternoon was gonna be very tough so we did not get back to Desoto until 4:30pm. We worked on blasting highlight images –see the Willet image above — but with the strong winds they were nearly impossible because the waves would go black and the subject would be lost in them. Lee headed home.

Sunday Morning

Noel picked me up again early the next morning in a light drizzle. As we left 7-11 the rain was getting harder. As we got our gear ready, the rain stopped. It started out as 1600 ISO at f/4 dark just to get to 1/500 second. Knowing that in advance I loaned Noel my 400 DO II. For two and a half hours we enjoyed a huge feeding spree right next to shore. That provided non-stop flight photograph action with the terns and pelicans. At about 9:30 the sun poked through briefly and the action died. On the way back to the car we came across two Ospreys carrying headless fish and with a bit of patience had some good chances with them. As we headed back to Indian Lake Estates, it began to rain. Hard.

Your Favorite?

Unlike the recent Marbled Godwit image, all of the images in the composite are razor sharp. Please take a moment to let us know which of today’s images you think will turn out to be your favorite. And do let us know why.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 12th, 2017

Free 5D Mark IV User's Guide Excerpt. One frame, five pickerelweed images ...

Stuff

I met Lee Sommie and Noel Heustis early on Saturday for a morning of bird photography. It was not a great morning but we finished up by spending two hours with a very tame and photogenic juvenile Piping Plover. Then a great lunch at the Neptune Grill in Gulfport. No swim. No exercise. Yes nap 🙂

Sunset was tougher than the morning had been with east winds and a clear western sky. There had been a pretty big group — about 20 — of mostly young woman sitting on a rock wall enjoying the sunset. As we walked by one of the ladies asked, “Any good pictures?” I said, “You asked the right person.” I shared a few half-way decent blasting highlights images on the back of the camera. We wound up chatting for a bit and we learned that they were a Girl Scout group from Indian Rocks Beach. I went back to the car for a business card and grabbed my laptop as well. Next thing you know my Macbook Pro was sitting atop one of those big rubber garbage cans and I was doing a slide show for the girls. Everyone was pretty much captivated. The whole thirty minutes represented a wonderful and magical connection.

If you did not chime in on Thursday’s blog post, please do so now by clicking here; the blog is designed to be interactive. As always, the more folks who participate, the more everyone will learn. And yes, that includes me 🙂

The Streak

Today makes one hundred seven days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This 5-frame in-camera multiple exposure was created early on the morning of Thursday, November 9, 2017 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. I used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 476mm) and my favorite bird aquatic wildflower photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/160 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB in bright early morning sunlight with clear skies.

Flexi-zone Single rear button AF in Live View (for mirror lock) with the 2-second-timer. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.

No LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-adjustment is needed or applied when you focus in Live View via contrast off the sensor.

Pickerelweed, 5-frame multiple exposure

Pickerelweed Multiple Exposure: one frame, five images …

To create this multiple exposure I chose On:Func/Ctrl (see more below) and set the number (of exposures) to 5. Then I went to Live View, set the 2-second timer, rear button focused, and figured the correct exposure using the live histogram in conjunction with Exposure Simulation. After I made the first image, I shifted the lens slightly; the really neat thing about using Live View for Multiple Exposures is that when you shift the lens and half-press the shutter button, you will see the resulting image before you even press the shutter button. Make the second image and then repeat for the next three images for a total of five.

Image Design Question

Why do I wish that I had lowered the position of my lens six inches?

Free 5D Mark IV User’s Guide Free Excerpt

Below is a free excerpt from the 5D Mark IV User’s Guide (in progress). Folks might be wondering “What’s taking him so long?” I want everyone to see the amount of detail, checking, and re-checking that goes into each section of the guide, into each item entry. I need to be 100% sure that 100% of the information is accurate, and that the directions are clear, concise, simple, easy to follow, and completely accurate. That involves first trying to decode the information in the camera body Instruction Manual and then working to understand the implications of each setting wth regards to nature, wildlife, and bird photography. Oftentimes I need to head into the backyard or down to the beach to give the various settings a test drive. Anyway, enjoy, and when you see some nice patterns, follow the directions and create a few multiple exposures.

Note: If you are confused by anything in the excerpt or note any errors or typos, please get in touch via e-mail.

Multiple Exposures

You can create in-camera multiple exposures with your 5D Mark IV. It is easier to access Multiple Exposure (ME) shooting by pressing the Creative Photo button) than by accessing it via the menu item. The Creative Photo button (I call it the “artist’s brush” button) is the topmost button in the vertical row of five buttons to the left of the large LCD on the back of the camera; it looks like an artist’s brush inside a rectangle. Once you press it, turn the thumb wheel clockwise once so that the Multiple exposure icon –the one in the middle — is highlighted in orange. Then press the Set button and proceed as directed below.

Here’s how to create Multiple Exposures:

Hit the Set button to bring up the ME menu. If you wish to check the look of the merged image as you proceed, or if you wish to save all the frames, choose Func/Ctrl (Function and Control Priority). The continuous shooting frame rate will decrease noticeably. If you are in Live View with On:Func/Ctrl set you can see the way the image will look when it merges with the next image in the series before you push the shutter button. This is very helpful when creating pattern multiple exposures or soft/sharp multiple exposures. In On:Func/Ctrl you have a choice on the menu as to whether you wish to Save source images. I always do by setting All images. If you do not want to save all the images set Result only.

If you wish to create a multiple exposure of a moving subject, you must choose ContShtng (Continuous shooting priority); the frame rate will not slow down. Important note: if you select ContShtng, only the multiple exposure will be saved. You will not be able to save all the images in the sequence. See page 268 in the camera instruction manual for a list of operations the will be disabled during this type of shooting.
Be sure to select Disable when you are done creating multiple exposures. You can also cancel Multiple exposure shooting by turning the camera off and then back on again.

For Multi-expos ctrl (Multiple exposure control) I recommend setting Average after setting the correct exposure compensation for a single frame. After creating the first multiple exposure image, you can check the histogram for the final result and adjust your exposure compensation as needed.

For No. of exposures (number of exposures) set the number of images that you wish to include in your final image. You can choose from 1-9 images. To set the number, first hit the Set button, then scroll up or down with the thumb wheel, and then hit Set again to register your choice.
As mentioned above, at Save source imgs (Save source images), selecting All images gives you great flexibility after the fact. If you do not get the image you want, you can assemble your own multiple exposures in Photoshop during post-processing using Layers. In addition, you might love one of the series as a stand-alone image. Remember, if you set ContShtng (Continuous shooting priority) at the outset, only a single image will be saved.

At Continue Mult-exp (Continue Multiple-exposures) set Continuously unless you wish to create only a single multiple exposure and then go back to normal shooting.

For more information and to check out the really fine details and restrictions that are in place when on creating multiple exposures, see pages 268-272 of the camera instruction manual.

Select image for mult. Expo.

If you would like to create a multiple exposure image on top of an image already recorded on the card, you must have Multiple Exposure active with all of your menu choices set and must of course have some images on the card. Then scroll down to Select image for multiple exposure at the bottom of the Multiple exposure sub-menu. Note: the base image must be a full-sized RAW file created with the 5D Mark IV without Highlight Tone Priority (HTP) enabled. You may, for example, wish to put an image of a large moon created with a long telephoto lens into a scenic image to be created with a wide angle lens. There are of course lots of other possibilities here for those with creative minds. The camera indicates Only compatible img’s displayed but that is a lie. ☺ If you do select an image that was created with HTP enabled it will show as Unselectable image.

First set On: Funct/Ctrl. If you wish to shoot only one image on top of your selected image, make sure that you have set the No of exposures to 2. If you wish to shoot multiple exposures on top of your base image then the No of exposures should be set to 3 or more.

Now select Select image for mult. Expo. Then hit the Set button. The images on the card will be displayed. Scroll with the Thumb Wheel to the image to that you wish to use as the base image, press Set, and the scroll to OK and press Set again. Now create the next image of the multiple exposure sequence. If you have set the No of exposures to 2, then you are finished. You can review the image by hitting the Replay (image review) arrow. If you have set the No of exposures to 3 or more, the number of remaining images will be shown near the upper right of the LCD. Continue until you are done. Again, there is lots of room here for creativity and plain old messing around.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 11th, 2017

It's Time! Answers please: a-, b-, & c ...

Stuff

If you did not chime in on Thursday’s blog post, please do so now by clicking here; the blog is designed to be interactive. As always, the more folks who participate, the more everyone will learn. And yes, that includes me 🙂

I swam early on Friday — 3/4 of a mile. New friend Noel Heustis came by to pick me up; we are headed to Desoto as I type. Before we left, we watched the three UFC championship fights from last Saturday night on Tivo! Best of all, the three folks I was rooting for all won again!

This just in: we enjoyed a fine afternoon of shorebird photography in very dark conditions. Having seen the weather forecast, I brought my flash along and used it with success. Photos soon

The Streak

Today makes one hundred six days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created on the early morning of Wednesday, November 8, 2017 down by the lake near my home in Indian Lake Estates, FL. I used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 247mm) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/9 in Av mode. AWB in bright early morning sunlight with clear skies.

Left Large Zone/AI Servo/shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system selected a square array of nine Af points on the bird’s cheek (as shown in the DPP 4 screen capture below).

LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-adjustment: extrapolated to zero.

Sandhill crane, head portrait with multicolored background

It’s Time!

To quote Bruce Buffer, “It’s time!” Time to start heading down to the lake by my home at ILE each morning to see what the cranes are up to, to see what other birds are around, and to check for some neat wildflowers. The bird are silly tame. When I get out of the car to do some flower photography pairs and families from last year walk right up to me.

I often work at full height; getting lovely out of focus green backgrounds is a snap. For some image such as the one above I crouch down a bit to include some of the marsh and the lake and even a bit of sky in the background; what is it that they say about variety?

Image Questions

a: I made this image at only 247mm. In view of the fact that using a 1.4X TC will degrade sharpness by about 14%, why did I have the TC in place?
b: Would you have done any bill clean-up with this image? If yes, be specific.

The DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image

The DPP 4 Screen Capture

As usual, look how beautifully (Upper) Large Zone AF worked. Note also the early morning light as we have been seeing in the RGB values of the brightest WHITEs: R = 236, G = 230, B = 220. That after I moved the Color fine tune dot well towards BLUE. The values were even more skewed before that adjustment. After entering my 5D IV ISO 400

AF Question

c: Why didn’t I raise the lens and point it a bit to the right so that the system activated AF points that were right on the crane’s eye?

An unsharpened 100% crop of today’s featured image

A 100% Crop …

Just think how sharp this image would be without the unsharpness caused by adding a TC to the mix 🙂 The 100-400 II/, 1.4X III/ 5D Mark IV combo truly is a superb, versatile, lightweight combo.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 10th, 2017

Why and (Why?) and How to Stand Up in a Zodiac ...

More Blog Subscription Problems 🙂

It appears that our server was recently spammed by AOL and possibly by several other (AOL-related?) e-mail providers. AOL was the first to do that to BPN more than a decade ago and we eventually solved the problem. But, they are back on our case. If you suddenly stopped receiving BAA Blog notices please click here to learn the easy work-around.

Stuff

If you did not chime in on yesterday’s blog post, please do so now as the blog is designed to be interactive. As always, the more folks who participate, the more everyone will learn. And yes, that includes me 🙂

I was glad to learn early on Thursday that Peter Noyes’ Nikon D-810 Digital SLR sold for $1499 just two hours after it was listed and that Multiple IPT veteran Shelly Goldstein sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens (the “old five”) in excellent condition for the $3899 a week after it was listed. I did lots more work on the 5D IV Guide on Thursday. I swam 3/4 mile. Did lots of positional exercises and cardio stuff and answered lots of e-mails; business as usual.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred five days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took more than two hours to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created on a zodiac photo-cruise at Hope Bay, Antarctica with the hand held Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and the EOS-1DX (now replaced by the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.) ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops as framed: 1/1250 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB in slightly overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +5.

Two AF points above the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Rear Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on bird’s face below and to the right of it’s eye where the white and black meet.

Adelie Penguin on ice floe with wings raised, Hope Bay, Antarctica

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

Why and How to Stand Up in a Zodiac …

Why is it often necessary to stand up in a Zodiac? The most common reason is so that you can have a clear line of sight to the subject over the folks kneeling in front of you. On well-run zodiac photo-cruises, most of the folks on the subject side of the zodiac will be kneeling (if it is physically possible for them to do that). Folks on the opposite side, the side away from the subject, will usually need to stand so that they can enjoy good photographic opportunities. On well-run zodiac photo-cruises experienced drivers will turn the boat around completely after a good pass so that the standing folks kneel and the kneeling folks stand.

With today’s image, there was another big reason for me to stand. What was it?

If you are in decent shape with relatively good balance, the physical process of standing up in a zodiac is not a big challenge. Before standing make sure that the area around your feet is clear of any gear that has been placed on the floor, and most importantly, ask the zodiac driver for permission to stand. This ensures that the driver will not move the zodiac unexpectedly. Have fun. And be safe.


southernoceanphotoguide

May I be frank? If you are making a trip to Antarctica, South Georgia, and even the Falklands without having a copy of the Southern Ocean Photography Guide on your laptop and studying it at length, you are making a huge mistake. 🙂

The Southern Ocean Photography Guide: $100, via download link

The Southern Ocean Photography Guide (SOPG) e-book is complete and is available for purchase here for $100.00. Or, you can call us at 863-692-0906 Mondays through Fridays with your credit card in hand. A link to your PDF will be sent ASAP (Monday through Friday). This guide is one hundred twenty-eight pages, 21,500 words, and contains 158 inspirational photographs each accompanied by an educational caption.

Why a Photography Guide rather than a Site Guide? The SOPG includes a ton of information on the complex logistics of a voyage to South Georgia and/or Antarctica. The information in this guide will help you select the right trip, to prepare for your trip properly in terms of clothing and photography gear, and will teach you about the various forms of photographic opportunities that you will have including landings, zodiac cruises, photographing from the ship while underway, and ship cruising. The logistics of getting your gear and yourself safely ashore are covered in detail. For those considering such an expedition, there is a frank discussion about the physical demands of a Southern Ocean voyage.

The new guide does include specific tips for many of the popular landings. In South Georgia these include the landings at Elsehul, Fortuna Bay, Right Whale Bay, Hercules Bay, Grytviken, Stromness Harbor, Godthul, Undine Harbor, and Cooper Bay, as well as the famed landing sites at Salisbury Plain, Gold Harbor, and the mind-boggling St. Andrews Bay. In Antarctica you will–weather permitting–likely land at Brown Bluff, Jougla Point, Petermann Island, Neko Harbor, Danco Harbor, Hannah Point, and for the extremely lucky, Bailey Head. There is lots of zodiac cruising down by the continent at locations that include the ice- and Humpback Whale-filled Cierva Cove, Paulet Island (where landings are possible but not likely), Hope Bay, and lots more. You will learn what to expect on a zodiac cruise and how best to maximize your opportunities while protecting your gear.

Scroll down here for a free excerpt.

Why So Expensive?

Actually, if you consider the value of the information in the PDF that you will receive, the SOPG is cheap. I have spent well more than $70,000 out of pocket on my five Southern Ocean trips. You will likely be spending $10 to $20K or more on your trip. And you will likely be bringing $10 to $20K or more worth of gear on your trip. $100? That is a huge bargain.

As above, the info in this guide will prove invaluable. It will help you be prepared; it will help you to dress properly so that you can stay as warm and as dry as possible; it will help you keep your gear safe and dry; it will help you to maximize your photographic opportunities. And, if you follow the safety tips, it might even save your life.

From Ted Cheeseman

Ted Cheeseman was the Expedition Leader on two of my three Cheesemans’ Ecology Safari voyages. He is skillful, dedicated, and extremely knowledgeable. He is as passionate about ice and penguins as I am about bird photography. I recently sent him a review copy of the SOPG. Here is what he had to say:

Thank you for sharing this. I had no idea you were putting so much work into the guide. It was really fun to see your images. I have, of course, seen many of them, but many more I had not. I read a lot of it, not comprehensively but spent about an hour. Great stuff Artie. Your introduction is solid, honest, appropriate, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the experience from your perspective. Ted

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 9th, 2017

The Marbled Godwit Straightforward Image Optimization Challenge Results Offer a Tremendous Opportunity for Learning ...

More Blog Subscription Problems 🙂

It appears that our server was recently spammed by AOL and possibly by several other (AOL-related?) e-mail providers. AOL was the first to do that to BPN more than a decade ago and we eventually solved the problem. But, they are back on our case. If you suddenly stopped receiving BAA Blog notices please click here to learn the easy work-around.

Stuff

I urge everyone to pick their three favorites below and leave a comment. The blog is designed to be interactive. As always, the more folks who play, the more everyone will learn. And yes, that includes me 🙂

I did lots of work on the 5D IV Guide on Wednesday. Swam 3/4 mile. Did lots of positional exercises and cardio stuff. Answered lots of e-mails, and commented a lot in the Avian Gallery at BirdPhotographer’s.Net.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred four days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took more than two hours to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

More Cheap Weekend Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Instruction

Sign up for the full day Saturday 11 NOV and the Friday afternoon session (4:30pm till sunset) on 10 NOV is free!

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149. Add lunch, image review, and Photoshop session: $249 (total).

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Afternoon session — 4:30pm for 3 hours: $99.

Saturday, November 11, 2017, both sessions including lunch: $329. Sign up for the full day Saturday and enjoy a Friday afternoon session for free.

Sunday, November 12, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

Cheap but great instruction.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

Marbled Godwit Straightforward Image Optimization Challenge

In the Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT & RAW File/Image Optimization Challenge #2 blog post here, folks were invited to download the Marbled Godwit RAW file, convert and optimize it, and send me a sharpened 1200 pixel wide JPEG via e-mail. The good news is that everyone sized their JPEGs properly. Next time I will teach you to Optimize to File Size while saving your JPEG 🙂 Below are the fruits of everyone’s labor.

To begin, this exercise was designed to be a test of your basic RAW conversion and image optimization skills. There is an absolute ton of learning going on here for those who wish to soak it all in, and there will be a lot more learning in the follow-up to this post; I will critique each of the images that were submitted. Notice the huge variety in cropping choices and the great range of color balances. Almost every image looks quite different. Some are over-sharpened; some are over-Nikked (too funky); some are too YELLOW; some are too CYAN; and some are cropped too tightly for my tastes. As the learning continues, your assignment for today is to list your top three picks in order of preference with the best conversion and optimization job at the top of the list. Be sure to click on each image to enlarge it because the larger versions appear sharper than the smaller ones.

Those who wish to do so may take a crack at these:

  • 1-In general, do you prefer the cropped or the un-cropped versions?
  • 2-Do you think that the image needed to be leveled?
  • 3-Which image is a big overexposure?
  • 4-Which image or images have the best beach clean-up?
  • 5-Which image is presented too dark?

In a few days, days, I will critique each of the submitted images.

Image #1

Image #1

Image #2

Image #2

Image #3

Image #3

Image #4

Image #4

Image #5

Image #5

Image #6

Image #6

Image #7

Image #7

Image #8

Image #8

Image #9

Image #9

Image #10

Image #10

Image #11

Image #11

Image #12

Image #12

Image #13

Image #13

Image #14

Image #14

Image #15

Image #15

Image #16

Image #16

Image #17

Image #18

Image #18

Image #18

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 8th, 2017

Tough Stormy Conditions Part III: Sharp in the wind at 1/30 second! And Used Camera Body Bonanza.

Stuff

On Tuesday the folks from Ridge Energy showed up on time to install the new air handler for my central air. They worked long and hard. I am plugging away on the 5D IV User’s Guide but the going is tough and slow. In addition, I answered the usual several dozen e-mails, swam 100 lengths of the pool — a bit more than 1 1/8 miles, and did some of my positional exercises.

With nobody signed up for this coming weekend at DeSoto you have the opportunity to enjoy private or practically private instruction by opting to join me. Friday afternoon is free for those who sign up for the full day on Saturday. Scroll down for details. I am going with nobody 🙂

Coming on Thursday: 15 versions of the Marbled Godwit RAW Conversion Challenge. This and the follow-up will turn out to be one of the most educational BIRDS AS ART Blog posts ever.

Used Camera Body Bonanza

Including record low BAA prices for a Canon 1DX II and a Nikon D-810.

Nikon D-810 Digital SLR Camera Body (with extras!)

Peter Noyes is offering a Nikon D-810 Digital SLR Camera Body in excellent condition (with extras!) for the great low price of $1499. The sale includes one Nikon EN-EL 15 Lithium Ion Battery, the MH 25A Battery Charger, the BF-1B Body Cap, the Nikon camera strap, four Lexar 64 GB 1066X 160MB/s compact flash cards, two Lexar Professional 1000X 32 GB compact flash cards, the original product box, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Peter via e-mail or by phone at 1-567-356-0878 (Eastern time).

The 36 megapixel D-810 sells new for $2,796.95; it is the high resolution option in the Nikon DSLR lineup. The CMOS sensor does not have an optical low pass filter; this allows for particularly sharp and detailed images. It features low noise throughout the ISO range and continuous shooting speed in FX format of 5 fps and in DX format it tops out at maximum of 7 fps. To this Canon shooter it sounds very much like my beloved 5D Mark IV. artie

artie

Canon EOS-1DX Mark II

Price reduced $400 on 7 NOV 2017

Mansoor Assadi is also offering a used Canon EOS-1DX Mark II professional digital camera body in like-new condition for a BAA record low $4499 (was $4899) with only 23,000 shutter actuations.The camera was recently cleaned and checked by Canon. The sale includes the front body cap, a RRS L-plate, a LensCoat BodyBag, the original box with everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Mansoor via e-mail or by phone at 415-559-8027 (Pacific time).

The 1DX Mark II is Canon’s rugged, blazingly fast professional digital camera body. It features an amazing AF system and high quality image files with great dynamic range. It is the choice of Arash Hazeghi, one of the world’s premier birds in flight photographers. artie

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Price reduced $200 on 7 NOV 2017

Mansoor Assadi is also offering a used Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body in excellent condition (with slight scratches on top of camera) for a very low and fair $999 (was $1199). The sale includes the front body cap, a RRS L-plate, the original box with everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Mansoor via e-mail or by phone at 415-559-8027 (Pacific time).

Two dependable, rugged 1D Mark IVs served as my workhorse professional bodies for several years; I really enjoyed their 1.3X crop factors, the fast frame rate, and the excellent image quality. artie

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred three days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto on the very stormy morning of October 29, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and my favorite Willet blur photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops as framed: 1/30 sec. at f/4.0 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB in dark, stormy, completely overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

One AF point above the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Rear Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the tip of the bill.

Image Snowy Egret on eroding berm in storm

Be sure to enjoy an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

Tough Stormy Conditions Part III

As you’ve learned here the past few days, the morning of October 28, 2017 was — with huge storm clouds, spitting rain, and winds at about 45mph out of the north northwest (with higher gusts!) — a difficult one for nature photographers. The Gulf was a roiling mass of whitecaps and breaking waves. Only Lee Sommie and I remained from the Saturday group. It was a big challenge trying to create a few meaningful images in almost un-photographable conditions. In today’s featured image note the beach erosion. When several Snowy Egrets landed on the edge of the eroded berm I thought that it might be possible to make an image with the bird sharp and the background waves completely blurred to white. I chose the relatively slow shutter speed of 1/30 second. In most of the images, the bird was simply not at all sharp and the blurring was unpleasant. The fact that the wind was behind me gave me a chance.

I will be sharing still more images and tales from that very rough morning with you here.

Ron Gates’ Relevant Comments Make My Point

Below the Tough Stormy Conditions Part I: Fun in the High Winds and Spray! And Just Playin’ in Photoshop blog post here, regular Ron Gates left an insightful comment:

Interesting special effects in Photoshop. I liked the Distort/Wave one the best although the Distort Twirl was interesting as well. The original bunker shot didn’t do a lot for me personally. What I liked most of all was the idea to experiment and the results of that.

I replied:

Good thinking Ron. My main (but somewhat unstated) point was that when things are really bad you can either fold up your tent and quit or try something, anything. Quitting is always easier. with love, artie

The Before and After Image Clean-up

One of the things that I strive to do here on a daily basis is to share with you what I was thinking as I assess a situation and what I was thinking as I execute my plan. When I pressed the shutter button on this series I envisioned what the photo would look like with all the beach crap (for lack of a better word) removed in Photoshop; as in the BEFORE & AFTER animated GIF immediately above.

During the RAW conversion in DPP 4 I used the Color fine tune dot to better line up the R, the G, and the B by moving the dot right and down a bit, away from BLUE. That after loading my 5D IV/ISO 800 recipe. Once I brought the image into Photoshop the clean-up was straightforward but time consuming. I made sure to work large and to work slowly and carefully. As always I used the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, the Clone Stamp Tool, Content Aware Fill, and a series of small Quick Masks each refined by the Transform command or a Regular Layer Mask (or by both). Then I selected the eyes, the lores, and the fill and selectively sharpened that layer only with a Contrast Mask. Then — using the Quick Selection Tool — I carefully selected the pupil, the black bill, and the black on the legs, placed the selection on its own layer, and set the black point using a Levels adjustment; wow, what a difference that made! Then I saved the unsharpened TIFF, duplicated the file, used one to create the animated GIF, and the other to create the sharpened (Unsharp Mask at 110/0.3/0) 1200 pixel wide of today’s featured image.

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

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

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

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

The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):

  • The Wingtip Repairs MP4 Video here.
  • The MP4 Crow Cleanup Video here.

Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here.

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

More Cheap Weekend Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Instruction

Sign up for the full day Saturday 11 NOV and the Friday afternoon session (4:30pm till sunset) on 10 NOV is free!

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149. Add lunch, image review, and Photoshop session: $249 (total).

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Afternoon session — 4:30pm for 3 hours: $99.

Saturday, November 11, 2017, both sessions including lunch: $329. Sign up for the full day Saturday and enjoy a Friday afternoon session for free.

Sunday, November 12, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

Cheap but great instruction.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 7th, 2017

Tough Stormy Conditions Part II. Willets in the Surf; do any of these four images have merit? Be honest!

Stuff

On Monday I worked on blog posts, answered e-mails, swam 3/4 mile, and exercised a lot. I was glad to learn that the sales of Mike Lawie’s 24-105 and his 7D Mark II and the sale of Duncan Douglas’s “old” 500mm are all pending. See lots more great Used Gear with low and reduced prices here.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred two days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto on the very stormy morning of October 29, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and my favorite Willet blur photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 stops as framed: 1/2 sec. at f/5.0 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB in dark, stormy, completely overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

One AF point below and two to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Rear Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the upper back of the front bird.

Image #1: Two Willets in stormy surf

Tough Stormy Conditions Part II

As you learned in yesterday’s blog post, on the morning of October 28, 2017 the skies were cloudy and spitting, the winds were about 45mph out of the north northwest, and the Gulf was a roiling mass of whitecaps and breaking waves. Only Lee Sommie and I remained from the Saturday group. It was a big challenge trying to create a few meaningful images in almost un-photographable conditions. When I found several Willets foraging in the surf, I immediately thought blurs. In A Guide to Pleasing Blurs — co-authored by Denise Ippolito — I wrote something to this effect, “Necessity is often the mother of invention.” In this case, with the horrible conditions, blurs were pretty much the only alternative.

I will be sharing more images and tales from that memorably stormy morning with you here.

Image #1

I think that I could have done better with the color on this one as it is possibly too CYAN. That said, I really like this image but for one thing; what is it that bugs me?

This image was also created at Fort DeSoto on the very stormy morning of October 29, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and my favorite Willet blur photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops as framed: 1/13 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB in stormy, completely overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

One AF point below and two to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Rear Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the bird’s flank just above the straight leg.

Image #2: Willet and receding wave

Image #2

While I really like this one too, especially the slow shutter speeding streaking of the waves, one thing in this image bugs me. What is it?

This is another image that was created on the very stormy morning of October 29, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and my favorite Willet blur photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops as framed: 1/13 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB in stormy, completely overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

One AF point below and two to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Rear Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the side of the bird’s breast as framed.

Image #3: Willet walking

Image #3

I like this one a lot too. But I have a problem with the basic image design. If you think that you know what I do not like about the composition, please leave a comment.

This image was also created at Fort DeSoto on the very stormy morning of October 29, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and my favorite Willet blur photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops as framed: 1/13 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB in stormy, completely overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

One AF point below and two to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Rear Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the side of the bird’s breast as originally framed.

Image #4: Willet angled toward us

Do any of these four images have merit? Be honest!

Do any of these four images have merit? Be honest! Would they all be insta-deletes for you? Do you have favorite? If yes, which one and why? If not, why? It should not be too difficult here to be honest without being malicious 🙂 As we say on BPN, “”Honest critiques done gently.”

A Guide to Pleasing Blurs

As some folks believe, pleasing blurs are not out of focus mistakes. Most successful pleasing blurs are a result of pre-visualization, creative thinking, and perfect technical execution. If you would like to learn how to create a great variety of these increasingly popular images, get yourself a copy of A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly.

More Cheap Weekend Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Instruction

Sign up for the full day Saturday 11 NOV and the Friday afternoon session (4:30pm till sunset) on 10 NOV is free!

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149. Add lunch, image review, and Photoshop session: $249 (total).

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Afternoon session — 4:30pm for 3 hours: $99.

Saturday, November 11, 2017, both sessions including lunch: $329. Sign up for the full day Saturday and enjoy a Friday afternoon session for free.

Sunday, November 12, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

Cheap but great instruction.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 6th, 2017

Tough Stormy Conditions Part I: Fun in the High Winds and Spray! And Just Playin' in Photoshop.

Stuff

The UFC 217 Pay Per View on Saturday evening November 4, was the best $59.95 I ever spent on sports entertainment. I was rooting for Rose Namajunas to defeat the big favorite, the undefeated Strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. I was rooting for another underdog, TJ Dillashaw, to crush loud-mouthed braggart Bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt. Lastly, I was hoping that Georges (Rush) St-Pierre who had not fought for four years and was moving up a weight class, would be able to dethrone Middleweight champion Michael Bisping. I was a delirious three for three, two huge upsets and three new champions! 🙂

More than a dozen folks responded to the RAW File/Image Optimization Challenge #2 in yesterday’s blog post here. It is not too late for you to take a crack at it.

On Sunday I worked on blog posts, got some more work done on the 5D Mark IV User’s Guide, swam an easy one mile, and exercised a lot. All that while enjoying NFL Sunday Ticket games…

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred one days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created at Fort DeSoto with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and my favorite bunker photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops as framed: 1/200 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode. AWB in totally beyond overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.

Center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Rear Button AF on the upper right corner of the large structure and re-compose.

Derelict bunker at old fort at Fort DeSoto

Tough Stormy Conditions Part I

On the morning of October 28, 2017 the skies were cloudy and spitting, the winds were about 45mph out of the north northwest, and the Gulf was a roiling mass of whitecaps and breaking waves. Conditions were quite Armageddon-like. Only Lee Sommie and I remained from the Saturday group. We had a ton of fun trying to create a few meaningful images in almost un-photographable conditions. For today’s featured image I chose a derelict offshore bunker that was originally part of the historic fort.

My original plan for the bunker was to go to a low ISO and create some really long exposures of from 2 to four seconds to render the waves a soft, silky blur. It was a great plan but with the relatively fierce wind blowing at me from my right, the lens hood was vibrating like a drum and though I made about 20 very slow shutter speed images, the structure was completely blurred in each and every frame. I could not remove the lens hood — usually a good plan when using a long lens in high winds — because the spray would have covered the front lens element in seconds. Then I tried a variety of fast shutter speeds ranging from 1/80 to 1/200 sec. I like that even with the relatively fast shutter speed of 1/200 second today’s featured image conveyed the stormy day concept quite well.

I will be sharing more images from that memorably stormy morning with you here.

Just Playing: Filter > Distort > Wave

Just Playing: Filter > Distort > Wave

Since my super slow blurs did not work I decided to experiment in Photoshop. I tried Filter > Distort > Wave

Just Playing: Filter > Distort > Twirl/strong>

Just Playing: Filter > Distort > Twirl

Next, and again just for fun, I decided to experiment in Photoshop this time with Filter > Distort > Wave.

Your favorite?

Which of today’s three images, straight up, Wave, or Twirl do you like best. Why?

More Cheap Weekend Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Instruction

Sign up for the full day Saturday 11 NOV and the Friday afternoon session (4:30pm till sunset) on 10 NOV is free!

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149. Add lunch, image review, and Photoshop session: $249 (total).

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Afternoon session — 4:30pm for 3 hours: $99.

Saturday, November 11, 2017, both sessions including lunch: $329. Sign up for the full day Saturday and enjoy a Friday afternoon session for free.

Sunday, November 12, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

Cheap but great instruction.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 5th, 2017

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. And RAW File/Image Optimization Challenge #2.

Stuff

I woke early on Saturday and drove over to Lakeland to meet up with friends Lee Sommie and Noel Heustis at the Circle B Bar Preserve. Though it is less than an hour from my home I had never been there. The place is pretty nice and though there were not a lot of birds I will return; the place definitely has potential.

After yakking in the parking lot for too long, I was home by 11:30am and finally got into the pool for an easy 3/4 mile swim at about 4pm. The pool has warmed up nicely to 84 degrees, up from last weeks low of 78. My plan is to stay up late on Saturday evening to watch UFC 217 on Pay Per View. On Sunday I get back to exercising 🙂

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT. 3 1/2 days: $1599

Saturday DEC 2 (afternoon session) through the full day on Tuesday DEC 5, 2017. Meet and Greet Introduction on SAT DEC 2, 2017

With no water in Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp and Anhinga Trail total busts for many years, and Ding Darling NWR managed into oblivion, Fort DeSoto has emerged as the premier bird photography location in the state. Join me in early winter to escape the cold weather and photograph lots of tame terns, gulls, herons, egrets (including Reddish Egret), shorebirds (including and especially Marbled Godwit), Osprey, and Brown Pelican. Long-billed Curlew, Wood Stork, and Roseate Spoonbill all range somewhere between likely and possible.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

DeSoto IPT Details

This IPT will include four 3 hour afternoon sessions, three 3 1/2 hour morning sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

Because of the narrow time frame, your $499 non-refundable deposit can be paid not by credit card. Call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906 to register. Your balance must be paid by check once you sign up. The balance check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART) should me mailed to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your balance check. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

This image was created on the Saturday morning, October 28 Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Instructional Session with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 390mm) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB in sunny but very slightly overcast conditions.

One AF point above and three to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed on the side of the bird’s breast (as shown by the illuminated red AF point in the DPP 4 screen capture above).

This is the un-adjusted RAW file for Marbled Godwit in gentle surf

The RAW File

Note that with the histogram pushed all the way to the right that the RAW file looks washed out. That is exactly what you should be striving for. If your RAW file looks good on the rear LCD or good on you monitor it is under-exposed. You will have lost valuable data, the the image quality will suffer, and your image will exhibit lots of noise. By properly exposing to the right you will have the largest possible RAW fie, superior image quality, and low noise levels.

RAW File/Image Optimization Challenge #2

Click here to download the full-sized large RAW (CR.2) file. Convert the image as you please, optimize it as you please, created and sharpen at 1200 pixel wide JPEG, and shoot it to me via e-mail. The RAW conversion and image optimization here should be relatively straightforward. The goal is to produce a high quality image file that features just the right amount of contrast and rich colors that reflect the early morning light.

Note: I am not looking for anything creative or out-of the box here, just looking for some good solid basic work. I will share my version here along with the best of those submitted.

More Cheap Weekend Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Instruction

Sign up for the full day Saturday 11 NOV and the Friday afternoon session (4:30pm till sunset) on 10 NOV is free!

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149. Add lunch, image review, and Photoshop session: $249 (total).

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Afternoon session — 4:30pm for 3 hours: $99.

Saturday, November 11, 2017, both sessions including lunch: $329. Sign up for the full day Saturday and enjoy a Friday afternoon session for free.

Sunday, November 12, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

Cheap but great instruction.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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

November 4th, 2017

So You Wanna Hand Hold a Long Lens? Here are some tips. Includes the Standing Olympic Rifle-shooter Technique.

Stuff

Thanks to Eugen Dolan for getting me off my butt and getting this information together. And to Lee Sommie for the three images that he contributed. On Friday I worked on blog posts, answered e-mails, and entertained the Ridge Energy air conditioning repairman. A team will be here on Tuesday to replace the air handler; everything was so rusted that the fan motor failed and it seemed to make much more sense to replace the whole unit rather than to replace the motor and then try to figure out what was leaking …

Right now nobody is signed up for DeSoto next weekend. That means that if you can join me you will be in a very small group, possibly a very small group of one. I am going with none 🙂

Due to a cancellation there is a single opening on San Diego IPT #1 (click here for details). And with only two folks signed up, there is lots of room on San Diego IPT #2 (scroll down here for details that one). I am offering a free Saturday morning session for those who sign up for San Diego #2.

Recent Fort DeSoto Images

From bottom left clockwise back to center: Great Egret, blasting sunrise highlights; Black Skimmer, winter plumage in pre-dawn light; Roseate Spoonbill foraging; Brown Pelican, juvenile landing; hybrid heron X egret; American Oystercatcher feeding; Royal Tern, worn juvenile; Great Blue Heron from below.

More Cheap Weekend Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Instruction

Sign up for the full day Saturday 11 NOV and the Friday afternoon session (4:30pm till sunset) on 10 NOV is free!

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149. Add lunch, image review, and Photoshop session: $249 (total).

Saturday, November 11, 2017: Afternoon session — 4:30pm for 3 hours: $99.

Saturday, November 11, 2017, both sessions including lunch: $329. Sign up for the full day Saturday and enjoy a Friday afternoon session for free.

Sunday, November 12, 2017: Morning session — 6:45am for 3 1/2 hours: $149.

Learn to get the right exposure every time, to approach free and wild (and often tame!) birds, and to design a pleasing image. And learn the location of my new Fort DeSoto hotspot along with my favorite sunset location (sky conditions permitting). To register call Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 or shoot me an e-mail.

Canon lens rentals are available on a limited basis: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, and 200-400 f/4 with Internal TC.

Cheap but great instruction.

The Streak

Today makes ninety-nine days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.



Gear Questions and Advice

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

General Comments on Hand Holding Big Glass

I am not young and I am not strong. I used to be younger 🙂 Hand holding the Canon 600mm IS II (8.65 pounds plus the camera and a TC) is something that I do only rarely. Hand holding the Canon 500mm IS II (7.04 pounds plus the camera and a TC) is a lot easier for me, but still something that I do not make a habit of. I an fairly comfortable hand holding the Canon 400mm f/4 DO II (4.63 pounds plus the camera and a TC), but after awhile even that causes some fatigue. I can, however, hand hold the Canon 100-400mm II (a measly 3.5 pounds plus the camera and possibly the 1.4X TC) pretty much all day long.

That said, there are lots of techniques that you can use to make your hand holding easier, reduce fatigue, and enable you to produce consistently sharper images no matter how young and strong or old and weak you are. Questions are of course welcome.

General Hand Holding Tips

When you are not actively photographing, find a comfortable rest position, one that does not require you to hold the camera up. For the smaller telephoto lenses (up to the 400 DO II), the Black Rapid Curve Breathe Camera Strap is ideal. With big glass some folks use a strap or a belt device of some sort to reduce muscle strain. Others simply hold the rig by the camera with the lens pointing at or even resting on the ground or on a fence rail of on the gunnels or a boat.

The biggest mistake that I see is folks not extending their left hands far enough out on the lens barrel. I will often ask them, “Would you try to hold a log up from one end? Whatever the lens, be sure to get your left hand at least half way out on the lens barrel.

Study and learn from each of the images below and from my brief comments below each photograph. Again, questions are of course welcome.


photographer-and-shorebirds_36a2471-indian-lake-estates-fl

Kneeling knee-pod technique

Kneeling Knee-pod Technique

The kneeling ground pod technique is an excellent one. Note that DeSoto IPT participant Alan Nodes has his left hand well out on the lens barrel of the old 100-400. Because I often get cramps in my hamstrings when kneeling, I rarely if ever use this technique.

Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS Zoom Lens (the original 1-4)

Chesley Swann is offering a Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS Zoom Lens (the original 1-4) in excellent condition for the very low price of $529.00. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the front lens cap, the tough fabric zippered lens case, and insured Ground shipping via major courier. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact (Chesley) via e-mail or by phone at 1-210-771-9072) (Central time).

The older 100-400 is a versatile intermediate telephoto zoom lens with 1,000+ uses. It makes a great starter lens especially for folks who do general nature and wildlife in addition to birds. Over the years I’ve sold 100s of images made with this lens. And Denise Ippolito loved hers for many years forsaking it only recently for the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. Chesley’s lens is priced to sell quickly. artie


knee-pod-2-_y5o1436desoto-park-pinellas-county-fl

Get Your Butt Dirty Knee-Pod Position

Sitting Knee-pod Technique

Here my right-hand man Jim Litzenberg demonstrates the sitting knee-pod technique while hand holding the 200-400 f/4L IS lens with Internal 1.4X TC (7.98 pounds plus the camera and a TC) at Fort DeSoto. Note that his left forearm is firmly and squarely positioned on his left thigh and that his left hand is on the focusing ring. This allows him to pre-focus manually when he needs to. When using short telephoto lenses I usually opt to rotate the tripod collar so that the lens plate faces up to the sky as holding the lens barrel rather than the lens plate that seems more stable to me. Other fine photographers do it exactly as Jim does. Try both and determine which works better for you.

Patrick Sparkman using the sitting knee-pod technique on the low cliffs at LaJolla

Sitting Knee-pod Technique with the 600 II/2X III/5D IV Combo

You need a measure of strength when hand holding at 1200mm even if you use perfect sitting knee-pod technique (as Patrick is doing above). Note that unlike me Patrick keeps the lens plate (actually the CRX-5 Low Foot/Plate) below the lens. But unlike Jim he hooks the pinky of his left hand over the top of the CRX-5. When I do that, I use the last two fingers of my left hand. Try all three ways and see which one works best for you.

Sitting Knee-pod Technique with the 600 II/2X III/5D IV Combo
Image courtesy of and copyright 2017: Lee Sommie

Sitting Knee-pod Technique with the 600 II/2X III/5D IV Combo

Above is yours truly demonstrating the sitting knee-pod technique with the 600 II/2X III/5D IV combo while working vertically. Note how far out on the lens barrel I have my left hand; that for increased stability.

Standing Olympic Rifle-shooter Technique with the 600 II/5D IV Combo
Image courtesy of and copyright 2017: Lee Sommie

Standing Olympic Rifle-shooter Technique with the 600 II/5D IV Combo

Above is yours truly demonstrating the standing Olympic rifle-shooter technique with the 600 II/5D IV combo while working vertically. Begin by standing roughly square to the subject with your feet shoulder width apart. Note how far out on the lens barrel I have my left hand; that for increased stability. Note that my body is positioned roughly 90 degrees to the subject.

For more information, see the excellent detailed explanation (with photos) on the RifleSilhouette website here.

Standing Olympic Rifle-shooter Technique/side view
Image courtesy of and copyright 2017: Lee Sommie

Standing Olympic Rifle-shooter Technique/Side View

In the image above, you can see that my left upper arm is tucked firmly into my side and that my upper body is leaning back just a bit to better balance the weight of the lens. When doing flight photography or photographing birds perched up in trees, you need to lean back a bit more. There are dozens of great tips on hand holding and flight photography in Jim Neiger’s Flight Plan e-Guide.

baa1

Flight Plan

I can say without a doubt that after spending more than two months (part time) editing Jim Neiger’s great e-Guide–Flight Plan–four years ago–that my flight photography improved by leaps and bound whether I am working off a tripod or hand holding. His explanation of the bumping the focus technique finally sunk in. Learning to use this technique regularly is a huge help for any all types of flight photography.

You can learn more about Flight Plan here (sorry, we lost the images …) or by clicking here.

2017 in San Diego was a very good year ….

2018 San Diego 3 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT #2: Sunday, JAN 28 thru and including the morning session on Wednesday, JAN 31, 2018 and a free Saturday morning session the day before the IPT starts: 3 1/2 days (+1/2!): $1699. Limit: 8: Openings: 7.

Meet and Greet at 6:30pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Saturday, Jan 27, 2018.

San Diego IPT #2: Shorter and Less Expensive!

Please remember: I go with one.

Join me in San Diego near the end of January to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s (usually nesting and displaying) and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Wood Duck and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Whimbrel, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seal (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lion; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well. Please note: formerly dependable, both Wood Duck and Marbled Godwit have been declining at their usual locations for the past two years …


san-diego-card-neesie

San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….

With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication. You can do most of your photography with an 80- or 100-400 lens …

Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?


san-diego-card-b

Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.

The San Diego Details

This IPT will include four 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, three 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 11/1/2016. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

If In Doubt …

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






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

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

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

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

Amazon.com

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

Amazon Canada

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

Facebook

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

Typos

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