I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 388!
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, 388 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Living A Dream: Life as a Freelance Nature Photographer/Then…
The text below, written in 1996, is cut and pasted verbatim from the closing page of The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images on CD only).
Many people think that life as a professional nature photographer is a romantic one, and many dream of pursuing that existence themselves. As far as I am concerned, their dreams are justified. Since I walked away from my job as a 23-year veteran elementary school teacher in the New York City school system in 1992, I have been living a dream. I travel North America and the world photographing my favorite subjects, free and wild birds. Being out on a beautiful beach at dawn on a still morning with a big telephoto lens is heaven on earth to me. In recent years, I have made several trips to Alaska to photograph Coastal Brown Bear and to Kenya and Tanzania where I have grown to love photographing all manner of wildlife.
I have the respect of many thousands of folks, including many of my peers. John Shaw and Jim Brandenburg, two of my idols, are my friends. At times I am even recognized in an airport! My work is published regularly in a variety of media around the world. I meet many wonderful folks on my BIRDS AS ART/Instructional Photo-Tours and at weekend seminars and many of them have become close and dear friends. I have taught hundreds of folks to make better images and many of them have gone on to be published nationally. I am invited to speak at various events in the U.S. and more recently have been invited to speak at prestigious photographic conferences in Germany and Finland. In 2005 I keynoted at the NANPA Summit in Charlotte,
NC; the standing ovation that I received after my program was one of the great highlights of my life.
Since 1997 I have been a Canon contract photographer, one of the fifty-five original “Explorers of Light.” I did seven episodes of the Canon Photo Safari television program and was featured in an ad for the EOS-1n camera body that aired worldwide in several languages.
My fifty best friends are photographers. I love being outdoors and I love making great images. Heck, five of my images have been honored in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, and one of those was recently featured on the cover of “Light on the Earth,” a collection of the best images from the last 20 years of this prestigious contest. In recent years I have been invited to lead trips to some of the world’s great wildlife destinations, Galapagos and Antarctica. My travel and expenses are paid in full. What’s not to like?
I have an efficient, hard-working, well-paid staff of two. They make my life simple and easy. Because of their efforts, I get to spend more than 250 days a year on the road or in the field photographing. I am under no stress at all from my job. Oh, did I forget to mention that I am making more money than I could ever have dreamed of?
Yes, when I am home I put in long hours answering e-mails, writing, working on images, and planning new trips and projects. I often work 14 or more hours a day, but I totally love what I do. When I am teaching I work just as long and even harder. I have lunch and dinner with my groups in an effort to immerse them totally in the photographic experience, editing images at lunch and answering questions virtually non-stop. Evenings are consumed by educational slide programs and critiquing sessions. Many liken my IPTs to photographic boot camps. I do, however, take great pride in sending folks home happy and smarter with lots of great images.
Fact: 99% of the images that I send out for consideration are rejected. That’s what is. Accept it. Fact: image sales are down well more than 50% since 9-11. Photographers who used to be able to get by just selling images are having trouble unless they have expanded their business horizons. BIRDS AS ART has flourished by expanding our electronic publishing and mail order line and by doing more seminars, IPTs, and international Photo-Safaris and Cruises. The bottom line is that I love my job and would not trade it for any other. I am truly blessed.
Living A Dream: Life as a Freelance Nature Photographer/Now…
The text below is an updated version of the text that appeared originally in The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images on CD only). All changes are indicated in bold face.
Many people think that life as a professional nature photographer is a romantic one, and many dream of pursuing that existence themselves. As far as I am concerned, their dreams are justified. Since I walked away from my job as a 23-year veteran elementary school teacher in the New York City school system in 1992, I have been living a dream, traveling North America and the world photographing my favorite subjects, free and wild birds along with flowers and old buildings and bears and lots more. Heck, today enjoyment comes from photographing just about anything that catches my eye. Being out on a beautiful beach at dawn on a still morning with a big telephoto lens is heaven on earth to me. In recent years, I have made several trips to Alaska to photograph Coastal Brown Bear and to Kenya and Tanzania and Namibia where I have grown to love photographing all manner of wildlife.
I have the respect of many thousands of folks, including many of my peers. John Shaw and Jim Brandenburg, two of my idols, are my friends. At times I am even recognized in an airport! My work is now rarely published in a variety of media around the world as too many good photographers simply give their work away for free or for pennies. Many of the wonderful folks on my BIRDS AS ART/Instructional Photo-Tours and at weekend seminars have become close and dear friends. Through my books and the blog and BPNthousands of folks have learned to make better images and many of them have gone on to be published nationally and several have been honored in the world’s most prestigious international photographic competitions. In 2005 I keynoted at the NANPA Summit in Charlotte, NC; the standing ovation that followed was one of the great highlights of my life. Shortly after being named a NANPA Fellow about eight years ago (primarily because of my work with the high school and college scholarship students) I mysteriously became personna non grata at NANPA and remain a member today only to take advantage of the equipment insurance program.
Since 1997 I have been a Canon contract photographer, one of the fifty-five original “Explorers of Light.” I did seven episodes of the Canon Photo Safari television program and was featured in an ad for the EOS-1n camera body that aired worldwide in several languages. About three years ago I became a Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus…
Nearly all of my hundred best friends are photographers. I love being outdoors and I love making great images. Heck, eight of my images have been honored in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, and one of those was featured on the cover of “Light on the Earth,” a collection of the best images from the last 20 years of this prestigious contest. In most years during the past decade I have had one or two images honored in the now-prestigious Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice International Photography Awards Competition. And “Gannets in Love” won the Art in Nature category. A while back I was invited to lead trips to some of the world’s great wildlife destinations including the Galapagos and Antarctica. My travel and expenses were paid in full. I have now been leading my own trips to the Galapagos for about seven years. In two weeks I will be making my fifth trip to the Southern Oceans and spending 9+ weeks in South America, three of those doing land-based trips in The Falklands. What’s not to like?
BAA has an efficient, hard-working, well-paid staff of two. They make my life simple and easy. Because of their efforts, I get to spend more than 250 days a year on the road or in the field photographing. I am under no stress at all from my job. Oh, did I forget to mention that I am making more money than I could ever have dreamed of?
Yes, when I am home I put in long hours answering e-mails, writing, working on images, and planning new trips and projects. I often work 16 or more hours a day, but I totally love what I do. When I am teaching I work just as long and even harder. I have lunch and dinner with my groups in an effort to immerse them totally in the photographic experience, editing images at lunch and answering questions virtually non-stop. Afternoons are consumed by educational slide programs and critiquing sessions. Many liken my IPTs to photographic boot camps. I do, however, take great pride in sending folks home happy and smarter with lots of great images.
Fact: 99% of the images that I send out for consideration are rejected, and these days we do not send out many images at all; as above, stock sales are down across the board. That’s what is. Accept it. Fact: image sales are down well more than 90% here at BAA since 9-11. Photographers who used to be able to get by just selling images are having trouble unless they have expanded their business horizons. BIRDS AS ART has flourished by expanding our electronic publishing and mail order line and by doing more seminars, IPTs, and international Photo-Safaris and Cruises. The B&H affiliate program and the Used Photo Gear Page sales have helped immensely to keep us more than afloat. The bottom line is that I still love my job and would not trade it for any other. I am truly blessed.
Questions Welcome
If you have a question about the changes that have occurred over the past ten years, please leave it in the form of a comment below.
Images and card copyright Arthur Morris/BEARS AS ART 🙂
2017 Bear Boat Coastal Brown Bear Cubs IPTs: July 18-24, 2017 from Kodiak, AK: 5 FULL & 2 Half DAYS: $6699. Happy campers only! Maximum 8/Openings 3.
Join me in spectacular Katmai National Park, AK for six days of photographing Coastal Brown Bears. Mid-July is prime time for making images of small, football-sized cubs. The cubs, and these dates, are so popular that I had to reserve them three years in advance to secure them. There are lots of bears each year in June, but the mothers only rarely risk bringing their tiny cubs out in the open in fear of predation by rival bears. In addition to making portraits of both adults and cubs, we hope to photograph frolicking and squabbling youngsters and tender nursing scenes. At this time of year, the bears are either grazing in luxuriant grass or clamming. There will also be some two- and three-year old cubs to add to the fun. And we will get to photograph it all.
We will live on our tour operator’s luxurious new boat. At 78 feet long its 24 foot beam makes it quite spacious as well. And the food is great. We will likely spend most of our time at famed Geographic Harbor as that is where the bears are generally concentrated in summer. On the odd chance that we do need to relocate to another location we can do so quickly and easily without having to venture into any potentially rough seas. We land via a 25 foot skiff that has lots of room for as much gear as we can carry.
Aside from the bears we should get to photograph Horned and Tufted Puffin and should get nice stuff on Mew Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Harbor Seal, and Steller’s Sea Lion as well. A variety of tundra-nesting shorebirds including Western Sandpiper and both yellowlegs are also possible. Halibut fishing (license required/not included) is optional.
It is mandatory that you be in Kodiak no later than the late afternoon of July 17 to avoid missing the float planes to the boat on the morning of July 18. Again, with air travel in Alaska (or anywhere else for that matter) subject to possible delays, being on Kodiak on July 16 is a much better plan.
Barring any delays, we will get to photograph bears on our first afternoon and then again every day for the next five days after that, all weather permitting of course. On our last morning on the boat, July 24, those who would like to enjoy one last photo session will have the opportunity to do so. The group will return to Kodiak via float plane from late morning through midday. Most folks will then fly to Anchorage and to continue on red-eye flights to their home cities.
What’s included? 7 DAYS/6 NIGHTS on the boat as above. All meals on the boat. National Park and guide fees. In-the-field photo tips, instruction, and guidance. An insight into the mind of two top professionals; we will constantly let you know what we are thinking, what we are doing, and why we are 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. We hope that you can join us for what will be a wondrously exciting trip.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
We hope to be flying to The Falklands today and to Saunders Island tomorrow. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I hope that you enjoy this bonus blog post. I was able to put a hold on my Southwest Visa card until 28 DEC. I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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.
Center AF point only/AI Servo/Manual selection/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The center AF point missed the bird totally yet the image is razor sharp. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Imperial Cormorant
Never Give Up Bonus Bird Photo!
After our flight to The Falklands was cancelled, we were fortunate to get our checked bags, four hotel rooms, and a van to the hotel. After getting settled and having lunch, one of the participants was eager to get out and do some photography. So I hired a van and we headed to a local marsh recommended by my friend Walter Baliero Carluccio of Santiago. It sucked. Refusing to give up, we headed back towards town to the northernmost Imperial Cormorant nesting pier. The wind was strong and the direction almost perfect. Five of us stood on the beach for two hours and had a ton of fun.
It is remarkable on IPTs how often it pays to never give up …
The JPEG here represents the converted TIFF file; as you can see, the nesting pier was quite evident in the original capture.
Clone Stamp Clean-up Tip
After a fairly healthy crop that eliminated the two wooden pilings, I used the Clone Stamp Tool to eliminate the birds along the bottom frame edge. The Clone Stamp Tool often leaves a few lumps in its wake. Try this fix:
1-Duplicate the entire layer by hitting Control + J.
2- Apply a 50-80 pixel Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to the layer.
3- Add a Hide-All (Inverse or Black) Mask to the layer by holding down the Alt key and then hitting the Add layer mask icon. (It is the third from the left on the Layers palette.)
4- Hit B + D to paint in the effect where you need to smooth out the faint lumps, in this case, along the bottom from frame edge.
More 1DX II …
I have been using my 1DX Mark II more and more on the trip, especially in low light/high ISO situations and almost always for flight photography. It is hard to argue with the blazingly fast frame rate for flying birds and birds in action. Here you see that the image quality stood up just fine to a healthy crop. I will be using my two Canon EOS 5D Mark IV bodies much more on The Falklands.
Images and card copyright Arthur Morris/BEARS AS ART 🙂
2017 Bear Boat Coastal Brown Bear Cubs IPTs: July 18-24, 2017 from Kodiak, AK: 5 FULL & 2 Half DAYS: $6699. Happy campers only! Maximum 8/Openings 3.
Join me in spectacular Katmai National Park, AK for six days of photographing Coastal Brown Bears. Mid-July is prime time for making images of small, football-sized cubs. The cubs, and these dates, are so popular that I had to reserve them three years in advance to secure them. There are lots of bears each year in June, but the mothers only rarely risk bringing their tiny cubs out in the open in fear of predation by rival bears. In addition to making portraits of both adults and cubs, we hope to photograph frolicking and squabbling youngsters and tender nursing scenes. At this time of year, the bears are either grazing in luxuriant grass or clamming. There will also be some two- and three-year old cubs to add to the fun. And we will get to photograph it all.
We will live on our tour operator’s luxurious new boat. At 78 feet long its 24 foot beam makes it quite spacious as well. And the food is great. We will likely spend most of our time at famed Geographic Harbor as that is where the bears are generally concentrated in summer. On the odd chance that we do need to relocate to another location we can do so quickly and easily without having to venture into any potentially rough seas. We land via a 25 foot skiff that has lots of room for as much gear as we can carry.
Aside from the bears we should get to photograph Horned and Tufted Puffin and should get nice stuff on Mew Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Harbor Seal, and Steller’s Sea Lion as well. A variety of tundra-nesting shorebirds including Western Sandpiper and both yellowlegs are also possible. Halibut fishing (license required/not included) is optional.
It is mandatory that you be in Kodiak no later than the late afternoon of July 17 to avoid missing the float planes to the boat on the morning of July 18. Again, with air travel in Alaska (or anywhere else for that matter) subject to possible delays, being on Kodiak on July 16 is a much better plan.
Barring any delays, we will get to photograph bears on our first afternoon and then again every day for the next five days after that, all weather permitting of course. On our last morning on the boat, July 24, those who would like to enjoy one last photo session will have the opportunity to do so. The group will return to Kodiak via float plane from late morning through midday. Most folks will then fly to Anchorage and to continue on red-eye flights to their home cities.
What’s included? 7 DAYS/6 NIGHTS on the boat as above. All meals on the boat. National Park and guide fees. In-the-field photo tips, instruction, and guidance. An insight into the mind of two top professionals; we will constantly let you know what we are thinking, what we are doing, and why we are 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. We hope that you can join me for what will be a wondrously exciting trip.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I got out for some photography on Friday, October 14, mostly Peruvian Pelicans on the coast west of Santiago. It is Friday afternoon and I feel great. I fly with my group of three to the Falklands tomorrow for a week in land-based bird photography heaven. I did get a rain jacket and a pair of rain pants with a zipper fly! Talk about a big step up.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 387!
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, 387 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created at Vina del Mar, Chile on Friday, October 14, my first photo outing after the gall bladder surgery. I used the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stops as framed: 1/640 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB. Converted with Click WB on the neck.
I selected the AF point that was two rows above the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed and that AF point was of course active at the moment of exposure; see the DPP 4 Screen Capture below for more on the active AF point.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.
Peruvian Pelican landing
Square Landing Peruvian Pelican AF Miracle …
As I swung the lens to get on this incoming bird I realized the my chances for success were between slim and none and a lot closer to the latter. But hell, it’s digital so what the heck. Why likely failure?
1-Shutter speed too low.
2-Near impossible to get the AF point on the on the bird’s face.
3-Bird too big in the frame.
4-Proper framing would be next to impossible.
Anyway, like I said it’s digital and if you do not try in near-impossible situations, one thing is for sure: you’ll wind up with nothing.
Back at the Holiday Inn Airport Hotel I was pleasantly surprised when I viewed the image carefully: with some Eye Doctor Work on that very grey iris and a bit of juicing up, I thought that the image had potential. Note: I like the image for it sharpness and it humorous mood. The blurred and cut but not clipped wings do not bug me one iota.
Whaddya You Think?
Like it or hate it? What and why? I am fine either way, just be nice.
The DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
Converted the image in DPP 4 (as always). First thing that I did in Photoshop was the Eye Doctor work using Tim Grey Dodge and Burn at opacities of from 20-30%. Then applied my NIK 25/25 recipe to the whole image, applied a Hide-All Mask, and painted the effect back in on the bird. And then on the same layer I added some NeatImage NR on the bird only. Then a Contrast Mask on the face only and I was good to go.
In the screen capture note the almost perfect WHITE RGB values: 223, 223, 224 (on the neck). They ran a bit higher on the top of the head. Note also the near-square crop and the care taken to include only the upper part of the reflection (bottom center).
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
After a great 203 keeper day with the Inca Terns, Kelp Gulls, and Peruvian Pelicans yesterday, we flew from Santiago, Chile to Punta Arenas only to learn that the once a week Saturday flight to Stanley in The Falklands was cancelled due to high winds. Latam told everyone that they needed to fly back to Santiago, stay in a hotel at their cost, and fly back tomorrow. Never mind. We were able to grab our bags and are now having lunch in the very nice Los Navigantes Hotel in Punta Arenas. We are hoping that the flight to Stanley goes tomorrow …
Second Glitch
At best, I have misplaced my Southwest credit card. I paid for lunch with it in Vina del Mar yesterday but it was not in my wallet when we got to Punta Arenas. I am hoping that it might be in the pocket of the pants that I wore yesterday. But they are in the bag that I left in the Holiday Inn Santiago Airport … I am still up in the air on what to do. Suggestions welcome.
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 386!
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, 386 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.japan” width=800 />
This image was created at La Jolla, CA on my extended early spring 2016 visit with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 500 (tells you that is was dark!). Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/4 sec. at f/5 in Tv (Shutter priority) mode. Daylight WB (though do not ask me why).
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the Heerman’s Gull in the middle and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.
Brand’t Cormorants zoom blur
Necessity is the mother of invention, and of zoom blurs …
On the late afternoon that Patrick Sparkman ran into the “studio surfbirds,” we hung around the bridge club until after dark. Not sure why as it was too dark to photograph (at least in the traditional sense). But one of the things I love most about digital photography is that you are free to screw around and experiment. So when I saw the cormorants on the sandstone shelf, lit by the street lamps, I knew that creating a nice zoom blur or too just might be in the cards. Following the techniques for creating zoom blurs in A Guide to Pleasing Blurs to a tee, I got set up in Tv mode at a relatively low ISO (considering that it was already dark) and went to work. Patrick tried a few and had fun too.
As is often the case with blurs, I created lots of them and kept few, actually just one in this case. I like the relatively sharp Heerman’s Gull in the center, the degree of blurring, the greens of the seaweed, and the CYAN of the ocean. For this one I zoomed out from 400mm to 114mm during the 1/4 second exposure.
Et Vous?
Please leave a comment and let us know what you think of this image. Blur-haters are welcome 🙂
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 6)
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 385!
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, 385 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.japan” width=800 />
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF exactly as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Backlit Icicle
Relentless …
We arrived at the Monkey Park right on the button at 8:55am only to be told that the opening would be delayed a bit due to the fact that the Snow Monkeys were having too much fun higher up on the hill. Rather than sit around bitching at the bad luck, co-leader Paul McKenzie and I spotted some really neat icicles hanging from the eaves of the building right by the bathrooms and went to work. I added the 1.4X TC to help me isolate what I liked. It was a difficult situation as we were too low to get a decent background. So we moved a heavy bench and stood on it to get some extra height. As I remember it, Paul, much younger than I, stood atop the railing for a better angle. I was not going there but was still happy with today’s featured image.
What is the point of photographic relentlessness?
The point of the little tale above is that you should do your very best to make the best image possible in all situations. Some in the group took a few haphazard images without getting any higher (even though we offered to lend a hand in support). You do not want to tell me, “It was just a grab shot.” To me, that is disrespecting the process of photography. If an image is worth making, put your heart and soul and mind into it.
Whadda You Think?
Was the image worth it?
Consider joining me in Japan in February, 2017, for the world’s best Japan in Winter workshop. Click on the card to enjoy the spectacular larger version.
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy. Limit 8/Openings: 3.
Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!
All lodging including the Tokyo hotel on 9 FEB, all breakfasts & dinners, ground transport and transfers including bus to the monkey park hotel, and all entrance fees and in-country flights are included. Not included: international flights, all lunches–most are on the run, and alcoholic beverages.
Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.
This trip is one day longer than the great 2014 trip to allow for more flexibility, more time with the cranes, and most importantly, more time for landscape photography. Hokkaido is gorgeous. You will enjoy tons of pre-trip planning and gear advice, in-the-field instruction and guidance, at-the-lodge Photoshop and image review sessions in addition to short introductory slide programs for each of the amazing locations. Skilled photographer Paul McKenzie handles the logistics and we enjoy the services of Japan’s best wildlife photography guide whom I affectionately call “Hokkaido Bear.” His network of local contacts and his knowledge of the weather, the area, and the birds is unparalleled and enables him to have us in the best location every day.
Arrive Tokyo: 9 FEB 2017 the latest. 8 FEB is safer and gives you a day to get acclimated to the time change. Your hotel room for the night of the 9th is covered.
Bus Travel to Monkey Park Hotel: 10 FEB: A 1/2 DAY of monkey photography is likely depending on our travel time… This traditional hotel is first class all the way. Our stay includes three ten course Japanese dinners; these sumptuous meals will astound you and delight your taste buds. There are many traditional hot springs mineral baths (onsens) on site in this 150 year old hotel.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 11.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 12.
13 FEB: Full travel day to Hokkaido/arrive at our lodge in the late afternoon. The lodge is wonderful. All the rooms at the lodge have beds. Bring your warm pajamas. A local onsen (hot springs bath and tubs) is available for $5 each day before dinner–when you are cold, it is the best thing since sliced bread. The home-cooked Japanese styles meals at the lodge are to die for. What’s the best news? Only a small stand of woods separates us from the very best crane sanctuary. During one big snowstorm we were the only photo group to be able to get to Tsurui Ito; we had the whole place to ourselves in perfect conditions for crane photography!
FEB 14-23: Red-crowned Crane, raptors in flight, Whooper Swans, and scenic photography. Ural Owl possible. An overnight trip to Rausu for Steller’s Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle photography on the tourists boats is 100% dependent on the weather, road, and sea ice conditions. Only our trip offers complete flexibility in this area. It has saved us on more than once occasion. The cost of 2 eagle-boat trips is included. If the group would like to do more than two boat trips and we all agree, there will be an additional charge for the extra trip or trips. No matter the sea ice conditions, we will do two eagle boat trips (as long as we can make the drive to Rausu; it snows a lot up there). We have never been shut out.In 2016 there was no sea ice but our guide arranged for two amazingly productive boat trips.
Lodging notes: bring your long johns for sleeping in the lodge. At the Snow Monkey Park, and in Rausu, the hotel the rooms are Japanese-style. You sleep on comfortable mats on the floor. Wi-fi is available every day of the trip.
FEB 24. Fly back to Tokyo for transfer to your airport if you are flying home that night, or, to your hotel if you are overnighting. If you need to overnight, the cost of that room is on you.
Life is short. Hop on the merry-go-round.
To Sign Up
To save your spot, please send your $5,000 non-refundable deposit check made out to “Birds as Art” to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. I do hope that you can join me for this trip of a lifetime. Do e-mail with any questions or give me a buzz at 863-692-0906.
Purchasing travel insurance within 2 weeks of our cashing your deposit check is strongly recommended. On two fairly recent Galapagos cruises a total of 5 folks were forced to cancel less than one week prior to the trip. My family and I use Travel Insurance Services and strongly recommend that you do the same.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
After a slow start, we did well on the Condors today. We are at dinner now and will be getting up early and heading to the coast for Inca Tern and Peruvian Pelicans and more …
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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.
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. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange tab on the right side of the menu bar above.
Recent Sales
IPT veteran and good friend Mark Hardymon sold his used Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR lens in excellent condition for the by far BAA record low price of $5700 in late November.
IPT veteran Mark Overgaard sold his Canon EF600 f/4L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for $9,295 in mid-November.
IPT veteran Larry Master sold his Canon EF600 f/4L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for $9,295 in mid-November.
Bill Hill sold his like-new Canon EOS 5DS R for an incredibly low $2599 five minute after it was listed in early November.
Bob Serling sold his Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $4449 and his older, Canon EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens in excellent plus condition for the shock-the-world price of $2399 within a day or three of listing them here. Why? He wanted to sell them and listened to my pricing advice.
Multiple IPT veteran Larry Master sold his Canon EOS 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens in excellent condition for $549 to a private buyer.
Joseph Higbee sold a Canon EF 2X III Extender in excellent condition for $349 an hour after it was listed on September 26. Soon thereafter he sold a Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent condition for $1449 and a Canon EOS 7D in excellent condition for $299.
On one day in late September Steve Zarate sold his Canon EOS 7D camera in very good condition for a BAA record low price of $279 and his Canon EOS 7D II in excellent condition for a BAA record low price of $799.
Joe Alexander sold his Canon EF 100-400mm L IS USM lens in excellent plus condition for $599in late September when he also sold one of each of these: Canon EF 1.4x III and Canon EF 2x III Extender in excellent plus condition for $249 each within an hour of listing them. When he first contacted me he had them priced, way, way, way too low…
Yours truly, Arthur Morris, sold one of his two Canon EOS 5DS R bodies in excellent condition but for a very small, very fine sort of x-shaped crack in the upper-right corner of the top LCD screen, for $2549 in late September.
Ed Hutchinson sold his “old five,” the Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS USM lens in like-new condition for $3795 in late September.
New Listings
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
William B Ellison, Jr. is offering a used Canon EOS 5D Mark III in near mint condition for the BAA record-low price of $1497.
The sale includes the original box, the computer disks, the unused camera body strap, the front cap, and all the cables. The body has less than 10,000 actuations. The sale includes ground shipping to all US addresses by major courier. You camera will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact William via e-mail or by phone at 1-843-884-9595 (Eastern time zone).
I have used the 5D III for birds on occasion with excellent results, even with the 2X III TC and the 600 II. It was my go-to dSLR for flowers, landscapes, and Urbex photography for many years until I replaced it first with the 5DS R and then with the 5D Mark IV. In my experience, the quality of the image files is superb. . artie
Used Gear Sale Info on the Old Nikon 600
For about a year, the Used Gear Page had three Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR Lenses listed. One new in the box for $7,999, one in excellent condition for $6699, and one for $5999 (after a $1,000 price reduction in mid-September of this year. The latter finally sold for $5,700 about two weeks ago …
The question is “Why doesn’t this lens sell?” The older version of the Nikon 600, the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR lens, weighs 11.16 lbs. It is still in production and sells new at B&H for $9,394.00. The newer lighter version, the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens (designated by “E” rather than “G” after the f/4) weighs only 8.4 pounds but costs $12,296.95.
Here are my theories:
#1: As only serious well-heeled photographers are generally in the market for these weapons of mass destruction, they will opt for the lighter version regardless of the cost. Three plus pounds is a huge weight difference. Nikon was light-years behind Canon in reducing the weight of the various versions of their 600s. When they finally got around to it, they did it well: their latest version is actually lighter than the Canon 600mm f/4L IS II.
#2: Though I make it perfectly clear on a regular basis that good photographers make good images no matter the gear they use, many blog regulars use Canon gear and thus the majority of Used Gear Sales deal with the white stuff. None-the-less, we do sell most of the Nikon stuff that is listed though it generally takes a bit longer …
#3: In general Nikon folks think that their used gear is worth a lot more than it actually is and stubbornly resist listening to my pricing advice 🙂
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 384!
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, 384 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.japan” width=800 />
61-point Automatic Selection AF/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF; see the DPP 4 screen capture below for active AF point info. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Red-crowned Crane juvenile charging
Image Comments and Question
Here I love the young crane, the action pose, the soft light, and the sharpness of the face. And I like that the brown tones of the young crane’s neck pick up the brown tones of the background vegetations.
What is the single negative? Careful Nellie, there is only one, at least to my eye.
The DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
Note the crop, canvas added to the right, and the elimination of the extra crane.
The Huge AF Mystery …
This image is razor sharp on the eye. DPP 4 had AF points checked (Command J) under Preview. What is the big mystery?
Consider joining me in Japan in February, 2017, for the world’s best Japan in Winter workshop. Click on the card to enjoy the spectacular larger version.
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy. Limit 8/Openings: 3.
Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!
All lodging including the Tokyo hotel on 9 FEB, all breakfasts & dinners, ground transport and transfers including bus to the monkey park hotel, and all entrance fees and in-country flights are included. Not included: international flights, all lunches–most are on the run, and alcoholic beverages.
Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.
This trip is one day longer than the great 2014 trip to allow for more flexibility, more time with the cranes, and most importantly, more time for landscape photography. Hokkaido is gorgeous. You will enjoy tons of pre-trip planning and gear advice, in-the-field instruction and guidance, at-the-lodge Photoshop and image review sessions in addition to short introductory slide programs for each of the amazing locations. Skilled photographer Paul McKenzie handles the logistics and we enjoy the services of Japan’s best wildlife photography guide whom I affectionately call “Hokkaido Bear.” His network of local contacts and his knowledge of the weather, the area, and the birds is unparalleled and enables him to have us in the best location every day.
Arrive Tokyo: 9 FEB 2017 the latest. 8 FEB is safer and gives you a day to get acclimated to the time change. Your hotel room for the night of the 9th is covered.
Bus Travel to Monkey Park Hotel: 10 FEB: A 1/2 DAY of monkey photography is likely depending on our travel time… This traditional hotel is first class all the way. Our stay includes three ten course Japanese dinners; these sumptuous meals will astound you and delight your taste buds. There are many traditional hot springs mineral baths (onsens) on site in this 150 year old hotel.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 11.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 12.
13 FEB: Full travel day to Hokkaido/arrive at our lodge in the late afternoon. The lodge is wonderful. All the rooms at the lodge have beds. Bring your warm pajamas. A local onsen (hot springs bath and tubs) is available for $5 each day before dinner–when you are cold, it is the best thing since sliced bread. The home-cooked Japanese styles meals at the lodge are to die for. What’s the best news? Only a small stand of woods separates us from the very best crane sanctuary. During one big snowstorm we were the only photo group to be able to get to Tsurui Ito; we had the whole place to ourselves in perfect conditions for crane photography!
FEB 14-23: Red-crowned Crane, raptors in flight, Whooper Swans, and scenic photography. Ural Owl possible. An overnight trip to Rausu for Steller’s Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle photography on the tourists boats is 100% dependent on the weather, road, and sea ice conditions. Only our trip offers complete flexibility in this area. It has saved us on more than once occasion. The cost of 2 eagle-boat trips is included. If the group would like to do more than two boat trips and we all agree, there will be an additional charge for the extra trip or trips. No matter the sea ice conditions, we will do two eagle boat trips (as long as we can make the drive to Rausu; it snows a lot up there). We have never been shut out.In 2016 there was no sea ice but our guide arranged for two amazingly productive boat trips.
Lodging notes: bring your long johns for sleeping in the lodge. At the Snow Monkey Park, and in Rausu, the hotel the rooms are Japanese-style. You sleep on comfortable mats on the floor. Wi-fi is available every day of the trip.
FEB 24. Fly back to Tokyo for transfer to your airport if you are flying home that night, or, to your hotel if you are overnighting. If you need to overnight, the cost of that room is on you.
Life is short. Hop on the merry-go-round.
To Sign Up
To save your spot, please send your $5,000 non-refundable deposit check made out to “Birds as Art” to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. I do hope that you can join me for this trip of a lifetime. Do e-mail with any questions or give me a buzz at 863-692-0906.
Purchasing travel insurance within 2 weeks of our cashing your deposit check is strongly recommended. On two fairly recent Galapagos cruises a total of 5 folks were forced to cancel less than one week prior to the trip. My family and I use Travel Insurance Services and strongly recommend that you do the same.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I changed my Peru itinerary in order to get one last crack at some Inca Tern head portraits. Thanks to Miguel Jose Moran Moran (sorry, no typo) a good friend of my Santiago bird photography contact, Walter Baliero Carluccio, I made more than 1500 images on Tuesday, 29 NOV. And more than half of those were Inca Tern head portraits. I kept 274 images on the first go-round, most of those Inca Terns along with a nice selection of young Belcher’s Gulls, some Franklin’s Gulls, and a few Silver Gulls. I am in the Santiago hotel. Most of the Falklands land-based IPT group will be trying for Condors tomorrow morning and everyone will be along for the coastal photo trip on Friday morning–Peruvian Pelicans and yes, you guessed it, Inca Terns. On Saturday, we are off to Stanley for two weeks in bird photography heaven.
Inca Tern images to follow when I get home. And tons and tons more …
Finland IPT
Right now the Finland IPT is not only a go, it is pretty much sold out. That pending our ability to get the flights … Just three slots left on the Galapagos trip, three for Japan, and three for San Diego. See you there?
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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 Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 383!
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, 383 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the bird’s bill and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Japanese Red-crowned Crane in snow on ridge
More Simplicity, bordering on minimalism
Here is another simple image with the bird small in the frame. This one shows lots of habitat and lots of snowflakes. Motifs such as this can be very powerful. Again, be sure to get the subject well out of the center of the frame for best results. Behind the woods in this image is the lodge that we stay in for the Japan in Winter IPT. Join us and enjoy the snow.
A really tough ISO question …
Why ISO 200? Please be specific.
Consider joining me in Japan in February, 2017, for the world’s best Japan in Winter workshop. Click on the card to enjoy the spectacular larger version.
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy. Limit 8/Openings: 3.
Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!
All lodging including the Tokyo hotel on 9 FEB, all breakfasts & dinners, ground transport and transfers including bus to the monkey park hotel, and all entrance fees and in-country flights are included. Not included: international flights, all lunches–most are on the run, and alcoholic beverages.
Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.
This trip is one day longer than the great 2014 trip to allow for more flexibility, more time with the cranes, and most importantly, more time for landscape photography. Hokkaido is gorgeous. You will enjoy tons of pre-trip planning and gear advice, in-the-field instruction and guidance, at-the-lodge Photoshop and image review sessions in addition to short introductory slide programs for each of the amazing locations. Skilled photographer Paul McKenzie handles the logistics and we enjoy the services of Japan’s best wildlife photography guide whom I affectionately call “Hokkaido Bear.” His network of local contacts and his knowledge of the weather, the area, and the birds is unparalleled and enables him to have us in the best location every day.
Arrive Tokyo: 9 FEB 2017 the latest. 8 FEB is safer and gives you a day to get acclimated to the time change. Your hotel room for the night of the 9th is covered.
Bus Travel to Monkey Park Hotel: 10 FEB: A 1/2 DAY of monkey photography is likely depending on our travel time… This traditional hotel is first class all the way. Our stay includes three ten course Japanese dinners; these sumptuous meals will astound you and delight your taste buds. There are many traditional hot springs mineral baths (onsens) on site in this 150 year old hotel.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 11.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 12.
13 FEB: Full travel day to Hokkaido/arrive at our lodge in the late afternoon. The lodge is wonderful. All the rooms at the lodge have beds. Bring your warm pajamas. A local onsen (hot springs bath and tubs) is available for $5 each day before dinner–when you are cold, it is the best thing since sliced bread. The home-cooked Japanese styles meals at the lodge are to die for. What’s the best news? Only a small stand of woods separates us from the very best crane sanctuary. During one big snowstorm we were the only photo group to be able to get to Tsurui Ito; we had the whole place to ourselves in perfect conditions for crane photography!
FEB 14-23: Red-crowned Crane, raptors in flight, Whooper Swans, and scenic photography. Ural Owl possible. An overnight trip to Rausu for Steller’s Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle photography on the tourists boats is 100% dependent on the weather, road, and sea ice conditions. Only our trip offers complete flexibility in this area. It has saved us on more than once occasion. The cost of 2 eagle-boat trips is included. If the group would like to do more than two boat trips and we all agree, there will be an additional charge for the extra trip or trips. No matter the sea ice conditions, we will do two eagle boat trips (as long as we can make the drive to Rausu; it snows a lot up there). We have never been shut out.In 2016 there was no sea ice but our guide arranged for two amazingly productive boat trips.
Lodging notes: bring your long johns for sleeping in the lodge. At the Snow Monkey Park, and in Rausu, the hotel the rooms are Japanese-style. You sleep on comfortable mats on the floor. Wi-fi is available every day of the trip.
FEB 24. Fly back to Tokyo for transfer to your airport if you are flying home that night, or, to your hotel if you are overnighting. If you need to overnight, the cost of that room is on you.
Life is short. Hop on the merry-go-round.
To Sign Up
To save your spot, please send your $5,000 non-refundable deposit check made out to “Birds as Art” to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. I do hope that you can join me for this trip of a lifetime. Do e-mail with any questions or give me a buzz at 863-692-0906.
Purchasing travel insurance within 2 weeks of our cashing your deposit check is strongly recommended. On two fairly recent Galapagos cruises a total of 5 folks were forced to cancel less than one week prior to the trip. My family and I use Travel Insurance Services and strongly recommend that you do the same.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I am trying for Inca Tern today, my last gasp effort. I will have great internet access for the next few days and then it is off to the Falklands were I will be able to get online intermittently. For a price.
Looks like only two openings on the Galapagos Cruise so an interested couple should not tarry. And only three spots left for the San Diego IPT.
Please remember that if you are making a major camera and or lens purchase by using my B&H link, that it would really help me out if you purchase your Induro tripod using the link on the right side of each blog post page and if you visit the BAA Store to purchase the stuff that we carry. IAC, huge thanks.
and anything
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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 Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Image #1: Ruff, male displaying on lek. Image copyright and courtesy of Jari Peltomaki
The Finland May 2017 Lekking IPT
May 2 through 10, 2017. $8499 all inclusive but for airfare. Limit 5/openings 3.
I have dreamed of photographing Ruff in breeding plumage ever since I saw a few at a distance in Pedricktown Marsh near Philadelphia in the mid 1980s. Consider joining us in Finland in May to photograph Ruffs on the lek along with Black Grouse and Capercaillie, both on their leks. A lek is a dancing ground for various species of birds where the males strut and dance and show off for the ladies.
This trip likely needs four to run so two to go… If you are seriously interested you must act now or flights may become a problem. Please e-mail immediately to arrange your $4,000 non-refundable deposit.
Image #2: Black Grouse calling on frosty morning. Image copyright and courtesy of Olli Lamminsalo
The Itinerary
2 May Arrive Kuusamo, Finland
Transportation to Oivanki Lomakartano´s log villa, accommodation and lunch. After the lunch rest or afternoon photography session with Whooper Swans, Common Cranes and waterfowl from the shore hides by the lake. Return to the accommodation for dinner and a short briefing for the program for the following days.
3 May – Kuusamo – Black Grouse & Whooper Swans
Early morning photography session from the pro-hides at the Black Grouse lek site. 3am start from the accommodation and a 30 minutes drive to the hides. Black Grouse photography until the lek is over – normally by 8 o´clock, return to the accommodation for late breakfast between 9 and 10 am. On the way back there are chances for other Grouse species on the roadsides. Afternoon break for rest or independent photography near the accommodation from 10am to 5pm. Continue at 5pm, targeting again Whooper Swans, Cranes and waterfowl from the hides in the afternoon (or owls if they are available).
Image #3: Capercaillie–female and displaying male. Image copyright and courtesy of Olli Lamminsalo
4 May – Kuusamo – Black Grouse and to the Capercaillie hides
Early morning photography session from the pro-hides at the Black Grouse lek site. 3am start from the accommodation and a 30 minutes drive to the hides. Black Grouse photography until the lek is over – normally by 8 o´clock, return to the accommodation for late breakfast between 9 and 10 am. On the way back there are chances for other Grouse species on the roadsides. Afternoon break for rest or independent photography near the accommodation from10am to 5pm. Dinner at 5pm and after that we head to the Capercaillie hides (blinds) where we will spend the night in very warm sleeping bags.
Image #4: Capercaillie. Image copyright and courtesy of Olli Lamminsalo
5 May – Kuusamo – Capercaillie
Early morning photography at the Capercaillie hides. Returning to the accommodation for breakfast. Afternoon break for rest or independent photography near the accommodation from10am to 5pm. Dinner at 5pm and after that heading back to the Capercaillie hides. Staying in the hides overnight.
6 May – Kuusamo
Early morning photography at the Capercaillie hides. Return to the accommodation for
breakfast. Check-out from accommodation and departure to Oulu (3 hours drive). Check-in to the accommodation in Oulu and lunch. Break in the middle of the day. Dinner. Ruff photography from either the lek site hides or feeding site hides in the evening – from 6 pm until 10 pm.
Image #5: Black Ruff, male feeding. Image copyright and courtesy of Jari Peltomaki
7 May – Oulu – lekking and feeding Ruffs
Early morning photography session from the pro-hides at the Ruff lek / feeding site. 3am start from the accommodation and a 30 minutes drive to the hides. Ruff photography until the lek will slow down – normally by 8 o´clock, return to the accommodation for late breakfast between 9-10 am. Afternoon break for rest or independent photography near the accommodation from 10am to5pm. After dinner Ruff photography from either the lek site hides or feeding site hides in the evening – from 6 pm until 10 pm.
8 May – Oulu – lekking and feeding Ruffs
Early morning photography session from the pro-hides at the Ruff lek / feeding site. 3am start from the accommodation and a 30 minutes drive to the hides. Ruff photography until the lek will slow down – normally by 8 o´clock, return to the accommodation for late breakfast between 9-10 am. Afternoon break for rest or independent photography near the accommodation from 10am to5pm. After dinner Ruff photography from either the lek site hides or feeding site hides in the evening – from 6 pm until 10 pm.
Image #6: Black and gold Ruff, male landing near two females. Image copyright and courtesy of Jari Peltomaki
9 May – Oulu – lekking and feeding Ruffs
Early morning photography session from the pro-hides at the Ruff lek / feeding site. 3am start from the accommodation and a 30 minutes drive to the hides. Ruff photography until the lek will slow down – normally by 8 o´clock, return to the accommodation for late breakfast between 9-10 am. Afternoon break for rest or independent photography near the accommodation from 10am to5pm. After dinner Ruff photography from either the lek site hides or feeding site hides in the evening – from 6 pm until 10 pm.
Image #7: Ruff, males battling on lek. Image copyright and courtesy of Jari Peltomaki
10- May – Oulu – lekking and feeding Ruffs
One more early morning photography session at the Ruff lek site / feeding site. Breakfast between 9-10am. Check-out from the hotel and transportation to Oulu airport for your flight.
The Finland May 2017 Lekking IPT
May 2 through 10, 2017. $8499 all inclusive but for airfare. Limit 5/openings 3.
The price of this trip includes land transportation and transfers in Finland (Kuusamo-Oulu), clean and comfortable accommodation for 8 nights, all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), use of photography hides (blinds), and professional Finnish guides throughout the tour.
Please notice that you would need to book your flights to arrive in Kuusamo and depart from Oulu.
The organizer recommends Finnair flights. Airfare when I last checked was a more than reasonable: $1029. I have a great travel agent. If you are at all interested please get in touch via e-mail immediately or this trip will likely go down the tubes…
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 382!
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, 382 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created on a cloudy morning at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) and the EOS-1DX, now replaced by the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 1250. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/5.6. AWB converted at 6800 K.
I selected an AF point that was three to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed (see the DPP 4 screen capture below) that was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Brown Pelican: Simplicity Simplified
Simplicity Simplified: When is a nothing image no longer a nothing image?
This image could not be simpler: pelican, sandstone cliff ledge, Pacific Ocean. The number one key to success with nearly all such images is to get the bird in a corner of the frame. I could have gotten closer, I could have gone to a bigger lens, but I just love the subject size here and the placement in the frame. I always find the CYAN tones in the blue Pacific to be a challenge on cloudy days. I am pretty happy with how they look here. I would ask what you think but with few folks working with properly color corrected monitors and even those varying to some degree that would be pretty much pointless. In addition here, I love the subject to film plane orientation of about 35 degrees.
This is the DPP 4 screen capture for today’s featured image
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
Note that even with +1 stop EC that this image was a bit under. After adding an additional 1/3 stop of light the RGB values show 240, 236, 226, a bit warm in spite of my having pulled the color Fine Tune control a bit toward BLUE. But it works for me here better than a completely neutral version. Note the selected AF point on the base of the bill just below and forward of the eye; it is amazing how rarely I get the active AF point right on the subject’s eye. As always, it is vitally important to keep the AF point active when hand holding to avoid throwing off focus with your breathing or body movement …
Learn how and why I and Arash and hundreds of other top Canon professionals use DPP 4 to convert their RAW files in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide. The slight crop from the left and below and the sandstone clean-up work as per the Digital Basics File.
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 8)
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 381!
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, 381 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Straightforward Image Questions
1-Which image features the best exposure?
2-Which head angle do you like best?
3-Which image design do you like best and why?
4-Which single image would you choose to optimize, i.e., which do you think is the best overall? Why?
This easily hand holdable combination is deadly on the cliffs of La Jolla where you can create an amazing variety of images of the pelicans, gull, and cormorant ranging from 100mm habitat images to both horizontal and vertical portraits of all three families to tight detail shots showing the incredible textures and colors on the pelican’s bill pouches. Vertical head and shoulders portraits like the three featured above are a snap. With all three, 61-point Automatic Selection AF did quite nicely by activating AF points that fell on or near the bird’s eye or face. It is important to remember to begin AF with the middle of the AF area on the bird’s face and then re-compose downward. With what I have learned recently Upper Large Zone AF would be ideal in similar situations. Lastly hand holding the 100-400II gives you at least a chance to create some spectacular head throw images. On my two San Diego trips last year I used the 100-400II to create about 60% of the images that I made. Not to mention that with the nice weather (and light) adding a 1.4X TC is an extremely viable option (though the birds are so tame that it is not often needed).
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 8)
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 380!
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, 380 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
I selected the AF point that was one below the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF. AF was active at the moment of exposure and as originally framed, the selected AF point was on the edge of the bird’s breast below the eye. LensAlign FocusTune AF micro-adjustment: -5.
Roseate Spoonbill foraging
As noted in the blog post here, we were having a tough time finding anything to photograph on the morning of Friday, September 30. But as we pulled into my fifth possible, last resort back-up location, I spotted this spoonbill well to the left in the shadow of a stand of trees. I saw that he was headed toward the big opening. I alerted everyone and urged them to get ready as soon possible. They did. “Follow me” I led them around a huge horse trailer where about eight beautiful drum horses were being fed. (I did not know what type of horses they were so I asked the lady in charge. You can learn more here.) Once we got past the trailer we were hidden in part by the row of trees. The bird was still moving right. Within a minute of the whole group being ready the spoonie walked out into the beautiful blue, sunlit water. Pink and blue go very nicely together.
When the bird moved back left, we moved left, got ahead of the bird, found an opening in the trees, adjusted our exposures for the shade–remember that the camera meters are stupid in the shade with scenes that average to a light tone and smart when the sun is out at full strength pretty much with or without a blue water background. After ten minutes the bird simply departed. Then we spent an hour with the beautiful young Great Egret featured in the aforementioned blog post. But it was the spoonbill that changed the tide for us and opened up the spoonbill flood gate for the group you should have seen some pretty good ones here on the blog by this time.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10. I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, 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 🙂
The last segment of my Peruvian adventure has provided some excellent photography, mostly with perched hummingbirds. Things peaked today on the morning of Sunday, November 27, 2016 when I created 838 images in 17 minutes and 26 seconds. All of the same bird–Marvelous Spatuletail–on the same perch. It is a very rare bird and good photographs of this species are rare at best. With limited internet access here at Abra Patricia Owlet Lodge, I have been unable to find out about how many pairs there are of this Peruvian endemic. If you know or can find out, please do share. Oh, by the way: I kept 257 of the 838 images on the first round of editing. Photos after I get home.
I fly back to Lima tomorrow and plan on spending Tuesday looking for some tame Inca Terns with a local guide. I fly back to Santiago, Chile on Wednesday 30 NOV to meet my 2-Week Land-based Falklands IPT group. I will be staying an extra week in the Falklands and finally getting home late on 25 DEC. Note: two years out, it looks as if four of the eight slots on the 2018/2019 Cheap Land-based Falklands IPT are filled … And best of all, the Galapagos Photo Expedition is nearly sold out. Desperately seeking a few more folks for Japan and San Diego. Please e-mail if you are seriously interested.
Today I am feeling as good as I have felt since my gall bladder surgery on Thursday October 6, 2016. As my late Dad often said, “Who’d a thunk it?”
later and much love, artie
ps: I should have halfway decent internet access for the next few days at least.
Speed Kills
In the low light, high ISO situation, I will give you six guesses as to which camera body I used to photograph the spatuletail. I used the 500 II with the 1.4X III TC.
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 379!
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, 379 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created on my pre-IPT scouting trip to Fort DeSoto County Park on the early morning of Friday, September 24, 2016 with my favorite-ever camera body, the amazing new Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering + 2/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/10. Daylight WB.
Center Zone/AI Servo AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. See the weird AF situation with this image in the DPP 4 screen capture below.
Reddish Egret/white morph foraging
Another Very Tame Bird for This Quiz
1-Was I handholding or on a tripod when I created this image?
2-What focal length do you think that I used to create this image?
Clues: the incredible detail, and the fact that there is a bit of wave detail in the background…
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
Note the perfect histogram and that I moved the Color Fine Tune point 3.5 units toward blue. Why does the histogram show more red and less blue? Because of the sweet (warm) early morning light.
I remember the active AF points (or point) dancing around nicely on the egret’s face and the base of the bill. But the illuminated square shows the AF point that was active at the moment of exposure completely missed any part of the subject; thus, it makes little sense that the image is so incredibly sharp. This might be due in part as a result of my Custom Case 3 settings for the 5D Mark IV. As many of you who already own one of our Canon Camera User’s Guides already know, I create my own Custom Case using Canon’s Case 3 as that one makes the least sense to me for bird photography. I set the all-important Tracking Sensitivity as I do for all of my Canon bodies. As for the second two items, Accel./decel. tracking and AF pt auto switching I have been experimenting with various settings that are different from my old standby settings that I used previously. If you have already or will be purchasing my favorite-ever camera body, the amazing new Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, shoot me your B&H receipt and I will be glad to share my thoughts with you once I see that I have gotten the credit. I just might write a 5D Mark IV User’s Guide as this body is going to take bird, wildlife, and even sports photography by storm…
A 100% crop
A 100% Crop
Note the incredibly sharp pupil and the smooth as a baby’s tush background. I applied a wee bit of NeatImage noise reduction (40 on the Y slider after creating the profile) to this image as with the dark blue water necessarily a bit more than a stop underexposed (to protect the bright WHITEs) there was a bit of structure there. Not much, just a bit.
The 5D Mark IV and Bears…
With some many bears having dark fur, the 5D IV would seem to be the best-ever bear boat camera body… I will, however, have to wait a while to experience that. Scroll down
Images and card copyright Arthur Morris/BEARS AS ART 🙂
2017 Bear Boat Coastal Brown Bear Cubs IPTs: July 18-24, 2017 from Kodiak, AK: 5 FULL & 2 Half DAYS: $6699. Happy campers only! Maximum 8/Openings 3.
Join me in spectacular Katmai National Park, AK for six days of photographing Coastal Brown Bears. Mid-July is prime time for making images of small, football-sized cubs. The cubs, and these dates, are so popular that I had to reserve them three years in advance to secure them. There are lots of bears each year in June, but the mothers only rarely risk bringing their tiny cubs out in the open in fear of predation by rival bears. In addition to making portraits of both adults and cubs, we hope to photograph frolicking and squabbling youngsters and tender nursing scenes. At this time of year, the bears are either grazing in luxuriant grass or clamming. There will also be some two- and three-year old cubs to add to the fun. And we will get to photograph it all.
We will live on our tour operator’s luxurious new boat. At 78 feet long its 24 foot beam makes it quite spacious as well. And the food is great. We will likely spend most of our time at famed Geographic Harbor as that is where the bears are generally concentrated in summer. On the odd chance that we do need to relocate to another location we can do so quickly and easily without having to venture into any potentially rough seas. We land via a 25 foot skiff that has lots of room for as much gear as we can carry.
Aside from the bears we should get to photograph Horned and Tufted Puffin and should get nice stuff on Mew Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Harbor Seal, and Steller’s Sea Lion as well. A variety of tundra-nesting shorebirds including Western Sandpiper and both yellowlegs are also possible. Halibut fishing (license required/not included) is optional.
It is mandatory that you be in Kodiak no later than the late afternoon of July 17 to avoid missing the float planes to the boat on the morning of July 18. Again, with air travel in Alaska (or anywhere else for that matter) subject to possible delays, being on Kodiak on July 16 is a much better plan.
Barring any delays, we will get to photograph bears on our first afternoon and then again every day for the next five days after that, all weather permitting of course. On our last morning on the boat, July 24, those who would like to enjoy one last photo session will have the opportunity to do so. The group will return to Kodiak via float plane from late morning through midday. Most folks will then fly to Anchorage and to continue on red-eye flights to their home cities.
What’s included? 7 DAYS/6 NIGHTS on the boat as above. All meals on the boat. National Park and guide fees. In-the-field photo tips, instruction, and guidance. An insight into the mind of two top professionals; we will constantly let you know what we are thinking, what we are doing, and why we are 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. We hope that you can join me for what will be a wondrously exciting trip.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 378!
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,378 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
AF Large Zone shutter button AF. To see the active AF points, see the blog post here.
Image #1: Great Blue Heron with Pinfish
Pinfish City!
When we first saw the bird with the handsome Pinfish it was standing in front of the spit; the backgrounds were an unfortunate combination of mud, water, and grass. I created lots of images but was not thrilled with any of them. As we all got closer, we were able to come up with a more pleasing all blue water background.
It the blog post here, this image was shown with the AF points and the subject in the middle of the frame. I wrote, With which one of today’s three images should I have chosen the left Large Zone zone rather than the center Large Zone zone? Why? I wondered for a few weeks why nobody came up with what seemed to me like the very simple answer correct answer. But while preparing this blog post for the queue I noted with much chagrin that I mixed up my right from my left 🙁 My bad. I wanted to ask this: With which one of today’s three images should I have chosen the right Large Zone zone rather than the center Large Zone zone? Why?
I am pretty sure that many of you would have answered: To move the bird in Image #1 to the right side of the frame with lots of room to see out of the frame. Well done! And sorry for the screw up.
After converting the RAW file in DPP 4, I moved the bird to our right in the frame during post processing in Photoshop using techniques from APTATS I and II. Learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
AF Large Zone shutter button AF. To see the active AF points, see the blog post here.
Image #1: Great Blue Heron with Pinfish
My Favorite
Above is my favorite image from the 2016 Fort DeSoto Fall IPT. It is the one I envisioned as soon as I saw the bird catch the big old fish.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (Meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10. I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of April 22, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of April 22, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have relatively decent internet access for all but 22 OCT thru 11 NOV while I am on the Sea Spirit. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending IPTs and dozens of the 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: 377!
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, 377 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Amazing Black Friday Canon deals here. Save up to $500!
Amazing Black Friday Nikon deals here. Save up to $900!
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed (see the DPP 4 screen capture below) was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point totally missed the birds head but the right assist point might have grabbed the eagle’s bill. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Stellar’s Sea-Eagle adult in flight: full downstroke
100-400 II for Flight Photography
In situations where the birds in flight are relatively close, the 100-400 II can be a deadly effective flight photography lens. A bit of light helps so that you can achieve fast enough shutter speeds for flight. Most folks will not go lower than 1/1600 sec. I will and in the same vein, I have no concern as to depth of field with flight photography as wide open will suffice 99% of the time If need be, you can go to a higher ISO. If you own a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II DSLR you do not have to worry a lot about high ISO performance.
The 100-400 II is light enough for most folks to hand hold and gives you the ability to zoom out for birds flying at you and getting bigger in the frame. My strategy in those situation is to estimate the zoomed out setting rather than to zoom out slowly with AF tracking. Say I am at 400mm as the bird is flying at me; I try to estimate the flight path and the speed and twist zoom out to say 200mm. Then I acquire focus and track the bird until it once again fills at least half the frame. That, in theory at least, is what I try to do.
DPP4 Single Image Display Screen Capture
DPP4 Single Image Display Screen Capture
Even though the selected AF point was not on the bird’s head, the AF system did not grab the background, possibly due in part to the Custom Case AF settings detailed in all of my Camera Body Guides. Note that the 1DX AF Guide will help 1DX II folks and that the 5D Mark II User’s Guide will do the same for 5DS R and 5D Mark IV folks.
It is likely that the right-hand assist point helped the AF system maintain tracking. In any case, the resulting image was pretty sharp on the eye.
A Question About the WHITEs
Note the almost pure white RGB values; 242, 244, 244. I usually prefer my whites in the mid-230s. Why did I push them into the mid-240s here?
5DS R AF & IQ Capabilities
The AF system of the 5DS R is much underrated. It performs superbly. And with the cropping freedom that comes with the amazing 5DS R image size and quality you can work wider than you typically would for flight photography. This allows the AF system to acquire faster and track more accurately. You can see the crop by comparing the optimized image that opens this blog post with the screen capture. I would call it a healthy crop, yet the sharpness and image quality of the optimized version are both top notch.
Consider joining me in Japan in February, 2017, for the world’s best Japan in Winter workshop. Click on the card to enjoy the spectacular larger version.
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy. Limit 8/Openings: 3.
Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!
All lodging including the Tokyo hotel on 9 FEB, all breakfasts & dinners, ground transport and transfers including bus to the monkey park hotel, and all entrance fees and in-country flights are included. Not included: international flights, all lunches–most are on the run, and alcoholic beverages.
Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.
This trip is one day longer than the great 2014 trip to allow for more flexibility, more time with the cranes, and most importantly, more time for landscape photography. Hokkaido is gorgeous. You will enjoy tons of pre-trip planning and gear advice, in-the-field instruction and guidance, at-the-lodge Photoshop and image review sessions in addition to short introductory slide programs for each of the amazing locations. Skilled photographer Paul McKenzie handles the logistics and we enjoy the services of Japan’s best wildlife photography guide whom I affectionately call “Hokkaido Bear.” His network of local contacts and his knowledge of the weather, the area, and the birds is unparalleled and enables him to have us in the best location every day.
Arrive Tokyo: 9 FEB 2017 the latest. 8 FEB is safer and gives you a day to get acclimated to the time change. Your hotel room for the night of the 9th is covered.
Bus Travel to Monkey Park Hotel: 10 FEB: A 1/2 DAY of monkey photography is likely depending on our travel time… This traditional hotel is first class all the way. Our stay includes three ten course Japanese dinners; these sumptuous meals will astound you and delight your taste buds. There are many traditional hot springs mineral baths (onsens) on site in this 150 year old hotel.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 11.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 12.
13 FEB: Full travel day to Hokkaido/arrive at our lodge in the late afternoon. The lodge is wonderful. All the rooms at the lodge have beds. Bring your warm pajamas. A local onsen (hot springs bath and tubs) is available for $5 each day before dinner–when you are cold, it is the best thing since sliced bread. The home-cooked Japanese styles meals at the lodge are to die for. What’s the best news? Only a small stand of woods separates us from the very best crane sanctuary. During one big snowstorm we were the only photo group to be able to get to Tsurui Ito; we had the whole place to ourselves in perfect conditions for crane photography!
FEB 14-23: Red-crowned Crane, raptors in flight, Whooper Swans, and scenic photography. Ural Owl possible. An overnight trip to Rausu for Steller’s Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle photography on the tourists boats is 100% dependent on the weather, road, and sea ice conditions. Only our trip offers complete flexibility in this area. It has saved us on more than once occasion. The cost of 2 eagle-boat trips is included. If the group would like to do more than two boat trips and we all agree, there will be an additional charge for the extra trip or trips. No matter the sea ice conditions, we will do two eagle boat trips (as long as we can make the drive to Rausu; it snows a lot up there). We have never been shut out.In 2016 there was no sea ice but our guide arranged for two amazingly productive boat trips.
Lodging notes: bring your long johns for sleeping in the lodge. At the Snow Monkey Park, and in Rausu, the hotel the rooms are Japanese-style. You sleep on comfortable mats on the floor. Wi-fi is available every day of the trip.
FEB 24. Fly back to Tokyo for transfer to your airport if you are flying home that night, or, to your hotel if you are overnighting. If you need to overnight, the cost of that room is on you.
Life is short. Hop on the merry-go-round.
To Sign Up
To save your spot, please send your $5,000 non-refundable deposit check made out to “Birds as Art” to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. I do hope that you can join me for this trip of a lifetime. Do e-mail with any questions or give me a buzz at 863-692-0906.
Purchasing travel insurance within 2 weeks of our cashing your deposit check is strongly recommended. On two fairly recent Galapagos cruises a total of 5 folks were forced to cancel less than one week prior to the trip. My family and I use Travel Insurance Services and strongly recommend that you do the same.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, 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 🙂
Amazing Black Friday Canon deals here. Save up to $500!
Amazing Black Friday Nikon deals here. Save up to $900!
Altitude Sickness and More!
I am enjoying a short break in Lima, Peru. Tomorrow I head up north for a few days and return to Lima on 28 NOV for some R&R. I fly to Santiago Chile on 30 NOV to meet the 2-Week Land-based Falklands IPT group. I will be staying an extra week in the Falklands and finally getting home late on 25 DEC. Note: two years out, it looks as if four of the eight slots on the 2018/2019 Cheap Land-based Falklands IPT are filled …
I have enjoyed some very good photography in spots–can you say Cock-of-the-Rock?–but on the whole the trip has not been as advertised and the travel has been taxing. On my first trip over the Andes (14,000 feet) I made the mistake of getting out at the top and chasing a few birds. I spent most of the night staring at the ceiling with a headache and some nausea. Did I mention that the temperate in my cabin was 49 degrees? And that there was no heat?
On the return trip today I did nothing but sit in the van as we made our way back over the Andes again at more than 4,000 meters. I was feeling weak, nauseous, and dizzy. With a headache. When we got to Cusco I asked about getting some oxygen. We stopped by somebody’s office and pick up a can of O2. It was the best $12 I ever spent; after three deep breaths I started feeling better. Tonight in Lima I am feeling great. And yes, my third cold is finally gone. Hopefully for good.
Between South Georgia and Peru, I have about a zillion new blogs posts done in my head (with several dozen images already optimized). I look forward to sharing lots of great images and lessons with you right after X-mas.
I got online briefly on the evening of WED 23 NOV. As I fly to Tarapoto early tomorrow I will not have time to answer many of them but will do so offline and surely get to send them when I return to Lima on the late afternoon of 28 NOV.
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 376!
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, 376 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-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 new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
I selected the AF point that was two rows up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). See the screen capture below for the placement of the selected AF point. This image was cropped a bit from above, the left, and below.
Laughing Gull preening tiny feather
Look Ma! No Eyes. Does this one work for you?
Most images of birds and wildlife that do not feature eye contact with the subject are usually not very successful. But there are exceptions. I love this one for a variety of reasons:
1- The low perspective always adds intimacy. And in decent light the colors always look more luscious to me as compared to images made from a higher perspective. Or maybe it is just that the backgrounds are more distant and thus cleaner…
2- I love that the bird is grabbing the tiny father with such care. That adds more intimacy.
3- I love the diagonal of the bill and the line of the head and the neat shape formed by the bill and the neck and the feathers the bird has grabbed.
4- I like the swirly little dark blue wave right at the level of the feet. The more indistinct wave through the upper legs–not so much…
5- The distant azure blue sky and cyan toned water background in the upper half of the image really sing to me.
6- I think it’s neat that new tail feathers are growing in as the bird is molting into basic plumage.
Does this image work for you?
Does this image work for you? Please leave a comment and let us know what you like or don’t like.
DPP 4 RAW Conversion Screen Capture
DPP 4 RAW Conversion Screen Capture
The histogram in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion screen capture shows that the exposure was right on with some data from two of the three color channels well into the fifth box. With the early morning light there was lots of RED in the WHITEs. I toned that down by reducing the Color Temperature to 4400 and by moving the color Focus Tune control diagonally away from RED. As noted here many times before, the ability to select any AF point and any AF Area Selection mode when working at f/8 is a Godsend with both the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II/a> and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.
Side by Side DPP 4 Active AF Point Comparison
For the horizontal image here on the left, Image #2, I used AF Expand as shown and tried to get the selected AF point right on the bird’s eye. Even when the bird is standing completely still it is not that easy when hand holding at 800mm. Being on a tripod would have been a lot smarter. With Image #1, on the right here, I went with 61-Point with excellent results. Note that the AF system activated a cluster of AF points just forward of and below the eye and tracked the subject perfectly. Actually, I was moving a lot more than the bird; that is why you must use AI Servo AF with static subjects when hand holding…
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are 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 we, 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 🙂
