No shock: even though I was glad to get the prep-work and the Event Space programs completed successfully, I still had tons to do on Friday. Putting the two programs together in Keynote–thanks again to Bug Bob Allen for his help there–took well more than 20 hours… The price of exposure. As things stand, I am miles behind on e-mails including lots of important Used Gear stuff. I hope to do some catching up on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 275 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
“Port In The Storm” Costa’s Hummingbird (Scratchboard and Ink)
Courtesy of and copyright Cathy Sheeter
The Amazing Scratchboard Fine Art of Cathy Sheeter
I met Cathy when she joined me for a morning at Nickerson Beach about two weeks ago along with her friend, IPT veteran Andrae Kipin Acerra. During our brunch and image review session Cathy shared some of her work with me on her phone. I was totally floored. Many thanks to Cathy for allowing me to share just a few of my favorites of her work here. You can see lots more on Cathy’s website here.
Note: Cathy uses her photographs as reference material for her amazing artwork.
“The Naturalist” Gray Wolf (Scratchboard and Ink)
Courtesy of and copyright Cathy Sheeter
About Scratchboard Art
from Cathy’s website
Scratchboard art is a form of direct engraving. The panel starts out solid black and then the artist scratches to expose a layer of white clay under black ink. The working surface is a three layer medium made up of a 1/8″ masonite panel as a support (for ampersand scratchbord, which is what Cathy works on; the support may be different in other brands). The support is covered with smooth white clay followed by a thin layer of black India ink, leaving a solid black panel to start with. The artist then uses various tools to scratch through the black ink and reveal the white clay below. Every line, dot and dimple is created by hand all with lines and dots and variation in tone and value are based on how many lines are scratched in a particular area or how much of the white clay that your eye sees. Colored inks can be added to the exposed white areas of the work if desired or the board can be left black and white. Large and complex pieces can take hundreds of hours to be completed due to the many layers of tiny scratches that cover the board.
Is Scratchboard Archival?
The black ink used to create ampersand scratchboard (the type of board I work on) is carbon based and as a result of the natural properties of carbon, it is very resistant to fading from natural sunlight. For additional protection once a piece is completed it is also coated with a UV-resistant spray that adds extra protection to the work and prevents it from being easily damaged. Cathy work is also typically framed behind museum glass (except if shipped to shows where it may be behind plexi-glass for safer transport), which filters out 99% of harmful UV rays. If treated with care, you can feel comfortable that any scratchboard artwork that you purchase created by Cathy is created with top of the line materials. You can buy with confidence that you will be able to pass on Cathy’s artwork to the next generations and it will look as good in the future as it did the day you bought it!
“Shirley the Baby Squirrel” (Scratchboard and Ink)
Courtesy of and copyright Cathy Sheeter
Why have I not heard about Scratchboard Art before?
While scratchboard has been around for many years it has never been highly popular. It is considered by many artists to be one of the most difficult of all mediums, as you can not take an eraser and fix a mistake. It can also be a very time consuming medium, as every line is done by hand and larger works can take hundreds of hours to be completed.
What tools are used for creating scratchboard art?
Scratchboard artists use a wide variety of tools to create different textures in the artwork. The primary tool is usually a standard craft knife or scalpel for line work and can be as varied as using sandpaper, steel wool and fiberglass brushes for various other effects. Most artists spend many hours on their work as all textures are created using only scratches! For a more in depth discussion on the tools I use please check out my article on scratchboard tools.
How do you color scratchboard art?
Scratchboard can be left as a dramatic black and white image but it can also be colored after scratching. Because the white layer is clay based and absorbent it will accept color mediums such as colored transparent inks, fluid acrylics and watercolor. Colors can be applied so that they look anywhere from subtle to vibrant. Cathy uses transparent inks to add color to her work. Once a layer of color is applied the artist can go back and re-scratch those areas to build up layers, but once color is applied they can never go back to just black and white. Coloring boards typically takes Cathy about 1 1/2 times as long as leaving a board black and white, so you may notice a slightly higher price on colored works.
“Spin Cycle” Grizzly Bear (Scratchboard and Ink)
Courtesy of and copyright Cathy Sheeter
A Brief Career Summary
Cathy Sheeter is quickly becoming known as one of the premier wildlife and western scratchboard artists of today. Her mastery of the difficult scratchboard medium is evident in the outstanding quality of each of her works. Highly detailed and realistic, her scratchboard art is often mistaken for photographs at a distance. Cathy has only been exhibiting her work since 2008 but her rapid accent into highly respected wildlife and western art exhibitions and ever increasing number of awards and publications is making her work increasingly collectable worldwide. Cathy’s work is instantly recognizable due to its life-like eyes, anatomical accuracy, strong compositions, and sense of light which help bring the viewer into the world of her animal artwork creations.
“Cross My Path” Domestic Short Hair (Scratchboard and Ink)
Courtesy of and copyright Cathy Sheeter
More About Cathy Sheeter
Cathy was born in 1979 and grew up in a very remote town in Eastern Oregon, where she was immersed in a community with small town values, rich in ranching, agriculture and open spaces. Her love for the natural world was encouraged by her family and she owned (and showed) countless animals throughout childhood. Animals and the western lifestyle continue to be central components of her life and the focus of much of her art. Cathy was fortunate to have a family that encouraged her artistic interests and talents from early childhood. She took art classes through high school and was first introduced to the medium of scratchboard in those classes. While Cathy chose to major in animal sciences in college, she never stopped creating art in her free time. In 2002 Cathy moved to Colorado, where she still resides.
Cathy’s primary choice of mediums is the non-traditional scratchboard. Scratchboard is a form of direct engraving where the artist starts with a masonite panel that is coated with white clay and then topped with a thin layer of black ink. A sharp pointed tool is then used to scratch away the black ink and expose the white clay below (leaving a black and white image). The image can then be colored with inks if desired. Scratchboard is regarded by many artists as one of the most difficult mediums to master as it requires excellent drawing skills and attention to fine details. The medium does not allow for many mistakes and the artist must be able to convey many different textures all with just lines or dots. Large and complex pieces can take hundreds of hours to complete. Cathy also enjoys working in graphite pencil, oil paints, color pencil, and pastels from time to time..
Cathy is a founding member and one of the first juried in ‘Master Members’ (MSA) of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists (founded 2011). She continues to promote and push scratchboard into top wildlife and western art shows nation wide. She has been invited to exhibit her work in many prestigious museums throughout the US as well.
Cathy first started exhibiting her work and entering national juried shows in 2008. That same year Cathy also applied to the prestigious Society of Animal Artists for membership and was delighted to be selected as a signature member (top membership ranking) on her first try. Continuing her journey into the professional art world her list of awards continues to grow each year, as does her list of top tier exhibitions that she is invited to participate in. Her work can be found in private and corporate collections throughout the US and Canada.
Cathy’s professional associations include: Master Member (and one of the founders) of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA), Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists (SAA), and Associate Member of the Women Artists of the West (WAOW).
Springer Spaniel (Scratchboard)
Courtesy of and copyright Cathy Sheeter
Comments Welcome
I’d love to hear you thoughts about Cathy’s work. Which of today’s featured fine art pieces is your favorite? Be sure to let us know why.
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 🙂
Both of my B&H Event Space programs went very well. That they recently added a huge LCD screen at the front (that match the several on the side of the room) led to vastly increased enjoyment of the images. Huge thanks to B&H’s David Brommer for having me. The were a very few empty seats for the TC program; the Putting Art in Your Nature Photography show was a complete sellout. Both programs will be available online but it usually takes several months to get them prepared.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 274 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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 Roseate Spoonbill image was made at Sunken Island Cove, Alafia Banks, with the 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X II TC, and the EOS1D Mark III camera body. This yielded an effective focal length of 1568mm (31.4X magnification). I would guess that James Shadle and I were about 100 feet from the birds. Audubon Florida is requesting “a 100-foot buffer zone, extended across the mouths of the Bird Island and Sunken Island Coves, to provide a safe and quiet area of no-entry, except by sanctuary staff conducting bird census, monitoring, or management activities.” (Please note my wry smile at the exceptions.) The extended across the mouths of the Bird Island and Sunken Island Coves would prevent photographers from approaching within about 300 feet of the sandbar at Sunken Island.
Roseate Spoonbill sky-pointing
Your Help Needed
In lieu of the information below–please be sure to read the whole thing–and then click here and sign the petition. Signing will take well less than a minute.
Why should everyone sign it? There are lots of reasons:
The Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC), in conjunction with (and surely encouraged by) Audubon Florida, want to impose up to 300 feet of boundaries around 20 existing Critical Wildlife Areas (CWA). The boundaries would negatively affect the quiet enjoyment of nature by licensed touring companies, photographers, birders, recreational kayakers, educators, and others interested in Florida wildlife.
No one involved has provided any scientific data supporting the benefits of increased boundaries. In fact, the FWC/Audubon wildlife species survey shows an increase in wildlife population at numerous Critical Wildlife Areas.
Below are some examples (based on estimates of the number of nesting pairs, by species, made by Florida Audubon via direct counts and flight-line surveys) at Alafia Banks, the area of my primary concern.
White Ibis in 2004: 7,750. In 2014: 4,650. In 2015: 11,000.
Roseate Spoonbill in 2011: 190 (a precipitous drop from the previous 7-year average of 322). In 2015: 190.
Brown Pelican in 2004: 310. In 2014: 190. In 2015: 350.
Tricolored Heron in 2008: 90. In 2015: 165.
Total pairs in 2004: 9,724. Total pairs in 2014: 5,927. Total pairs in 2015: 12,440.
Yet Ann Paul, Regional Coordinator of Audubon’s Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuaries, and Mark Rachal, Sanctuary Manager, write in part:
For more than 75 years, Audubon wardens in Tampa Bay have been the keepers of these special places. At first, we protected them from the plume trade and harvest for food that almost drove these birds to extinction. But today, these nesting birds face a new and unexpected threat: catastrophic disturbance by nature photographers. And worse, a few unscrupulous tour leaders in Tampa Bay are giving nature photography a bad name, and threatening the future of our area’s vibrant waterbird colonies.
You might think “how much damage can one photographer do?” The impacts are cumulative and substantial. Some nature photographers lead customers on photo “safaris,” including vulnerable nesting colonies among their destinations. With clients in tow, some paying $450 per day to be escorted to prime sites, these tour operators are becoming serial disturbers.
How in the world any sane person could look at Audubon Florida’s own data and talk about catastrophic disturbance by nature photographers is far beyond me. And I would love to know what in the world the cost of a day on a pontoon boat has to do with anything. And I am curious as to the annual salary of Eric Draper, the Executive Director of Audubon Florida… See more on Mr. Draper below.
Most telling are the recent increase in the number of nesting Brown Pelican pairs. The White Ibises and spoonbills nest deep in the mangroves where they can only be disturbed by the researchers on their banding and counting forays. The pelicans, however, nest on the periphery of the island where one might think that they would be subject to disturbance by photographers in the water. Yet there numbers have increased…
Note also that most of the species in questions nest quite successfully in extremely close proximity to humans including dozens of nature photographers each day at Gatorland and the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. The stork have been doing great at both of these locations for many years and spoonbill numbers at St. Augustine have been increasing in recent years.
Interestingly enough, Mark Rachal (via personal comment to James Shadle) has stated that he is comfortable with a 50 foot buffer for photographers. And now Audubon is asking for 100-300 foot buffers…
James Shadle and Alafia Banks
My good friend James Shadle, a co-founder of Bird Photographer’s.Net, has taken more folks to Alafia Banks to photograph the spoonbills than all other operators combined multiplied by ten. In an e-mail to Ann Paul on March 11, 2015, I wrote:
I hope that you know down deep that both of us (James Shadle and I) are the good guys but I realize that I may very well be wrong. Speaking for myself, I know that I have followed the letter of the law for more than 30 years. I follow the rules, I don’t enter closed areas, I do my best to keep any disturbance that I might cause to an absolute minimum. If I see folks doing the wrong thing, I open my mouth and/or photograph them and their license plates (or their boats) and notify the authorities. I firmly believe that nature photographers who do the wrong thing should be cited and punished.
I know that James feels pretty much the same way on all of the above. We both teach folks how to approach the birds unobtrusively. He has cautioned many trespassing fisherman and yes, even picnickers on the island over the years. In the past he has offered to remove both old tires and non-native vegetation during the off season. His generous offers of help were turned down. We both offered to accompany an Audubon crew onto the island (on a banding landing) during nesting season to photograph the chicks and the survey operation and to then donate the images to Audubon. That offer was also turned down. One might assume that the powers that be at Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuary Audubon did not want us to see what goes on. Our offer still stands. As you know, I donated images to the federal folks managing Egmont Key after you and (late husband) Rich kindly arranged for me to visit a few years back.
I would be more than glad to donate images created at Alafia that would meet your needs. Let me know what they are and whether you need the images for web or for print and if the latter, what size. And I am positive that James would be glad to donate images that would help you get your message out. Similarly, I would be glad to publicize any important events for your group. My blog gets more than 3,000 visitors/day and enjoys about 15,500,000 page views annually.
Ann never responded to my e-mail.
If there are any factual errors above, I invite anyone from Florida Audubon to either leave a comment or to contact me via e-mail.
From Rob Christy via e-mail:
Last Mothers Day, while photographing at Coffee Pot Bayou near St. pete, we were quietly in position about 30 feet from the island in my 19 foot flats boat. We changed position depending on the bird’s activity with my electric trolling motor. All of a sudden a large touring vessel, the Dolphin Queen, shows up with Ann Paul on the ship’s PA system. At the time I had no idea who the person yelling at us was. I discovered later that it was Ann because I looked at the Dolphin Queen’s Facebook page when I got home. Apparently this Mothers Day trip is run every year by the St. Pete Audubon Society with Ann doing the narration. I could kick myself for not making a video of what happened with my I Phone. I guess that I was so shocked and surprised by what happened as when I had been out there in the past we would frequently always see the Dolphin Queen at close range without incident.
A Question for Eric Draper, Executive Director of Audubon Florida
Here is my question for Mr. Draper:
Why did you choose not to respond to the letter below, sent to you via e-mail by Rob Christy last spring? (Rob’s e-mail below has been amended slightly without changing his meaning or intent.)
Dear Mr. Draper,
To introduce ourselves; we are a small group of experienced wildlife photographers who have published work in BBC Earth and National Geographic among others. One of our group members, is the long -time President of the Venice Camera Club. All of us have won many awards for our Florida wildlife images including Audubon Society contests.
Last Sunday (Mothers’ Day) we were aboard a small 18 foot boat which encountered your tour at the Coffee Pot Bayou on the chartered Dolphin Queen. We have been to this rookery many times taking photographs while not disturbing the wildlife. Oftentimes, the Dolphin Queen has been cruising around the island as well- until now, there had never been an issue.
On Sunday, we were quietly floating as always and only occasionally repositioned our boat with a noiseless electric trolling motor. In fact, we moved it closer to the island to make way for the 44 foot Dolphin Queen.
Unfortunately the peaceful silence was suddenly interrupted by the Dolphin Queen’s repeated passes while spewing obnoxious exhaust fumes. The noise from its loud combustion-engine and the screeching voice of the narrator caused a disturbing upheaval throughout the nesting bird colony.
To our surprise, Ann Paul, the narrator at the time, started to make rude and unjustified remarks about us and accused us of moving to close to the island and not caring about the wildlife. We were strongly offended by Ann Paul’s unprofessional and disrespectful behavior; she unwarrantedly vilified us and turned the boat’s passengers against us in a most insulting and vulgar manner.
We feel that you should be aware of the nature of this individual and her insulting behavior. Hopefully this was an isolated incidence and we can continue to recommend the Dolphin Queen again to our friends, families, and clients.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Rob Christy
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 have been doing my easy 3/4 mile swim most every day. On Wednesday I put the finishing touches on my two B&H Event Space programs. My understanding is that they will both be available online at some point. I hope to see many of you there. If you are unable to register but will be in the neighborhood it often pays to visit as there are often more than a few no-shows… See the details below.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 273 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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 in-camera HDR (Auto dynamic range) Art Vivid image was created on the first 2015 Palouse IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Induro BH M-1 Ballhead-mounted Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens (at 24mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero around a base exposure of 1.3 sec. at f/7.1. WB 5500 K. Live view with 2-second timer.
Live View Rear Focus AF half way up the roof. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Round barn roof–interior ceiling view
The Discovery…
I had photographed at this round barn location several times. Though there are numerous interesting subjects inside the barn, I continued to look for new subjects, for new perspectives. I wandered round and round and somehow wound up in the center of the barn and–I am not sure exactly why–looked up. Oh my God! It looked like some sort of golden cathedral ceiling on the prairie. I shared my new treasure with the group and we took turns–two at a time actually–lying flat on our backs beneath our tripods working the scene. And then a few days later I shared my find with the second group.
Using Live View was a big help with the framing as it would have been nearly impossible to get one’s eye to the viewfinder…
B&H August 11, 2016 Event Space Programs
On Thursday, August 11, 2016, I will be presenting two free programs at the B&H Event Space as below. If you would like to attend, it would be best to register asap as both programs have begun filling nicely.
Using Teleconverters with Intermediate and Super Telephotos Lenses: 1:00 to 2:30pm
The word on the street is that you simply cannot make sharp images with teleconverters (TCs) especially with the doublers. Nothing could be further from the truth. With some practice and good sharpness techniques you can learn to use TCs effectively to photograph small, distant, or shy subjects.
Teleconverters or multipliers come in a variety of strengths, most usually 1.4X and 2X. Nikon also offers a 1.7X TCE. Each will multiply your effective focal length by the factor in its name. A 1.4X TC will make your 400mm lens into a 560mm lens. A doubler, aka a 2X TC, will enable your 600mm lens to give you 1200mm of reach.
In this program, Arthur Morris, internationally noted bird photographer and educator, will share the tips, techniques, and secrets that he has developed and used for more than three decades so that you too can use teleconverters to improve your photography. This program will be illustrated with Artie’s spectacular images of birds, wildlife, flowers, and even a few unexpected subjects.
Putting Art into Your Nature Photography: 3:00 to 4:30pm
With today’s amazing photographic gear that includes camera bodies with surreal autofocus that can routinely produce superb image files in the right hands and fast, sharp lenses (including and especially the amazing super-telephotos) creating images of various birds, animals, flowers, and landscapes, is pretty much child’s play. Anyone can do it. In this program, Arthur Morris, internationally noted bird photographer and educator, will teach you to take your images to the next level. You will learn to identify good situations, to create pleasing backgrounds, to photograph action and behavior, to choose the best perspective, to read and use the light, when and how to create pleasing blurs, and how to consistently create dramatic, evocative images with contest-winning potential.
This program will be illustrated with several hundred of Artie’s spectacular images, many published around the world above his most fitting credit line: BIRDS AS ART.
Announcing the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
In what ways will the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour be different from the most other Palouse workshops?
There are so many great locations that a seven-day IPT (as opposed to the typical three- or five-day workshops) will give the group time to visit (and revisit) many of the best spots while allowing you to maximize your air travel dollars. In addition, it will allow us to enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace.
You will be assured of being in the right location for the given weather and sky conditions.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills.
You will learn to design powerful, graphic images.
You will visit all of the iconic locations and a few spectacular ones that are much less frequently visited.
You will learn long lens landscape techniques.
You will learn to master any exposure situation in one minute or less.
You will learn the fine points of Canon in-camera (5D Mark III, 5DS R, and 7D II) HDR techniques.
You will learn to use your longest focal lengths to create rolling field and Urbex abstracts.
You will learn when and how to use a variety of neutral density filters to create pleasing blurs of the Palouse’s gorgeous rolling farmlands.
As always, you will learn to see like a pro. You will learn what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time. You will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images.
You will learn to use super-wide lenses both for big skies and building interiors.
You will learn when, why, and how to use infrared capture; if you do not own an infrared body, you will get to borrow mine.
You will learn to use both backlight and side-light to create powerful and dramatic landscape images.
This trip will run with one participant.
Palouse 2016 Verticals Card
The 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
June 8-14, 2017. Seven full days of photography. Meet and greet at 7:30pm on Wednesday, June 7: $2,499. Limit 10/Openings: 9.
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will enjoy spectacular sunrises and at least one nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. I will bring you to more than a few really neat old abandoned barns and farmhouses in idyllic settings. There is no better way to improve your compositional and image design skills and to develop your creativity than to join me for this trip. Photoshop and image sharing sessions when we have the time and energy…. We get up early and stay out late and the days are long.
Over the past three years, with the help of a friend, we found all the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and vistas. What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, my extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions. As above, there will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before the workshop begins.
To Sign Up
Your non-refundable deposit of $500 is required to hold your spot. Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining this IPT. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours to arrange for the payment of your deposit; if by check, please make out to “BIRDS AS ART” and mail it to: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail: artie.
Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options. You can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And 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 🙂
Up to this point on my Long Island visit, I have been (and the Nickerson IPT group was) blessed by relatively cool weather. Though Tuesday morning looked pretty good, I opted to stay home and finish up my two B&H Event Space programs. Hazy, hot, and humid, however, are reportedly on the way.
IPTs
Do consider joining me on an IPT. You learn a ton here on the blog for every day. Think how much you would learn on a workshop with me as the leader… Learn more and see the whole schedule here.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of October 2, 2016: $99
San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT: JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15, 2017: 4 1/2 days: $1999
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $13,999/double occupancy.
2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT, July 3-10, 2017: $5999.
2017 Bear Boat Coastal Brown Bear Cubs IPT: July 18-24, 2017 from Kodiak, AK: 5 FULL & 2 Half DAYS: $6699
2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour: June 8-14, 2017: $2,499
GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. August 8-22, 2017 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half DAYS of photography: $12,499. Limit: 13 photographers plus the leader: yours truly. Openings: 5.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 272 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
One AF point up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the gape at the base of the bill. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Breeding plumage Western Gull–dramatic head portait in early morning light
BLACKground…
Jet black backgrounds can be quite dramatic, especially when the subject is well lit by early morning or late afternoon sunlight. After visiting the cliffs at LaJolla for more than two decades, I finally awoke to the possibilities. Using a long lens I was able to get a bit higher than usual and take advantage of the wet, black rocks in the shade on the base of the cliff across a small bay.
New and Different
One of the great challenges of bird and nature photography for me is to take a common subject–Western Gulls are a dime a dozen in Southern California–and create an image that is new and different and at times, as here, strikingly dramatic…
The Exposure
The exposure here was an easy one (as pretty much all digital exposures are…) I went with f/8 because the bird was relatively close and I wanted a bit of extra d-o-f. Then I adjusted the shutter speed to eliminate any blinkies while making sure that there was a good amount of data in the 5th histogram box.
Join me on the San Diego IPT and learn the basics, the fine points, and whatever else I might figure out on the spot. See the details immediately below.
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 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 🙂
On Sunday morning I took grandson Idris to Robert Moses State Park to enjoy the waves. In my early teens I practically lived in the ocean all summer long; the bigger the waves, the better for body surfing. The beach at Moses was very steep but with the north breeze knocking the waves down, they looked pretty benign. Appearances can be deceiving.
Idris’s throwing and catching skills have improved by leaps and bounds since we began tossing a ball around in daughter Lissy’s backyard most every night. So, after we played catch with a tennis ball for a while, Idris and grandpa headed for the water. I tried getting him to join me about 20 feet from shore but he was too smart, getting wet only from his ankles to his thighs.
I was busy watching him on shore when I was slammed by an 8 foot wave that came out of nowhere and smashed me in the back. I was turned upside down and apparently inside out by that first wave. My swim goggles–don’t ask me why I was wearing them–were ripped off my head. The next two waves in the set were not as big as the first one but still they beat me up pretty good. It was like being inside a gigantic washing machine. At one point I began to think that I actually might be in a more than a bit of trouble…
When the dust cleared I had about a pound of sand in each bathing suit pocket and another half pound in the tiny key pocket of my sun protection blouse. I escaped pretty much unscathed but realized in retrospect that I was very lucky not to have damaged my left knee when I first went flying. We searched in vain for a few minutes for my missing swim mask and then beat a hasty retreat to my Mom’s community pool. We did stop at Target to grab a pair of swim goggles for each of us. Idris loves the water and swam more than 22 lengths, a solid 1/4 mile. Not bad for an 8-year old. I did my usual 66 lengths, 3/4 mile. Very slowly.
Defeat continued to plague me on Sunday evening as I lost to my Mom in Scrabble by an ignominious 99 points. 🙁
The Streak
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, 271 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
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.
Used Gear Sales Continue to be Brisk
Tom Mast sold his Canon 300mm f/4L IS USM lens in excellent condition for $625 in late July.
Henry Raymundo sold his Gitzo 1325 tripod and a Wimberley V-2 head both in very good plus condition for the very low price of $699 and two used Canon 100-400mm IS L Zoom lenses, one in excellent condition for $599, the other in very good plus condition for $549–all in late July.
Jonathan Ward sold his Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent condition for $2,000 CAD in early July.
Long ago multiple IPT veteran Charles McRae sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS lens in good to very good condition in early July for a record low $4,199.
Jeffrey Fredberg sold his EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM L series lens in like-new condition for the record-low BAA price of $749 in late June.
Jim Burns sold his Canon 200-400mm F/4L IS zoom lens with Internal 1.4X Extender in brand new condition for the insane BAA record-low price of $8499 in late June.
Moody McCall sold his Canon 300mm F/2.8L IS II in excellent condition for $4199 in mid-June.
Long-ago IPT veteran Charles Sleicher sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens in very good plus condition for $3400 in mid-June.
Top BAA Used Gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III in absolute mint condition for $1599 in mid-June.
KW McCulloch sold his Canon EOS-1D X in excellent condition for $2459 in mid-June.
Top BAA Used Gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the old five) in very good plus condition for a BAA record low price of $3699 in mid-June.
New Listings
Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal Extender
Eric Karl is offering a Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal Extender in excellent condition for a very low $8,099. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original tough front lens cover, the lens strap, the original product box, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Eric via e-mail or by phone at 1-503-272-1055 (Pacific time).
This is the world’s best lens for a trip to Africa. It kills also in the Galapagos and in South Georgia, the Falklands, and Antarctica. And I use mine a lot at Bosque and other dusty places where the built-in TC helps to keep your sensor clean. And I love it in the Palouse for its versatility. The lens sells new at B&H right now for $10,999. You can save a slew of dollars by grabbing Eric’s lens now. artie
Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Eric Karl is also offering a Canon 7D Mark II camera in like-new condition with the BG-E16 battery grip for only $1,099. The sale includes the battery grip, the original strap, the charger, the original product boxes, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. This camera was purchased on 5/12/15 and used primarily as a backup on only two trips. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Eric via e-mail or by phone at 1-503-272-1055 (Pacific time).
Though I currently own and use two 5DS R and one 1DX Mark II body, I owned and used two 7D II bodies for about two years; several of my 7D II images made the final judging rounds in both the BBC and Nature’s Best competitions. I still feel that it is by far the greatest digital camera body value ever… artie
Canon EOS-5D Mark III
Price Reduced $80 on August 8, 2016.
Multiple IPT-veteran and all around nice guy Sheldon Goldstein is offering a Canon EOS-5D Mark III in excellent plus condition but for a few scuffs on the bottom of the camera for the great price of $1399 (was $1479). The body was just cleaned and checked by Canon; it has only about 16,500 actuations. The sale includes the camera strap, the battery, the battery charger, and the manual.
Please contact Shelly via e-mail or by phone at 1-646-423-0392 (eastern time).
I have owned and used this superb, full frame, 22mp digital body for several years. It was always my first choice for scenic, Urbex, and flower photography until I fell in love with the 5DS R (for a lot more money!). artie
Center AF point (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The active AF point was on the chick’s neck. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.
Black Skimmer–large chick yawning
More Eye-opening Photoshop Criminality…
The RAW conversion and the image optimization here were pretty straight-forward but for the fact that I used a warped Quick Mask to open the chick’s eye just a bit. That plus minimal beach clean-up.
A Different Crop?
Feel free to leave a comment and suggest an alternate crop.
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 🙂
Though Dom Scaglione did not play Frankie Valli on Saturday afternoon past, Younger daughter Alissa, her husband Ajiniyaz, and yours truly enjoyed Jersey Boys tremendously. Quinn vanAntwerp killed as Bob Gaudio as he has done more than 2500 times. He is leaving the show in six weeks so I am thrilled that I got to see him again.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 270 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
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.
Used Gear Sales Continue to be Brisk
Tom Mast sold his Canon 300mm f/4L IS USM lens in excellent condition for $625 in late July.
Henry Raymundo sold his Gitzo 1325 tripod and a Wimberley V-2 head both in very good plus condition for the very low price of $699 and two used Canon 100-400mm IS L Zoom lenses, one in excellent condition for $599, the other in very good plus condition for $549–all in late July.
Jonathan Ward sold his Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent condition for $2,000 CAD in early July.
Long ago multiple IPT veteran Charles McRae sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS lens in good to very good condition in early July for a record low $4,199.
Jeffrey Fredberg sold his EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM L series lens in like-new condition for the record-low BAA price of $749 in late June.
Jim Burns sold his Canon 200-400mm F/4L IS zoom lens with Internal 1.4X Extender in brand new condition for the insane BAA record-low price of $8499 in late June.
Moody McCall sold his Canon 300mm F/2.8L IS II in excellent condition for $4199 in mid-June.
Long-ago IPT veteran Charles Sleicher sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens in very good plus condition for $3400 in mid-June.
Top BAA Used Gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III in absolute mint condition for $1599 in mid-June.
KW McCulloch sold his Canon EOS-1D X in excellent condition for $2459 in mid-June.
Top BAA Used Gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the old five) in very good plus condition for a BAA record low price of $3699 in mid-June.
New Listing
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L Lens
Thomas K. Gross is offering a used Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L lens in excellent condition for $725. The sale includes the front and rear lens caps, a camo LensCoat, the original Canon tough fabric lens bag, and insured ground shipping via UPS. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements; Paypal preferred.
Please contact Tom by e-mail or by phone at 1-765-427-2504 (Eastern time).
I used, loved, and put the “toy lens” on the map for about a decade. It is a great flight lens and would make a great starter lens for folks with a steady hand or those who properly use a tripod and a Mongoose M3.6. artie
One AF point below and one to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell right on the bird’s eye. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Unidentified spring shorebird–feeding pose
A Big 1D X Mark II Advantage
Not being limited to the center AF point when working at f/8 with a 2X TC and an f/4 super-telephoto lens is a huge advantage when photographing birds that are moving. Here I was able to select and place an AF point right on the bird’s eye thus ensuring a sharp image.
Tips on Adding an Eye Highlight
I cannot remember the last time that I added a highlight to a bird’s eye. But I did remember how to do it:
Where in the eye should you put the highlight? Someplace that might look natural… Any suggestions?
Work large.
Use the Clone Stamp Tool with a tiny hard brush.
Grab from a spot in the image with a pure bright WHITE.
Build the highlight with multiple small clicks and be sure that the highlight is irregularly shaped.
What Is It?
This shorebird was photographed in mid-May of 2016. Can you identify it as to species? How did you know? Can you age it as an adult or a juvenile? How did you know? What stage of molt is it in? How did you know?
Fort DeSoto in fall is rife with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this fall one way or another. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Join me on the morning of October 2, 2016 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.
Folks attending the IPT will be in the field early and stay out late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are relatively short in early fall. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
Fort DeSoto Short Notice Fall IPT/September 28 (meet & greet and afternoon session) through the full day on October 1, 2016. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1549. Limit 10. Sunday morning ITFW free to IPT registrants.
Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds in fall. There they join dozens of egrets, herons, night-herons, gulls, and terns who winter on the T-shaped peninsula that serves as their wintering grounds. With any luck, we should get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher likely. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. And Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork would not be unexpected.
Folks who sign up for the IPT are welcome to join me as my guest on the ITFW on the Sunday morning following the workshop. See above for details on that.
On this and all other IPTs you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify and age many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).
At brunch (included) we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me edit–why keep this one and delete that one. If you opt to bring your laptop, we can take a look at a few of your images from the morning session. We will process a few of my images in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. That followed by Instructor Nap Time.
As I already have one signed up for this workshop, it is a go. Hotel info will be e-mailed when you register. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). It is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel so if you are interested it would be a good idea to register now and make your hotel reservations as soon as you hear from us. We can, however, coordinate with local folks who opt to stay at home.
Because of the relatively late date, payment is full is due upon registration either by check or credit card. If the former, please e-mail us immediately so that we can save you a spot. If the latter, please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand to register. Your registration fee is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight so please check your plans carefully before committing. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions and gear & clothing advice a fairly soon.
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 finished this blog post on Saturday morning. I leave with daughter Alissa and husband Ajiniyaz for lunch in the city followed by Jersey Boys on Broadway (the second time for me). I am excited. On Friday I got lots more work done my B&H Event Space programs… See the details below.
Only Bob DeCroce, who was with me on the Nickerson Beach IPT, has signed up for the DeSoto IPT so it is looking like more very intimate small group instruction.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 269 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
The center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell just below the bird’s eye. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment = 0.
Black Skimmer, nearly fledged young
What I Was Thinking
I stood, as I have been doing every morning when approaching the large numbers of skimmers with chicks (well outside the colony ropes) right after sunrise. I move very slowly looking for good situations before getting my butt on the ground. As there were only a few of the larger, nearly fledged young around, I concentrated on them. But I still wound up creating hundreds of images of the smaller, fluffier, whiter chicks.
I chose to work well off sun angle to create today’s featured image in part because the light is not as harsh at 6:15am as it is at 7:15am. In addition, if I had moved all the way to sun angle, I would have been shooting “up the bird’s butt,” that is, with the bird’s tail closer to me than it’s head. The main reason that I chose the perspective that I did was to frame the young bird with the head of one adult and the tail of the other.
Do note that the blue line on the bird’s chest is not a sharpening halo. If you think that you know what caused it, do leave a comment and share your thoughts with the group.
The RAW Conversion
This image was taken so early in the morning that it was actually too yellow and too red, in short, too warm. During the RAW conversion in DPP 4 I tried a few things with the White Balance and wound up converting it at K 4700. In addition, I moved the color Fine Tune dot about 1/4 of the way to the upper left corner, towards CYAN. This cooled the image down nicely while still keeping the early morning light look. Learn why and how Arash Hazeghi and I use DPP 4 for all of our RAW conversions in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide here.
Once I Started I Couldn’t Stop!
I knew that the two shadows on the left frame-edge had to go, along with the small piece of straw on the sand in front of the bird. After a while, I decided that the o-o-f stuff below the base of the birds bill also had to go. For that I used cloning on a layer in case I painted outside of the lines 🙂 When I started the bill clean-up I was sure that I would just do a bit. Each time I viewed the image full frame I’d see one more little bit that had to go. Before I knew it the fledgling’s bill was so clean that it looked as if he had just gotten back from an ocean bath. What can I say? I could’t help myself.
As far as clean-up, what would you have done with this image if it were yours?
You can learn about all of my clean-up tools, techniques, and shortcuts in Digital Basics which also includes dozens other great Photoshop tips.
B&H August 11, 2016 Event Space Programs
On Thursday, August 11, 2016, I will be presenting two free programs at the B&H Event Space as below. If you would like to attend, it would be best to register asap as both programs have begun filling nicely.
Using Teleconverters with Intermediate and Super Telephotos Lenses: 1:00 to 2:30pm
The word on the street is that you simply cannot make sharp images with teleconverters (TCs) especially with the doublers. Nothing could be further from the truth. With some practice and good sharpness techniques you can learn to use TCs effectively to photograph small, distant, or shy subjects.
Teleconverters or multipliers come in a variety of strengths, most usually 1.4X and 2X. Nikon also offers a 1.7X TCE. Each will multiply your effective focal length by the factor in its name. A 1.4X TC will make your 400mm lens into a 640mm lens. A doubler, aka a 2X TC, will enable your 600mm lens to give you 1200mm of reach.
In this program, Arthur Morris, internationally noted bird photographer and educator, will share the tips, techniques, and secrets that he has developed and used for more than three decades so that you too can use teleconverters to improve your photography. This program will be illustrated with Artie’s spectacular images of birds, wildlife, flowers, and even a few unexpected subjects.
Putting Art into Your Nature Photography: 3:00 to 4:30pm
With today’s amazing photographic gear that includes camera bodies with surreal autofocus that can routinely produce superb image files in the right hands and fast, sharp lenses (including and especially the amazing super-telephotos) creating images of various birds, animals, flowers, and landscapes, is pretty much child’s play. Anyone can do it. In this program, Arthur Morris, internationally noted bird photographer and educator, will teach you to take your images to the next level. You will learn to identify good situations, to create pleasing backgrounds, to photograph action and behavior, to choose the best perspective, to read and use the light, when and how to create pleasing blurs, and how to consistently create dramatic, evocative images with contest-winning potential.
This program will be illustrated with several hundred of Artie’s spectacular images, many published around the world above his most fitting credit line: BIRDS AS ART.
Fort DeSoto in fall is rife with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this fall one way or another. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Join me on the morning of October 2, 2016 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.
Folks attending the IPT will be in the field early and stay out late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are relatively short in early fall. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
Fort DeSoto Short Notice Fall IPT/September 28 (meet & greet and afternoon session) through the full day on October 1, 2016. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1549. Limit 10. Sunday morning ITFW free to IPT registrants.
Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds in fall. There they join dozens of egrets, herons, night-herons, gulls, and terns who winter on the T-shaped peninsula that serves as their wintering grounds. With any luck, we should get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher likely. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. And Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork would not be unexpected.
Folks who sign up for the IPT are welcome to join me as my guest on the ITFW on the Sunday morning following the workshop. See above for details on that.
On this and all other IPTs you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify and age many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).
At brunch (included) we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me edit–why keep this one and delete that one. If you opt to bring your laptop, we can take a look at a few of your images from the morning session. We will process a few of my images in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. That followed by Instructor Nap Time.
As I already have one signed up for this workshop, it is a go. Hotel info will be e-mailed when you register. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). It is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel so if you are interested it would be a good idea to register now and make your hotel reservations as soon as you hear from us. We can, however, coordinate with local folks who opt to stay at home.
Because of the relatively late date, payment is full is due upon registration either by check or credit card. If the former, please e-mail us immediately so that we can save you a spot. If the latter, please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand to register. Your registration fee is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight so please check your plans carefully before committing. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions and gear & clothing advice a fairly soon.
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 🙂
Friday was a day of rest (that means no early morning photography…) with lots of work done on my B&H Event Space programs… See the details below.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 268 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best with moving subjects). The active AF point fell on the spot where the wing attaches to the bird’s body, right on the same plane as the eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Black Skimmer skimming in still water in early morning light
Thursday Morning…
After taking note of the (ridiculous) new bird protection area at Nickerson I decided that I had had enough of the chicks so I headed down the beach to see what I could find. Again, it was fun hanging with good buddy Tom Pfeifer. We both had the same thoughts as to where we might find some skimmers skimming. We thought that it would be a slaughter but it turned out to be a very slow pick. But for me, my determination is always a huge factor in any success that I might achieve. The crazy thing is that though the wind was from the northeast most of the skimmers were skimming to the west, albeit with perfect mirror-like reflections.
My Critique
In an ideal world, the bird would have had the near wing fully raised to offer a better view of the underwing detail. Otherwise, perfect. What do you think?
This is an unsharpened 100% crop of the head and bill of the bird in today’s featured image
The First 100% Crop
I think that this 100% crop is pretty sick. What do you think?
This is an unsharpened 100% crop of the feet and toes of the bird in today’s featured image
The Second 100% Crop
I think that this 100% crop is even sicker. What do you think?
B&H August 11, 2016 Event Space Programs
On Thursday, August 11, 2016, I will be presenting two free programs at the B&H Event Space as below. If you would like to attend, it would be best to register asap as both programs have begun filling nicely.
Using Teleconverters with Intermediate and Super Telephotos Lenses: 1:00 to 2:30pm
The word on the street is that you simply cannot make sharp images with teleconverters (TCs) especially with the doublers. Nothing could be further from the truth. With some practice and good sharpness techniques you can learn to use TCs effectively to photograph small, distant, or shy subjects.
Teleconverters or multipliers come in a variety of strengths, most usually 1.4X and 2X. Nikon also offers a 1.7X TCE. Each will multiply your effective focal length by the factor in its name. A 1.4X TC will make your 400mm lens into a 560mm lens. A doubler, aka a 2X TC, will enable your 600mm lens to give you 1200mm of reach.
In this program, Arthur Morris, internationally noted bird photographer and educator, will share the tips, techniques, and secrets that he has developed and used for more than three decades so that you too can use teleconverters to improve your photography. This program will be illustrated with Artie’s spectacular images of birds, wildlife, flowers, and even a few unexpected subjects.
Putting Art into Your Nature Photography: 3:00 to 4:30pm
With today’s amazing photographic gear that includes camera bodies with surreal autofocus that can routinely produce superb image files in the right hands and fast, sharp lenses (including and especially the amazing super-telephotos) creating images of various birds, animals, flowers, and landscapes, is pretty much child’s play. Anyone can do it. In this program, Arthur Morris, internationally noted bird photographer and educator, will teach you to take your images to the next level. You will learn to identify good situations, to create pleasing backgrounds, to photograph action and behavior, to choose the best perspective, to read and use the light, when and how to create pleasing blurs, and how to consistently create dramatic, evocative images with contest-winning potential.
This program will be illustrated with several hundred of Artie’s spectacular images, many published around the world above his most fitting credit line: BIRDS AS ART.
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 🙂
Here’s a good one. After watching a group of perfectly behaved photographers–heck, many were set up in beach chairs–photographing Black Skimmers and chicks on Wednesday afternoon, someone on beach patrol remarked that it was too bad that the birds did not stay where they belong, behind the colony ropes. The birds had been resting peacefully and undisturbed with their chicks and almost fledged young in the same spot for about ten days.
When I arrived on Thursday morning I saw that the authorities–whoever they are–roped off about two more acres, right where the birds and photographers were having a photo party yesterday. One of the signs says, “Danger; Keep Back!” I guess that skimmers are now considered dangerous.
In any case, it is obvious that the birds cannot read or if the can, that they could care less. They were roosting with all of their chicks to the south of the newly roped off area. I suspect that they did not care for Wednesday afternoon’s construction project… It is very possible that they felt threatened by the changes.
The above is a first. I suggest that wherever they see a skimmer that they put up ropes and barrier around each bird to protect them from photographers.
I got so many great images on Wednesday morning that I skipped the chicks on Thursday and went off in search of skimmers skimming. Some days are diamonds, some days are stone…
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 267 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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 my eyes and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Yours truly in his favorite tee-shirt. Photo courtesy of and copyright 2016: Tom Pfeifer
Fits Me to a Tee…
My Mom and my sister Arna got me three shirts for my birthday. I love all of them but the one above is my favorite. One of the others says, “I am not arguing; I am just explaining why I am right.” The third ones says “I may be wrong but it is highly unlikely.” All three are pretty much perfect for me.
I joked to my Mom that as far as the sarcasm, it is not my fault, it’s genetic. If my Dad had a similar shirt it would read “Zero Minutes Without Sarcasm.” I am surely my father’s son.
This Just In!
Lots of folks want to buy the Zero Days Without Sarcasm t-shirt for a loved one. My Mom got mine from a catalogue–she gets dozens each month, but you can get the shirt here.
Fort DeSoto in fall is rife with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this fall one way or another. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Join me on the morning of October 2, 2016 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.
Folks attending the IPT will be in the field early and stay out late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are relatively short in early fall. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
Fort DeSoto Short Notice Fall IPT/September 28 (meet & greet and afternoon session) through the full day on October 1, 2016. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1549. Limit 10. Sunday morning ITFW free to IPT registrants.
Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds in fall. There they join dozens of egrets, herons, night-herons, gulls, and terns who winter on the T-shaped peninsula that serves as their wintering grounds. With any luck, we should get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher likely. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. And Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork would not be unexpected.
Folks who sign up for the IPT are welcome to join me as my guest on the ITFW on the Sunday morning following the workshop. See above for details on that.
On this and all other IPTs you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify and age many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).
At brunch (included) we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me edit–why keep this one and delete that one. If you opt to bring your laptop, we can take a look at a few of your images from the morning session. We will process a few of my images in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. That followed by Instructor Nap Time.
As I already have one signed up for this workshop, it is a go. Hotel info will be e-mailed when you register. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). It is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel so if you are interested it would be a good idea to register now and make your hotel reservations as soon as you hear from us. We can, however, coordinate with local folks who opt to stay at home.
Because of the relatively late date, payment is full is due upon registration either by check or credit card. If the former, please e-mail us immediately so that we can save you a spot. If the latter, please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand to register. Your registration fee is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight so please check your plans carefully before committing. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions and gear & clothing advice a fairly soon.
BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT.
The Fort DeSoto Site Guide
Can’t make the IPT or the ITFW? Get yourself a copy of the Fort DeSoto Site Guide. Learn the best spots, where to be when in what season in what weather. Learn the best wind directions for the various locations. BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. You can see all of them here.
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 met up with pal Tom Pfeifer at Nickerson early on Wednesday morning. Actually, I beat him to the beach by about an hour. Just in time to get hassled by either a cop or a park patrol officer. I may share that exciting story here at some point. In any case, with the northeast wind, we had one of the greatest-ever mornings with dozens of skimmer chicks right in front of us until we left at about 8:30am. Photos soon.
We had the pleasure of meeting BirdPhotographers.Net members Bill Dix and Geoffrey Montagu. I’ve know Bill for many years but until Wednesday morning, only online. Bill is one of many whose photography has improved by leaps and bounds since he first showed up at BPN.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 266 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
One AF point below the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the side of the neck just behind and well below the eye. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment = 0.
Least Tern at nest with 2-egg clutch
Morning Saved…
After getting sort of flooded out on Tuesday morning I headed to Jones Beach where I found this bird on eggs just below the colony ropes. One bird saved the day for me. Note that at +1/3 stop the RGB values for the WHITEs came in at 234, 234, 234 after click White Balance in DPP 4.
Unsharpened 100% crop of today’s featured image
EOS-1DX Mark II Not So Bad at 1200mm???
Looking at the 100% crop above I would have to rate the sharpness and image quality as exceptional. What do you think?
Question
Would you have eliminated the single out-of-focus blade of grass coming out of the top of the bird’s head? Why or why not? If yes, how?
Fort DeSoto in fall is rife with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this fall one way or another. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Join me on the morning of October 2, 2016 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.
Folks attending the IPT will be in the field early and stay out late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are relatively short in early fall. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
Fort DeSoto Short Notice Fall IPT/September 28 (meet & greet and afternoon session) through the full day on October 1, 2016. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1549. Limit 10. Sunday morning ITFW free to IPT registrants.
Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds in fall. There they join dozens of egrets, herons, night-herons, gulls, and terns who winter on the T-shaped peninsula that serves as their wintering grounds. With any luck, we should get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher likely. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. And Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork would not be unexpected.
Folks who sign up for the IPT are welcome to join me as my guest on the ITFW on the Sunday morning following the workshop. See above for details on that.
On this and all other IPTs you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify and age many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).
At brunch (included) we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me edit–why keep this one and delete that one. If you opt to bring your laptop, we can take a look at a few of your images from the morning session. We will process a few of my images in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. That followed by Instructor Nap Time.
As I already have one signed up for this workshop, it is a go. Hotel info will be e-mailed when you register. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). It is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel so if you are interested it would be a good idea to register now and make your hotel reservations as soon as you hear from us. We can, however, coordinate with local folks who opt to stay at home.
Because of the relatively late date, payment is full is due upon registration either by check or credit card. If the former, please e-mail us immediately so that we can save you a spot. If the latter, please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand to register. Your registration fee is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight so please check your plans carefully before committing. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions and gear & clothing advice a fairly soon.
BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT.
The Fort DeSoto Site Guide
Can’t make the IPT or the ITFW? Get yourself a copy of the Fort DeSoto Site Guide. Learn the best spots, where to be when in what season in what weather. Learn the best wind directions for the various locations. BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. You can see all of them here.
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 totally amazing Wednesday morning (> 1,000 images yielded 126 keepers) and with the weather supposed to be identical, I am offering a private or small group morning of instruction–Thursday, August 4, 2016 for the usual on-site rate: $350 for the morning session plus brunch and image review (included). 500 or 600mm lenses with TCs for best results. If you are up to getting better quickly shoot me an e-mail or try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message if I do not pick up.
I woke 11 minutes before the 4:30am alarm on my cell phone went off. I had some gluten free oatmeal and headed to Jamaica Bay WR at 5:08am. With stormy looking skies, I stopped at the McDonald’s on Cross Bay Blvd for a large decaf. I travel with my own heavy cream. I checked e-mails and then headed to the East Pond.
Conditions were horrific, the water levels much too high for anything due to the recent rains. I saw four Least and one Semipalmated Sandpiper before decided not to make the trek to the Raunt through the mud and the muck and the probably knee high or deeper water in some spots.
I debated as to whether I should head to Nickerson Beach, check things out at Jones Beach, or head to my Mom’s to get some work done. I chose B and was glad that I did as I quickly located a single, quite photographable Least Tern nest with two eggs and a very cooperative adult. An image will follow soon.
I have a second session with Dr. Dan this afternoon. That followed with a visit to Dr. Steven Puopolo, the hand surgeon who saved my post-surgery-infected trigger finger–left middle–several years ago via successful debridement surgery. My latest of too many trigger fingers–left ring–has been acting up a lot recently so I am gonna get a shot. If you hear loud screaming at about 3pm on eastern Long Island you will know that its me.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 265 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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 (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure; the selected AF point fell on the side of the bird’s neck just rear of the base of its bill. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Double-crested Cormorant with white crests raised
The Question
In the How Sharp is Sharp Enough??? blog post here, I asked, referring to the image above, Can you judge critical sharpness from this JPEG? I would love to hear your thoughts? As presented, it looks pretty good to me.
The Consensus
Every single person who commented felt that the eye was sharp and that the fine feather detail was at least adequate. Some commented that the bill tip was a bit soft and I agree, in part because of a lack of d-o-f and in part because of lens shake… See the truth about the actual sharpness of this image in The First Revelation below.
Damn the Iceplant!
I saw the killer bird and climbed the relatively low fence as fast as possible in hopes of photographing it before it quit displaying. I got the angle that I wanted and put the tripod down. The two rear legs were firmly seated on solid dirt, but the front leg, the one pointed at the subject, came down on a bed of ice plant. As Ice Plant is a succulent, its leaves are soft and fleshy. Not wanting to risk coming up empty, I aimed, focused, and fired off a few frames knowing that the resulting images would like be a bit soft at only 1/125 sec. This one was the sharpest of the lot. A shutter speed of 1/125 second would have been more than fast enough to create a sharp image if I had had the time to firmly seat the front leg of the tripod. But as it turned out, it was a good thing that I opted to get something. Why? The moment I tried to firm up the forward-facing leg of the tripod, the bird quit displaying…
A 100% crop of the unsharpened, converted TIFF
The First Revelation
#1: As you can see by the 100% crop the image was not close to being critically sharp. If it had been, each of the little blue jewels around the eye would look sharply etched. Heck, it was not even what I would call sharp.
In the comments to the original post IPT veteran Doug West asked, “Do you judge the sharpness from what you see in your RAW file, or what it could possibly look like after some post-processing?”
I responded, What you might be missing is that there are degrees of sharpness ranging from “totally out of focus” to “a bit soft” to “almost sharp” to “sharp” to “amazingly sharp…” Depending on the content and impact of an image, I might optimize an image from any of those groups but the first one (but only rarely from the “a bit soft” category).
Looking at the 100% crop of the RAW file, I would judge the sharpness of the image in question as somewhere between “a bit soft” and “almost sharp.”
The Second Revelation and How It Can Help You…
The second revelation is that many images that are less than critically sharp can be sharpened during post processing so that they are great for web and other electronic presentation and more than fine for making small and even medium-sized (or larger) prints. Heck, in the BirdPhotographer’s.Net post here, I even fooled fine feather detail fanatic Arash Hazheghi!
How do I do this routinely?
#1: Eye Doctor work.
#2: By applying a contrast mask to the bird’s head.
Learn the details of the above in my Digital Basics File, the best $25 you will ever spend on photography. Learn how make your images better in Photoshop rather than ruining them! It includes dozens of great Photoshop tips.
#3: I sharpen my JPEGs using Unsharp Mask at from 110-150/0.3/0. This sharpening is applied to the whole image not just to the subject.
Fort DeSoto in fall is rife with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this fall one way or another. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Join me on the morning of October 2, 2016 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.
Folks attending the IPT will be in the field early and stay out late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are relatively short in early fall. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
Fort DeSoto Short Notice Fall IPT/September 28 (meet & greet and afternoon session) through the full day on October 1, 2016. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1549. Limit 10. Sunday morning ITFW free to IPT registrants.
Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds in fall. There they join dozens of egrets, herons, night-herons, gulls, and terns who winter on the T-shaped peninsula that serves as their wintering grounds. With any luck, we should get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher likely. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. And Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork would not be unexpected.
Folks who sign up for the IPT are welcome to join me as my guest on the ITFW on the Sunday morning following the workshop. See above for details on that.
On this and all other IPTs you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify and age many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).
At brunch (included) we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me edit–why keep this one and delete that one. If you opt to bring your laptop, we can take a look at a few of your images from the morning session. We will process a few of my images in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. That followed by Instructor Nap Time.
As I already have one signed up for this workshop, it is a go. Hotel info will be e-mailed when you register. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). It is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel so if you are interested it would be a good idea to register now and make your hotel reservations as soon as you hear from us. We can, however, coordinate with local folks who opt to stay at home.
Because of the relatively late date, payment is full is due upon registration either by check or credit card. If the former, please e-mail us immediately so that we can save you a spot. If the latter, please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand to register. Your registration fee is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight so please check your plans carefully before committing. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions and gear & clothing advice a fairly soon.
BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT.
The Fort DeSoto Site Guide
Can’t make the IPT or the ITFW? Get yourself a copy of the Fort DeSoto Site Guide. Learn the best spots, where to be when in what season in what weather. Learn the best wind directions for the various locations. BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. You can see all of them here.
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 rested and got a lot accomplished on Monday. I worked on this post early on Monday morning. I am heading into the community pool at my Mom’s place as soon as I finish this one.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 264 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
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.
Used Gear Sales Continue to be Brisk
Tom Mast sold his Canon 300mm f/4L IS USM lens in excellent condition for $625 in late July.
Henry Raymundo sold his Gitzo 1325 tripod and a Wimberley V-2 head both in very good plus condition for the very low price of $699 and two used Canon 100-400mm IS L Zoom lenses, one in excellent condition for $599, the other in very good plus condition for $549–all in late July.
Jonathan Ward sold his Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent condition for $2,000 CAD in early July.
Long ago multiple IPT veteran Charles McRae sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS lens in good to very good condition in early July for a record low $4,199.
Jeffrey Fredberg sold his EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM L series lens in like-new condition for the record-low BAA price of $749 in late June.
Jim Burns sold his Canon 200-400mm F/4L IS zoom lens with Internal 1.4X Extender in brand new condition for the insane BAA record-low price of $8499 in late June.
Moody McCall sold his Canon 300mm F/2.8L IS II in excellent condition for $4199 in mid-June.
Long-ago IPT veteran Charles Sleicher sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens in very good plus condition for $3400 in mid-June.
Top BAA Used Gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III in absolute mint condition for $1599 in mid-June.
KW McCulloch sold his Canon EOS-1D X in excellent condition for $2459 in mid-June.
Top BAA Used Gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the old five) in very good plus condition for a BAA record low price of $3699 in mid-June.
New Listing
Canon EOS-5D Mark III
Multiple IPT-veteran and all around nice guy Sheldon Goldstein is offering a Canon EOS-5D Mark III in excellent plus condition but for a few scuffs on the bottom of the camera for the great price of $1479. The body was just cleaned and checked by Canon; it has only about 16,500 actuations. The sale includes the camera strap, the battery, the battery charger, and the manual.
Please contact Shelly via e-mail or by phone at 1-646-423-0392 (eastern time).
I have owned and used this superb, full frame, 22mp digital body for several years. It was always my first choice for scenic, Urbex, and flower photography until I fell in love with the 5DS R (for a lot more money!). artie
Center AF point (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The active AF point fell just below the side of the bird’s neck just a bit behind the eye. See the illuminated red square in the DPP 4 screen capture below. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Common Tern chick begging. Image courtesy of and copyright 2016: Will Schilling
Well Done Will
Amateur Nailed It!
I knew that Will had rocked this one the moment that I saw it on the back of his camera. He had been sitting about 10 feet to my right. This was the session where we chose to sit up sun angle from a patch of really clean sand and wait for the action to come to us. (See the A Different Approach to Bird Photography blog post here if you missed it.)
Will was using my back-up 5DS R. He rented it for the IPT before his previously saltwater damaged 1D X bit the bullet and failed completely. He did not use it much until after his 1D X went down the tubes.
Camera Thoughts from Will via e-mail
I’m so glad that I rented one of your 5DS R bodies for this trip. Not only because my primary camera crapped out on me, but because it was good getting some experience with the 5DS R first hand. The image quality is obviously incredible. I had gotten used to the large/high quality files on my Nikon D810 before my recent switch to Canon. I think that because of my familiarity with the D810’s high resolution, I was already used to having to keep the camera/lens really still to get sharp pictures, so this wasn’t an issue for me. The 5DS R AF system really impressed me though. Even with the 2X tele-converter on it was really quick and accurate.
When I left the IPT, I was pretty sure I was going to immediately replace my dead 1D X with a 5DS R, but now I’m leaning more towards the EOS-1DX Mark II. I am thinking that I will either pick up a 5DS R or the eventual (rumoured) 5D Mark IV as a second camera. Looking back, I didn’t really get to use the 5DS R much for flight photography, so that’s why I’m leaning towards the 1DX-II first. It seems that it may be the best camera body for me until I get a second body. I’ve been trying to go back through your old blog posts and Arash’s comments on BPN to help me decide. I think I know your thoughts on this, but welcome any additional comments you may have.
I was about to reply to Will that he might be making an expensive mistake, but before I had a chance to answer him he sent this via e-mail:
FYI, I used your B&H affiliate link to purchase a new 1DX Mark II, an extra LPE 19 battery, a second CFast memory card, and an extra LPE6N battery for my 5DS R. I was able to pick up factory reconditioned 5DS R from Canon; sorry, but it saved me $700. I couldn’t make up my mind to get one or the other and I knew that I need two bodies anyway…
I am officially broke now!
Will
I wrote back forgiving Will and telling him that I was curious as to how often he would use each body for bird photography. On the recent IPT I used the 5DS R a lot and my 1D X II infrequently after the first afternoon… And yes, I thanked him profusely for using my B&H links for his $6442.94 purchase!
My best effort…
My Best Effort…
Pro: Failed!
Using the same gear as Will, I failed miserably several times to photograph the same chick that Will nailed when creating today’s featured image. I write often that with advancing age my fine motor skills, strength, and hand-eye coordination are not what they used to be. But the DPP 4 AF point screen capture above shows that maybe folks should start believing me… Note that I failed to get the selected AF point on an area of contrast as Will did. Even when the chick stopped to beg in one spot I fanned on it…
I still am not sure if the 1D X Mark II would offer better AF than the 5DS R with the 600 II/2X III combo. I did go to the 1D X II/600 II/2X III during my Saturday session with Jake Levin. I did pretty well but have not made a final decision. I will be running lots more on the 1DX II vs. 5DS R comparison in the next few weeks.
The DPP 4 screen capture for Will’s image
The DPP 4 Screen Capture for Will’s Image
Note that Will created a fine exposure with some data well into the fifth histogram box as seen in the RGB histogram. Note his white RBG values in the high 220s and the low 230s. And Will did a great job getting the AF point on an area with at least some contrast and doing that quickly enough so that the system had a chance to acquire focus and lock on. The latter was something that I failed to do so consistently, at least with this subject.
The Image Optimization
When I optimized Will’s image, note that I cleaned some poop off of the fine feathers near the rear of the bird. I addition, I used a flopped Quick Mask to move the o-o-f green vegetation from the right side of the frame to the left–with Will’s permission–for better compositional balance. Note that the sand was pretty much pristine…
APTATS I & II
Learn the details of advanced Quick Masking techniques in APTATS I. Learn Advanced Layer Masking Techniques in APTATS II. Save $15 by ordering both here.
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 brought the Mets some needed good luck. And the threatening weather held. The Mets beat the Rockies 6-4 on Neil Walker’s three run bomb in the bottom of the seventh inning to the delight of three generations of Morrises.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 263 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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 (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The active AF point fell on the side of the bird’s upper back just above the dark mark on the folded wing. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.
Common Tern fledgling posing perfectly in late afternoon light
Today’s Featured Image
What makes today’s featured image so special? Is it the sweet late afternoon light. The soft, splendid, de-focused background that came with getting down on the ground? The beautiful young Common Tern? The alert posture? (Perhaps the bird thought that it heard mom coming with a fish…) The fact that the shadow adds so nicely to the image design? Or the out of focus beach vegetation in the ULC? Or all of the above?
Yeah, the above is a set of rhetorical questions…
DPP 4 Screen Capture showing active AF point
The Active AF Point
I placed the AF point on a spot that I thought would approximate the plane of the bird’s eye. I think that i did quite well. See more below.
Tight crop of feet, toes, and sand grains…
Understanding Depth of Field and Plane of Sharp Focus Issues
The black grain of sand to the right of A is in very sharp focus.
The black grain of sand to the left of B is not quite in sharp focus.
The dark grain of sand to the left of C is completely out of focus.
The two long toes, the one on the right foot (nearest us) and the one on the left foot (farthest from us), are both pretty well focused. If push came to shove, I’d say that the near long toe is a bit sharper than the far long toe. This makes sense as A, the sharpest grain of sand, looks to be on the same plane as the near long toe, the one below the letter D.
Thus, with the slight head turn toward us, the bird’s razor sharp eye must be pretty much on the same plane as the long toe of the near foot.
At f/10 at 1200mm with a full frame camera body and estimating the distance at 25 feet, my favorite online depth of field calculator, DOF Master.Com, states that depth of field in front of and behind the plane of focus would be more than .4 inches with a total depth of field of more than .8 inches. A quick glance at the tight crop of the feet, toes, and sand grains shows that that is at least a 50% over-estimate…
The fact is that at 1200mm with the subject 20-30 feet from the back of the camera, depth of field is measured in small fractions of an inch. Thus, if your gear or the bird moves even a fraction of an inch you will not produce an image that is sharp on the eye. That is the great challenge of working with extremely long focal lengths.
Ramifications
Yes, creating razor sharp on the eye images at 1200mm is a big challenge. It is almost always better to have AF active at the moment of exposure (even when you are limited to the center AF point) than it is to use rear focus (or One Shot AF) and re-compose (even when you are on a tripod). Why? It the bird shifts position even slightly, you are toast as far as sharpness is concerned. There is of course a big advantage with the 1DX Mark II in these situations as you would have all AF points available.
On a related matter, try to get the active AF point on an area with at least some pattern and contrast. Placing the active AF point on a featureless white breast might work on occasion but much better to give the AF system a fair chance. And that goes double in low light situations…
A Question
Are you better off working at the same distance with the 600 II and the 1.4X III TC, enjoying more d-o-f, producing sharper images with more fine feather detail, and then cropping than you are with the 600 II/2X III TC combo?
My answer? I honestly don’t know. What do you think? Does anyone know the theoretically correct answer?
Fort DeSoto in fall is rife with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this fall one way or another. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Join me on the morning of October 2, 2016 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.
Folks attending the IPT will be in the field early and stay out late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are relatively short in early fall. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
Fort DeSoto Short Notice Fall IPT/September 28 (meet & greet and afternoon session) through the full day on October 1, 2016. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1549. Limit 10. Sunday morning ITFW free to IPT registrants.
Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds in fall. There they join dozens of egrets, herons, night-herons, gulls, and terns who winter on the T-shaped peninsula that serves as their wintering grounds. With any luck, we should get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher likely. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. And Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork would not be unexpected.
Folks who sign up for the IPT are welcome to join me as my guest on the ITFW on the Sunday morning following the workshop. See above for details on that.
On this and all other IPTs you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify and age many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).
At brunch (included) we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me edit–why keep this one and delete that one. If you opt to bring your laptop, we can take a look at a few of your images from the morning session. We will process a few of my images in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. That followed by Instructor Nap Time.
As I already have one signed up for this workshop, it is a go. Hotel info will be e-mailed when you register. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). It is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel so if you are interested it would be a good idea to register now and make your hotel reservations as soon as you hear from us. We can, however, coordinate with local folks who opt to stay at home.
Because of the relatively late date, payment is full is due upon registration either by check or credit card. If the former, please e-mail us immediately so that we can save you a spot. If the latter, please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand to register. Your registration fee is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight so please check your plans carefully before committing. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions and gear & clothing advice a fairly soon.
BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT.
The Fort DeSoto Site Guide
Can’t make the IPT or the ITFW? Get yourself a copy of the Fort DeSoto Site Guide. Learn the best spots, where to be when in what season in what weather. Learn the best wind directions for the various locations. BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. You can see all of them here.
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 🙂
Jake Levin and I had a pretty good morning at Nickerson on Saturday despite the gentle west wind and clear skies. After brunch at Bagel Plaza in Merrick he head back to New Hampshire to the family property and I headed back to Mom’s. Tomorrow–weather permitting, I will attend a Mets game with younger daughter Alissa, granddaughter Maya Egensteiner (daughter of my older daughter Jennifer) and the younger of my two autistic grandson’s, Idris. Unfortunately the Mets have been stranding runners in scoring position at record levels; they lead the league in runs not batted in…
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 263 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
What They Had to Say: Canon
From multiple IPT veteran Will Schilling after the Nickerson Beach IPT via e-mail:
All is well back here in Houston. Made it back late Sunday. Excited to see my image on your blog soon; it will be such an honor…
#1.) Thanks again for a wonderful 4 1/2 days at Nickerson last week. As discussed on the last day, I’m very glad I was able to come back for a second IPT. I learned a lot last year on the Bosque IPT In fact, maybe too much to take in all in one session, so having a second go to re-emphasize the key points was very beneficial. I feel I was able to take away a lot of the technical points in the first IPT, such as long lens handling techniques, manual exposure and the all important sun angle business but one of my favorite things to see you do is react to the situation at hand. This is really where the more time spent with you the better. I really appreciate how you vocalize your thoughts during the in the field decision-making process. As you’ve shared on the blog recently, we had a lot of challenging situations with wind against sun, rain and even the wind/sand storm. It would be easy for you to just move us to another spot and put us on a different subject, but I really appreciate how you involve us in the decision-making process and share your field knowledge with us as weather conditions and the subjects change. This is extremely helpful when we go back home, head out on our home turf, and are left to make decisions on our own.
I also think that the other IPT members make these trips so much fun. Now that I’ve been on two, I can say that you seem to draw an excellent group of photographers/students and all-around nice folks. Everyone is obviously there for the same general purpose, but all are at slightly development levels. This is good as we can all learn from each other in addition to you. The Nickerson IPT was a smaller group than in New Mexico; this was very nice for the logistics and learning, but even in a larger group such as the Bosque trip all we had to do was stay close to you and ask lots of questions.
Thanks again and hoping to be able to see you on the San Diego IPT next year!
What They Had to Say: Nikon
From first timer Bob DeCroce after the Nickerson Beach IPT via e-mail:
I have to tell you, I have followed and admired you for many years, but getting to know you in person has really been the best.
On another bright note, or two, or more…
I have purchased, installed, and become slightly proficient in using PhotoMechanic. I have been using your workflow and liking it! I can really see the difference in the quality of my images made by exposing for “a bit shy” of the right edge of the histogram. I have made many notes throughout the week and continue to capture the “why” things are working and not working as to ensure some decent level of retention of the things that you taught me this week. And many, many, more
Thank you again for everything. I am really glad that I have finally gotten to learn from you in person.
Please don’t forget to include me when you have a date for Fort DeSoto in the fall.
Bob.
I asked Bob via return e-mail if he would share his notes with us. He agreed to do just that:
These are the notes and key take-aways that I made in the field, during the breaks between shooting sessions, and while reviewing my images:
The importance of being on sun angle; sun at your back; when you point at the subject, you should be shooting directly in line with your own shadow. Never exceed +/- 15 degrees off sun angle for best results. Step left or right to ensure that you are on sun angle.
Make sure that the subject is parallel to the sensor plane for sharpness. For birds, their bodies should be in line with their heads and/or 2 degrees from that towards the camera.
It is critical to expose to the right and with few if any blinkies and no significant blinkies on the subject to maximize image quality and reduce noise.
Relationship of Sun position and wind direction (on sunny days): birds will turn to face the wind; if the sun and wind are not from the same direction they will not be facing the sun; having the wind 90 degrees to the sun is great for portraits of birds on the beach as they will be square to the back of the camera.
Backgrounds: make sure that there are not any stark lines of color or tonalities passing through the birds head. Water on the shore should either envelop the birds legs or not touch the bird in any way; beware of breaking waves cutting through the bird. Shoot birds on the shore on berms or rises to help isolate them from the backgrounds. Alway include feet in the image if possible.
If going vertical or if you must crop the bird in the image, do so just past natural feather tract end points; cut don’t clip. If cropping bird mid-body, always do so at least 1″ parallel to and past the bird’s legs.
If a bird is captured flying from the left to right (or vice versa), the wings should either be up fully–close to 12 o’clock–or fully down near 6 o”clock for the best shots. Anything else will usually not look as good. If a bird is flying directly towards you the wing position is not as critical as it is when it is flying from side to side as above.
Pleasing blurs: make test shots for exposure settings. Shutter priority mode: 1/15th second. Auto-ISO or safety shift.
Exposure tests for flight photos: meter the sky and depending on the strength and quality of the light and the tonality of the bird, add or subtract light as needed. Then make a test exposure. Check the histogram and adjust plus or minus until histogram is just to the left of the right edge of the graph. Keep the RGB values for the whites in the mid-230’s. Make sure that there is a little gap on the right side of the histogram, the highlight side. When converting the image, use the eye dropper to check the RGB values of the brightest whites.
Exposure on sunny days; always use ISO 400. Go up from there as required on days with less light. Always test shoot the neutral sky and adjust plus or minus from there. Remember that when the sun is out, the meter is pretty smart but when it is cloudy or overcast the meter is pretty stupid; you will need to add as much as two to three stops of light to come up with a good exposure on cloudy and overcast days.
AF stuff for flight or when hand holding. It is important that the camera be locked on the eye, the bird’s head, or the face if possible when the shutter is released. Use a single AF point or a small cluster for flight photography; if you use an AF array the system might lock onto a near wing… Consider switching to shutter button focus for flight photography. You need to have AF active at the moment of exposure when hand holding for a static subject. Simply breathing (and other bodily movements) after you set rear button focus and before making the image can cause you to miss focus.
Sunrises and Sunsets: Set WB to K8,000. Start by setting the exposure compensation to zero if the sun is in the frame and then adjust after looking at the histogram. Expose for the highlights and check the histogram for blinkies; no blinkies means exposing correctly for the bright sun. If you look away from the sun and see purple quit it—the sun is too bright to photograph and you risk retina damage. It is better to wait until the sun is somewhat muted by thin clouds or fog…
While reviewing final day’s shots. It can be very difficult to see the right edge of the histogram while in the field especially on sunny days. I need to do a better job of this as had the histograms touching the right axis or with not enough of a gap off the right edge; image quality and WHITEs suffered as a result.
I began to find many that had a bigger gap on the right, not a lot, but exactly what Artie had said. Those images have much better quality and more detailed WHITEs. They did not require pulling down highlights, and the detail is all there!
As I work through my images I cannot believe the difference of the quality of the images with the correct histogram! Wow!!! Much better.
Don’t forget that best composition is head angle in line with the angle of the body with 2 degree turn of head/bill/beak towards me. Also head angle can be at least parallel to the camera’s sensor.
There were no problems with me being the only Nikon shooter relative to everyone (including you) on Canon. You shared with me how Nikon compensation would be different. Once the compensation issue while shooting manual was revealed, it was clear why I was struggling to follow you as you called out the compensations and exposures. That was a really big deal, and as you said, I have no idea why this (exposure compensation in Manual mode) could or should work like that…
I was out this morning shooting a Great Egret locally and am just going through my images when you e-mailed. One thing I wanted to try and practice was holding the AF-On while releasing the shutter and then checking during image review for sharpness.
Hope this helps!
Best regards, Bob
Questions?
If you have a question about any of the points that Bob made or about anything else above, please feel free to leave your question or questions in a comment below.
Fort DeSoto in fall is rife with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this fall one way or another. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Join me on the morning of October 2, 2016 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.
Folks attending the IPT will be in the field early and stay out late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are relatively short in early fall. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
Fort DeSoto Short Notice Fall IPT/September 28 (meet & greet and afternoon session) through the full day on October 1, 2016. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1549. Limit 10. Sunday morning ITFW free to IPT registrants.
Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds in fall. There they join dozens of egrets, herons, night-herons, gulls, and terns who winter on the T-shaped peninsula that serves as their wintering grounds. With any luck, we should get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher likely. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. And Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork would not be unexpected.
Folks who sign up for the IPT are welcome to join me as my guest on the ITFW on the Sunday morning following the workshop. See above for details on that.
On this and all other IPTs you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify and age many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).
At brunch (included) we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me edit–why keep this one and delete that one. If you opt to bring your laptop, we can take a look at a few of your images from the morning session. We will process a few of my images in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. That followed by Instructor Nap Time.
As I already have one signed up for this workshop, it is a go. Hotel info will be e-mailed when you register. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). It is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel so if you are interested it would be a good idea to register now and make your hotel reservations as soon as you hear from us. We can, however, coordinate with local folks who opt to stay at home.
Because of the relatively late date, payment is full is due upon registration either by check or credit card. If the former, please e-mail us immediately so that we can save you a spot. If the latter, please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand to register. Your registration fee is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight so please check your plans carefully before committing. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions and gear & clothing advice a fairly soon.
BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT.
The Fort DeSoto Site Guide
Can’t make the IPT or the ITFW? Get yourself a copy of the Fort DeSoto Site Guide. Learn the best spots, where to be when in what season in what weather. Learn the best wind directions for the various locations. BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. You can see all of them here.
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 headed to Nickerson early to work with the northeast wind while the clouds from Friday morning’s storm were still around. It worked, Jake Levin, who lives in Montreal, drove down from New Hampshire and arrived at about 2pm just when the sun came out. With the east wind, that spelled death for bird photography. But by 3:30 the wind had swung to the south, southwest and we had a great rest of the day with the skimmers, terns, and oystercatchers.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 262 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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/ExpandRear Focus AF on the dead fledgling’s eye re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +5.
Common Tern fledgling run over by large beach vehicle
Death By Large Beach Truck…
Every day, all manner of beach vehicles make their way east and west along Lido Beach. Garbage trucks, beach raking vehicles, lifeguard and patrol vehicles, and lots more. Sometimes there are casualties. Tiny Piping Plover chicks are often killed by beach vehicles (including all of the above plus the the beach trucks of fisherman) when they are unable to climb out of a deep tire track; they are so well camouflaged as to be practically invisible.
This Just In…
Texting While Driving
My understanding is that the drivers of all beach vehicles are educated as to the danger of running over helpless chicks and fledglings. On Saturday morning, Jake Levin and Chris Billman were stunned when we saw a fairly young guy driving a big yellow bulldozer. Why were we stunned. As he drove by us–fairly slowly–he was texting while driving!!! Many, you gotta love it.
This image was created on the last morning of the of the recently concluded Nickerson Beach IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R.. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops as framed: 1/200 sec. at f/10. Daylight WB.
A single AF point (Manual selection) that was three rows down and one to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure; the selected AF point fell on the dying chick’s eye. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2.
Common Tern chick dying, probably of exposure
Death by Sandstorm Exposure
The afternoon before our eyes had been scoured by the sand with south winds gusting to 30mph. We know that one adult lost two small chicks. We found this larger chick in the same area near death. By the time we left, it was a goner. As noted here previously, beach nesting birds have it tough…
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 got lots of work done on Thursday when this blog post was prepared. I enjoyed a nice swim in the community pool at my Mom’s place and got back to doing my core exercises, at least some of them 🙂
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 261 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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 (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure; the selected AF point fell on the side of the bird’s neck just rear of the base of its bill. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Double-crested Cormorant with white crests raised
Those White Crests
Eastern birds of this species have crests in breeding plumage, but they are–for the most part–black. Each year when I visit San Diego we manage to find a killer bird or two in full breeding plumage with the white crests.
Can You Do It?
Can you judge critical sharpness from this JPEG? How about the exposure? I would love to hear your thoughts? As presented, it looks pretty good to me.
How Sharp is Sharp Enough???
If you are into making huge prints, say 60 inches wide by 40 inches tall, critical sharpness and impeccable fine feather detail are critically important. For many other usages, it is not…
The Pen Test for Sharpness…
Back in the day when it was possible to actually sell a few images, I often spoke about the “Pen Test” for sharpness. If the guy buying the image signed the check, it was sharp enough.
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 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 got lots of work done on Tuesday when this blog post was prepared; I am getting ready to spend ten weeks in South America this fall. If any new folks would like details on joining the last Cheesemans’ South Georgia expedition (October 20-November 7, 2016) and become part of the BA group please shoot me an e-mail as that great trip is getting really close. Not only are there several openings but they are offering some really substantial late registration discounts. Ah, I just learned that this trip is now sold out with a waiting list…
Wind and weather are looking good for FRI and SAT mornings at Nickerson. If anyone is interested in cheap ($350/person) private or small group instruction (limit 3) please shoot me an e-mail. The session includes a working brunch and image review. More dates to follow. Inquiries welcome. Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin is joining me for both sessions.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 260 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
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.
Used Gear Sales Continue to be More Than Brisk
Tom Mast sold his Canon 300mm f/4L IS USM lens in excellent condition for $625 in late July.
Henry Raymundo sold his Gitzo 1325 tripod and a Wimberley V-2 head both in very good plus condition for the very low price of $699 and two used Canon 100-400mm IS L Zoom lenses, one in excellent condition for $599, the other in very good plus condition for $549–all in late July.
Jonathan Ward sold his Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent condition for $2,000 CAD in early July.
Long ago multiple IPT veteran Charles McRae sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS lens in good to very good condition in early July for a record low $4,199.
Jeffrey Fredberg sold his EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM L series lens in like-new condition for the record-low BAA price of $749 in late June.
Jim Burns sold his Canon 200-400mm F/4L IS zoom lens with Internal 1.4X Extender in brand new condition for the insane BAA record-low price of $8499 in late June.
Moody McCall sold his Canon 300mm F/2.8L IS II in excellent condition for $4199 in mid-June.
Long-ago IPT veteran Charles Sleicher sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens in very good plus condition for $3400 in mid-June.
Top BAA Used Gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III in absolute mint condition for $1599 in mid-June.
KW McCulloch sold his Canon EOS-1D X in excellent condition for $2459 in mid-June.
Top BAA Used Gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the old five) in very good plus condition for a BAA record low price of $3699 in mid-June.
New Listing
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Lens
Ron Ozuna is offering a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens in near-mint condition for $2975. The sale includes the original lens front lens cover, the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original Canon product box, and insured Ground Shipping via FedEx Ground to US addresses only. This lens was recently cleaned and checked at the Canon Service Center in Costa Mesa, CA. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Ron via e-mail or by phone at 1-626-799-7616 (Pacific time).
The older version of the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS is a super sharp lens that is great for hand held flight and action photography and great with both teleconverters. It has long been the favorite focal length of the world’s best hawk photographers. artie
A single AF point that was two to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/ExpandRear Focus AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure; see the DPP 4 screen capture below. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +5.
American Oystercatcher chick dining on sand crab just presented by the adult
I Can’t Do Much Better Than This…
Everything pretty much came together perfectly and resulted in the creation of today’s featured image. All are invited to leave a comment and note the strengths (at least five) and weaknesses (if any) of the image. You can check out the minimal beach clean-up and the small crop by comparing the optimized image above with the original in the DPP 4 Screen Capture below.
DPP 4 Screen Capture
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
With the cursor on the brightest WHITEs the RBG values were and are 246, 235, 197 the image is a bit on the warm side. As the image was created at 6:04am, I like the warm tones and would not want to change the color balance.
Note that there appears to be very little data in the right-most box of the histogram. #1: Would you have increased the exposure at all by moving the Brightness slider to the right? Why or why not?
The illuminated red AF point notes that AF was active at the moment of exposure. #2:As things turned out, could I have selected a better AF point? Why or why not?
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 🙂
Had a great visit with Dr. Dan Holland at True Sports care in Nesconset on Tuesday afternoon. The guy is a magician. My shoulder is feeling 500% better and I plan on getting back in the pool on Wednesday.
Wind and weather are looking good for FRI and SAT mornings at Nickerson. If anyone is interested in cheap ($350) private or small group instruction (limit 3) please shoot me an e-mail. The session includes a working brunch and image review. More dates to follow. Inquiries welcome.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 259 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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.
There is no way around it: having your images critiqued and critiquing the work of others is the best way to improve as a nature photographer.
This image was created at Costa Vicentina, Porto Covo, Portugal by BPN member Luis Patacão. He used a tripod-mounted Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM Autofocus Zoom Lens For Nikon Cameras and the Nikon D7000 (now replaced by the Nikon D7100. A 2-stop soft-edge neutral density filter was used to help achieve a slow shutter speed.
Sea of Colors. Image courtesy of and copyright 2016 Luis Patacão
A image in one of my favorite coastal peaces of Portugal (Costa Vicentina, Porto Covo). Here I was almost completely in the water playing with the shutter and motion of the sea.
To me the most important word is playing. Digital has given all of us the ability to experiment, often with slow shutter speeds, the ability to play. To play with light, to play with motion, to play with color, and to play with photography. That is the single thing that I love most about digital.
After reading the thread here and leaving a comment, I asked a few questions and learned that Luis took his camera gear into the waves with his tripod and positioned it so that his camera was just inches from the surface of the water.
I was curious as to whether Luis owned a more expensive camera and took his backup D7000 into the ocean to reduce risk. But as it turns out, his D7000 is the only camera that he owns. Thus, he was risking pretty much everything to create today’s image.
From Luis via e-mail: I own a budget setup.
What’s the Big Lesson?
You do not need a $6,000+ camera body and the best lenses to create truly memorable images. Desire, heart, brains, skill, determination, and imagination and creative vision always trump (sorry about that, but I am apolitical…) the most expensive gear.
Related Questions
What’s the craziest thing that you have ever done with your expensive camera gear?
What are your thoughts on Luis’s image?
Thanks!
Big time thanks to Luis for allowing me to share his image with y’all here. And for his BPN membership support. I am proud to say that the BPN community includes extremely talented photographers from every corner of the globe.
Learn the secrets of creating contest winning images in our “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs.”
A Guide to Pleasing Blurs
In A Guide to Pleasing Blurs the authors discuss just about every technique ever used by mankind to create pleasingly blurred images. Ninety-nine point nine percent of pleasing blurs are not happy accidents. You can learn pretty much everything that there is to know about creating them in this instructive, well written, easy to follow guide.
Palouse 2016 Horizontals Card
Why Different?
Announcing the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
In what ways will the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour be different from the most other Palouse workshops?
There are so many great locations that a seven-day IPT (as opposed to the typical three- or five-day workshops) will give the group time to visit (and revisit) many of the best spots while allowing you to maximize your air travel dollars. In addition, it will allow us to enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace.
You will be assured of being in the right location for the given weather and sky conditions.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills.
You will learn to design powerful, graphic images.
You will visit all of the iconic locations and a few spectacular ones that are much less frequently visited.
You will learn long lens landscape techniques.
You will learn to master any exposure situation in one minute or less.
You will learn the fine points of Canon in-camera (5D Mark III, 5DS R, and 7D II) HDR techniques.
You will learn to use your longest focal lengths to create rolling field and Urbex abstracts.
You will learn when and how to use a variety of neutral density filters to create pleasing blurs of the Palouse’s gorgeous rolling farmlands.
As always, you will learn to see like a pro. You will learn what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time. You will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images.
You will learn to use super-wide lenses both for big skies and building interiors.
You will learn when, why, and how to use infrared capture; if you do not own an infrared body, you will get to borrow mine.
You will learn to use both backlight and side-light to create powerful and dramatic landscape images.
This trip will run with one participant.
Palouse 2016 Verticals Card
The 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
June 8-14, 2017. Seven full days of photography. Meet and greet at 7:30pm on Wednesday, June 7: $2,499
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will enjoy spectacular sunrises and at least one nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. I will bring you to more than a few really neat old abandoned barns and farmhouses in idyllic settings. There is no better way to improve your compositional and image design skills and to develop your creativity than to join me for this trip. Photoshop and image sharing sessions when we have the time and energy…. We get up early and stay out late and the days are long.
Over the past three years, with the help of a friend, we found all the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and vistas. What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, my extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions. As above, there will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before the workshop begins.
To Sign Up
Your non-refundable deposit of $500 is required to hold your spot. Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining this IPT. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours to arrange for the payment of your deposit; if by check, please make out to “BIRDS AS ART” and mail it to: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail: artie.
Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options. You can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And 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 🙂
More R&R and more Chopped re-runs were on the menu on Monday.
Wind and weather are looking good for FRI and SAT mornings at Nickerson. If anyone is interested in cheap ($350) private or small group instruction (limit 3) please shoot me an e-mail. The session includes a working brunch and image review. More dates to follow. Inquiries welcome.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 258 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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 the first morning of the recently concluded Nickerson Beach IPT with the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens (at 257mm) with the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering as framed: 1/13 sec. at f/8 in Tv mode. Color temperature: 8000K.
65-point Automatic selection/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #1: Common Terns above the colony in pre-dawn color
Getting Up Early…
Except for our last morning–we had been at Tony Cuban enjoying some fine dining until after 11pm the night before–we had left the IPT hotel at 4:30am everyday and been in place for pre-dawn silhouettes and blurs with all our gear no later than 5:15am. In addition to the pre-dawn stuff, some clouds on the eastern horizon allowed us some extra times shooting back to the east before the skies cleared.
How Bad Was It?
The group was amazed many times as we encountered photographers arriving as we were packing up to head to brunch… I was not as I have seen it all too many times before. Arriving very early in the morning is always important but becomes even more important when the weather calls for clear skies and west/southwest winds.
Bad Wind/Good Wind…
Many folks do not realize that if the forecast calls for bad winds for clear sky flight photography, i.e., west winds in the morning or east winds in the afternoons, that those conditions are perfect for creating backlit images at dawn or dusk. With some color in the sky and things can be just ducky.
We were able to put this concept into practice on the morning that I made Image #1; with a SW wind the terns were all facing us.
Center Large Zone AF/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The AF system performed perfectly activating two AF points that fell on the bill and the head.
Image #2: Black Skimmer in flight with fish blur
Experimenting with the AF System
Experimenting with your camera’s AF system can pay big dividends. With today’s Image #1, I went with 65-point knowing that it would hold focus once I acquired it. When some skimmers started leaving the group to my leaf to fly to the northwest (into the wind of course) i.e., to my right, they were fairly large in the frame so I tried center Large Zone AF; it worked to perfection. I kept four interesting frames from the short-lived situation.
While AF Expand is my go-to AF Area Selection mode, I do not hesitate to try others that I think might be better in a given situation.
Your Favorite?
Please help to keep the blog interactive–it maximizes the learning opportunities–by leaving a comment and letting us know which of today’s featured images you like best. And please, of course, let us know why. If you hate all blurs as a matter of course, you can let us know why.
Learn the secrets of creating contest winning images in our “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs.”
A Guide to Pleasing Blurs
In A Guide to Pleasing Blurs the authors discuss just about every technique ever used by mankind to create pleasingly blurred images. Ninety-nine point nine percent of pleasing blurs are not happy accidents. You can learn pretty much everything that there is to know about creating them in this instructive, well written, easy to follow guide.
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 🙂
