Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

What’s Up?

I love being in the field and I love teaching so much that I decided to put together two In-the-Field Meet-up Weekends in May. I wrote this up on the way to the airport for my flight to JFK followed by my red-eye flight to Helsinki, Finland and then the puddle-jumper flight to Kuusamo. If the weather improves, I hope to be photographing Capercaillie with my small group on Wednesday morning.

Want pain? Get a past. Want fear? Get a future. Byron Kate, The Work.Com

Gear Questions and Advice

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

Please Don’t Forget …

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

Unsolicited, via e-mail from John Mack

Hey Arthur,

I had a great time at the DeSoto meet-up. Even though there was not as many birds as there were on most mornings, I still got some good images of the Great Blue Heron and the Laughing Gulls mating. I believe I learned more in those three hours than I have in a year. Thanks again for everything.
Sincerely, John

This flash as main light image was created a few years back with the old 400 DO, the 2X III TC, and the 1D Mark IV. We should have some good chances with chicks getting fed on the Gatorland weekend. The details follow immediately.

BIRDS AS ART May 13-14 Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up Sessions

Join me in Kissimmee, FL for all or part of the weekend of May 13-14, 2017. We should get to photograph several species of nesting herons and egrets as well as Wood Stork, American Alligator (captive), and more. We should get to make lots of head portraits of all the bird species and to photograph chicks and fledged young. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. All of the birds are free and wild. These inexpensive sessions are 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 see you there.

May 13-14, 2017 Schedule

• Saturday May 13 Meet-up Morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10:30am: $99.
• Lunch and Image Review: $99.
• Saturday afternoon till closing (late stay): $99.
• Sunday May 14 Meet-up Morning, (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $80.

Cheap Canon lens rentals available: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, or 200-400.

To pay for one or more sessions 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 or passes. Please shoot me an e-mail with questions.

BIRDS AS ART May 20-21 Fort DeSoto In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up Sessions

Join me in Tierra Verde, FL for all or part of the weekend of May 20-21, 2017. 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. These inexpensive sessions are 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.

May 20-21, 2017 Schedule

• Saturday May 20 Meet-up Morning: 6:30 till 10:00am: $99.
• Lunch and Image Review: $99.
• Saturday afternoon: 4pm till sunset: $99.
• Sunday May 21 Meet-up Morning, Meet-up Morning: 6:30 till 10:00am: $99.

Cheap Canon lens rentals available: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, or 200-400.

To pay for one or more sessions 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 park entry fee. Please shoot me an e-mail with questions.

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 be able to share a variety of my exotic Canon lenses including the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens and the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens, aka the “circle lens.”

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.

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 my friend Denise Ippolito, 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 🙂

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday micro-adjusting my Canon 200-400mm f/4L IS lens with Internal Teleconverter with both of my 5D Mark IV bodies in preparation for my upcoming Finland trip. (I fly on Monday arriving on Tuesday.) In addition, I continued work on the LensAlign/Focus Tune tutorial. Why so long? Zoom lenses need to be micro-adjusted at both the long (T for tight) and W (for wide) at both 200 and 400mm, and then again at 280 and 560mm, W and T, with the Internal 1.4X TC in place. And finally, W and T with an external 1.4X TC (both with the internal TC engaged and not engaged). In other words, it is a ton of work.

I am enjoying my continued participation in the Aftercare sessions that followed my attendance at The School for the Work. Byron Katie has been keeping the boys and girls very busy; they don’t call it the Work for nothing 🙂

Gear Questions and Advice

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

Please Don’t Forget …

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

Important Notice

2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Monday July 3 through Wednesday July 12, 2017: $5999 + $1499: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 5). All who register will be required to join the (really cheap) two-day Gannet/Bass Rock Add-on. See below for details.

I will likely need to close registration for the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT/Bass Rock Add-on ($1499) on May 1 as I need to finalize the cottage reservations.

This is a healthy crop of an image created by DeSoto Spring IPT participant Anita North with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 390mm), and the blazingly fast and rugged Canon EOS-1D X Mark II DSLR Camera Premium Kit with 64GB Card and Reader. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop as originally framed: 1/250 sec. at f/8. Young Great Blue Heron with Sea Robin Image courtesy of and copyright 2017: Anita North

Taking One for the Team: I Picked the Wrong Time to Take a Scouting Walk …

Anita created this image on the last morning of the 2017 DeSoto Spring IPT. Two days prior to that we ran into a woman who told us of “nesting Royal Terns” around the corner of the inlet. So, on that Saturday morning I took my 100-400 II/1.4X II/5D IV combo and set out on a scouting walk. How’d that work out? No terns. And when I “re-terned,” many in the group were excited about the opportunity that they had just enjoyed. There was a couple fishing, catching mostly small Southern Whiting, a great eating fish. When they caught the Sea Robin that you see here today, they tossed it to a nearby Great Blue who grabbed the fish and posed with it for several minutes while standing in the shallow Gulf surf …

Sea Robin

When I was a kid in Brooklyn and later on when fishing as a young adult, I caught lots of Sea Robins. Though normally looked upon as trash fish they were not bad eating. My research also showed that there is a small but developing market for Sea Robin as a commercial fish, surely due to humankind’s ongoing destruction of fish stocks around the world. I had always thought that Sea Robins were in the sculpin family but a bit of research proved me wrong. From the Fishes of the Gulf of Maine website here

The large head, tapering body, and fanlike pectoral fins of the Sea Robin somewhat suggest a sculpin. But the robin is distinguished from all the sculpins by the incasement of its entire head in bony plates; by its smaller mouth; by the flat depressed dorsal profile of its snout; by its large ventral fins; and by the fact that the three lower rays of each of its pectoral fins are separate from the rest of the fin and modified into three independent feelers with slightly dilated tips, a very noticeable and distinctive feature.

From Wikipedia, here:

The Triglidae, commonly known as Sea Robins or Gurnards, are a family of bottom-feeding scorpaeniform fish. They get their name (Sea Robin) from the orange ventral surface of the species in the Western Atlantic (Prionotus carolinus) and from large pectoral fins, which, when swimming, open and close like a bird’s wings in flight. The large surface area of the fins also permits the fish to glide short distances above the water surface, much like a flying fish.

Sea Robins have six spiny “legs”, three on each side. These legs are actually flexible spines that were once part of the pectoral fin. During development, the spines separate from the rest of the fin, developing into feeler-like “forelegs”. The pectoral fins have been thought to let the fish “walk” on the bottom, but are really used to explore the bottom in search of food. The first three rays of the pectoral fins are membrane-free and used for chemoreception being highly sensitive to amino acids prevalent in marine invertebrates.

Anything to add Dr. Fish?

This is a small crop of the original image with a bit ofcanvas added below and behind the bird. Anita used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 390mm), and the blazingly fast and rugged Canon EOS-1D X Mark II DSLR Camera Premium Kit with 64GB Card and Reader. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop as originally framed: 1/250 sec. at f/8. A single AF point one to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the base of the bird’s bill in front of and well below the eye. Young Great Blue Heron with Sea Robin

Anita North and Sally Sue South …

I first met Anita North on a Southern Ocean cruise in 2014/15. Some may remember the story (Beginner with 0.0000014% Keeper Rate in the Southern Ocean; What Can BAA Do for You?) that was published in the blog post here along with some of her early images under the pseudonym Sally Sue South. Rather than being “Canada’s third ever female rocket scientist (now retired)” Anita was actually Canada’s third ever female brain surgeon (now retired). After attending many IPTs and traveling with me throughout South America for 10 1/2 weeks at the end of 2016, her skills have improved immensely. Though she still creates too many images in bad situations, her best images are outstanding. I’d say that in one of every three shooting sessions that her best image is better than my best image … I will be sharing some more of Anita’s images with y’all here in a future blog post.

This is a small crop of the original image with a bit ofcanvas added below and behind the bird. Anita used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 390mm), and the blazingly fast and rugged Canon EOS-1D X Mark II DSLR Camera Premium Kit with 64GB Card and Reader. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop as originally framed: 1/250 sec. at f/8. A single AF point one to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the base of the bird’s bill in front of and well below the eye. Young Great Blue Heron with Sea Robin

Today’s Featured Image

Today’s featured image is sharp and at +1 stop, the exposure –as you can see by the histogram — was perfect. Anita’s single misstep was not choosing the best possible AF point. She needed to pick an AF point that was two or three rows higher to avoid cutting off the virtual feet, the feet that we know are below the surface of the water. But heck, when I see a heron with a really neat prey item I just about have a cow. Thanks to Anita for permitting me to share this image with you here today. One final note: Anita will be continuing her photographic education on the upcoming Finland, UK Puffins & Gannets, Bear Boat, and Galapagos IPTs this spring and summer.

2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Monday July 3 through Wednesday July 12, 2017: $5999 + $1499: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 4).
All who register will be required to join the (really cheap) two-day Gannet/Bass Rock Add-on. See below for details. See below for details.

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.

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.

Great News on the UK Puffins and Gannets/Bass Rock Extension

On the morning of Jul 10, 2017, we will sleep late and head up to Dunbar Harbor for lunch and an afternoon Gannet boat chumming trip: flight photography until you cannot lift your camera. One gannet boat trip is included in the IPT but everyone always wants more.

Then, as a possible mega bonus — we are scheduled to make a Bass Rock landing on the morning of Tuesday July 12, 2017. I am hoping to go two for two! If not, we do another chumming trip for flying gannets.

Included will be two nights lodging at the wonderful Dunsmuir hotel, two fine dining meals there, any additional meals, all boat, guide, and landing fees, and all transportation including the early morning transfer to the Edinburg Airport on the morning of WED July 12.

So far all five sign-ups are maximizing their travel dollars by signing up for the extension in part because I priced it so cheaply at $1499 despite my greatly increased costs.

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 🙂

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

I had a bit of excitement on Friday evening when I noticed phone calls on my cell from each of my two daughters just minutes apart. I knew that the news was not that my Mom had died because that was last week. I got Jen and she told me that her husband Erik was at my house working to minimize the fuel available around my home in case the fire got to my street. Erik is the biologist at Lake Kissimmee State Park and part of his land management work is prescribed fire so he is quite familiar with brush fires. When he had to leave, a section of fire was raging just two blocks from my house in Indian Lake Estates. I was strangely calm. I had learned at the School for the Work in March that either my house would burn down or it would not burn down. I was not worried at all because there was not a thing that I could do. That night I actually made a list of the good things that would result from my home burning down. Number one on the list was that I would not have to deal with getting my 1DX II replaced due to the oil spatter on the sensor problem 🙂

News reports that night and early the next morning were sketchy at best. By mid-morning there were confirmed reports that no homes were damaged by the 700 acre fire that burned with flames 40-60 feet high. Only a maintenance yard and a shed had been damaged. I drove around a bit tonight and was amazed to see many home standing intact while their entire block had been consumed by the fire. Kudos to the 200 folks who eventually got the fire under control and saved every dwelling. The firefighters were from Polk County Fire Rescue, from the Florida Forest Service, and from more than a few fire stations from Polk and surrounding counties.

I am grateful that the universe was kind to me. In retrospect, my son-in-law Erik said on the phone on Sunday night that he was totally amazed that no homes were lost.

I was glad to learn yesterday that Christopher Loffredo is signing up for the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. There is only about a week left to pull the trigger on this great trip. See the details on that just below.

Gear Questions and Advice

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

Please Don’t Forget …

As always–and folks have been doing a really great 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.

Important Notice

2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Monday July 3 through Wednesday July 12, 2017: $5999 + $1499: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 5). All who register will be required to join the (really cheap) two-day Gannet/Bass Rock Add-on. See below for details.

I will likely need to close registration for the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT/Bass Rock Add-on ($1499) on May 1 as I need to finalize the cottage reservations.

Lightroom Offer

As you may know by personal experience, many photographers have made a mess of their catalogs in Adobe Lightroom. (Please note: those are Tim Grey’s words not mine. 🙂 Tim Grey is offering a video course that can help! BAA blog folks can enjoy a 40% discount on his “Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom” bundle of video training courses. There are more than five hours of content in the “Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom” video course, plus more than four hours of additional video content in bonus courses that are included in the bundle. We are also producing a series of webinar presentations exclusively for those enrolled in this bundle. The normal price is $99 for the full bundle, but you can get the bundle for only $59 by clicking here or on the logo-link above.

With this course you’ll learn how to:

• Merge multiple catalogs into a single “master” catalog
• Locate (and reconnect) missing folders and photos
• Consolidate and reorganize your folders
• Resolve metadata mismatches

Learn my thoughts on Lightroom here. Be sure to read all the comments. As most of you know, I have never used Lightroom …

This image was created on the third morning of the 2017 Desoto Spring IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop in early morning light: 1/400 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5. A single AF point four to the right and one up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected point caught the upper right corner of the bird’s eye. Marbled Godwit in breeding plumage calling

500 II Over 600 II

The 500 II has several advantages over the 600 II. It is more than 1 1/2 pounds lighter and its smaller size and bulk make it easier to travel with and easier to handle in the field. With my right shoulder still hurting, it was the clear choice for my on Saturday morning. And with the 2X, I still have lots of reach. In addition, the 500 II focuses more than 2 feet, 7 inches closer than the 600 II. As a result of it’s closer focusing ability, the magnification of 500 II and the 600 II are an identical .15x. That means that if you get to minimum focusing distance with each lens the size of the bird in the frame will be identical. Using excellent stalking skills, staying relatively low and quiet and moving very slowly, I was able to get within 13 feet of the Marbled Godwit featured in today’s blog post.

Multiple Stimuli

I first learned about multiple stimuli in the mid-1980s while photographing shorebirds at one of my soul places, the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, NY. Yup, good old New York City. The young birds in mid-August were a lot easier to approach than July’s returning adults. As a general rule, I would approach by crawling through the mud. With a bit of care it was easy to get within 15-20 feet. But. And this is a very big but: if you hear a plane from JFK approaching or an A or C train getting louder just to the east or even a loud truck rumbling by on Cross Bay Boulevard just to the west, you had better freeze. If there were no people around the planes or the trains or the trucks would not bother the birds a bit. But if something loud comes along when you are moving closer, the birds will often take flight. On Saturday morning lots of folks in the group had gotten close to the birds when a loud boat zoomed by on the Gulf, out of sight but not out of sound. The birds became alarmed and began calling loudly, “ger WIT, ger WIT (from which they got their name). The small flock did not fly and I snapped off two frames of the calling bird that was closest to me. I did not think that I had a sharp one as the birds lean forward as they call. And at 1/400 sec. I thought that there would be at least some motion blur. I am glad to say that I was wrong on both counts 🙂

Usually, not being aware of multiple stimuli can hurt you by causing the birds to fly. But in this instance, it turned out to be helpful.

Fantastic Content Aware Fill Keyboard Shortcut

As I mentioned the other day, I have been using Content Aware Fill more and more recently and continue to be impressed with the continued improvements with this tool in recent versions of Photoshop CC. I have always thought that I would use it more if there were a viable keyboard shortcut. In my copy of Photoshop CC, Version 2017.0.1, the default keyboard shortcut, Shift F5, does not work on my Mac. During a Photoshop session on the DeSoto IPT participant Ed Blanton suggested that I try Shift Delete. Bingo! I was thrilled. I used the Patch Tool to make my selection and then hit Shift F5 and OK and I am good to go. Working large with today’s image, I used the Shift F5 keyboard shortcut several times when working on the nares (nostril’s). It is so, so much better and faster than having to select Fill from the dropdown menu under Edit and then having to hit OK that it is hard to believe.

Thanks to Ed I will be using Content Aware Fill a lot more in the future. Thank you sir for sharing.

If you have another Content Aware Fill keyboard shortcut that works for you, please leave a comment and share, especially if you are on a PC.

The Image Optimization

First I converted the RAW file in DPP 4 (see the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide) and brought the image into Photoshop. To clean the small bit of crud from the upper bill I first cleaned the playing field with the Spot Healing Brush followed up by lots of (very small) Patch Tool work. When I got to the nares I used Content Aware Fill (Shift delete) several times with success. Then I used small Patch Tools and the Clone Stamp Tool to tidy things up. Once the clean-up was done I applied my 30-30 NIK Color Efex Pro Detail Extractor/Tonal Contrast recipe to the bird only after selecting it with the Quick Selection Tool. As I had saved the selection, I loaded and I inverted it and then applied a 20% opacity Layer of NIK Color Efex Pro White Neutralizer to the sky only. I duplicated the background copy, did a Linear Burn on that layer, applied a Hide All (Inverse or black) Layer Mask and painted in the effect (B, D) as needed on the bird’s chin with a 10% brush.

Pretty much everything that I did with this image is 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 using BreezeBrowser and Downloader Pro, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Dodge and Burn, a variety of other ways of making 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. You can learn to apply Neat Image noise reduction in The Professional Photographers Guide to Post Processing.

I am currently working on an all new BAA Current Workflow e-guide that will better reflect 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. Today’s image did not need any noise Reduction.

2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Monday July 3 through Wednesday July 12, 2017: $5999 + $1499: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 4).
All who register will be required to join the (really cheap) two-day Gannet/Bass Rock Add-on. See below for details. See below for details.

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.

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.

Great News on the UK Puffins and Gannets/Bass Rock Extension

On the morning of Jul 10, 2017, we will sleep late and head up to Dunbar Harbor for lunch and an afternoon Gannet boat chumming trip: flight photography until you cannot lift your camera. One gannet boat trip is included in the IPT but everyone always wants more.

Then, as a possible mega bonus — we are scheduled to make a Bass Rock landing on the morning of Tuesday July 12, 2017. I am hoping to go two for two! If not, we do another chumming trip for flying gannets.

Included will be two nights lodging at the wonderful Dunsmuir hotel, two fine dining meals there, any additional meals, all boat, guide, and landing fees, and all transportation including the early morning transfer to the Edinburg Airport on the morning of WED July 12.

So far all five sign-ups are maximizing their travel dollars by signing up for the extension in part because I priced it so cheaply at $1499 despite my greatly increased costs.

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 🙂

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

After a great two-hour introductory program, the Fort DeSoto IPT got off to a horrible start with strong east winds and bright sun … Then things got a bit better but were still difficult. Then the wind shifted 90 degrees and we found a real treasure. Everyone was thrilled. Photo and the complete story to follow.

ps: I awoke at 3:30am on Wednesday morning so that we could make the drive over in time for sunrise at DeSoto. Sunrise was not great with the East wind but one we got on the sunny side of things we killed, especially on Marbled Godwits …

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.

Loving Reminder

B&H re-opened for online ordering last night after the Passover closing. 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 Gatorland on April 15 with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 560mm) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/320 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode (was just a bit of an underexposure). AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: 1. A single AF point one to the right of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was right on the bird’s left eye. Snowy Egret in breeding plumage

The Barely Existent Slot …

I had been photographing a pretty open (completely shaded) Great Egret nest with the handheld 100-400 when I noticed this pretty nice snowy in the opposite side of the big bush. At first glance it looked as if there was absolutely no shot, but moving well to my right (and away from the small crowd of photographers) and getting low allowed me to find a tiny opening to the bird, an almost non-existent slot. Wanting to keep the bird a bit on the right side of the frame I moved the AF point one to the right and created five images. This one was bingo; the rest were insta-deletes …

Remember, when working at cluttered rookeries, be sure to examine all possible angles in search of a clear slot at the shot.

The Image Optimization

After converting the RAW file in DPP 4 (see the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide), I brought the image into Photoshop, worked large, and used my usual cadre of tools, the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, the Clone Stamp Tool, and a series of small Quick Masks refined by Regular Layer Masks. In addition, I used Content Aware Fill on a number of occasions and it performed admirably; at times I was amazed. Everything that I did to clean up the lores and the bill is 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 using BreezeBrowser and Downloader Pro, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Dodge and Burn, a variety of other ways of making 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. You can learn to apply Neat Image noise reduction in The Professional Photographers Guide to Post Processing.

I am still 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.

2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Monday July 3 through Wednesday July 12, 2017: $5999 + $1499: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 5).
All who register will be required to join the (really cheap) two-day Gannet/Bass Rock Add-on. See below for details. See below for details.

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.

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.

Great News on the UK Puffins and Gannets/Bass Rock Extension

On the morning of Jul 10, 2017, we will sleep late and head up to Dunbar Harbor for lunch and an afternoon Gannet boat chumming trip: flight photography until you cannot lift your camera. One gannet boat trip is included in the IPT but everyone always wants more.

Then, as a possible mega bonus — we are scheduled to make a Bass Rock landing on the morning of Tuesday July 12, 2017. I am hoping to go two for two! If not, we do another chumming trip for flying gannets.

Included will be two nights lodging at the wonderful Dunsmuir hotel, two fine dining meals there, any additional meals, all boat, guide, and landing fees, and all transportation including the early morning transfer to the Edinburg Airport on the morning of WED July 12.

So far all five sign-ups are maximizing their travel dollars by signing up for the extension in part because I priced it so cheaply at $1499 despite my greatly increased costs.

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 🙂

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

I spent Sunday morning at Gatorland with two very nice clients from Orlando, Marj and Gary. With dead clear skies conditions were not the greatest but we had fun and they learned quite a bit. With a nice east wind picking up mid-morning we had a few good flight chances. I have decided that I will not be doing a final Gatorland Meet-up in two weeks as it is too close to Finland …

I enjoyed another killer crane sunset down by Lake Walk-in-Water on Sunday evening.

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: 31!

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, 31 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 down by the lake at ILE on the morning of April 14, 2017 with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.) ISO 800: 1/1250 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: 5. A single AF point two to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. Though the selected AF point was on the bird’s breast, the image is sharp on the vulture’s eye. Black Vulture running with its feet off the ground

Both Feet Off the Ground …

For unknown reasons, there have been some dead fish on the peninsula to the south of the long pier at the end of Park Avenue in the development that I live in, Indian Lake Estates, FL. On Thursday night, I moved one large fish to a spot where if I stood with my back to the adjacent canalI would have the sun behind me while I was at eye level to the vultures coming in to scavenge the fish. In today’s featured image, the subject was coming to the fish at full trot. I thought that it was neat that I caught it with both feet off the ground. My NIK 25/25 filter did wonders for the BLACKs.

Aperture Question

There was zero reason to be at f/9. I should have been at 1/2500 sec. at f/6.3. Do you have any idea how I wound up at f/9?

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 2. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.

Call 863-692-0906 or e-mail for late registration discount e-mail.

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.

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 Holiday Inn Express in St. Petersburg. (Write for a less expensive option). 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 🙂

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

I had another great morning down by the lake with the young cranes and the vultures. I moved a few dead fish around so that I could stand down on the edge of a nearby canal and was at eye level with the scavengers (with the sun right behind me of course). It was great fun and I got some really good ones. Then I picked up a friend at MCO and we enjoyed a short outing at Gatorland. With the intermittent clouds we had some good chances, way better than last week. In a few we will he heading out for some great Mexican food at El Tapatio Restaurant. I have two clients for Saturday morning and two for Sunday. What fun we will have. I will be running one last weekend meet-up in three weeks. Details TBA.

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: 29!

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, 29 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.

Important Notice

2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Monday July 3 through Wednesday July 12, 2017: $5999 + $1499: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 5). All who register will be required to join the (really cheap) two-day Gannet/Bass Rock Add-on. See below for details.

I will likely need to close registration for the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT/Bass Rock Add-on ($1499) on May 1 as I need to finalize the cottage reservations.

Lightroom Offer

As you may know by personal experience, many photographers have made a mess of their catalogs in Adobe Lightroom. (Please note: those are Tim Grey’s words not mine. 🙂 Tim Grey is offering a video course that can help! BAA blog folks can enjoy a 40% discount on his “Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom” bundle of video training courses. There are more than five hours of content in the “Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom” video course, plus more than four hours of additional video content in bonus courses that are included in the bundle. We are also producing a series of webinar presentations exclusively for those enrolled in this bundle. The normal price is $99 for the full bundle, but you can get the bundle for only $59 by clicking here or on the logo-link above.

With this course you’ll learn how to:

• Merge multiple catalogs into a single “master” catalog
• Locate (and reconnect) missing folders and photos
• Consolidate and reorganize your folders
• Resolve metadata mismatches

Learn my thoughts on Lightroom here. Be sure to read all the comments. As most of you know, I have never used Lightroom …

This image was created on the 2016 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the Canon 5DS R (now replaced for me by my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.) ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: 5. Center AF points (Manual selection)/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Razorbill yawning

Cloudy Afternoon Razorbill JPEG

This Razorbill image is from my favorite Inner Farnes cloudy day afternoon spot. Without clouds, this location is not even worth checking. As with several other images from that same day, I have no clue as to how I wound up shooting JPEGs. I was glad to see that the WHITEs were in the mid-240s when I brought the JPEG into Photoshop. If you overexpose the WHITEs badly with a JPEG, you will often be out of luck. One of the many advantages of shooting RAW is that minor exposure errors are always correctable and even some images with very large exposure errors are often salvageable. In any case, contrast is always greater with JPEGs and as a result, the BLACKs in the original were too dark, and the WHITEs were close to detail-less. Continue reading to learn the perfect solution

NIK Color Efex Pro 30/30 Recipe

The only problem with the out of camera JPEG was that both the WHITEs and the BLACKs needed more detail. I figured that my 50/50 Detail Extractor/Tonal Contrast recipe might be a bit of overkill so I chose my 30/30 recipe that is just a bit stronger then my 25/25 recipe. It was perfect right out of the box. I did not need to reduce the opacity and I did not need to fine-tune the effect by adding a Regular Layer Mask. I do both of those often. Take a good look at the before and after versions as the animated GIF plays. You will see that detail in both the WHITEs and the BLACKs has been brought up nicely without looking overdone. (In retrospect, while looking at the animated GIF, it seems that the bird’s back, primaries, and tail are a bit overdone (crunchy). I might have added a Regular Layer mask, set the opacity to somewhere between 50 and 30%, and painted away part of the effect only in those areas.)

And what’s the best news for folks who do not own the Color Efex Pro? You can download this great plug-ins for free by clicking here and then clicking on the blue Download button. Even better, you can download the other six plug-ins in the Google Nik Collection for free as well. If anyone knows who to download the compete collection in a single click, please share that link.

The highly skilled and creative Denise Ippolito first taught me to create recipes in NIK Color Efex Pro and for that I thank her. She was not a big fan of my 50-50 or 25-25 recipes, but within a year she saw the time-saving beauty and began using the Tonal Contrast/Detail Extractor combos.

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 using BreezeBrowser and Downloader Pro, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Dodge and Burn, a variety of other ways of making 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. You can learn to apply Neat Image noise reduction in The Professional Photographers Guide to Post Processing.

I am still 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.

2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Monday July 3 through Wednesday July 12, 2017: $5999 + $1499: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 5).
All who register will be required to join the (really cheap) two-day Gannet/Bass Rock Add-on. See below for details. See below for details.

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.

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.

Great News on the UK Puffins and Gannets/Bass Rock Extension

On the morning of Jul 10, 2017, we will sleep late and head up to Dunbar Harbor for lunch and an afternoon Gannet boat chumming trip: flight photography until you cannot lift your camera. One gannet boat trip is included in the IPT but everyone always wants more.

Then, as a possible mega bonus — we are scheduled to make a Bass Rock landing on the morning of Tuesday July 12, 2017. I am hoping to go two for two! If not, we do another chumming trip for flying gannets.

Included will be two nights lodging at the wonderful Dunsmuir hotel, two fine dining meals there, any additional meals, all boat, guide, and landing fees, and all transportation including the early morning transfer to the Edinburg Airport on the morning of WED July 12.

So far all five sign-ups are maximizing their travel dollars by signing up for the extension in part because I priced it so cheaply at $1499 despite my greatly increased costs.

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 🙂

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

Wednesday was (and is) my weekly fast day. The rest was business as usual. I did get some work done on the Current BAA Workflow e-Guide.

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: 27!

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, 27 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.

Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up Sessions

Join me in Kissimmee, FL next weekend to photograph Great (with chicks in the nest) and Snowy Egrets in breeding plumage, Cattle Egret and Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage, Wood Stork, American Alligator (captive), and more. We should get to make lots of head portraits of all the bird species and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light techniques. Learn to make sharp images with your f/4 super-telephoto and your 2x II TC. All of the birds are free and wild.

Next Weekend’s Gatorland Schedule

• Saturday April 15, morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10:30am: $100. Lunch and Image Review: $75. Saturday afternoon till closing (late stay): $100.
• Sunday morning, April 16, (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $75.

Cheap Canon lens rentals available: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, or 200-400.

To pay for one or more sessions 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 or passes. Please shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.

The Photoshop Phony Bathing Great Egret Revealed

In the “Which One is Phony?” blog post here, I wrote,”One of today’s featured images underwent a significant operation in Photoshop. If you think that you know which one it is, leave a comment and be sure to state your proof clearly. Please be specific when doing so.” Nobody figured out what I did and thus, there was no proof of anything. Several folks have offered proof of changes that were actually in the RAW file …

Sarah Sterling came close when she posted “I think it’s #2 as the reflections don’t match. The feathers are crossing (the bill) in different places.

I responded,”Wow, you are amazing. I totally missed that. I am 99% sure that your reasoning is correct. So what did I do?

She did not answer. (Many folks who reply or ask a question never check to see any additional comments or my answers.)

But after taking a close look at the animated GIF above, I noted that the 1% long shot was actually the winner. That the feathers did not appear to cross the bill in the same spot in the reflection was a result of the physics of light not to the fact that I had replaced the bird’s head with the same bird’s head from another frame with a very similar but not as dramatic a moment depicted. If you think that I am wrong, please let us know.

So What’s the Point?

My point is that when the creator reveals in advance what changes were made to an image in Photoshop, many folks are quick to point out the telltale signs that “prove” that repairs were made. But when they do not know what changes were made, it is rare that anyone detects the changes and it is not uncommon that folks mention changes to the image that were not made, commenting on features that were actually in the RAW file.

This Just In

On Wednesday evening, just in the nick of time, Gary Spicer posted this comment:

I think the image has had a complete head replacement above the water. The long head plume is missing in the reflection and the eye has 2 white spots in front of the eye above water and only one below the water. I also would think that there should be water splashes and droplets from the bill from a bird that had just dived below water, but I might be wrong. One last observation is the angle of the head compared to the angle of the diving body, not sure on that. Having said all that its been very well done and at first glance it looks like another one of your excellent shots. Regards Gary

I replied:

Well done on the head replacement. I am not sure that I agree with or understand all of your reasons but I still tip my hat to you. Let me know what you think when you see the animated GIF in tomorrow’s blog post. later and love and thanks, artie

The Image Optimization

I began by converting the original for today’s featured image in DPP 4. Then I copied the recipe to the head-source image and converted that too. Replacing the head was a snap. I painted a Quick Mask of the new head, put it on its own layer, and dragged it roughly into place on top of the other image. Next I reduced the opacity to 50%, lined up the two eyes, hit Command T to bring up the Transform box, and grabbed to love handles to rotate the new head. No warping was necessary. Next I added a Regular Layer Mask, erased the whole layer (B, D, X) hit X again, and painted in just what I needed. Lastly I had to do a bit of Clone Stamp Tool work along the top of the bird’s head where there was a bit of a mis-match. Total time to replace the head: 3 minutes, most of that time was spent fixing the mismatched top of the head.

Note in the before and after animated GIF that I eliminated the largest specular highlights and ran my 50/50 Nik Color EFEX recipe on the white feathers only. This image was cropped from the rear and from below using the Original Ratio feature. Maybe I’ve finally learned my lesson: I zoomed out to avoid clipping anything …

Learn why I convert all of my Canon RAW files in DPP 4 in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide. 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. You can learn to apply Neat Image noise reduction in The Professional Photographers Guide to Post Processing.

I am still 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.

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 2. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.

Call 863-692-0906 or e-mail for late registration discount e-mail.

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.

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 Holiday Inn Express in St. Petersburg. (Write for a less expensive option). 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 🙂

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

Older daughter Jennifer and I flew back to Orlando on the 12:15pm non-stop from Islip. The flight was a breeze. I got home in plenty of time to enjoy a late afternoon swim.

Scroll down a bit for info on next weekend’s Gatorland offerings and scroll down further for DeSoto IPT late registration discount info.

Heartfelt Thanks

Thanks to the many who shared their thoughts on the memorial blog post that I wrote about my Mom (and my Dad as well) both by leaving a comment and via e-mail. To receive so many kind, thoughtful messages, each one containing and outpouring of love, was both wonderful and appreciated. Many of the comments were quite insightful. I think that I wrote this recently somewhere but cannot recall the details, but at worst, it is worth repeating. Someone wrote that in addition to my Dad being part of the “Greatest Generation,” that my Mom and the tens of thousands of other wives and mothers were part of the “Greatest Generation” as well. Though it is obviously true for sure I had never realized it before. These unsung women heroes held the families together during and after the war and nurtured and loved and cared for their (often wounded) husbands after the war. And those wounds often included mental wounds as well as physical ones. And let’s not forget about the Rosie the Riveters as well, the women who worked in factories producing a great variety of the stuff that was needed for our war effort.

Additions

Both in the memorial blog post and in the (shared) eulogy that I presented at my Mom’s memorial service on Sunday, I omitted a few things, several with regards to the fact that Hazel Morris spent most of her life taking care of others. First, she volunteered as a fund raiser for years for Great Oaks Village, a group home for developmentally challenged young adults in San Diego. Her talents as a baker and a seamstress helped raise a whole lot of money for that group. She was a member of the San Diego Woman’s Club for several decades. When she moved back to New York in 2006 or 2007, they honored her service there with an honorary lifetime membership. She held a variety of offices (most notably Treasurer) for that group for years and on the certificate, they noted that Hazel often held this or that position for more years than their constitution allowed because nobody else would take the position. That’s my Mom.

I did note during the eulogy that my Mom took on quite a chore while raising us three kids. Heck, when I was two, I pushed my infant sister Ilene off the kitchen table. When I was about seven I hit her in the head with a hammer, and she stabbed me in the head with a pair of scissors. (None of the wounds were serious). After that, things got worse and we stopped getting along so well. But that only lasted another seven decades. I happily reconciled with Ilene last week in the presence of my Mom. (Credit The School for the Work for that …)

But when it came to taking care of my sister Arna, my Mom (and until his death, my Dad) deserved Nobel Prizes for parenting. When the family left Brooklyn for San Diego in 1969 Arna was not a happy camper. She rebelled in a fashion typical of the time, sex, drugs, rock and roll, and wine (without much emphasis on the rock and roll). She married three guys in a row named Richard. Each turned out to be a disaster. Many times she came back to my folks with piles of auto repair and hospital bills and each time they welcomed her back with open arms. After Richard the Third they added a room to the house for Arna and she straightened her life out a bit. At most, Arna worked a few days a week. When my Dad died in 2001 Arna stayed with Mom and took care of her a bit while Mom cared for and supported Arna.

When my Mom returned to New York to be near my older sister Ilene, Arna came with her. For the last ten years of her life, Arna took care of Mom while Mom took care of and supported Arna. Please do not think that I am judging Arna here. I know that she has always done her best. She is a sweet soul. She flew to Florida in November 1994 to “help Elaine die.” It was as if an angel had come to me to help me though the most difficult days of my life.

Make no mistake about it, I love Arna Lee and I love my Mom and I love my Dad. And my sister Ilene too.

I almost forgot to mention this: my Mom battled anxiety pretty much for the whole or her adult life, right up to the very end. For me, that makes her accomplishments that much the greater …

After this is published, I will add the text above to the original blog post for the record.

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: 25!

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, 25 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.

Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up Sessions

Join me in Kissimmee, FL next weekend to photograph Great (with chicks in the nest) and Snowy Egrets in breeding plumage, Cattle Egret and Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage, Wood Stork, American Alligator (captive), and more. We should get to make lots of head portraits of all the bird species and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light techniques. All of the birds are free and wild.

Next Weekend’s Gatorland Schedule

• Saturday April 15, morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10:30am: $100. Lunch and Image Review: $75. Saturday afternoon till closing (late stay): $100.
• Sunday morning, April 16, (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $75.

Cheap Canon lens rentals available: 600 II, 500 II, 400 DO II, or 200-400.

To pay for one or more sessions 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 or passes. Please shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.

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.

Unsolicited, via e-mail, from Gerry Keshka

Hi Artie, I wanted to share how much I appreciate your Used Gear “service.” You have posted how you help sellers, but the other side of the equations is how much this service helps buyers. I have purchased three lenses (Canon 200-400, 500 f4 II, and 70-200 F2.8) all lovely experiences and I saved almost $5K over retail. Each of the sellers was delightful, willing to help me assess if the purchase was right for me by sharing their experience with the lens. Each lens was in the condition advertised (or better), and typically included several “add-ons” that would have cost several hundred dollars.

Unsolicited, via e-mail, from Sandra Calderbank

Hi Artie, I wanted to take a few minutes to thank you. I have sold two camera bodies on your BAA used gear site. Your friendly expertise and knowledgeable, trustworthy buyers have made this an extremely satisfying experience. Selling on BAA Used Gear page is the best transaction experience I have ever encountered. Thank you for all you do for our photography community. Sincerely, Sandra

Recent Successful Used Gear Sales
March was an amazing month on the Used Gear Page!

• David R. Gibson sold a Canon 300mm f/4 L IS USM lens in excellent plus condition for $749 in March, 2017.
• Good friend and multiple IPT veteran Indranil Sircar sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III in near-mint condition along with the the Canon BG-11 battery grip for the great low price of $1,579 soon after it was listed in early April.
• Colin Haase sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for a the BAA record-low price of $9,497 just minutes after I featured it in the blog under the heading “I Cannot Believe that this one has not sold yet …”
• Steve Traudt helped a friend sell her Canon 500mm f4L IS USM lens in near-mint condition for $3899 in late March, a week after it was listed.
• Mike Pace sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II in excellent plus condition locally and is sending me a check for 2 1/2% of the original price.
• BAA friend John Armitage sold his Canon EOS 1D-X in excellent plus condition for $2348 the day it was listed.
• In early March long-time-ago IPT veteran Myer Bornstein decided not to sell his Nikon 500mm f/4G ED VR lens and kindly sent me a check for 2 1/2% of the original asking price, $4,999.00.
• Mike Kaplan sold a Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition for $925 to a buyer who contacted him on day one when the body was listed in early March.
• Sue Sanborn sold her Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $4100 in early March. The value of this great lens has plummeted after the introduction of the 400mm f/4 IS DO II.
• Sandra Calderbank sold her used Canon EOS 7D Mark II in excellent plus condition with less than 20,000 shutter actuations for $948 in early March.
• Mike Pace sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS lens in very good condition for $4699 CAD to a Canadian only days after it was listed in early March.
• Kenton Gomez sold his Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II lens in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $7349 in early March, 2017.
• Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin sold his Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens in very good-plus condition for the very sporting price of $2199 USD to a Canadian buyer less than a week after it was listed.
• Owen Peller sold his Canon EF 400m f/4 IS DO telephoto lens — the “old 400 DO,– in like-new condition for $2,299 in early MAR, 2017.

New Listings

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II USM Lens (with extras!)

A Record Low BAA Price!

Paul Abravaya is offering a Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO II lens in excellent condition for $5,799. The sale includes everything that comes with a new lens from Canon USA: the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original tough front lens cover, the lens strap, the original product box, the hard case and case strap and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Additionally the lens comes with a with a Don Zeck lens cover, a Realtree Max4 HD Camo LensCoat, and a Really Right Stuff replacement foot (LCF-52). It was purchased new by Paul on April 16, 2015.

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

Contact Paul via e-mail or by phone at 1-805-427-5856 (please do not call before 7am or after 8pm Pacific time).

I own the 400 DO II and find a way to take it on most trips. I took to Scotland and Nickerson Beach. It has served well as my big gun in the Galapagos and on various Southern Ocean (the Falklands and South Georgia) trips. It is a killer for flight with or without the 1.4X III TC. And really skilled folks have had amazing success hand holding it with the 2X III TC for flight and for action. With this lens in high demand and new ones selling for $6899, Paul’s lens is a great buy that will save you 1100 bucks!. Do know that this lens is so good that it is responsible for the huge price drops of used 300mm f/2.L IS lenses … artie

Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens

Stan Hoyt is offering a Canon 500mm f4L IS USM Super Telephoto lens in like-new condition for the great low price of $3899. The sale includes all the original components: the lens strap, the rear lens cap, the lens trunk (with keys), and the front lens cover. Also included are the following accessories: a 4th Generation Design CP-51b replacement foot (along with the original lens foot), a Wimberley P-40 lens plate, and a forest green LensCoat. The sale also includes 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 Stan via e-mail.

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 and wildlife all over the world. Both have been replaced for me by their far more costly version II counterparts. The 500 f/4s have long been the world’s most popular super-telephoto lenses for wildlife and sports. With the extras, Stan’s like-new lens should sell quickly. artie

This image was created on the afternoon of April 6 at Indian Lake Estates, FL. I used the the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 560mm) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop as framed: 1/800 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: 1. Upper Large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure and worked to perfection. The system activated four AF points that nailed the area around the bird’s eye. Image #1: Sandhill Crane, vertical head and neck portrait

As I Wrote in the Original The Art of Bird Photography …

As I wrote on the top of page 108 in the original The Art of Bird Photography (now only in soft cover), “If the subject is positioned against an uncluttered background or if there is a cluttered background well behind the subject, telephoto lenses — with their narrow angles of view — and the shallow depth of field that comes with the use of wide apertures, will produce lovely, soft, out-of focus backgrounds. I’ll take still blue water or well-lit green foliage every time.”

The Art of Bird Photography

The original The Art of Bird Photography was published in 1998 and thus, there is no digital content. None-the-less ABP is still a most valuable resource for all nature photographers because the basic principles expounded upon are still relevant today for all types of photography including and especially bird, wildlife, and nature photography. The said, we do recommend the purchase of The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images on CD only) in addition to the purchase of ABP. ABP II is the digital continuation of ABP. Beginning photographers are advised to purchase the two-book bundle here to dramatically flatten their learning curves. I often think “Where would I be now if the info in ABP and ABP II had been available when back then …

Image #1 …

Blue water is still one of my all-time favorite backgrounds. The farther away the better and the sweeter the light the better still. Note, the background in this image was about 60 feet beyond the subject.

This image was created at Gatorland at 8:05am on the morning of April 8, 2017 with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/3200 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +5. Left Large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system activated two AF points that fell slightly behind and below the bird’s eye, not quite ideal. There is a good chance that Center Large Zone might have nailed AF right on the eye. In retrospect, however, it might have been best to have chosen AF Expand and placed the selected sensor right on the bird’s eye … Image #2: Great Egret, head portrait of large chick in nest

Image #2 …

While I love the bird in Image #2, love the fact that the background is very sweet indeed, love that the bill was quite clean, love that I was able to get right on sun angle, and really loved that I was able to isolate this chick with another in the nest, there is one thing that I view as less than ideal. What is it? I was able to isolate the chick in this image only because it was standing up and its nest-mate was lying down. Note: the background here was about ten feet beyond the subject.

Image #2 Depth-of-Field Questions

a-With plenty of shutter speed (1/3200 second) how might stopping down one stop to f/9 have helped this image?

b-With plenty of shutter speed (1/3200 second) how might stopping down two stops to f/13 have hurt this image?

Your Favorite?

Which of today’s two featured images do you like best? Be sure to let us know why? Ties are fine 🙂

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 2. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.

Call 863-692-0906 or e-mail for late registration discount e-mail.

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.

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 Holiday Inn Express in St. Petersburg. (Write for a less expensive option). 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 🙂

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

Friday afternoon at Gatorland was not good. Saturday morning was pretty darned good. After the client-less morning session, I went back to the hotel room to write this blog post. Though I am largely at peace with my Mom’s death, when I typed these words In Memoriam to my Mom: Hazel Louise Morris I began to cry and grieve. I had done the same thing the day before while older daughter Jennifer and I were going through a collection of old black and white family pictures. So things are as they should be.

ps: Saturday afternoon at Gatorland was killer good. It is now just after 9:00pm and I am at the airport waiting for my 10:15pm flight to Long Island. My Mom’s Memorial Service is tomorrow afternoon.

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: 23!

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, 23 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.

On our left, my Mom, Hazel Louse Morris. On our right, my Dad, Private First Class Robert Edward Morris, 1942. During or after basic training at Fort Bragg, NC. Bobby as Hazel liked to call him, was awarded a Purple Heart for his service. Several decades later, after moving to San Diego, my Dad learning that he had in fact been awarded a Bronze Star. Photos of my Dad with two arms are rare.

In Memoriam to my Mom: Hazel Louise Morris

b: September 19, 1922. d: April 5, 2017

My Mom lived a long life. 94 years was a good run. She spent a good deal of it helping others. As many of you know, my Dad, Private First Class Robert E. Morris, was severely wounded on Okinawa in April of 1944. He was hit with 13 rounds of machine gun fire. He rolled out of the truck. Only he and the guy next to him were not killed instantly. That included the soldier he had traded seats with just minutes before because he had forgotten to return the guy’s canteen. My Dad’s best friend, a medic, ran over to help him. He took off my Dad’s coat and his right arm came off with it. His friend, the medic, ran away crying. Another soldier came over and did not know what to do. As I understand it my Dad said, “Take out my f—-ing shoelace and tie a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. His left arm was hanging by a thread.

A young Filipino doctor fought with the higher-ups to save my Dad’s left arm. He spent nineteen months all told in various hospitals, most of that time in Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C. I am pretty sure that I was conceived there … Once he was fully recovered, he went back to work at Roebling, Luggage, 121 Liberty Street in Manhattan, on the site of what was the original World Trade Center. He wound up pulling luggage off shelves for the next 30 years. I remember taking more than a few hard backhand shots to the back of my head from him into my early twenties. He was a tough man and didn’t take any crap.

So, my Mom put his socks and belt on for most of the next 54 years (except for the years when the three kids, Arthur — thats me, older sister Ilene, and younger-by-a-lot sister Arna Lee took over those chores). My Mom was a great cook and a great baker. She was an expert seamstress. She had a very tough childhood. Her mother whom she loved dearly died when she was thirteen and her mean S-O-B gave her over to the authorities. Then Hazel went into a succession of foster care homes. All of them had one thing in common: they used the money that they got from social services to buy food and beer and clothing for themselves.

Her accounting teacher suggested that she move into the YWCA when she reached her 18th birthday. And that is just what she did. She met Bobby then and within two years they were married (on May 15, 1942). My Dad was drafted. A some point after he had left, my Mom gave birth to my sister Carla. Carla died at age 10 days from infantile diarrhea, a frequent killer in the early 40s.

My Mom showed love by providing the three kids with the two things she had been deprived of in her childhood: lots of great food prepared expertly: fried flounder and fried veal cutlets to die for, a perfect bag lunch every day — often a tuna sandwich with the tuna well chopped up into small pieces with lots of mayo (just like I liked it) and a pack of two Hostess filled chocolate cupcakes. She made My-T-Fine chocolate pudding from scratch every week along with a batch of 144 toll house cookies. I always had perfectly laundered clothes, immaculate Cub Scout uniforms — she was a den mother of course, and hand-sewn Halloween costumes every year. I can still remember the pink and black clown costume she sewed up for me for Halloween when I was about 13. My Mom did lots of charity work for the Ida Lief Chapter of Deborah Hospital. It is no shock that she was named their Mother of the Year in 1966. My Mom was an incredible baker. More than a few men have requested a Hazel Morris apple pie from their death beds.

She did all the shopping, all the laundry, and cooked every meal for the family until 1969 when my Mom and Dad and younger sister Arna (with older sister Ilene only briefly) moved to San Diego, CA. She did all those same things for my Dad until his death on September 25, 2001 at age 80. They were married for more than 59 years. My Mom and Dad loved to bicker, but only when they were awake and in the same room.

Hazel in Bob in hospital room, probably at the then Walter Reed General Hospital, 1945.

At some point when my Dad was in his mid-70s, I asked him, “How is it that with you guys arguing all the time you never got divorced.” He said, and I quote, “I laid in that hospital bed for 19 months. I saw dozens of young brides walk up to the door of that room, take one look at their husbands with no arms and no legs, turn around, walk away, and never came back.” That was my Dad’s way of saying to my Mom, “Hazel. I love you. Thanks for staying with me for all these years.” He was doing his best but “I love you” was never part of his vocabulary. And he too was a great provider.

Hazel Morris and son Arthur, circa 1947 Above all else Hazel was dependable and loyal and faithful. And a great Mom.

A while after they moved to San Diego they took a part time job with ALDA, the American Luggage Dealers association. Their job? Overseeing the production of their holiday catalog. Their seven-year run was so successful that they became the first non-store owners to be honored (as man and woman of the year) by that organization. In the early 1980s ALDA flew everyone in the family to New Orleans where there was a big dinner to honor my folks at the Superdome. Ordinary people, extraordinary lives.

Alice Lockwood on our left, My Mom on our right. Probably somewhere in Brooklyn while my Dad was away …

My Mom’s mother was Carla Smith. Alice Lockwood was her mother’s sister. So Alice was my Mom’s aunt and my great aunt. Alice was married to Frank H. Lockwood, my Uncle Frank. (Does everyone have an Uncle Frank?) Alice Lockwood did not go by Alice. She always brought lollipops for the kids so she was called Lolla or Lol for short. As I believe I have mentioned here before, Lol and Frank had an instrumental role in my life. When I was 12 or 13 they would drive down from the Bronx, pick me up in Brooklyn, and drive to Keyport on the Jersey shore to visit her Mom, Amanda Smith. The trip always entailed several hours on line waiting to get on the Staten Island Ferry.

It was in Keyport that I developed an appreciation for nature in the form of bugs, butterflies, insect, frogs, toads, and snakes. The funniest thing is that I had zero interest in birds back then. If you had asked me about them, I would have stated that bird watching was for sissies. That while I was running around in Marine Park in short pants with a butterfly net and a collecting jar. Go figure.

Please understand that I am very much at peace with my Mom’s passing. She had been on a walker for seven years and was simply tired of it all. I would like to offer my love and condolences to my younger sister Arna, my older sister Ilene and her family, My two daughters and their families, and to all the grandkids and great grandkids as well. Hazel Morris will be missed but she and all of her good deeds will always be alive in our hearts and minds. Love you Mom.

Your son, Arthur Edward Morris

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

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

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

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

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 :).

What’s Up?

Huge thanks to the many who sent good wishes to me and my family on our recent loss both on the blog and via e-mail and Skype. I am flying back to Long Island late on Saturday to attend my Mom’s memorial service on Sunday afternoon. She will be buried alongside my Dad in San Diego some time next week.

If you would like to join my at Gatorland (see below for details) please try me on my cell phone on Friday: 863-221-2372. Please leave a message if no answer.

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: 21!

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, 21 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.

Desperately Seeking …

I am desperately seeking at least one photographer for the full day at Gatorland on Saturday. It is an amazing value. A single full day with private or practically private instruction with yours truly that includes two (2) three hour photo sessions as well as a long working lunch that includes image review and Photoshop sessions for only $275. There is nobody signed up yet for the full day on Saturday. One each of the previous two Saturdays I have had only a single student. Read on for the complete details.

Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up Sessions

Join me in Kissimmee, FL next weekend to photograph Great (with chicks in the nest) and Snowy Egrets in breeding plumage, Cattle Egret and Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage, Wood Stork, American Alligator (captive), and more. We should get to make lots of head portraits of all the bird species and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light techniques. All of the birds are free and wild.

Next Saturday’s Gatorland Schedule

Saturday April 8, morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10:30am: $100. Lunch and Image Review: $75. Saturday afternoon till closing (late stay): $100.

Catching Up On Wednesday’s Questions …

In response to why +1 with the ETTL flash, Guido Bee wrote in part “I wonder if the 1/400 sec. would invoke something like the high speed synch provisions of some other flash systems and make it beneficial to be adding the plus 1 to the flash.” I replied, “You are right on when you mention High Speed Synch. That reduces the flash output so I dialed the flash up to compensate for the loss of flash power and render the bird white.

The Better Beamer Question

Though many tried stating no Better Beamer to keep the BKGR dark or to prevent over-flashing the subject at close range, nobody came up with the #1 reason. Why no Better Beamer? To come up with the answer you need to look carefully at the situation … You can see this blog post here along with all of the comments and my responses.

This image was created with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 200mm) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +2 stops as framed: 1/60 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +2. Center Large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system activated a single AF point that was three AF points down and one to the right of the center AF point. What is it?

Three Simple Questions About Gecko Footprints …

#1: What is it?

#2: Do you like it?

#3: Either way, what do you like or dislike about the image?

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 deposit is due when you sign up. That leaves a balance of $4699. The next payment of $2699 will be due on September 15, 2016. The final payment of $2000 is due on February 15, 2017. 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 🙂

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

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

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

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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 :).