It is 5:30am on Friday morning. I was in bed by 8:30pm on Thursday night but jet lag struck early; I woke often to read for 15 minutes and was wide awake by 4:30am. I decided to drive up to Kissimmee this afternoon to scout for the Gatorland Mini IPT. If you would like to join us for the Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning session, please shoot me an e-mail asap.
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.
The Streak: 477!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 477 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Though AI Servo/Center Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure, the active AF points did not show up on the RAW file. That is only the second time that I have seen this. In any case, the image is quite sharp on the bird’s eyes. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: 0.
Image #1: Steller’s Sea-eagle, incoming adult
My 2017 Japan Gear Bag
I knew all along and once again that the big decision for this trip would be whether to bring the lighter, smaller 500mm f/4L IS II or the bulkier, heavier, and longer 600 II. By the narrowest of margins I opted for the 600 II (while dreaming of Red-crowned Cranes in flight).
Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens. There is not a lot of walking on the Japan IPT. I will need the extra reach at the two crane sanctuaries, primarily Tsurui-Itoh where the extra reach really helps in the morning when the Red-crowned Cranes are flying in. And I will also use it for the Whooper Swans for flight and with either TC for tight head portraits.
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens. This lens will be on my shoulder for most of the trip either with a 5D Mark IV or a 1D X II via a Black Rapid strap. The 100-400 focal length fits beautifully with the 600 II. I will be using it as I always do for just about everything. That will include catch-as-catch-can flight and action, portraits, and as my main lens on a tripod for the Snow Monkeys. The close-focus there will be amazingly valuable… It was a pretty easy decision to leave the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens at home as I can cover the missing 70-100 with the 24-105.
I am also bringing the Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens. Many would think that it counterfeits the 100-400 II to some degree and it obviously does, but there are lots of advantages that come along with its lighter weight (as compared to the 600 II) and its wider f/4 aperture (as compared to the 100-400II). I will use it for hand held flight for the two species of sea-eagles that we will likely get to photograph, for the Whooper Swans in flight, and for the Red-Crowned Cranes when they are landing close to us. Lastly, the 400 DO II offers a good measure of insurance should fate claim my 600 II.
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. This all-purpose B-roll lens will be in my Vested Interest Xtrahand vest where it can be grabbed whenever it is needed or used on a tripod for scenic photography.
I am making this trip with two Canon 1.4X III TCs and two 2X III TCs. With my style of bird photography–tight, clean, and graphic–I cannot afford to be without both TCs in the event of an accident or malfunction–or loss. 🙂 Most common in the malfunction category would be that the locking pin sticks; when that happens, there is a risk of having your camera body hit the ground.
Think Tank Rolling Bags
I will be using the larger of my two Think Tank rolling bags, the Airport Security™ V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag. Everything above fit easily into my Airport Security™ V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag on Saturday afternoon. It tipped the scales at 45 1/2 pounds for this trip; the legal limit for US flights is 40 pounds. Nearly all countries in the world give you slack as far as the 40 pounds goes on the way back to the US. As far as the extra 5 1/2 pounds, I have only been hassled for weight once in more than three decades of flying around the world. And never in Japan. I hope that I do not give myself a kine-ahora.
Please click on my Think Tank affiliate link here or on the Think Tank logo-link in the right column of each blog post page to earn a free gift when you purchase any Think Tank product.
Think Tank Urban Disguise Laptop Shoulder Bag
I love this amazing bag as it has tons of room and enables me to bring tons of extra stuff. If you are forced to gate check your roller you can get more than a few items in this bag, especially if you are not a diabetic.
Please click on my Think Tank affiliate link here or on the Think Tank logo-link in the right column of each blog post page to earn a free gift when you purchase any Think Tank product.
Delkin Flash Cards
As always, I will have a 128gb Delkin e-Film Pro Flash Card in each camera body so that I never have to change cards in the field thus reducing the risk of losing a card…. Please note the new lower prices here. I do have a few extra 32 and 64gb cards in a Delkin CF Memory Card Tote, mostly to protect against operator error.
Vested Interest Xtrahand Vest
I use a custom-designed Vested Interest Xtrahand Magnum vest that John Storrie knows as the BIRDS AS ART Big Lens Vest. It is based on their Magnum vest and then customized to fit my needs. In addition to carrying a ton of stuff comfortably in the field, it gives you a measure of protection should your roll aboard be gate-checked on a puddle jumper or on other flights.
If you do a search for “vest’ or “vested interest” on the blog it will take you to many mentions in both the blog and the Bulletins with lots of additional information. See especially here and here.
Click here to learn more about Xtrahand Vests. You can always call John at 940 484 2222 to discuss customizing your vest. If you think that you might order, be sure to have a tape measure in hand. Please let him know that we sent you.
Gear Bag Retrospective
In retrospect I would not have changed a thing. On most field sessions in Hokkaido I had the 600 II on the Induro tripod, often with a TC, most often with the 1.4X III, and the 100-400 II on my shoulder via the new Black Rapid Curves strap. I probably made more than 90% of my images with those two lenses. I used the 24-105 or the wide angle-zoom only rarely.
It turned out that I used the 400 DO II only on the sea eagle boat trips; that turned out to be a great decision. I used it almost always with the 1.4X except in the pre-dawn when I worked at f/4 to save a stop of ISO (or gain a stop of speed). The extra reach at 560mm at f/5.6 as compared to being at 560mm at f/8 with the 100-400 II and the 1.4X TC always saved me one stop of ISO. On the sea-eagle trips I kept the 100-400 II on my shoulder via the Black Rapid Curve strap and the 400 DO at my feet. I must admit to using the 400 DO II about 80% of the time on for the sea-eagles. When we got close to some sea-eagles perched on the ice on our last Rausu trip, I used the 400 DO II with the 2X III TC to create some tight body-parts portraits.
At the Monkey Park I relied 100% on the hand held 100-400II and did quite well. The four-stop IS and its close focusing ability were a big plus.
AI Servo/Center Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system activated a rectangular array of six AF points that fell nicely on the right side of the bird’s neck, precisely on the same plane as its eye.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: -5.
Image #2: White-tailed Sea-eagle perch on ice floe
The Huge Surprise
The biggest surprise for me was that once I tried the 1D X Mark II for flight I became so enamored with the frame rate (and the AF accuracy) that I used it quite often – heck, almost exclusively — for flight photography with both the 600 II/1.4X III and the 400 DO II/1.4X II TC combinations. See the upcoming blog posts for lots more images; the proof — as they say — is in the pudding.
Before you run off to purchase your 1DX Mark II do consider that while the frame rate is great for pure flight and action situations, you can purchase two 5D Mark IV bodies for the price of a single 1DX II. More importantly, consider the fact that the 1DX II is the worst Canon camera in several generations of camera bodies as far as sensor dust is concerned. And even worse, more than a few individual 1D X II bodies (including mine) spray tiny oil drops on the sensor.
Enlarge Image #1 to note the two large dust spots, one below the primaries on the bird’s left wing, the other well above the middle of the bird’s right wing. Worse yet, note the large oil spot just below the right wing, about 2/3 of the way out. All of those when working wide open at f/5.6 when sensor dust is generally not a problem. See the upcoming Canon EOS-1DX II Sensor Oil Spotting Problems blog post for additional information.
To sum up, the 5D Mark IV — where sensor dust is only very rarely present — is still my favorite bird photography camera body but I must acknowledge that the 1DX II is pretty darned good for flight and action despite the smaller file size.
Your Favorite?
Which of today’s featured images is your favorite? Please be sure to let us know why you made your choice.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
It is Thursday morning and I am still feeling quite excellent. I spent two hours in a jet-lag induced zombie-like state on Wednesday afternoon but slept pretty well last night.
Gatorland Mini IPT
If you would like to join me for all or part of the Gatorland Mini IPT this coming weekend (all day SAT and SUN morning) please call or shoot me an e-mail immediately.
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.
The Streak: 476!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 476 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Selling Your Used Gear Through BIRDS AS ART
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 charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. 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 above.
Recent Successful Used Gear Sales
Activity continues to be hot!
Brian Patteson sold his Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM super telephoto lens in near-mint condition for $4099 in early February.
IPT veteran Dick Evans sold his NIKKOR AF-S 70-200 f2.8G ED VRII Lens in like-new condition to a local camera store and kindly sent me a check for the 2 1/2% of the original listed price.
Steve Traudt is sold a Canon 500mm f4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens in excellent condition for $3550 in mid-February, 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM zoom lens in excellent condition for $899 i early February 2017.
Dow Morris sold his Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM lens in like-new condition for $579 a few days after it was listed in early February 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 100-400 zoom 1:4.5 – 5.6 L IS telephoto lens in excellent plus condition for a very low $549 in early February.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II body in like-new condition for $949.00 in early February 2017 just two days after it was listed
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS-1D X body with the Canon GPS receiver in like-new condition for $2499.00 within hours of it being listed.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 500 f/4L IS USM Super telephoto lens with lots of extras in like-new condition for $4,499 in mid-January 2017.
Gene Scarborough sold a Canon accessory package for $250 in late January.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in like-new condition with only 4258 shutter actuations for $1449.00 in late-January before it was even listed!.
Wayne Roth sold his Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/2.8G EDII VR lens in like-new condition for $3,500.00 in Late January, 2017, two weeks after it was listed.
New Listings
Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens
Mike Pace is offering a Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS lens in very good condition for $4699 CAD ($3,513.91 USD). Canadian sale only. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the lens hood, the lens strap, the front lens cover, a LensCoat digital camo front cover, and a digital camo LensCoat. The lens under went a Canon clean and check in mid-February. The rear lens mount was replaced. The sale includes insured ground shipping via major courier to Canadian addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
The old five is a fairly lightweight super-telephoto lens that work well with both TCs. It is fast and sharp. I used mine as my workhorse lens (along with the old 600mm f/4) for almost ten years to photograph birds all over the world. Both have been replaced by their version II counterparts. The 500 f/4s have long been the world’s most popular super-telephotos for wildlife and sports. artie
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Zoom Lens
Mike Pace is offering a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II in excellent plus condition for $1,949 CAD ($1456.68 USD). Canadian sale only. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the tough fabric lens case, the lens hood, the lens strap, the front lens cap, the original product box, a winter LensCoat, and insured ground shipping via major courier to Canadian addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
The 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens is amazingly versatile. I still own one and have made zillions of great images with it. It works well with both the 1.4X III and the 2X III TCs, even with the 7D II! It is easily hand holdable. It is great for tame birds, landscapes, urbex, indoor stuff likes concerts and recitals, and just about anything you want to photograph. artie
Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the side of the bird’s neck right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: +7.
Image #1: Young Belcher’s Gull
Rock or Beach?
After photographing lots of adult and young Belcher’s Gulls on the beach and in the gentle surf I was glad to see the bird in Image #1 perched on a decent rock. This is often an ideal situation as rather than having the background proximal to the subject it is a long way off and will be pleasingly blurred even if you stop down a bit. I like the image and I like the calling pose.
But take a close look at Image #2 and let us know which of today’s two featured images you like best. And most importantly, why you made your choice …
Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the back of the bird’s neck where it meets the upper back, again right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: -1.
Image #2: Young Belcher’s Gull
Age?
I have been peering at these two images for quite sometime trying to age each bird more specifically. My first thought was that the bird in Image #2 was younger by some margin than the bird in Image #1. But there are what looks like a few grey feathers coming in on the back of the bird in Image #2 that would indicate that it is the older of the two …
If anyone can shed some light on this issue please do so. Only extremely knowledgeable gull experts need apply. Both were photographed near Lima, Peru on 29 NOV.
Palouse 2016 Horizontals Card
Why Different?
Announcing the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
In what ways will the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour be different from the most other Palouse workshops?
There are so many great locations that a seven-day IPT (as opposed to the typical three- or five-day workshops) will give the group time to visit (and revisit) many of the best spots while allowing you to maximize your air travel dollars. In addition, it will allow us to enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace.
You will be assured of being in the right location for the given weather and sky conditions.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills.
You will learn to design powerful, graphic images.
You will visit all of the iconic locations and a few spectacular ones that are much less frequently visited.
You will learn long lens landscape techniques.
You will learn to master any exposure situation in one minute or less.
You will learn the fine points of Canon in-camera (5D Mark III, 5DS R, and 7D II) HDR techniques.
You will learn to create this look in Photoshop from a single image while winding up with a higher quality image file.
You will learn to use your longest focal lengths to create rolling field and Urbex abstracts.
You will learn when and how to use a variety of neutral density filters to create pleasing blurs of the Palouse’s gorgeous rolling farmlands.
As always, you will learn to see like a pro. You will learn what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time.
You will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images.
You will learn to use super-wide lenses both for big skies and building interiors.
You will learn when, why, and how to use infrared capture; if you do not own an infrared body, you will get to borrow mine.
You will learn to use both backlight and side-light to create powerful and dramatic landscape images.
You will learn to create the very popular detailed, slightly grungy, slightly over-saturated look in Photoshop.
Palouse 2016 Verticals Card
The 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
June 8-14, 2017. Seven full days of photography. Meet and greet at 7:30pm on Wednesday, June 7: $2,499. Limit 10/Openings: 7.
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will enjoy spectacular sunrises and at least one nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. I will bring you to more than a few really neat old abandoned barns and farmhouses in idyllic settings. There is no better way to improve your compositional and image design skills and to develop your creativity than to join me for this trip. Photoshop and image sharing sessions when we have the time and energy…. We get up early and stay out late and the days are long.
Over the past three years, with the help of a friend, we found all the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and vistas. What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, my extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions. As above, there will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before the workshop begins.
To Sign Up
Your non-refundable deposit of $500 is required to hold your spot. Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining this IPT. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours to arrange for the payment of your deposit; if by check, please make out to “BIRDS AS ART” and mail it to: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail: artie.
Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options. You can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
After taking a single 1mg melatonin, I got into bed just after 12:30pm and fell asleep quickly on the very early morning of WED 1 MAR and slept right on schedule until 7:30am with only one pit stop. Amazing. On my flights I did several rounds of Emotional Freedom Technique tapping (on various meridian points): Even though I am traveling west to east over many time zones, I’m willing to love and accept myself and reset my body clock. Scoff if you like, or learn about EFT here. My laptop was set to Eastern time zone for the whole trip home and I slept about 5 hours early on the flight from Narita to LAX. That was my “night.” After that, just a few short snoozes.
Jet lag may be coming soon, but I was feeling great on Wednesday morning 🙂
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.
The Streak: 475!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 475 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
All of the images here were created with a Canon 300mm lens. Clockwise from the upper left: Acacia tree at sunset, Tanzania; Black Tern, Kamloops, British Columbia; Cosmos, vertical pan blur, White, GA; Great Blue Heron with ballyhoo (?), Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; Great Blue Heron landing; Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; and Blue-eyed Shag landing, New Island, The Falklands.
300mm: The Under-appreciated Focal Length …
The 300mm focal length has long been under-appreciated by most bird, wildlife, and nature photographers. As I have said here often, the 300mm f/2.8 lenses have long been favored by the world’s best hawks in flight photographers and by folks working with tame birds in spots like Florida, many parts of California, and those traveling to international hotspots like the Galapagos and The Falkland Islands.
All of the images above were made with the hand held 300mm f/2.8L IS II lens but for the Black Tern image that was created with the hand held 300mm f/4L IS lens with a 1.4X teleconverter. Not only do all of the 300 lenses perform beautifully with the 1.4X TCs, but the 300 f/2.8 lenses — at least the Canon ones — can produce superbly sharp images when coupled with a Canon doubler like the EF 2X III Teleconverter. While the Nikon 1.4X and 1.7X TCEs produce sharp images, you have to look far and wide to find a Nikon shooter who is enamored with the TCE 20 …
All of the images here were also created with a Canon 300mm lens. Clockwise from the upper left: Great Egret striking, Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; Red-billed Tropicbird, Espanola, Galapagos, Ecuador; Reddish Egret in mega-breeding plumage, hunting, Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; Roseate Tern, wing raised display, Great Gull Island, NY; Snowy Egret landing, Little Estero Lagoon, Fort Myers Beach, FL; and Roseate Spoonbill landing, Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL.
300mm f/2.8 Advantages
The 300mm f/2.8 lenses are small enough and light enough to be hand held for birds in flight and in action. A quick glance at the images featured in today’s blog post will confirm that in spades. Add a TC and the 300s can serve as a workhorse super-telephoto while maintaining fast, accurate autofocus.
All of the images here were created with the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS lens and the 2X III TC. Clockwise from the upper left: Adelie Penguin with wings raised, Hope Bay Antarctica; Atlantic Puffin on rock, Inner Farnes Island, UK; Black-bellied Plover, Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; Macaroni Penguin preening mate, Hercules Bay, South Georgia (tripod mounted); King Penguin neck pattern; St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia; Blue-eyed Shag with feather, Jougla Point, Antarctica (tripod mounted).
With the 2X TC …
With the addition of a 2X TC to a Canon 300mm f/2.8 lens you will have fast, accurate AF with all AF points active with any camera body to go with your 600mm full frame focal length.
Used 300mm Lenses for You
Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens
Sue Sanborn is offering a Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near mint condition for $4399. The sale includes the lens trunk with keys, the front cover & an additional soft lens cap, the rear lens cap, a LensCoat, a Wimberley Arca-Swiss compatible plate, the original product box, and insured ground shipping via UPS to US addresses only.
Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Sue via e-mail by phone at 1-941-748-0327 (Eastern time.)
The 300 f/2.8 lenses have long been the first choice of the world’s best hawks in flight photographers and have become increasingly popular with bird photographers working either with crop factor cameras or those who live in areas with relatively tame birds. This lens, the latest version of Canon’s 300 f/2.8L IS, is incredibly sharp with either TC. It is easily hand holdable by most folks. You can add the 1.4X III or the 2X III teleconverter for even greater versatility. artie
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens
Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin is offering a Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens in very good-plus condition for a very sporting $2199. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the front lens cover, the lens trunk, and insured UPS ground shipping to either United States or Canadian addresses. US buyers are responsible for any customs fees or duties. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Jake via e-mail or by phone at 514-601-9544 (Eastern time).
The older version of the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS is a super sharp lens that is great for hand held flight and action photography and great with both teleconverters. It has long been the favorite focal length of the world’s best hawk photographers. For folks working around tame birds or those with a 7D Mark II this lens makes a great workhorse telephoto. At more than $700 below most used copies of the “old” 300 f/2.8s, Jake’s lens is priced to sell quickly to buyers in either country. artie
Canon 300mm f/2.8 L IS Lens
Annthy Nguyen is offering a Canon 300mm f/2.8 L IS lens (the original version) in excellent plus condition for $2,950.00. The sale includes the original lens trunk (with 2 keys), the front cover, the rear lens cap, 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 Ann via e-mail or by phone at 1-714-386-8083 (Pacific time zone)
The older version of the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS is a super sharp lens that is great for hand held flight and action photography and great with both teleconverters. It has long been the favorite focal length of the world’s best hawk photographers. artie
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L USM Lens
Bud Friesen is offering an oldie but goodie, plus extras: a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L USM lens (the non-IS version) plus a set of the older 1.4X and 2X TCs (with the pouches for each extender) for $1799. The lens is easily in excellent plus condition, probably closer to near mint. The sale includes the Canon drop-in polarizer, the leather lens cap, the rear cap, the lens trunk, the original box, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses. The glass is perfect. This lens is not longer serviced by Canon USA but if you did run into a problem (unlikely as that is), you would likely be able to have it fixed in a non-Canon repair shop. These items were all purchased in July 1994 for a trip to Alaska. They have been used very little since. Photos are available. Your items will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Bud via e-mail or by phone at 1-269-468-5583 evenings (Central time).
This package represents an exceptional value for a photographer with a low budget as the original 300mm f/2.8L is an exceptionally sharp lens that does well with the older TCs. artie
Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S ED IF Lens
Karl Zuzarte is also offering Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S ED IF lens in excellent condition for $699. The sale includes the original box and lens bag, the front and rear caps, and insured shipping via UPS Ground. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Karl by e-mail or by phone at 508-873-6081 (Eastern time)
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10/Openings: 4. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
By the time that you read this, I should be home in my own bed. Likely in a jet-lag coma for a few days.
The Travel Story — Almost Complete
Left the lodge in Hokkaido, Japan at 8:45am on Tuesday 28 FEB which was 6:45pm on Monday 27 FEB in Florida. 45 minute van ride. 90 minute flight to Tokyo Haneda. 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Tokyo Narita. 10 1/2 hour flight to LAX. Clear customs. Flight to Phoenix delayed. They reroute me to Dallas: 2 1/2 hour flight. I lose my first class seat for the LAX to DFW leg. Then I fly to Orlando. The DFW/MCO leg was 3 hours. My two checked bags did not make my flight to Orlando. Jim picks me up at MCO right on time at 10:30pm. I actually got to Orlando 1 1/2 hours earlier with the re-routed flights as I did not need to make an extra stop in Phoenix. I went to the American Airlines office to file a delayed baggage report. They are supposed to be delivered to my home at Indian Lake Estates on WED 1 MAR. Assuming that that happens, I actually came out a bit ahead by getting back earlier.
We got back to ILE at 12:30pm, 29 3/4 hours door-to-door if my math is correct. And because of the dateline all of the travel was done on Tuesday 28 FEB!
Thanks a stack as always to my right hand man Jim Litzenberg for picking me up so late. He is a great blessing. More on the flights and the rest of the travel experience in a bit.
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.
The Streak: 474!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 474 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
This image was created on the Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 286mm) and my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400: 1/30 second at f/5.6 in Manual mode was a big underexposure. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +1.
Center AF point AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point and the four assist points all totally missed the subject as seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below.
Red-crowned Crane flight blur
Why the Big Underexposure?
It was cloudy-dark and snowing lightly. The time of sunset had past about 20 minutes ago so it was getting darker by the moment. But there were lots of birds still taking off and most were passing right in front of a stand of trees to our left. You are much better doing blurs against darker backgrounds than against the relatively light sky as the resulting images will be much more dramatic. I was at +2 1/3 stops off the snow one minute and then one and one-half stops under the next. It was difficult to keep up with the gathering darkness.
Panning Speed …
When trying to create pleasing blurs it is important to try to match the speed of the bird in flight with your panning rate. At 1/30 sec., if you pan perfectly with the bird as I did when creating today’s featured image, you can often render the bird’s head and neck relatively sharply. With shutter speeds slower than 1/30 sec. it is much more difficult to do.
When I am reviewing a series of pleasing blurs the first thing that I do is look at the head. Many times there is just too much blur for the image to succeed. But there are some instances where a well-blurred head can be successful. But at least trying for a sharp head is — as far as I am concerned — the best way to go.
The DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image
The DPP 4 Screen Capture for Today’s Featured Image
First, note that the selected AF point was nowhere near the bird. In spite of that, the AF system continued to track the flying bird perfectly. That due in part to my Custom AF Case settings as detailed in the various Camera User’s and the 1D X AF Guides. I plan on doing at least a 5D Mark IV guide as soon as I finish up two other big publication projects.
Next note the Brightness adjustment of +1.50 stops. Though you cannot see it on the screen capture, I used Arash’s noise reduction values for ISO 800 rather than for ISO 400 to help with the noise resulting from the underexposure (as detailed in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly).
Now note the nearly perfect RGB values for the brightest WHITEs: R = 224, G = 226, B = 226. As you can see in the screen capture, I used click White Balance; I put the eyedropper on the brightest WHITEs and then left-clicked. Still the WHITEs were a bit too BLUE so I went to the Fine Tune control and pulled the dot a bit away from BLUE. I was quite happy with the results.
Something New and Astounding!
I love experimenting in Photoshop and DPP 4. Here I came up with something totally new, at least for me. To increase the contrast and to darken the BLACKs I move the Shadow slider to -4! It worked to perfection. I tried -5 but it was a bit too much. I plan on trying that with properly exposed images of the cranes in good light; it may save me lots of work in Photoshop.
This image was created on the Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 286mm) and my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400: 1/30 second at f/5.6 in Manual mode was an almost two stop underexposure. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +1.
Center AF point AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point and the four assist points all totally missed the subject as seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below.
Red-crowned Crane flight blur: this is the optimized image file
The Image Optimization and the Optimized Image
After converting the image in DPP 4 (Command +D) and brining it into Photoshop (Control + Command + P) I did not do very much as far as image optimization goes. After selecting the tiny, very black region right around the eye with a Quick Mask of the area and then putting it on its own layer (Command +J), I used my NIK Color Efex Pro 50/50 filter to brighten it just a bit. That and a tiny crop from the upper and lower left was about it.
I was thrilled with the color, contrast, and look of the optimized image, with the rich BLACKs and REDs, and with the lack of noise in the image. I did not run any NeatImage on this photo.
Learn the secrets of creating contest winning images in our “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs.”
A Guide to Pleasing Blurs
In A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly, we discuss just about every technique ever used by mankind to create pleasingly blurred images. Ninety-nine point nine percent of pleasing blurs are not happy accidents. You can learn pretty much everything that there is to know about creating them in this instructive, well written, easy to follow guide. Pleasing blurs are consistently honored in the major natural history photographic competitions …
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
I will be flying home on what will be a very, very, very long day today crossing back over the International Dateline. I fly from Hokkaido back to Tokyo’s Haneda, take the 2 hour bus ride to Narita, and then fly to MCO via LAX and Phoenix, getting home just before midnight the same day, Monday, 28 FEB! The Narita/LAX leg alone is more than ten hours 🙂
This Just In!
I am in the Admiral’s Club at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. It is 3:41pm Japan time on Tuesday 28 February, and 1:41am in Florida on the same day. My flight from Hokkaido to Tokyo’s Haneda was a breeze as was the bus ride to Tokyo’s Narita. Next will be my flight to LAX that leaves at 5:30 Tokyo time and gets into LAX at 10:25am also on Tuesday 28 February! The it will be on to Phoenix and Orlando arriving just before midnight, still on that same Tuesday! I will talk to y’all soon. a
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.
The Streak: 473!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 473 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
This image was created at The Neck on Saunders Island, The Falklands with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering probably at zero as originally famed: 1/1600 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB.
Two AF points below the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the male’s breast. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: -12.
Brown-hooded Gull pair copulating
Brown-hooded Gull
I first saw and photographed this gorgeous gull species on a 2016 visit to Bleaker Island. The pink breast blew me away. I got one OK photo, but most were not very good 🙁
On our first visit to The Neck at Saunders Island this December we walked down to the beach and quickly found about a dozen brown-hoodeds on a sunny afternoon. In retrospect I wished that I had not been lazy and had taken the 500 II on the tripod but things worked out just fine as I got some good portraits with the 400 DO II/2X III combination along with a series of very nice action images. The one featured in today’s blog post was my favorite by far.
Image Question
What do you think of the shadow of the birds?
This JPEG represents the converted TIFF
The Image Optimization
Conversion in DPP 4; see the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide (by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly). Crop. My NIK Color Efex Pro 25/25 recipe on the birds only. Extensive beach clean-up with the usual cast of characters: Patch Tool, Spot Healing Brush, Clone Stamp Tool. Most of the gulls were removed with the Divide and Conquer (with the Clone Stamp Tool) followed by Patch Tool work. The young Dolphin Gull that merged with the male’s far wing, was covered with a Quick Mask that was then refined with a Regular Layer Mask using a technique that I call Protective Quick Masking on a Layer. This technique work great when eliminating two birds that have merged. After all of the clean up I ran a 65 pixel Gaussian Blur on the water at the top of the frame. Lastly, high level NeatImage noise reduction with less on the birds than on the beach using the techniques detailed in the The Professional Post Processing Guide (by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly).
Everything above (but for Protective Quick Masking on a Layer–see the free tutorial below) plus tons more is detailed in the Digital Basics File, an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete (former PC) digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, details on using all of my image clean-up tools, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, the basics of Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Dodge and Burn, a variety of ways to make selections, how to create time-saving actions, and tons more.
I am working on an all-new Current Workflow e-guide that better reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. It will include a section on ACR conversions and a simplified method of applying Neat Image noise reduction.
Protective Quick Masking on a Layer
First create a Quick Mask of the sand beach to cover the offending gull. Be sure to make the Quick Mask large enough so that it completely covers the bird you wish to eliminate. Use the Move Tool (V) to cover the unwanted gull. Then add Regular Layer Mask. Hit BDX and begin erasing the mask where it covers the far end of the subject’s wing. Work large while toggling between revealing and hiding to fine tune the edges of the wing feathers. With a bit of practice, you will soon by getting perfect results.
Canon 5D Mark IV Image Crop-ability
This 5D Mark IV Image was (coincidentally) cropped to approximate a 7D Mark II image created from the same spot with the same gear. The image quality is superb.
Image Optimization Question
Did the optimization of today’s featured image go too far for you? Is the resulting image too perfect?
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version.
2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT
Monday July 3 through Monday July 10, 2017: $5999: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 6). Two great leaders: Arthur Morris and BPN co-owner, BPN Photography Gear Forum Moderator, and long-time BAA Webmaster Peter Kes.
Here are the plans: take a red eye from the east coast of the US on July 2 and arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland on the morning of Monday July 3 no later than 10am (or simply meet us then at the Edinburgh Airport–EDI, or later in the day at our cottages if you are driving your own vehicle either from the UK or from somewhere in Europe). Stay 7 nights in one of three gorgeous modern country cottages.
There are five days of planned puffin/seabird trips and one morning of gannet photography, all weather permitting of course. In three years we have yet to miss an entire day because of weather… In addition, we will enjoy several sessions of photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version.
The Details
We will get to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet; Arctic, Sandwich, and Common Terns, the former with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks. We will be staying in upscale country-side lodging that are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The shared rooms are decent-sized, each with a private bathroom. See the limited single supplement info below.
All breakfasts, lunches and dinners are included. All 5 puffins boat lunches will need to be prepared by you in advance, taken with, and consumed at your leisure. I usually eat mine on the short boat trip from one island to the other. Also included is a restaurant lunch on the gannet boat day.
If you wish to fly home on the morning of Monday July 10 we will get you to the airport. Please, however, consider the following tentative plans: enjoy a second Gannet boat trip on the afternoon of Monday July 10 and book your hotel room in Dunbar. If all goes as planned, those who stay on for the two extra days will make a morning landing at Bass Rock, one of the world’s largest gannetries. We will get everyone to the airport on the morning of Wednesday July 12. (We may opt to stay in Edinburgh on the night of July 11.) Price and details should be finalized at least six months before the trip but you will need to be a bit patient. It would be ideal if I can get all the work done by the end of September so that folks can arrange their flights then.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. Scroll down to join us in the UK in 2016.
Deposit Info
If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome–please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on March 29, 2017. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. 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. If your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.
Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.
Single Supplement Deposit Info
Single supplement rooms are available on a limited basis. To ensure yours, please register early. The single supplement fee is $1575. If you would like your own room, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement; your single supplement deposit check should be for $3,575. As we will need to commit to renting the extra space, single supplement deposits are non-refundable so please be sure that check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
I woke at 1:02am Japan time on Monday, 27 FEB. We drove three hours to Rausu and did the 5:30 and 8:30am eagle boat trips. The first was expectedly excellent, the second was surprisingly excellent. It is 3:40pm and I am back at the lodge for a nap. Pack, onsen, and fly home tomorrow, leaving Hokkaido on the morning of the 28th and getting into Orlando the same day with stops at Tokyo Haneda, Tokyo Narita, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Talk about a long, long day. Jim is picking me up just before midnight. It will likely be at least 2am when I climb into my own bed …
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.
The Streak: 472
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 472 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/20 sec at f/14 in AV mode. AWB. I used my still-flower technique: Live View for mirror lock and 2-second timer for sharpness.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.
Dead center Flexi-Zone Live View Rear Focus AF.
Old mill
Old Mill and New Approach
I saw this image in 2015 but but it was sunny and bright before lunch so I passed on it. On the 2016 IPT we were blessed by clouds — perfect weather for me for most Urbex photography.
I created several in-camera Art Vivid JPEGs of the old mill. I wrote here recently that I am pretty much getting away from the in-camera stuff as though it is convenient, image quality suffers somewhat no matter how careful you are. And I am in too much of a hurry to assemble HDR images in Photoshop (File > Automate > Merge to HDR Pro…), in NIK Color Efex Pro (HDR Efex Pro 2), or in the latest version of Photomatix.
As long as you set up your HDR capture menu like this: Save Source Images > All images, you can simply grab the RAW file with the best exposure and go for the detailed, slightly grungy, slightly over-saturated look in Photoshop. Much of the work –heck, it is not difficult at all — is done with various NIK Color Efex Pro programs (but not HDR Efex Pro 2). We will be working with these techniques on the 2017 Palouse IPT. See the details below.
Though I surely wrote something very similar to the above recently, I am not sure if it has been published yet … I searched for a while without success on the early morning of our second Rausu sea eagle day. If you come across it now or later, please shoot me the link via e-mail.
Palouse 2016 Horizontals Card
Why Different?
Announcing the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
In what ways will the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour be different from the most other Palouse workshops?
There are so many great locations that a seven-day IPT (as opposed to the typical three- or five-day workshops) will give the group time to visit (and revisit) many of the best spots while allowing you to maximize your air travel dollars. In addition, it will allow us to enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace.
You will be assured of being in the right location for the given weather and sky conditions.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills.
You will learn to design powerful, graphic images.
You will visit all of the iconic locations and a few spectacular ones that are much less frequently visited.
You will learn long lens landscape techniques.
You will learn to master any exposure situation in one minute or less.
You will learn the fine points of Canon in-camera (5D Mark III, 5DS R, and 7D II) HDR techniques.
You will learn to create this look in Photoshop from a single image while winding up with a higher quality image file.
You will learn to use your longest focal lengths to create rolling field and Urbex abstracts.
You will learn when and how to use a variety of neutral density filters to create pleasing blurs of the Palouse’s gorgeous rolling farmlands.
As always, you will learn to see like a pro. You will learn what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time.
You will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images.
You will learn to use super-wide lenses both for big skies and building interiors.
You will learn when, why, and how to use infrared capture; if you do not own an infrared body, you will get to borrow mine.
You will learn to use both backlight and side-light to create powerful and dramatic landscape images.
You will learn to create the very popular detailed, slightly grungy, slightly over-saturated look in Photoshop.
Palouse 2016 Verticals Card
The 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
June 8-14, 2017. Seven full days of photography. Meet and greet at 7:30pm on Wednesday, June 7: $2,499. Limit 10/Openings: 7.
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will enjoy spectacular sunrises and at least one nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. I will bring you to more than a few really neat old abandoned barns and farmhouses in idyllic settings. There is no better way to improve your compositional and image design skills and to develop your creativity than to join me for this trip. Photoshop and image sharing sessions when we have the time and energy…. We get up early and stay out late and the days are long.
Over the past three years, with the help of a friend, we found all the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and vistas. What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, my extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions. As above, there will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before the workshop begins.
To Sign Up
Your non-refundable deposit of $500 is required to hold your spot. Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining this IPT. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours to arrange for the payment of your deposit; if by check, please make out to “BIRDS AS ART” and mail it to: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail: artie.
Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options. You can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
I spent all day at the Akan Crane Center and made a few very good ones on a somewhat tough day. We are leaving the lodge at 1:50am on Monday morning to do two last eagle boat trips in Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan; the first one leaves the dock at 5:30am. The drive is three hours 🙂 I will continue to have good internet acces. I get home late on 28 FEB.
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.
The Streak: 471
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 471 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
This image created on the 2017 San Diego IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) and my very favorite bird photography camera, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops in low light: 1/800 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB.
Two AF points above the center AF point/AI Servo/(Manual selection; single point)/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is almost always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was on the hairline just above the top LCD. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
Image #2: Lady photographer with Nikon gear
Will the Similarities Never End?
When I saw the red-headed lady photographer with the spiffy hair-do on the cliffs at La Jolla last February I wanted to get a decent photo and knew that if I did I wanted to find a matching bird photo. I showed the woman my image and let her know that it would likely appear on the blog some day. And I gave her my card. Who knows?
One AF point to the right and three up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Manual selection; single point/Shutter Button AF as framed as is (almost) always best when hand holding. The selected AF point was squarely on the goose’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #2: Ruddy-headed Goose head and shoulders protrait
The Match
I photographed what I believe is a Ruddy-headed Goose on the cliff at the Rockhopper Penguin rookery on Bleaker Island. Each of the four times I have been on Bleaker what is likely the same bird makes its way down to the edge of the sea and hangs out for a few hours. In retrospect, I thought that it would be a pretty good match for the red-headed lady photographer’s hair-do.
Great Egrets in breeding plumage are a beautiful sight …
Gatorland Mini-IPT: 1 1/2 days: AM and PM shooting sessions on Saturday, March 4 and a morning session on Sunday, March 5: $749. Limit 6/Openings 4.
Join me in Kissimmee, FL in early March, prime time to to photograph Great Egrets in breeding plumage. We should get to make lots of head portraits with most any lens and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Eggs for sure. Tiny chicks likely. And most likely breeding Wood Storks as well. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle the WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. Includes a working lunch on me on Saturday with image review and Photoshop. We may see and photograph some early Snowy Egrets and Tricolored Herons. And of course, we will see and photograph the captive American Alligators. All of the birds are free and wild.
To pay in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass. Early entry both mornings and late stay on Saturday.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
On Saturday 25 FEB I had a great morning with the Whooper Swans and then relaxed for most of the rest of the day and thought about packing for the trip home 🙂 I will have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
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.
The Streak: 470!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 470 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Three AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as originally framed as is always best when hand holding. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #1: Ladder
Photographing Stuff: Whatever Catches Your Eye …
You’ve spent an entire day photographing puffins and murres and razorbills and kittiwakes. The boat is headed back to the dock, gliding through the calm waters of Seahouses Harbor. Most folks have long since stowed their photographic gear. But folks who truly love photography not only have their gear at hand, they are actively scanning the harbor for something that catches their eye …
For today’s Image #1, the colors and textures along with the old rusting ladder caught my eye. Framing with the 100-400II was easy. I boosted the colors and added just a touch of grunge effect to achieve the look that I wanted. While I have long been a fan of in-camera HDRs I must finally admit that the image quality of those images is a bit lacking … On the Palouse IPT I will be teaching you how to achieve the HDR look without every going anywhere near an HDR program. In-camera HDRs can be very convenient but the loss of image quality has finally turned me off on creating them.
These image was created in the harbor at Seahouses, the UK with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens and the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/1250 sec at f/4 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -6.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed as is always best when hand holding. he selected AF point was on the top of the “k. “Click on the image to see a larger version.
Insignia on work boat
Bright Colors
While some folks love pinks and pastels and soft colors, bright colors have always been favorites of mine. I had the 400 DO II in my hands on the way back hoping for some flight photography. Once I saw the BK dot 1 insignia painted on the the boat I simply needed to wait for the boat I was sailing on to provide the correct framing, sort of human zooming by watercraft if you would. In any case, once I had the framing that I wanted with the strip of white across the top, I fired off two images.
Your Favorite?
Which if either of today’s featured images floats your boat? Be sure to let us know why.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version.
2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT
Monday July 3 through Monday July 10, 2017: $5999: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 6). Two great leaders: Arthur Morris and BPN co-owner, BPN Photography Gear Forum Moderator, and long-time BAA Webmaster Peter Kes.
Here are the plans: take a red eye from the east coast of the US on July 2 and arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland on the morning of Monday July 3 no later than 10am (or simply meet us then at the Edinburgh Airport–EDI, or later in the day at our cottages if you are driving your own vehicle either from the UK or from somewhere in Europe). Stay 7 nights in one of three gorgeous modern country cottages.
There are five days of planned puffin/seabird trips and one morning of gannet photography, all weather permitting of course. In three years we have yet to miss an entire day because of weather… In addition, we will enjoy several sessions of photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version.
The Details
We will get to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet; Arctic, Sandwich, and Common Terns, the former with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks. We will be staying in upscale country-side lodging that are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The shared rooms are decent-sized, each with a private bathroom. See the limited single supplement info below.
All breakfasts, lunches and dinners are included. All 5 puffins boat lunches will need to be prepared by you in advance, taken with, and consumed at your leisure. I usually eat mine on the short boat trip from one island to the other. Also included is a restaurant lunch on the gannet boat day.
If you wish to fly home on the morning of Monday July 10 we will get you to the airport. Please, however, consider the following tentative plans: enjoy a second Gannet boat trip on the afternoon of Monday July 10 and book your hotel room in Dunbar. If all goes as planned, those who stay on for the two extra days will make a morning landing at Bass Rock, one of the world’s largest gannetries. We will get everyone to the airport on the morning of Wednesday July 12. (We may opt to stay in Edinburgh on the night of July 11.) Price and details should be finalized at least six months before the trip but you will need to be a bit patient. It would be ideal if I can get all the work done by the end of September so that folks can arrange their flights then.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. Scroll down to join us in the UK in 2016.
Deposit Info
If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome–please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on March 29, 2017. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. 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. If your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.
Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.
Single Supplement Deposit Info
Single supplement rooms are available on a limited basis. To ensure yours, please register early. The single supplement fee is $1575. If you would like your own room, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement; your single supplement deposit check should be for $3,575. As we will need to commit to renting the extra space, single supplement deposits are non-refundable so please be sure that check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
I went to two different crane sanctuaries on the morning of Friday, 24 FEB and called everything perfectly. With clouds at Tsurui Ito I enjoyed 30 minutes of dancing cranes; when sun came through the clouds I headed for Akan Crane Center and enjoyed great flight Whooper Swan flight photography. I capped off the morning with cranes dancing in gust-driven blowing snow. When the wind turned to the north against the light I quit early and headed back to the lodge. I will have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
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.
The Streak: 469!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 469 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Selling Your Used Gear Through BIRDS AS ART
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 charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. 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 above.
Recent Successful Used Gear Sales
Activity last month was hot!
Brian Patteson sold his Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM super telephoto lens in near-mint condition for $4099 in early February.
IPT veteran Dick Evans sold his NIKKOR AF-S 70-200 f2.8G ED VRII Lens in like-new condition to a local camera store and kindly sent me a check for the 2 1/2% of the original listed price.
Steve Traudt is sold a Canon 500mm f4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens in excellent condition for $3550 in mid-February, 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM zoom lens in excellent condition for $899 i early February 2017.
Dow Morris sold his Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM lens in like-new condition for $579 a few days after it was listed in early February 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 100-400 zoom 1:4.5 – 5.6 L IS telephoto lens in excellent plus condition for a very low $549 in early February.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II body in like-new condition for $949.00 in early February 2017 just two days after it was listed
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS-1D X body with the Canon GPS receiver in like-new condition for $2499.00 within hours of it being listed.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 500 f/4L IS USM Super telephoto lens with lots of extras in like-new condition for $4,499 in mid-January 2017.
Gene Scarborough sold a Canon accessory package for $250 in late January.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in like-new condition with only 4258 shutter actuations for $1449.00 in late-January before it was even listed!.
Wayne Roth sold his Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/2.8G EDII VR lens in like-new condition for $3,500.00 in Late January, 2017, two weeks after it was listed.
New Listings
Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens
Kenton Gomez is offering a Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II lens in Excellent plus condition condition for the BAA record-low price of $7349. The sale includes a Jobu Designs Replacement foot as well as the original foot, the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original tough front lens cover, the lens strap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made. Photos available upon request.
Please contact Kenton via e-mail or by phone at 914-471-3053 (between 9am and 10pm Eastern time).
I have used various versions of the 500mm f/4 lenses for more than two decades. They are the world’s most popular super-telephoto lenses. I owned the Series II 500 and soon regretted selling it as the 600 II is so much heavier and bulkier … So I bought another one. It served as my big telephoto lens on last fall’s monumental 10 1/2 week trip around South America and the Southern Ocean. With good sharpness techniques most folks should be able to learn to make razor sharp images with this lens and the 2X III TC. It is light enough so that many folks can hand hold it easily both for flight and for general bird photography. The short story: this lens is sharp, relatively light, and much easier to travel than the 600 II. A brand new one will set you back $8999 at B&H right now. Grab Kenton’s lens and save a nifty $1650! artie
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens
Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin is offering a Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens in very good-plus condition for a very sporting $2199. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the front lens cover, the lens trunk, and insured UPS ground shipping to either United States or Canadian addresses. US buyers are responsible for any customs fees or duties. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Jake via e-mail or by phone at 514-601-9544 (Eastern time).
The older version of the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS is a super sharp lens that is great for hand held flight and action photography and great with both teleconverters. It has long been the favorite focal length of the world’s best hawk photographers. For folks working around tame birds or those with a 7D Mark II this lens makes a great workhorse telephoto. At more than $700 below most used copies of the “old” 300 f/2.8s, Jake’s lens is priced to sell quickly to buyers in either country. artie
Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Sandra Calderbank is offering a used Canon EOS 7D Mark II in excellent plus condition with less than 20,000 shutter actuationsfor $948. The sale includes the front cap, the strap, all the CDs and cords, 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 Sandra via e-mail by phone at 1-828-412-1047 (Eastern time/evenings best).
Both Patrick Sparkman and I used and loved the 7D Mark II until about two years ago when we committed to using full frame Canon bodies. We both made some truly great images with it. Two of my three 2016 Nature’s Best honored entries were created with the 7D II, one still, and one video. artie
This image was created at the Monkey Part at Jigokudani, Japan with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 312mm) with my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops as framed: 1/800 sec.at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +1.
Center AF point/AI Servo/Spot AF (I have no clue as to why …)/shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the top of the monkey’s head as it charged down the hill. On the face would have been better. Click on the image to see a larger version.
The Veiled Snow Monkey
The Veiled Monkey …
On our last morning at Jigokudani we were in nature photographer’s paradise with snow falling on top of an eight inch accumulation from the night before. And as always, there were Snow Monkeys everywhere doing great stuff. This monkey apparently had his snout in the snow quite recently looking for food.
More 100-400 II Versatility
Just as on the cliffs of La Jolla, the hand held 100-400 II was deadly effective at the Monkey Park. For three straight days it was the only lens that I carried up the hill. I had the 1.4X TC in my pocket and used it many times. The great four-stop IS system allowed me to make the 45 minute uphill without having to carry the tripod, adding the TC gave me 560mm of full frame reach, and the incredible slightly less than 1 meter minimum focusing distance performed like a macro/telephoto lens with the wonderfully tame monkeys. Not to mention that the 100-400 II is a superb rig for capture action (and images of birds in flight).
Digital Eye and Face Doctor
After converting the RAW file in DPP 4 (see the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide), I brought the image into Photoshop where I saw that with the speed of the monkey, the AF point on the top of it’s head, the dingy light, and the blowing snow, this image did not appear as sharp as I’d have liked. I started with my NIK 25/24 recipe applied to the whole face. Next, working very large, I removed a snowflake or two from near the eye and then used Tim Grey Dodge and Burn to darken the pupil and brighten the iris. Then I used the Lasso Tool to select only the iris. I put that on its own layer, juiced up the color with a Vibrance adjustment, and then pulled the curve up a bit. Next I did the same thing to the pink/red skin that was visible above the snow veil. Lastly I selected the visible face and eyes with the Quick Selection Tool and applied a Contrast Mask. Not bad.
Everything above plus tons more is of course detailed in my Digital Basics File, an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete (former PC) digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, details on using all of my image clean-up tools, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, the basics of Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Dodge and Burn, a variety of ways to make selections, how to create time-saving actions, and tons more.
Learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
I am working on an all new Current Workflow e-guide that better reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. It will include a section on ACR conversions and a simplified method of apply Neat Image noise reduction.
Note: there will be lots of down time for intensive, small group Photoshop instruction on the Bear Boat IPT. Details below.
Images and card copyright Arthur Morris/BEARS AS ART 🙂
2017 Bear Boat Coastal Brown Bear Cubs IPTs: July 18-24, 2017 from Kodiak, AK: 5 FULL & 2 Half DAYS: $6699. Happy campers only! Maximum 8/Openings 3.
Join me in spectacular Katmai National Park, AK for six days of photographing Coastal Brown Bears. Mid-July is prime time for making images of small, football-sized cubs. The cubs, and these dates, are so popular that I had to reserve them three years in advance to secure them. There are lots of bears each year in June, but the mothers only rarely risk bringing their tiny cubs out in the open in fear of predation by rival bears. In addition to making portraits of both adults and cubs, we hope to photograph frolicking and squabbling youngsters and tender nursing scenes. At this time of year, the bears are either grazing in luxuriant grass or clamming. There will also be some two- and three-year old cubs to add to the fun. And we will get to photograph it all.
We will live on our tour operator’s luxurious new boat. At 78 feet long its 24 foot beam makes it quite spacious as well. And the food is great. We will likely spend most of our time at famed Geographic Harbor as that is where the bears are generally concentrated in summer. On the odd chance that we do need to relocate to another location we can do so quickly and easily without having to venture into any potentially rough seas. We land via a 25 foot skiff that has lots of room for as much gear as we can carry.
Aside from the bears we should get to photograph Horned and Tufted Puffin and should get nice stuff on Mew Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Harbor Seal, and Steller’s Sea Lion as well. A variety of tundra-nesting shorebirds including Western Sandpiper and both yellowlegs are also possible. Halibut fishing (license required/not included) is optional.
It is mandatory that you be in Kodiak no later than the late afternoon of July 17 to avoid missing the float planes to the boat on the morning of July 18. Again, with air travel in Alaska (or anywhere else for that matter) subject to possible delays, being on Kodiak on July 16 is a much better plan.
Barring any delays, we will get to photograph bears on our first afternoon and then again every day for the next five days after that, all weather permitting of course. On our last morning on the boat, July 24, those who would like to enjoy one last photo session will have the opportunity to do so. The group will return to Kodiak via float plane from late morning through midday. Most folks will then fly to Anchorage and to continue on red-eye flights to their home cities.
What’s included? 7 DAYS/6 NIGHTS on the boat as above. All meals on the boat. National Park and guide fees. In-the-field photo tips, instruction, and guidance. An insight into the mind of a top professional nature photographer; I will constantly let you know what I am thinking, what I am doing, and why I am doing it. Small group image review, image sharing, and informal Photoshop instruction on the boat.
What’s not included: Your round trip airfare to and from Kodiak, AK (almost surely through Anchorage). Your lodging and meals on Kodiak. The cost of the round-trip float plane to the boat and then back to Kodiak as above. The cost of a round trip last year was $550. The suggested crew tip of $200.
Have you ever walked with the bears?
Is this an expensive trip? Yes, of course. But with 5 full and two half days, a wealth of great subjects, and the fact that you will be walking with the bears just yards away (or less….), it will be one of the great natural history experiences of your life. Most folks who take part in a Bear Boat IPT wind up coming back for more.
A $2,000 per person non-refundable deposit by check only made out to “BIRDS AS ART” is required to hold your spot. Please click here to read our cancellation policies. Then please print, read, and sign the necessary paperwork here and send it to us by mail to PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855.
Your payment in full is due now; if you would like to split that into two payments, please shoot me an e-mail. I hope that you can join me for what will be a wondrously exciting trip.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
We finally had snow on the cranes on the last day of the Japan in Winter ITP, Thursday 23 FEB. Mr. Always Edits Tightly had 214 keeps after the first edit from the morning session only. That was followed up by a great afternoon session. The group flies home tomorrow. I am staying till the 28th.
I prepared this post way back on 23 JAN when I flew to Long Island. My flight to Islip arrived one hour forty minutes late due to weather delays earlier in the day. With a big noreaster hitting Long Island, the last few minutes were a bit rocky. Once we touched down most of the folks on the plane erupted in cheers. Younger daughter Alissa picked me up in fine fashion. I spent most of the next day with my Mom. She does not look a day over 93 3/4. She was 94 in September.
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.
The Streak: 468!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 468 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Middle Large Zone AF/AI Servo/Shutter button AF activated four AF points that fell nicely on the bird’s bill just below and just reaching the bird’s eye.
Pacific race Brown Pelican scratching
The Creative Mind: What Would You Do With This Image?
This image puzzled me for about one second. Right off the bat I loved the great look at the bill pouch from below. And the scratching foot was pretty neat as well. The dirt perch was butt ugly and the end of the bill just merged with the dirt. Before you scroll down, think about how you would crop and process it. Or would you delete it?
The Pelican Rig
Without a doubt, the hand held 100-400 II with the 1.4X III TC and a 5D Mark IV is the world’s best rig for photographing Brown Pelicans on the cliffs of La Jolla. It offers ease of handling, tremendous versatility, a great IS system, and amazing close focus. It is lightweight. And for flight photography simply remove the 1.4X. I used this great rig about 80% of the time for my pelican photography in San Diego. And for lots more as well.
Its ease of handling allows me to get around on the cliffs without having to deal with a tripod. The mounds and little hills at the primary pelican location make setting up a tripod a challenge. And it is obviously easier to get very close hand holding than it is with a cumbersome tripod. In addition, quickly getting the proper elevation — higher or lower as need be — is easier as well. All of these factors make it the perfect rig for trying to capture the great variety of pelican behaviors that you will see every day. And those include the notoriously difficult to anticipate and photograph head throws.
My Crop and Optimization of Today’s Featured Image
My Solution
As I loved the great look at the underside of the bill pouch and the scratching foot but did not like the dirty dir perch or the toes of the other foot, a near square crop seemed obvious to me. After converting the image in DPP 4 I brought the image into Photoshop CC I executed my crop and followed my usual workflow: Digital Eye Doctor and Selective Color work first followed by the NIK 25/25 recipe and NeatImage noise reduction. Piece of cake and I love the optimized image.
The key here was realizing what I liked about the original and cropping to include what I liked while eliminating the weaker part of the image.
Everything above (but for Neat Image noise reduction) plus tons more is detailed in the Digital Basics File, an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete (former PC) digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, details on using all of my image clean-up tools, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, the basics of Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Dodge and Burn, a variety of ways to make selections, how to create time-saving actions, and tons more.
I am working on an all-new Current Workflow e-guide that better reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. It will include a section on ACR conversions and a simplified method of applying Neat Image noise reduction.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
I am in my room at the lodge in Hokkaido as this was published at 5:22pm on 22 FEB here in Japan. I am getting ready to enjoy a nice mineral bath and spa at the local onsen. We had a great day again today: Whooper Swans and Long-tailed Tits — the latter drinking in midair from a melting icicle in the morning. Red-crowned Cranes in the afternoon. I will have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
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.
The Streak: 467!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 467 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
These image was created on the 2016 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) with the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering probably about -2/3 stop: 1/1600 sec at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
Three AF points down from the center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as originally framed as is always best when hand holding. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Black-legged Kittiwake screaming
When Unexpected Action Occurs, Grab What You Can and Hope for the Best …
Can wrong plus wrong equal right???
As far back as The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images on CD only) I wrote, “When unexpected action occurs, push the shutter button. Do not worry that the settings are wrong for the situation. If you try to change one or more settings, you will miss the action.”
When I created what turned out to be today’s featured image, the exposure was wrong and my chosen AF point could not have been worse. For proof of that, see the DPP 4 screen capture below. Yet, with a good RAW conversion and a creative crop, everything turned out A-OK, at least to my mind.
Black-legged Kittiwake DPP 4 Screen Capture
The DPP 4 RAW Conversion Saves the Day
First off, note that I moved the Brightness slider to +.83. That shows the almost one stop underexposure. After the Brightness increase you can see that the RGB values for the WHITEs were an almost perfect R
See that the illuminated red AF point was way down in the bottom of the frame making it impossible for me to design a pleasing image. But the bird screamed so I followed my own advice and pressed the shutter button. After considering eliminating the second bird (lower right) I decided that it could actually be a plus with the right crop. So that is what I did.
Your Thoughts?
Would you have kept or deleted today’s featured image?
Do you like my crop? If not, how would you have cropped it differently?
Would you have tried to eliminate the extra bird?
If yes, why would that have been difficult?
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version.
2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT
Monday July 3 through Monday July 10, 2017: $5999: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 6). Two great leaders: Arthur Morris and BPN co-owner, BPN Photography Gear Forum Moderator, and long-time BAA Webmaster Peter Kes.
Here are the plans: take a red eye from the east coast of the US on July 2 and arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland on the morning of Monday July 3 no later than 10am (or simply meet us then at the Edinburgh Airport–EDI, or later in the day at our cottages if you are driving your own vehicle either from the UK or from somewhere in Europe). Stay 7 nights in one of three gorgeous modern country cottages.
There are five days of planned puffin/seabird trips and one morning of gannet photography, all weather permitting of course. In three years we have yet to miss an entire day because of weather… In addition, we will enjoy several sessions of photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version.
The Details
We will get to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet; Arctic, Sandwich, and Common Terns, the former with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks. We will be staying in upscale country-side lodging that are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The shared rooms are decent-sized, each with a private bathroom. See the limited single supplement info below.
All breakfasts, lunches and dinners are included. All 5 puffins boat lunches will need to be prepared by you in advance, taken with, and consumed at your leisure. I usually eat mine on the short boat trip from one island to the other. Also included is a restaurant lunch on the gannet boat day.
If you wish to fly home on the morning of Monday July 10 we will get you to the airport. Please, however, consider the following tentative plans: enjoy a second Gannet boat trip on the afternoon of Monday July 10 and book your hotel room in Dunbar. If all goes as planned, those who stay on for the two extra days will make a morning landing at Bass Rock, one of the world’s largest gannetries. We will get everyone to the airport on the morning of Wednesday July 12. (We may opt to stay in Edinburgh on the night of July 11.) Price and details should be finalized at least six months before the trip but you will need to be a bit patient. It would be ideal if I can get all the work done by the end of September so that folks can arrange their flights then.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. Scroll down to join us in the UK in 2016.
Deposit Info
If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome–please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on March 29, 2017. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. 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. If your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.
Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.
Single Supplement Deposit Info
Single supplement rooms are available on a limited basis. To ensure yours, please register early. The single supplement fee is $1575. If you would like your own room, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement; your single supplement deposit check should be for $3,575. As we will need to commit to renting the extra space, single supplement deposits are non-refundable so please be sure that check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
After seven straight days of great photography on the Japan in Winter IPT our eagle boat trip out of Rausu on the morning of Tuesday, 21 FEB was a big challenge. We drove three hours through beautiful blowing snow but when we got on the boat we were greeted by wind against sun conditions … We got off the boat and within ten minutes the beautiful blowing snow returned. Talk about bad luck! The boys and girls were quite understanding as we had a fabulous cloudy day on our first trip up there.
I will surely have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
Request 🙂
If I screw up The Streak numbers please let me know.
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.
The Streak: 466!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 465 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Center AF point (Manual selection)/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on top of the black neck band directly below and right on the same plane as the bird’s eye.
Image #1: Atlantic Puffin with bill open
Bird Photography Tip #1
When you are photographing a bird that is posing for you, be patient. Lots of folks have an “I’ve got this picture already so let’s get on to another subject” attitude. By waiting, you will often be rewarded with an open bill, a wing flap or stretch, or by the bird shaking out its feathers. Or with something unexpected and even better. Most any behavior will an image more interesting than one of the bird just sitting there. Be sure, however to create lots of “just portraits” as in the long run, one or two will stand head and shoulders above the rest in a series of similar images due to a variety of factors that might include minute changes in head angle, eye position and/or focus, attitude, light, and many other possible factors.
About a decade and a half ago, I did an article for what was then “Birder’s World” magazine entitled “Go For the Gulls.” I wrote, “If you point your lens at a gull, you will usually not have to wait long for it to do something special.” The same obviously goes for puffins.
Two AF points up from the center AF point AI Servo/Surround/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on fish just to our right of the tip of the bill, well forward of the plane of the bird’s eyes.
Image #2: Atlantic Puffin with fish in bill
Bird Photography Tip #2
Images of birds staring right down the lens barrel can be very powerful. And I mean right down the barrel as in today’s second featured image. At times, if the bird head is turned even a fraction of a degree to one side or the other, the effect is lost. If a bird like a pelican is completely still, you can often move into position to ensure that you get the perfect down the barrel shot. On the other hand, if a bird is turning its head slowly, you should try rapid fire as its head swivels. With luck, you will get one perfect one.
The Stronger Image?
Which is the stronger of today’s two featured images, #1 or #2? Be sure to let us know why you made your choice.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version.
2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT
Monday July 3 through Monday July 10, 2017: $5999: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 6). Two great leaders: Arthur Morris and BPN co-owner, BPN Photography Gear Forum Moderator, and long-time BAA Webmaster Peter Kes.
Here are the plans: take a red eye from the east coast of the US on July 2 and arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland on the morning of Monday July 3 no later than 10am (or simply meet us then at the Edinburgh Airport–EDI, or later in the day at our cottages if you are driving your own vehicle either from the UK or from somewhere in Europe). Stay 7 nights in one of three gorgeous modern country cottages.
There are five days of planned puffin/seabird trips and one morning of gannet photography, all weather permitting of course. In three years we have yet to miss an entire day because of weather… In addition, we will enjoy several sessions of photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version.
The Details
We will get to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet; Arctic, Sandwich, and Common Terns, the former with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks. We will be staying in upscale country-side lodging that are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The shared rooms are decent-sized, each with a private bathroom. See the limited single supplement info below.
All breakfasts, lunches and dinners are included. All 5 puffins boat lunches will need to be prepared by you in advance, taken with, and consumed at your leisure. I usually eat mine on the short boat trip from one island to the other. Also included is a restaurant lunch on the gannet boat day.
If you wish to fly home on the morning of Monday July 10 we will get you to the airport. Please, however, consider the following tentative plans: enjoy a second Gannet boat trip on the afternoon of Monday July 10 and book your hotel room in Dunbar. If all goes as planned, those who stay on for the two extra days will make a morning landing at Bass Rock, one of the world’s largest gannetries. We will get everyone to the airport on the morning of Wednesday July 12. (We may opt to stay in Edinburgh on the night of July 11.) Price and details should be finalized at least six months before the trip but you will need to be a bit patient. It would be ideal if I can get all the work done by the end of September so that folks can arrange their flights then.
Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. Scroll down to join us in the UK in 2016.
Deposit Info
If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome–please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on March 29, 2017. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. 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. If your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.
Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.
Single Supplement Deposit Info
Single supplement rooms are available on a limited basis. To ensure yours, please register early. The single supplement fee is $1575. If you would like your own room, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement; your single supplement deposit check should be for $3,575. As we will need to commit to renting the extra space, single supplement deposits are non-refundable so please be sure that check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
It was 1 degree F on Monday morning at Lake Kussharo, Japan. The Whooper Swan were cooperative as always. We finished off with flying and displaying Red-crowned Cranes right near our lodge. I will continue to have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
Comments on yesterday’s blog post were inadvertently closed; they were re-opened at the end of the day. If you’d like to chime in on this:
Photoshop Question
Where was the fairly large dark area in the background that merged a bit with the subject? I actually attempted to remove it months ago without leaving much evidence but failed pretty miserably. I tried again late on the afternoon of Thursday 9 FEB in our Tokyo hotel. How did I do?
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.
The Streak: 465!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 465 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
This image was created at the Monkey Part at Jigokudani, Japan with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 330mm) with my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/125 sec.at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
One AF point to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point just caught the lower corner of the monkey’s left eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #1: Snow Monkey in Snow
Snowy Snow Monkeys…
On our first photography afternoon we lucked out with a decent snowfall. There was more snow on the ground than I had ever seen before; there was five or more feet of accumulated snow adjacent to some of the paths. Co-leader Paul McKenzie alerted the group to a pile of Snow Monkeys that he had spotted. We had close to an hour with Paul’s pile (group photo from above coming soon) and soon everyone in the group joined in and made some really good images.
More 100-400 II Versatility
Just as on the cliffs of La Jolla, the hand held 100-400 II was deadly effective at the Monkey Park. For three straight days it was the only lens that I carried up the hill. I had the 1.4X TC in my pocket and used it several times. The great four-stop IS system allowed me to make the 45 minute uphill without having to carry the tripod, adding the TC gave me 560mm of full frame reach, and the incredible slightly less than 1 meter minimum focusing distance performed like a macro/telephoto lens with the wonderfully tame monkeys.
This image was created at the Monkey Part at Jigokudani, Japan with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) with my very favorite camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/125 sec.at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +1.
Center AF point(Manual selection: single point)/AI Servo//shutter button AF was active (right between the monkey’s eyes) at the moment of exposure. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #2: Young Snow Monkey eyes in Snow
Your Favorite?
Which of today’s featured images do you like best? Be sure to let us know why you made your choice.
2017 in San Diego was a very good year ….
2018 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT: Monday, JAN 15 thru and including the morning session on Friday, JAN 19, 2018: 4 1/2 days: $2099.
Limit: 8: Openings: 3
Meet and Greet at 6:30pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Sunday, Jan 14, 2018.
Join me in San Diego 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 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?
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 five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four 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 9/11//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.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
I am somewhere in Japan. I will likely have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
Please note the correct date (and day of the week) for the Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017. Scroll down for complete details.
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.
The Streak: 464!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 464 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Three AF points down and two to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was just above and to the right of the squirrel’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +5.
Eastern Gray Squirrel on tree
Right Place, Right Time, Right Lens, 2X TC, Right Camera Body, Right Squirrel…
The group was walking back to the vehicles after a good morning session. I had just finished saying that although there were lots of tame squirrels in the picnic area and I had tried dozens of times, I did not have a single good image of these small, furry, gray and brown mammals. I had raised the rear hatch of my Sequoia when this guy popped down the tree. I moved the AF point and fired off two images thinking “That was a pretty cool pose.”
Lucky me.
Photoshop Question
Where was the fairly large dark area in the background that merged a bit with the subject? I actually attempted to remove it months ago without leaving much evidence but failed pretty miserably. I tried again late on the afternoon of Thursday 9 FEB in our Tokyo hotel. How did I do?
Why Av Mode?
Whenever I am just walking along with a rig in my hand I try to remember to set Av mode instead of Manual mode. Why? Not knowing what I might encounter in what situation in the shade of in bright sun, I like to be in Av mode so that I can act quickly by just dialing in the correct EC. That technique worked quite well here as I dialed in +1/3 stop and fired off two quick shots … If I had been in Manual mode it is very likely that I would have needed to make a lot more than two clicks.
400 DO Versatility
Both the old and the new versions of the Canon 400mm DO lenses are extremely versatile a they can be combined with either the 1.4X or 2X teleconverters to produce sharp images. With a full frame body you have effective focal lengths of 400, 560, and 800mms. With the 7D II or any of the older 1.6X crop factor bodies you would be working with 560, 784, or 1280mm! And for most folks, the 400 DO lenses are eminently hand holdable. The Series II 400 DO is a bit sharper than the older version. Do understand that the older version is a lot sharper than most photographers …
Your New “Old 400 DO” ???
Used Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS DO Lens
Yet Another Lowest-ever BAA Price!
IPT veteran Kerry Morris is offering a used Used Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS DO lens in very good plus condition for the record low BAA price of $2099. There are some small scratches and paint chips on the lens body and tripod ring and the lens hood has a few small scratches as well. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original soft front lens cover, the lens hood, the 4th Generation Designs CP-42 Custom Lens Plate (with the wrenches and the original packing–a $92 value) and insured UPS or FEDEX ground shipping to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Kerry via e-mail or by phone at 818-998-7470 or 818-634-2387 (Pacific time).
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 twice honored Gannets in Love was created with the 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.” Kerry’s lens is priced to sell. artie
Canon EF 400m f/4 IS DO Telephoto Lens, the “old 400 DO”
Owen Peller is offering a Canon EF 400m f/4 IS DO telephoto lens, the “old 400 DO,” in like-new condition for $2,299. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the strap, the original soft front lens cover (that has a problem with the drawstring), the lens hood, and insured UPS or FEDEX ground shipping to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
rear cap, strap and the original lens case Canon 400 B.
Please contact Owen via e-mail or by phone at 954-882-1480 (Eastern time).
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 twice major contest-honored “Gannets in Love” was created with the 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.” Owen’s pristine lens is priced to sell. artie
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
I am somewhere in Japan. I will be home late on 28 FEB but should have pretty good internet access every day.
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.
The Streak: 463
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 463 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Shutter Button Continuous Autofocus. Additional AF information is unavailable.
Brown Pelican in flight
Is it Possible to do Flight Photography with the XT-2 and the Fujinon 100-400?
Is it possible to do flight photography with the Fujifilm XT-2 and the Fujinon 100-400? In a word, yes.
Is it Easy?
Well now things get a bit more complicated. For most of the time that I was using the Fuji gear my attempts at flight (and action) photography were frustrating at best. With the 1.5X crop factor and the lens zooming in the opposite direction from the way the Canon 100-400 II zooms, simply getting the bird in the frame was difficult as was zooming in or out once you acquired focus. Add in the problem of seeing the previous image along with the shooting data when you raised the lens and you might wind up needing psychiatric care …
Several folks including a Fuji tech rep have suggested that the camera might be malfunctioning. That said, today’s image is a very fine one. And right before I returned the loaner gear to B&H, I actually started to do a bit better. One tip that might help you is to always start by zooming out to the long end. One tip that might help with that is to actually look at the lens before zooming to the long end. That sounds dumb but it really helped me as the opposite zooming directions seriously mess with my brain. As you have just zoomed to 400mm it is easier to know which direction zooms out … For me at least.
Great Egrets in breeding plumage are a beautiful sight …
Gatorland Mini-IPT: 1 1/2 days: AM and PM shooting sessions on Saturday, March 4 and a morning session on Sunday, March 5: $749. Limit 6/Openings 4.
Join me in Kissimmee, FL in early March, prime time to to photograph Great Egrets in breeding plumage. We should get to make lots of head portraits with most any lens and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Eggs for sure. Tiny chicks likely. And most likely breeding Wood Storks as well. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle the WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. Includes a working lunch on me on Saturday with image review and Photoshop. We may see and photograph some early Snowy Egrets and Tricolored Herons. And of course, we will see and photograph the captive American Alligators. All of the birds are free and wild.
To pay in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass. Early entry both mornings and late stay on Saturday.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
On Thursday, February 16, we spent a great day with the Whooper Swans and ate too many Ramen noodles. I will likely have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
Please note the correct date (and day of the week) for the Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017. Scroll down for complete details.
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.
The Streak: 462!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 462 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Four AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was just below the base of the bill, right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Laughing Gull, breeding plumage, vertical head and shoulders portrait
Underappreciated
Make no bones about it, Laughing Gull in breeding plumage is a stunning bird. Gulls as a group are underappreciated by most folks. And because they are so common many birders and even bird photographers neglect to take a close look at them. For me the combination of snowy white underparts, the jet-black hood, the white eye crescents, and the wine-red bill and legs is quite beautiful. This bird even seems to show a hint of pink on the breast as I saw in two of the gull species thats photographed in South America. The Franklin’s Gulls — a species that nests on North American prairies, were coming into breeding plumage. And we saw more than a few Brown-hooded Gulls in full breeding plumage with a very pronounced pinkish cast on their breasts. Though all three species are quite similar, Franklin’s Gull is more closely related to Laughing Gull than it is to Brown-hooded.
I will be sharing images of both breeding plumage Brown-hooded Gulls and of Franklin’s Gulls molting into breeding plumage in future blog posts.
Head and Shoulders and Vertical Front-end Portraits
Learn the fine points of creating head and shoulders and vertical front-end portraits in the section on Advanced Composition and Image Design in The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images on CD only).
400 DO Versatility
Both the old and the new versions of the Canon 400mm DO lenses are extremely versatile a they can be combined with either the 1.4X or 2X teleconverters to produce sharp images. With a full frame body you have effective focal lengths of 400, 560, and 800mms. With the 7D II or any of the older 1.6X crop factor bodies you would be working with 560, 784, or 1280mm! And for most folks, the 400 DO lenses are eminently hand holdable. The Series II 400 DO is a bit sharper than the older version. Do understand that the older version is a lot sharper than most photographers …
Your New “Old 400 DO” ???
Used Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS DO Lens
Yet Another Lowest-ever BAA Price!
IPT veteran Kerry Morris is offering a used Used Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS DO lens in very good plus condition for the record low BAA price of $2099. There are some small scratches and paint chips on the lens body and tripod ring and the lens hood has a few small scratches as well. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original soft front lens cover, the lens hood, the 4th Generation Designs CP-42 Custom Lens Plate (with the wrenches and the original packing–a $92 value) and insured UPS or FEDEX ground shipping to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Kerry via e-mail or by phone at 818-998-7470 or 818-634-2387 (Pacific time).
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 twice honored Gannets in Love was created with the 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.” Kerry’s lens is priced to sell. artie
Canon EF 400m f/4 IS DO Telephoto Lens, the “old 400 DO”
Owen Peller is offering a Canon EF 400m f/4 IS DO telephoto lens, the “old 400 DO,” in like-new condition for $2,299. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the strap, the original soft front lens cover (that has a problem with the drawstring), the lens hood, and insured UPS or FEDEX ground shipping to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
rear cap, strap and the original lens case Canon 400 B.
Please contact Owen via e-mail or by phone at 954-882-1480 (Eastern time).
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 twice major contest-honored “Gannets in Love” was created with the 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.” Owen’s pristine lens is priced to sell. artie
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
We lucked out with the sea eagles on DAY 2 WED FEB 14. The sunny forecast turned cloudy bright — ideal for the two eagle species — and the sea ice moved in the night before we got on the boat. Photos to follow. And to think that was only Day 2! I should continue to have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
Please note the correct date (and day of the week) for the Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017. Scroll down for complete details.
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.
The Streak: 461!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 461 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
This image was created at Fort DeSoto in the spring of 2016 with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) with the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Daylight WB.
Center Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF. The AF system selected three AF points as seen below in the DPP 4 screen capture. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: 0.
Reddish Egret white morph
White Morph Reddish Egret
Finding a white morph Reddish Egret is always a thrill. The colors of the soft parts on the nice bird in today’s featured image will get a lot brighter if and when it becomes actively engaged in breeding. The pinks get a lot pinker and the ultramarine blues become almost surreal. Still, with the neat, almost sculpted feathering about the head and neck, they are always quite neat. The combination here of the soft whites and the green of the marsh grasses is quite lovely.
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
Note the active AF points illuminated in red. The AF system did a great job of selecting three AF points perfectly on the plane of the bird’s eye. Learning to recognize situation that should work well with Zone AF will make you a better photographer. The further advantage of Zone AF is that it gives you some leeway with framing; you are able to move the bird left of right in the frame as needed. Note the crop from below and from our right that enabled me to tighten up the composition and effectively moving the bird a bit back in the frame.
Image Question
If you think that you know what the little piles of sand balls (for lack of a better term) are from, please do leave a comment. Guesses are welcome.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (Meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon photo session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
I am somewhere in Japan. I will likely have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
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.
The Streak: 460!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 460 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Shutter Button Continuous Autofocus. Additional AF information is unavailable.
Great Egret on nest backlit/this JPEG represents the original image as it came out of the camera
De-haze Revisited …
Check out the flat, foggy-looking original file above. Images like this scream out for the use of the De-haze filter in Photoshop. If you do your RAW conversions in ACR it is best to apply De-haze during the RAW conversion. It is the first item in under the Effects tab. If you convert elsewhere (as I almost always do with my Canon CR2 {RAW} files) you can access De-haze by first going Filter > Camera RAW Filter and then proceeding as above.
Either way experiment with the slider by moving it to the right while being careful not to overdo it. The De-haze filter will quickly be your best friend especially when you are processing images made on a foggy day. Scroll down to see the optimized image.
The Optimized Image
The Optimized Image
In addition to using the De-haze filter during the RAW conversion of this Fujifilm RAC image in ACR, I worked large and eliminated the distracting white feather above and to the left of the bird’s head using Divide and Conquer techniques with the Clone Stamp and Patch Tools. In addition I used a series of small Quick Masks that were refined with Regular Layer Masks. Furthermore I boosted the Vibrance a bit.
Everything above plus tons more is of course detailed in my Digital Basics File, an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete (former PC) digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, details on using all of my image clean-up tools, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, the basics of Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Dodge and Burn, a variety of ways to make selections, how to create time-saving actions, and tons more.
Learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
I am working on an all new Current Workflow e-guide that better reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. It will include a section on ACR conversions and a simplified method of applying Neat Image noise reduction.
Comments on the Image Capture
I was originally attracted to this scene by the early morning backlight especially on the bushes. Backlit scenes often give AF systems a hard time even with Canon gear. The Fujifilm AF system here was totally baffled by the backlight; I created about 70 images of this bird both standing still and displaying. One was acceptably sharp. I would have done much better had I properly been on a tripod and had I been using an higher ISO and thus a faster shutter speed. That said, most of the problems seemed to come from poor focus rather than from motion blur.
Great Egrets in breeding plumage are a beautiful sight …
Gatorland Mini-IPT: 1 1/2 days: AM and PM shooting sessions on Saturday, March 4 and a morning session on Sunday, March 5: $749. Limit 6/Openings 4.
Join me in Kissimmee, FL in early March, prime time to to photograph Great Egrets in breeding plumage. We should get to make lots of head portraits with most any lens and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Eggs for sure. Tiny chicks likely. And most likely breeding Wood Storks as well. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle the WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. Includes a working lunch on me on Saturday with image review and Photoshop. We may see and photograph some early Snowy Egrets and Tricolored Herons. And of course, we will see and photograph the captive American Alligators. All of the birds are free and wild.
To pay in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass. Early entry both mornings and late stay on Saturday.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
Monday, February 13, was get-away day for the Japan group. We slept in, had a late breakfast, and then took a photo walk up the hill to the Onsen-ji Temple. Then it was back into our chartered van for the 3 1/2 hour ride to Haneda. We fly to Hokkaido in the very late afternoon. I will likely have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
Induro GIT 304L
The Induro GIT 304L is finally back in stock. But only two left right now. Click here to order. In addition, for shorter folks, there is a great buy on the Induro GIT 304, a demo model for only $479. Just one. My Induro GIT 304L performed perfectly in the cold of South Georgia, in saltwater on The Falklands, and in the heat and humidity of the Peruvian jungles. Gitzo tripods are now pretty much obsolete.
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.
The Streak: 459!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 459 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
This image was created at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 104mm) with my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/1600 sec.at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +3.
Center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/rear focus AF and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Two Brown Pelicans on the cliffs
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Re-visiting Sun Angle …
Via e-mail from Ken/mirdock@gmail.com
Hi Arthur, I’ve learned so much the last couple month with wildlife photography. So first thanks for all the free content. Question: what does “working on sun angle” mean? Ken
I sent him today’s featured image and wrote: Working on sun angle means to have your shadow pointed at the subject. Above, I am photographing the bird on our right.
I added:
Best advice for improving:
1-Subscribe to the blog and read and study it here.
2-Purchase and study the information in the two-book bundle here.
3-Sign up for an Instructional Photo Tour; learn more about IPTs and see the complete schedule here.
Thanks for getting in touch.
Later and love, artie
More on Working on Sun Angle …
Working on sun angle means working with the sun coming right over the top of your head. Note in today’s featured image that I am actually working a fraction off sun angle –the sun is coming from just a shade to the left of being directly over my head. Until folks attend an IPT they have no idea how meticulous I am with sun angle. I will often move as little as a foot or even a few inches or even a single inch. Doing so assures that only rarely (depending on the time of day) will a part of the bird will cast a shadow on the bird itself. And when combined with the proper head angle, it will assure that the bird’s face is perfectly lit. As I have written here ad infinitum, a good photographer might move 100-200 times in a single 2-3 hour session while a less experienced photographer might move as little as two to ten times. No exaggeration there BTW.
Note also that with the proper head angle I would not hesitate to photograph the left hand pelican that is about 15-20 degrees off sun angle …
2017 in San Diego was a very good year ….
2018 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT: Monday, JAN 15 thru and including the morning session on Friday, JAN 19, 2018: 4 1/2 days: $2099.
Limit: 8: Openings: 4
Meet and Greet at 6:30pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Sunday, Jan 14, 2018.
Join me in San Diego 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 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?
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 five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four 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 9/11//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.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
Our last visit to the Monkey Park, my last ever, was my best ever, by far. Eight inches of fresh snow on the ground along with falling snow. And we ended off with several monkeys eating cedar branches in the snow. It was a totally amazing day. Despite losing many images to a single large out-of-focus snowflake in the wrong spot, I kept 169 images on the first edit. I will surely be sharing lots of them here with you over time.
I will likely continue to have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
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.
The Streak: 458!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 458 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Shutter Button Continuous Autofocus. Additional AF information is unavailable.
Gatorland Abstract
I was standing atop my plastic milk crate trying to acquire and maintain focus at effective 1200mm on a mostly all-white bird with my Fuji rig. It was not an easy task. I could never figure out how to pre-focus manually with the Fuji system. If it is possible and you know how to do it please do share. If it is not possible, that would be a big negative as I know that if I could have pre-focused manually that 9 times out of 1o the AF system would at least have had a decent chance …
What Is It?
If you think that you know what we are looking at, please leave a comment.
Image Questions
What do you think caught my eye?
Would you have seen this image? Why or why not?
If you did see it, would you have pulled the trigger? Why or why not?
Great Egrets in breeding plumage are a beautiful sight …
Gatorland Mini-IPT: 1 1/2 days: AM and PM shooting sessions on Saturday, March 4 and a morning session on Sunday, March 5: $749. Limit 6/Openings 4.
Join me in Kissimmee, FL in early March, prime time to to photograph Great Egrets in breeding plumage. We should get to make lots of head portraits with most any lens and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Eggs for sure. Tiny chicks likely. And most likely breeding Wood Storks as well. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle the WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. Includes a working lunch on me on Saturday with image review and Photoshop. We may see and photograph some early Snowy Egrets and Tricolored Herons. And of course, we will see and photograph the captive American Alligators. All of the birds are free and wild.
To pay in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass. Early entry both mornings and late stay on Saturday.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
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 :).
