We headed to Etosha early this morning and should be photographing at the fabled water holes this afternoon and evening. I will be offline until April 28 or 29th and hope to be home on the later afternoon of April 29, 2016. The streak will be intact when I get home.
Fifteen Percent Late Registration Discount on the October 22-November 6 South Georgia/Falklands Expedition
Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris announced yesterday that they are offering a 15% discount on the few remaining cabins for the October 22-November 6 South Georgia/Falklands Expedition. As most of you know, this will be their last trip focused on South Georgia Island for the foreseeable future due to market changes and spiraling costs. Proposed regulations may also decrease time and flexibility ashore on future trips, making it difficult to continue offering an expedition that meets their sky-high standards.
Don’t put it off any longer: take advantage of their late sign-up discount for new reservations and join this 19-day expedition to the Antarctic spending 6 days on South Georgia and 3 on the Falklands led by an unprecedented 17 polar specialists on the well-appointed Sea Spirit. Call now before the cabin you want fills (800) 527-5330 and be sure to let them know that you wish to be part of the BIRDS AS ART GROUP. See the additional details below. If you would like to join the OCT/NOV 2016 expedition, be sure to shoot me an e-mail.
All images on the card were created on the 2015 Cheesemans’ South Georgia Expedition. From top left clockwise to center: King Penguin resting on Snow, Fortuna Bay; Macaroni Penguin in snow, Cooper Island; Grey-headed Albatross, Elsehul; King Penguin neck abstract, Godthul; Northern Giant Petrel, Undine Harbor; adult Wandering Albatross, Prion Island; Elephant Seal, Undine Harbor; South Georgia Pipit fledgling/thanks Joe Kaplan! Fortuna Bay; high key King Penguins in snow, Fortuna Bay.
Card design and all images copyright 2015: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
Hard to Believe: An End to the Best…
I have been to the Southern Ocean five times, the last four with Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris (CES). It is common knowledge that they offer the finest ship-based photographic expeditions to South Georgia and the Falklands. Nobody else is close. They will make landings in tough conditions. Always. Their experienced staff and crew of zodiac drivers will get you on and off safely. You will enjoy so much time on a given landing that you will often want to head back to the ship early! Sorry, not me (though I did go back to the ship an hour early on our 2015 St. Andrews Bay landing. I quit after only 12 1/2 hours to go back to the ship on the 5pm zodiac when I could have stayed till 6pm…. My excuse? I could not raise my lens anymore.)
I learned recently that their October 22-November 6 (on the Sea Spirit) will be their last trip down to wildlife heaven on earth. Here is what Ted Cheeseman had to say:
The 2016 October/November expedition will be our last to South Georgia. Market changes, regulation changes, and as big of a part of our lives as it has been, we realize this next will indeed be the last.
When I asked him if he was sure that the 2016 trip would be the last, he replied:
To be honest, we have been known to go back on our statement of ‘last trip ever’. But for South Georgia, I don’t see how we could do it in the future. We want to continue but the costs are skyrocketing, regulation is threatening in a way that I think after 2016 may very well make it impossible to have free roaming folks ashore, i.e. possibly guided groups only – no thank you. So though I am loathe to say it, the Oct/Nov 2016 trip will be our last. If we do another before the end of 2018, I’ll see to it that you get free passage aboard. How’s that for a commitment?
BIRDS AS ART and the 2016 Cheesemans’ South Georgia/Falklands Expedition
When I got off the Ortelius at Stanley and told Ted that the just concluded voyage would be my last to the Southern Ocean, I meant it. But once I heard that the 2016 trip would be their last, I realized that I had to make the trip. As soon as I sign up a single participant for the expedition’s BAA group, I will be sending my deposit check.
If you would like to join me on what will be an amazing trip to a wondrous place, please shoot me an e-mail with the words “Cheesemans’ Last South Georgia Expedition” cut and pasted into the Subject Line.
All of the images on this card were created in the Falklands on the 2014 Cheesemans’ Southern Oceans Expedition. From top left clockwise to center: Black-browed Albatross tending chick, Steeple Jason Island; Black-browed Albatross courting pair, New Island; the Black-browed Albatross colony at Steeple Jason Island; Black-browed Albatross landing, New Island; King Cormorant head portrait, New Island; hull detail/derelict minesweeper, New Island; Rockhopper Penguin head portrait in bright sun, New Island; Striated Caracara, Steeple Jason Island; Magellanic Snipe chick, Sea Lion Island.
An Expedition Overview
Experience the vibrant spring of South Georgia, a true Antarctic wildlife paradise. Observe and photograph wildlife behaviors seldom seen beneath the towering, snow blanketed mountains (see image below) that dominate the island’s landscape. Southern Elephant Seal bulls fight for breeding rights while females nurse young, overlook vast colonies of loafing King Penguins, watch Macaroni Penguins cavort in the snow, photograph handsome Gray-headed Albatrosses in flight or attending to their cliffside nests and awkward Wandering Albatrosses attempting first flight. The itinerary includes six landing days on South Georgia and three landing days in the Falklands to observe too cute Rockhopper Penguins, Magellanic Penguins standing watch at their nesting burrows, and more Black-browed Albatrosses than you could ever imagine. To commemorate Shackleton’s famous self-rescue crossing South Georgia, CES also offers an optional trek retracing his steps. With Cheesemans’ twenty years of experience in the Antarctic region, they commit to an in-depth exploration of one of the densest wildlife spectacles found anywhere in the world, and with only 100 passengers, they routinely give you the opportunity to completely immerse yourself on each landing.
Two of the scheduled Falklands landings, New Island and especially Steeple Jason Island, rival the best locations on South Georgia. Those will likely include Salisbury Plain, St. Andrews Bay, Elsehul, Fortuna Bay, and either Cooper Island or Hercules Bay (for Macaroni Penguins).
Why Sign Up Through BIRDS AS ART?
If you have been thinking and dreaming of finally visiting South Georgia, this is the trip for you. There will likely never be another trip like this as the best outfit in the Southern Oceans business will not be returning after 2016…. Quit dreaming and act now. Though I will not be an expedition staff member on this trip, those who have traveled with me know that I cannot help but teach. And I will be doing a introductory photography program for the entire ship on our crossing to South Georgia. All who sign up via BAA will receive a free copy the new Southern Ocean Photography Guide (a $100 value) that I am currently working on. It will include pre-trip gear and clothing recommendations and a ton of info that you will find to be invaluable.
I will hold informal pre-landing briefings aboard ship so that when you land you know exactly what to expect and where to go. I will be available on the ship to review your images, answer your questions, and conduct informal over-the shoulder Photoshop sessions. And best of all, everyone who signs up under the auspices of BAA are invited to tag along with me on the landings where I will be glad to offer invaluable in-the-field advice. And the same goes for the shipboard birds in flight and marine mammal photographic sessions.
Again, if you would like to join me on what will truly be a once in a lifetime opportunity to a wondrous place, please shoot me an e-mail with the words “Cheesemans’ Last South Georgia Expedition,” cut and pasted into the Subject Line.
You can learn more about the trip here. If you sign up on your own be sure to mention that you would like to be part of the BAA Group. I’d be glad to answer any and all question via e-mail or by phone at 863-692-0906.
Important Notes
#1: If you fail to e-mail me as noted directly above, and register directly with CES you MUST let them know that you would like to be part of the BIRDS AS ART group.
#2: Joining the BIRDS AS ART group as above will not cost you one penny.
The Sea Spirit
The Sea Spirit is an “all suite” luxury vessel built for sailing in ice with an ice-strengthened hull and retractable fin stabilizers, the latter deliver smooth sailing to make your polar expedition enjoyable and safe. All cabins have a private, en-suite bathroom, a lounge area, and ample storage. The cabins have unobstructed exterior views via portholes, picture windows, or a private balcony. The ship is outfitted with a presentation room for on-board lectures as well as a gym, library, game room, lounge, bar with bartender, and dining lounge with chef-prepared meals. The Sea Spirit provides warm and comfortable accommodation for 100 passengers, the expedition staff, and the ship’s crew. The Sea Spirit carries a fleet of ten Zodiacs. The Zodiac loading area, located at the rear of the ship, provides a safe and relatively sheltered place from which to embark on our adventures.
Best of all, the Sea Spirit does 14 knots, a huge step above the other ships that I have been on; each crawled along at 11 knots…
I know from personal experience that if you are a photographer who is going to invest in Southern Ocean voyage, you will want to put your money on Cheesemans’. No other tour company goes as far out of their way to ensure making every possible safe landing. And no other tour company will have you spending more time on land. Michael Viljeon from South Africa was aboard the Ortelius on a Southern Oceans voyage that preceded the Cheesemans’ trip that we were both on. As we headed back to Ushuaia, he said, “The folks that ran that first trip were pathetic. Too rough. No landing today. Surf too high today. No landing. Wind wrong direction. No landing. Cheesemans’ routinely and safely gets folks on land in conditions where the leaders of other tour companies do not even bother getting out of their bunks.”
Here, from the” Way to Go CES! (Cheeseman’s Ecology Safaris)” blog post here, is one of my favorite Cheesemans’ stories:
The landing at Bailey Head, Antarctica, was especially rewarding to me as I had been sitting in a zodiac 100 yards off shore on my 2007 trip when the zodiac in front of mine swamped and the captain of the ship called off the landing…. Early that day it looked as if my weather Karma might not be working. Ted’s “Good morning shipmates” was followed by the news that we would not be able to land at Bailey Head that morning as the swell was too big. The beach there is sloped tremendously and the sea strives to pull the zodiacs back into the ocean before folks have gotten off with their gear. Tom Murphy had said to me several days before, “We will get you on the beach at Bailey Head.” Ted concluded his morning greetings by saying, “We are sending out a scout team to see if landing is possible.”
After breakfast I was thrilled to hear Ted’s voice again on the PA, “We will be landing at 8am.” Afterwards folks noted that it was the calmest landing ever at this amazingly beautiful spot. My good weather Karma (courtesy of late-wife Elaine) had come through one last time. Along with St. Andrews Bay, it was one of my two favorite super-great once-in-a-lifetime days of the trip. And we even got to enjoy three additional hours at Hannah Point, Antarctica before calling it a wrap and heading for the feared Drake Passage. All thanks to Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Induro tripods and ballheads, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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, 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 visiting the BAA Online store as well.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 hope that I am doing well somewhere in Namibia. If all goes well and I stay out of trouble, I will be back in the office late on the afternoon of Friday, April 29.
The Streak Will Survive Namibia
Today’s blog post marks 168 days in a row with a new educational blog post… 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created at La Jolla on he next to last afternoon of my 3 1/2 week surgery with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 271mm) with the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/1250 sec. at f/6.3. Daylight WB converted at 4900 K using the new center the RGB histogram method.
Upper center Zone/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The system selected a single AF point that was four up from the center AF point. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Molting, sub-adult Brandt’s Cormorant
Point Your Shadow Where?
At the bird. Backlit can be fine, and on vary rare occasion I am happy with side-light. But 99% of the time I am working as close to possible to right on sun angle. Here, if you look at the shadow of the bird’s tail you can tell that I was about 1/10th of 1 degree off sun angle with the sun coming ever-so-slightly over my right shoulder. (If the shadow is pointing slightly left then the sun is coming slightly from the right.)
My shadow on the rock, pointed right at the subject
This Sums I It Up Nicely
I zoomed out and created this image for those who often ask, “What do you mean point your shadow at the bird?” That’s my shadow on the rock pretty much zero degrees off sun angle just as I like it.
Subject and focal lengths clockwise from upper left around to center.
Palouse Falls: 11mm; homemade kiddie race car: 105mm; barn siding pan blur: 798mm; Rolling fields diorama: 110mm; Crayola drums: 343 mm; Hay barn interior: 19mm; vintage gas station: 40mm; Dilapidated farm building: 13mm; Denise’s tree Infrared: 20mm.
Images and card design by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART.
The Palouse ~ A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT)/Eastern Washington State. June 3-7, 2016/5 Full Days: $1699/Limit 12/Openings: 6
The Palouse ~ A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT)/Eastern Washington State. June 10-14, 2016/5 Full Days: $1699/Limit 12/Openings: 1
Double Header!
Maximize both your travel dollars and your learning experience by signing up for both IPTs.
Images and card design by Denise Ippolito/A Creative Adventure.
The Palouse IPTs
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will likely enjoy spectacular sunrises and possibly a nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. We will take you to some 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 us for this trip. Two great leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris. 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.
After 6 days of back-breaking scouting work in early June 2014 we found all of the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and views. On three additional scouting days in 2015 we discovered several more truly amazing locations. We will teach you what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time.
What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, our newfound but very extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions when possible. There will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before each workshop begins.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills. You will learn to get the right exposure every time. You will learn to develop your creative eye. You will learn the basics of HDR (high dynamic range) photography. You will learn a variety of in-camera creative techniques. Most importantly you will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images. Do see both of our blogs for lots more on that in the coming weeks. You will learn how the quality and direction of light combine to determine the success of your images. And–please don’t gasp–we will be working quite a bit with sidelight when creating landscapes. Lastly, we will be doing some infrared photography.
To Sign Up
A non-refundable $699 deposit is due now. The balance will be due on February 15, 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. Whether or not your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.
Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining us. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours or send us a check to leave a deposit; the latter is preferred. If by check, please make out to “Arthur Morris” 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 us via e-mail: artie or denise.
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 our Affiliate Links 🙂
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Induro tripods and ballheads, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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, 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 visiting the BAA Online store as well.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 🙂
Hopefully, I am somewhere in Namibia feeling well and having fun.
The Streak Lives!
Today’s blog post marks 167 days in a row with a new educational blog post… 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
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This Bald Eagle juxtaposition image was created from a rocking boat in Alaska with the Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the long-ago Canon EOS-1D Mark IV (now replaced by the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 400: 1/1250 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode.
In the above situation with a large black and white bird occupying a good portion of the frame it is imperative to figure out the correct exposure in advance by doing a histogram check: make sure that you have data well into the rightmost box of the histogram without any blinkies on the bird’s head. Work in manual mode and go darker or lighter as needed by adjust either the shutter speed or the aperture. Once you determine the correct exposure set it and forget it until the light changes. You do not need to worry about how much black and how much white occupies the frame. You do not need to worry about the background tonality. You have determined the correct exposure for the bright whites and that exposure will remains correct as long as the light does not change. Your exposure will not be thrown off if there is more black in the frame one moment and more white the next. To learn exposure theory study the chapter on exposure in the original The Art of Bird Photography; it is the great strength of a book that has sold more than 35,000 copies and laid the foundation for many of today’s great bird photographers.
Working in Manual Mode Re-visited: April, 2016
Though I still work in other exposure modes on occasion, and made 100% of my Kolmanskop images in Av mode, I have, for the past few years, been working in Manual Mode most of the time. Today I’d say that I work in Manual mode about 85% of the time, Av mode about 10% of the time, Tv about 4% of the time (when creating pleasing blurs), and Program mode (when working a family party with flash, and very rarely when using fill flash for songbirds) about 1% of the time.
If you are scared of working in Manual mode–many folks are for no reason at all–you need to study the info below and learn to become competent in it.
Here is an excerpt adapted from from The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages on CD only) for those who need help with working in Manual mode.
Working in Manual Mode
Many professional and serious amateur photographers work in Manual mode most of the time. I occasionally work in Av mode with exposure compensation in situations were the subject size and the background tonality are relatively constant. When the background tonality is changing from moment to moment but the light is constant, it is always best to work in Manual mode. In either case, I rely 100% on Evaluative Metering. Here are some examples of rapidly changing backgrounds: a shorebird on a rock along the edge of the ocean with waves breaking behind it. Birds flying against a blue sky with occasional white clouds. Cranes flying by in front of a variety of backgrounds that might include sky, mountains, yellowed grasses, or water.
As many folks are confused as to how to work in or set exposure compensation when working in Manual mode, I offer the following basic tutorial.
#1: When you work in Manual mode you select and set the shutter speed and you select and set the aperture. With my Canon cameras the default has you changing the shutter speed with your index finger dial and the aperture with the thumb wheel. Please note: there is no exposure compensation per say when you are working in Manual mode. You determine the exposure level (+1 stop or -1/3 stop, for example), by looking at the analog exposure scale in the viewfinder as detailed below.
#2: After selecting Manual mode, point your camera at a scene or stationary subject and lock your tripod head so the framing remains constant. Next select and set the desired aperture. Then adjust the shutter speed until the analog scale in the viewfinder nulls out to zero. With Canon pro bodies this scale is laid out vertically along the right side of the viewfinder display (when you are working in horizontal format). With many of the pro-sumer bodies the analog scale is laid out horizontally at the bottom of the viewfinder display. The zero or null indicator is at the center of the analog scale. The three full stops above the null symbol (marked in 1/3-stop increments) indicate overexposure. The three full stops below the null symbol (also marked in 1/3-stop increments) indicate underexposure. If you change the aperture and you do not see the small square moving, check either the top or the bottom of the analog scale. You will note a small triangle at the top (or right) if you are way overexposed or a small triangle at the bottom (or the left) if you are way underexposed. If the former, rotate the dial and choose faster shutter speeds, if the latter, choose slower shutter speeds. In either case, you will soon see the small square moving up or down the analog scale. At first, you will simply want to practice nulling the meter, that is, getting the small square to rest on the null symbol. This indicates that you have now set the metered exposure (as determined by the camera’s Evaluative Metering system.
#3: As above, when you work in Manual mode it is not possible to set exposure compensation. To come up with the exposure that you want, simply change the aperture or shutter speed as above until the small square indicates the amount of over- or under-exposure that you desire. If you wish to work at +2 stops, you need adjust either the shutter speed or the aperture until the small square rests on the symbol that is two full stops above the null symbol. If you wish to underexpose by 1/3 stop, you need adjust either the shutter speed or the aperture until the small square rests on the symbol that lies just below the null symbol.
With a bit of practice you should quickly become comfortable whenever the need to work in Manual mode arises. Do note that with lots of Black Skimmers that the Nickerson Beach IPT is a great place to learn how to work in Manual mode. See below for details
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmer head portrait, American Oystercatcher dining on surf clam flesh, Common Tern at sunset, Common Tern adult swallowing flatfish, Black Skimmer in flight, newborn Common Tern chick, American Oystercatcher with chick, fresh juvenile Common Tern (with fill flash), and Common Terns copulating.
Meet and greet at 3pm on the afternoon of Monday, July 18. Limit 10.
The primary subject species of this IPT will be the nesting Common Terns. The trip is timed so that we will get to photograph tiny chicks as well as fledglings. There will be lots of flight photography including adults flying with baitfish. Creating great images of the chicks being fed is a huge challenge. In addition to the terns we will get to photograph lots of Black Skimmers courting, setting up their nesting territories, and in flight (both singles and large pre-dawn flocks blasting off). Midair battles are guaranteed on sunny afternoons. And with luck, we might even see a few tiny chicks toward the end of the trip. We will also get to photograph the life cycle of American Oystercatcher. This will likely include nests with eggs and tiny chicks, young being fed, and possibly a few fledglings.
Nesting Piping Plover is also possibly. There will be lots of gulls to photograph; most years I am able to find a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls of varying ages in addition to the Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls. You will learn to identify and age the various gull species. There will likely be some Willets feeding along the surf and with luck we might get to photograph a handsome juvenile or two. In addition to the locally breeding shorebirds, we will likely get to see some southbound migrant arctic-and sub-arctic breeding shorebird species such as Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and maybe even Red Knot.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmers with tiny chick, Common Tern landing with baitfish for young, fledged Common Tern chick in dunes, American Oystercatchers/display flight, adult Common Tern with pipefish for chick, Common Tern fledgling in soft light, American Oystercatcher on nest with eggs, American Oystercatcher 3-egg clutch, battling Black Skimmers.
The IPT Logistics
The tour will begin with a meet and greet on the afternoon of Monday, July 18, 2016. That will be followed by our first shooting session at the beach. From Tuesday through and including all of Friday we will have two photography sessions daily. Our morning sessions will start very early so that we are on the beach well before sunrise. We usually photograph for about four hours. Then we will enjoy a group brunch. We will always have a midday break that will include a nap for me. That followed by our daily afternoon classroom sessions that will include image review, workflow and Photoshop, and a review/critique of five of your trip images. Folks are always invited to bring their laptops to brunch for image sharing. I always have mine with me but heck, I am a big show-off. Afternoon in-the-field sessions generally run from 5pm through sunset.
Breakfasts are grab what you can. Four brunches are included. Dinners (if at all) will be on your own as we will often get back to the hotel at about 9pm. There is a fridge in every room and a supermarket within walking distance of the hotel so nobody should starve. You will learn a ton during the nine shooting sessions, the four in-classroom sessions, and even at lunch. Early morning and late afternoon parking is free. If we want to head back to the beach early we will need to arrange tight carpools and share the $30/vehicle parking fee. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $450 for the whole IPT.
Save a space by calling Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 and arranging to leave your deposit of $599–credit cards are accepted for deposits only. Your balance will be due on April 18, 2016. I hope that you can join me for what will be an exciting and educational IPT.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 hope that I am doing well somewhere in Namibia. If all goes well and I stay out of trouble, I will be back in the office late on the afternoon of Friday, April 29.
Don’t Look Now!
Today’s blog post marks 166 days in a row with a new educational blog post… 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Center AF point(by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the skimmer’s eye and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Black Skimmer resting just before sunset
Too Many Lessons to List…
Warning
On a BIRDS AS ART IPT, we will get you out to the beach early and keep you out there till all hours. In the mornings we arrive in the pre-dawn to create images of the large flocks of skimmers blasting off. This image was created just before sunset. Right after we worked this bird we turned around to do sunset silhouettes. And then headed down to the beach for the late skimmer blast-offs!
Image Question
Why is there blue sand in the lower background?
Vertical Front End Compositions
I often go to vertical front-end compositions when am too close to the bird or at too long a focal length to fit the whole bird in a horizontal frame. Here, adapted from what I wrote in the original The Art of Bird Photography, is my take on vertical font-end compositions:
Sometimes when you are close to a fairly large bird that is roughly parallel to the back of the camera, you may wish to go vertical to show the fine details in a bird’s plumage–even though that means you will be cutting off part of the rear half of the bird. Most times you will be able to create what I call a vertical font-end composition. To do this, place the bird’s eye on, or slightly forward of, the vertical centerline, one quarter to one third of the way down in the frame; then adjust your side to side framing making sure that you leave some room in front of the bird and some room behind the bird’s legs.
Even though the original The Art of Bird Photography is totally film-based, there is a ton of important basic stuff to learn. It feels good to know that many of today’s finest bird photographers learned from one of the 42,000+ copies of this book sold to date. Heck, it put me on the map. 🙂 You can learn a ton more on the subject in the section on Advanced Composition and Image Design in The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images, all digital, and only on CD). Best deal? Purchase the two-book combo and save $10 on the pair. I can only wish that the information in these two books had been available back in 1983…
The image after rotation
Image Rotation
My workflow is all about Keyboard Shortcuts. Why? Approaching age 70 my time is more valuable everyday and I simply have never wanted to waste time going through drop-down menus and right-clicking. Here I use R for the Ruler Tool (my personalized shortcut)to draw the line that I want leveled and then Command + forward slash (another of my personalized shortcuts) to bring up the Image Rotation > Arbitrary window instantly. You can learn all of my Keyboard Shortcuts and tons more including dozens of Photoshop tips in my Digital Basics File
The image after cropping
John Heado Add Canvas via Content Aware Fill
Once I get to this point I use the Magic Wand Tool (my M–I use W for the Quick Selection Tool so that I can toggle between the two instantly) to select the four skinny triangles. Make sure that the Contiguous box is unchecked. Then go Select > Modify > Expand and expand the selection by from 3-8 pixels. Then go Edit > Fill > Content Aware and hit OK. Watch the magic. Inspect your work by working large and cleaning up any anomalies. Most of the time when you are working with relatively clean backgrounds and foregrounds (as here) the results will be perfect right out of the box.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmer head portrait, American Oystercatcher dining on surf clam flesh, Common Tern at sunset, Common Tern adult swallowing flatfish, Black Skimmer in flight, newborn Common Tern chick, American Oystercatcher with chick, fresh juvenile Common Tern (with fill flash), and Common Terns copulating.
Meet and greet at 3pm on the afternoon of Monday, July 18. Limit 10.
The primary subject species of this IPT will be the nesting Common Terns. The trip is timed so that we will get to photograph tiny chicks as well as fledglings. There will be lots of flight photography including adults flying with baitfish. Creating great images of the chicks being fed is a huge challenge. In addition to the terns we will get to photograph lots of Black Skimmers courting, setting up their nesting territories, and in flight (both singles and large pre-dawn flocks blasting off). Midair battles are guaranteed on sunny afternoons. And with luck, we might even see a few tiny chicks toward the end of the trip. We will also get to photograph the life cycle of American Oystercatcher. This will likely include nests with eggs and tiny chicks, young being fed, and possibly a few fledglings.
Nesting Piping Plover is also possibly. There will be lots of gulls to photograph; most years I am able to find a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls of varying ages in addition to the Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls. You will learn to identify and age the various gull species. There will likely be some Willets feeding along the surf and with luck we might get to photograph a handsome juvenile or two. In addition to the locally breeding shorebirds, we will likely get to see some southbound migrant arctic-and sub-arctic breeding shorebird species such as Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and maybe even Red Knot.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmers with tiny chick, Common Tern landing with baitfish for young, fledged Common Tern chick in dunes, American Oystercatchers/display flight, adult Common Tern with pipefish for chick, Common Tern fledgling in soft light, American Oystercatcher on nest with eggs, American Oystercatcher 3-egg clutch, battling Black Skimmers.
The IPT Logistics
The tour will begin with a meet and greet on the afternoon of Monday, July 18, 2016. That will be followed by our first shooting session at the beach. From Tuesday through and including all of Friday we will have two photography sessions daily. Our morning sessions will start very early so that we are on the beach well before sunrise. We usually photograph for about four hours. Then we will enjoy a group brunch. We will always have a midday break that will include a nap for me. That followed by our daily afternoon classroom sessions that will include image review, workflow and Photoshop, and a review/critique of five of your trip images. Folks are always invited to bring their laptops to brunch for image sharing. I always have mine with me but heck, I am a big show-off. Afternoon in-the-field sessions generally run from 5pm through sunset.
Breakfasts are grab what you can. Four brunches are included. Dinners (if at all) will be on your own as we will often get back to the hotel at about 9pm. There is a fridge in every room and a supermarket within walking distance of the hotel so nobody should starve. You will learn a ton during the nine shooting sessions, the four in-classroom sessions, and even at lunch. Early morning and late afternoon parking is free. If we want to head back to the beach early we will need to arrange tight carpools and share the $30/vehicle parking fee. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $450 for the whole IPT.
Save a space by calling Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 and arranging to leave your deposit of $599–credit cards are accepted for deposits only. Your balance will be due on April 18, 2016. I hope that you can join me for what will be an exciting and educational IPT.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 wrote this blog post on the morning of Friday, April 15, 2016. We leave Luderitz this morning to meet the group this afternoon at the Quiver Tree forest for afternoon and late night shooting sessions. We will not have internet for about four days.
Please remember that folks sending new inquiries about selling new gear are best advised to get in touch with me at the end of this month.
Don’t Look Now!
Today’s blog post marks 165 days in a row with a new educational blog post… 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created morning 2 of Denise Ippolito and my busman’s holiday at Kolmanskop Ghost Town, Namibia. I used the Induro GIT 304L tripod/Induro BHM1/-mounted Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 151mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops/in-camera Art Vivid HDR +/- 1 stop around a base exposure of .4 sec at f/16. I set the color temperature to K4000 to offset the too saturated Art Vivid colors.
See below for focusing details on the two images used to create today’s featured image.
Doorway Triangles
Focus Stacking 101 Primer
While reviewing my images at dinner Denise Ippolito mentioned that with my going often to the 100-400II for more reach, that even the tiniest apertures, f/22 and f/32 did not provide enough depth-of field to cover the back walls when shooting through open doorways and windows. She suggested creating a second image focusing on the back wall, stacking and aligning the two images, and then painting in the extra detail on the back wall with a Black, Inverse, or Hide-All Mask. That is exactly what I did for today’s image.
For the first image I used the center AF point (Manual selection)/Rear Focus/AI Servo AF and recompose to focus on the closest part of the door frame. For the second image I simply moved the AF point so that it hit the back wall. Then I had my the two images that I needed for my simple focus stacking exercise.
To learn Quick Masking and Layer Masking I recommend that you get both APTATS I and APTATS II. You can save some bucks by purchasing the set here.
Desert Urbex Photography
The three of us, Denise, Wim den Heever, and I, had more fun than a barrel of monkeys at Kolmanskop. On night two, I had the seafood curry and shared a bit with Denise and Wim. On our third night, it was seafood curry all around… We are all looking forward to meeting our nine clients this afternoon.
Both Denise and I felt that much of what we learned and discovered doing the old barns and farm buildings on the Palouse IPTs was a great help to us at the old diamond mining ghost town. Join us this summer to learn a ton. Details immediately below.
Subject and focal lengths clockwise from upper left around to center.
Palouse Falls: 11mm; homemade kiddie race car: 105mm; barn siding pan blur: 798mm; Rolling fields diorama: 110mm; Crayola drums: 343 mm; Hay barn interior: 19mm; vintage gas station: 40mm; Dilapidated farm building: 13mm; Denise’s tree Infrared: 20mm.
Images and card design by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART.
The Palouse ~ A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT)/Eastern Washington State. June 3-7, 2016/5 Full Days: $1699/Limit 12/Openings: 6
The Palouse ~ A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT)/Eastern Washington State. June 10-14, 2016/5 Full Days: $1699/Limit 12/Openings: 1
Double Header!
Maximize both your travel dollars and your learning experience by signing up for both IPTs.
Images and card design by Denise Ippolito/A Creative Adventure.
The Palouse IPTs
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will likely enjoy spectacular sunrises and possibly a nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. We will take you to some 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 us for this trip. Two great leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris. 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.
After 6 days of back-breaking scouting work in early June 2014 we found all of the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and views. On three additional scouting days in 2015 we discovered several more truly amazing locations. We will teach you what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time.
What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, our newfound but very extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions when possible. There will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before each workshop begins.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills. You will learn to get the right exposure every time. You will learn to develop your creative eye. You will learn the basics of HDR (high dynamic range) photography. You will learn a variety of in-camera creative techniques. Most importantly you will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images. Do see both of our blogs for lots more on that in the coming weeks. You will learn how the quality and direction of light combine to determine the success of your images. And–please don’t gasp–we will be working quite a bit with sidelight when creating landscapes. Lastly, we will be doing some infrared photography.
To Sign Up
A non-refundable $699 deposit is due now. The balance will be due on February 15, 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. Whether or not your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.
Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining us. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours or send us a check to leave a deposit; the latter is preferred. If by check, please make out to “Arthur Morris” 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 us via e-mail: artie or denise.
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 our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 hope that I am doing well somewhere in Namibia. If all goes well and I stay out of trouble, I will be back in the office late on the afternoon of Friday, April 29.
Don’t Look Now!
Today’s blog post marks 165 days in a row with a new educational blog post… 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
In the field problem-solving…
Notice that no tripod leg is touching the ground… The 100-400 II, the “La Jolla” lens with the 1.4X III TC and the 5DS R running video.
Adapting on the Fly…
Much of nature photography is about learning to create innovative solutions to new problems in the field, to learn to adapt to different situations on the fly. Recently I came up with a strange-looking solution to a problem that I encountered while photographing the nesting Brandt’s Cormorants in La Jolla. I wanted to get as close to the birds and as high as possible to get over a variety of foreground plants, bushes, and twigs. The solution was to put the tripod over wooden railing, snug it up until it was stable, and get to work. I used this new technique more than a dozen times and it worked perfectly with no sharpness problems at all.
Such occurrences are fairly common. Once on Sanibel I got down on the ground to shoot the faces of the egrets sitting on the pier railing. From this new somewhat weird perspective, you could see the strange placement of the bird’s eyes that enabled their binocular vision. When the folks saw the resulting images they all said, “You’re a genius.” My response? “If I am so smart, why did it take me 15 years to figure it out?”
Great Mongoose News
For the first time in ages we will have a few Mongoose M3.6 heads in stock. Those who have pre-ordered while we were out of stock should be receiving theirs soon. The demand is so great that the manufacturer cannot keep up with the BIRDS AS ART demand. There are many imitators of this great side-mounting tripod head but are inferior with serious flaws. I have tried them all and nothing comes close. I use my M3.6 with all of my intermediate telephoto lenses and with all of my super-telephotos, even with the 600 II and the 2X III TC. Those who have a problem holding a big lens up for the ten seconds needed to mount it may wish to add the Low Mount Arm. (I am not a big fan of the Low Mount Arm as it upsets the balance for most camera/lens combinations; for some folks with really heavy lenses the Wimberley VII head might be best.) Those who use flash with their telephoto lenses will want to add the Integrated Flash Arm. Lastly, please contact Jim via e-mail to learn which is the proper low foot or plate for your specific telephoto lens. Do understand that you cannot mount a camera body with a short lens on a Mongoose. That’s why I travel with the Induro BHM1 ballhead when I will be doing tripod-mounted scenics. It takes less than a minute to spin off the Mongoose and mount the small but sturdy and efficient ballhead. See below for ballhead info.
Induro Tripod (and Ballhead) News
My Induro GIT 304L performed perfectly in the cold and snow of Japan and in both fresh and salt water in San Diego. They cost about 1/3 to 1/4 less than the comparable Gitzos and outperform them hands down. What’s the best news? There is a $50 instantly applied rebate in effect right now here. I am not sure how long the rebates will be in effect, so if you are looking for a new tripod, act now.
For the 6′ 2″ and taller gang, or those simply over 5′ 11″ who like to have the tripod properly right up at face level without having to bend over, the price of the Induro GIT 404XL has been reduced from $600 to $550. For those under 5’7″ or so we recommend the GIT 304. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail with any Induro-related questions.
And if you are looking for an efficient, lightweight ballhead, click either here or on the Induro logo-link on the right side of each blog post and scroll down. The prices of the two models that we recommend are down to insanely low levels. The Induro BHM2 has been reduced from $205 to $99.99. And the slightly smaller BHM1–the one that I travel with–has been reduced from $175 to $89.99. As I said, insane. You can, if you like, purchase a Really Wrong Stuff ballhead for about five times as much. Those are the ones with too many big knobs so close together that you cannot operate them.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 had been thinking of taking out the 70-200II on our first afternoon session at Kolmenskop but decided at the last moment to go with the 1-4II. I was glad that I made that choice.
Please remember that folks sending new inquiries about selling new gear are best advised to get in touch with me at the end of this month.
Don’t Look Now!
Today’s blog post marks 164 days in a row with a new educational blog post… 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was also created on the first day of Denise Ippolito and my busman’s holiday at Kolmanskop Ghost Town, Namibia. I used the Induro GIT 304L tripod/Induro BHM1/-mounted Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 100mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop in-camera Art Vivid HDR +/- 1 stop around a base exposure of .5 sec at f/32. I set the color temperature to K4500 to offset the too saturated Art Vivid colors.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the door frame on our right door frame and re-compose slightly. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Nile Green
Nile Green
In the afternoon, I learned that many of the images that I had envisioned making that morning with an intermediate telephoto lens needed to be made in the morning. They simply did not work with afternoon sunlight. But we found tons of great images there for the making. So we made them. Wim van den Heever taught me and Denise. We taught Wim. We shared images and finds. And Denise Ippolito and I traded inspiration and lenses. It was a win-win-win day all around. You might even say it was a Wim-Wim-Wim situation all around as he was the one who brung us!
Will will be getting there earlier tomorrow morning than we did on Wednesday morning…
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 hope that I am doing well somewhere in Namibia. If all goes well and I stay out of trouble, I will be back in the office late on the afternoon of Friday, April 29.
Don’t Look Now!
Today’s blog post marks 164 days in a row with a new educational blog post… 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Two AF points up and one row to the right of the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Breeding plumage male Marbled Godwit
High Wind Slow Shutter Speed Gamble Pays Off
When I first saw this image–I processed it on SAT April 9, 2016–I was confused. The bird is sharp, but wWhere did all that silky, dreamy water come from? Then I looked at the EXIF: 1/15 sec. And everything made sense. It had been a very windy morning and I went slow in hopes of getting the bird sharp and the wind-blown water pleasingly blurred. AtWith 840mm at 1/15th sec., I’d expect to get the bird sharp about half the time at most. I need to remember this technique and use it more often.
Lots on Marbled Godwit
Marbled Godwit was my spark bird. When I saw a gorgeous Marbled Godwit in fresh juvenal plumage on the South Flats at the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, NY in August of 1976, I had no idea that seeing that single bird would drastically change the course of the remainder of my adult life. But it did. And very much for the good. The long, up-curved bill of that bird with its alabaster pink base is burned in my memory.
I saw my first breeding plumaged Marbled Godwits in Montana in spring; the winter, non-breeding pink base to the bill turns orange in May and June. The plumage remains the same. In this species only the change in bill color signifies breeding plumage. Marbled Godwit, North America’s second largest shorebird after Long-billed Curlew, remains one of my very favorite shorebird species. There is no better place to photograph them from winter through mid-May than Fort DeSoto. And best of all, by late April it is not uncommon to see them with their orange-based bills. Like most of the birds at DeSoto, this species can be silly tame. If you get low and move slowly head portraits are possible. BTW, the bird in today’s featured image is surely a male. The females at the long end of the bill size spectrum feature very long, pig-sticker bills. In the middle of the bill length spectrum there is lots of overlap, but the shortest billed males are always easy to differentiate from the longest billed females. All the Long-billed Curlews will be gone in May, headed for their prairie breeding grounds but there is a good chance that we will still have some good chances with Marbled Godwit on the DeSoto IPT.
Shorebirds: Beautiful Beachcombers
If you enjoy watching and learning about shorebirds, you will surely want to get a copy of my soft-cover book, Shorebirds: Beautiful Beachcombers. It simplifies the aging and identification of all of the regularly occurring North American shorebird species and fills you in nicely on their migratory, breeding, and feeding strategies. You can order a copy here. This book is out of print and we have only a very few copies remaining…
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto IPT: May 10-13, 2016. 3 1/2 DAYS: $1399. Limit: 10/Openings: 1.
Meet and Greet at 3pm on Tuesday May 10.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. Our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet on Tuesday May 10. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and be at lunch (included) by 11am. At lunch we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? If you opt to bring your laptop, we will be glad take a look at a few of your best images from the morning session. We will process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Our lunch learning session will be followed by a break that for me will include Instructor Nap Time. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Friday the 13th… Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will likely be using my new 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Magnuson Hotel/Marina Cove, 6800 Sunshine Skyway Lane South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33711. Tel: 727-867-1151. I use Hotels.com. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). A deposit of $499 is required to hold your spot. Your balance will be due on March 10, 2016. Please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. The $5 park entry fee is on you. Tight carpools are recommended. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA Online store as well.
Facebook
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Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
We are here on having fun. The internet is in and out but promises to be our most reliable of the trip…
Folks sending new inquiries and selling new gear are best advised to get in touch with me at the end of the month.
Don’t Look Now!
Today’s blog post marks 162 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will likely come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created on the first day of Denise Ippolito and my busman’s holiday at Kolmanskop Ghost Town, Namibia. I used the Induro GIT 304L tripod/Induro BHM1/-mounted Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens (at 18mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop in-camera Art Vivid HDR +/- 1 stop around a base exposure of .6 sec at f/16.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the center of the right hand door frame and release/re-compose slightly. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Doorway & stairway in derelict building
5DS R In-Camera Art Vivid HDR Draws First Blood
We were late on the scene lamenting the usual first morning of the trip blues tune. For the first 20 minutes I could not see an image as we muddled around through two buildings. I hated the zillion footprints in the sand and I am not a fan of the 20 stop range of some of the in the building through the window to sunlit desert scenes. When I found this room with no sand on the floor and not a window to the outside world in sight, I was off and running as my creative juices began to flow.
I did find myself wishing for the 100-400II for more than a few images. I am bringing it along with the 11-24mm on our afternoon photo session. You should be seeing some close-up detail oriented and/or abstract type images if I can get back online successfully again.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA Online store as well.
Facebook
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Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I hope that I am doing well somewhere in Namibia. If all goes well and I stay out of trouble, I will be back in the office late on the afternoon of Friday, April 29.
Don’t Look Now!
Today’s blog post marks 161 days in a row with a new educational blog post… 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Namibia Gear Bag with some fast wide angle lenses for stars…
I am taking the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens even though there is a lot of overlap with the 100-400 II. Why? Two reasons: we will be doing some nighttime photography at the Etosha waterholes; the f/2.8 speed of this fast lens will help even when using flash as many of the animals are large. I will appreciate the extra 30mm of reach at the short end and the extra two stops of speed (both as compared to the 100-400 II) for the pre-dawn dead tree photography at Sossusvlei.
I am leaving the all-purpose B-roll lens, the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L, on the shelf in the garage. This will leave me with a focal length hole between 30 and 70mm that I will just have to live with.
I am taking the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM lens and the Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD lens (for Canon EF) for nighttime scenic and star photography. Here is a great nighttime tip from Darrell Gulin: best for fixed point start photography is 15 seconds at f/2.8 at ISO 3200. He states that the standard advice of 30 seconds at f/2.8 at ISO 1600 will render some movement in the stars at all but the very widest focal lengths.
I am taking one of my favorite Palouse lenses, the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens specifically to do some desert Urbex photography on a pre-trip. As and f/4 lens, this one is less than ideal for star photography.
Camera Bodies
I am taking my two mega-high megapixel Canon EOS 5DS R DSLR bodies and will be using them often with all of the lenses above including on the 600 II either alone or with either TC. If I have a few extra pounds in my checked bag, I might throw in my remaining 1D X as a back-up even though doing so would require the extra battery charger. I do not feel completely comfortable making a big trip with just two bodies. What happens if one fails or gets smashed on Day 1? Note: my 1D X is in my checked bag with the charger. Good luck on that.
Teleconverters
As usual, I am making this trip with the usual complement of TCs: three Canon 1.4X III TCs and two 2X III TCs. With my style of bird photography–tight, clean, and graphic–I cannot afford to be without both TCs in the event of an accident or malfunction–or loss. 🙂 Most common in the malfunction category would be that the locking pin sticks; when that happens, there is a risk of having your camera body hit the ground.
Think Tank Rolling Bags
I will be using the larger of my two Think Tank rolling bags, the Airport Security™ V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag. Everything above fit easily into my Airport Security™ V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag on Saturday afternoon. It tipped the scales at 44 1/4 pounds for this trip; the legal limit for US flights is 40 pounds. Nearly all countries in the world give you slack as far as the 40 pounds goes on the way back to the US. As far as the extra 4 1/2 pounds, I have only been hassled for weight once in more than three decades of flying around the world. I hope that I do not give myself a kine-ahora.
Please click on my Think Tank affiliate link here or on the Think Tank logo-link in the right column of each blog post page to earn a free gift when you purchase any Think Tank product.
Think Tank Urban Disguise Laptop Shoulder Bag
Both Denise Ippolito and I use and love this amazing bag as it has tons of room and enables us to take tons of extra stuff. If you are forced to gate check your roller you can get more than a few items in this bag, especially if you are not a diabetic.
Please click on my Think Tank affiliate link here or on the Think Tank logo-link in the right column of each blog post page to earn a free gift when you purchase any Think Tank product.
Delkin Flash Cards
As always, I will have a 64gb Delkin e-Film Pro Flash Card in each camera body so that I never have to change cards in the field thus reducing the risk of losing a card…. Please note the new lower prices here. I do have a few extra 32 and 64gb cards in a Delkin CF Memory Card Tote, mostly to protect against operator error.
Vested Interest Xtrahand Vest
I will be getting on the plane wearing my custom-designed Vested Interest Xtrahand Magnum vest that John Storrie knows as the BIRDS AS ART Big Lens Vest. It is based on their Magnum vest and then customized to best fit my needs. In addition to carrying a ton of stuff comfortably in the field, it gives you a measure of protection should your roll aboard be gate-checked on puddle jumper or other flights. We are expecting carry-on problems on our flight from Johannesburg to Upington…
If you do a search for “vest’ or “vested interest” on the blog it will take you to many mentions in both the blog and the Bulletins with lots of additional information. See especially here and here.
Click here to learn more about Xtrahand Vests. You can always call John at 940 484 2222 to discuss customizing your vest. If you think that you might order, be sure to have a tape measure in hand. Please let him know that we sent you.
Additional Stuff & Accessories
I am taking two Canon 600EX-RT Speedlites as flash will be an integral part of our nighttime and waterhole photography.
I will of course have my Induro GIT 304L tripod and the Induro BHM1 ballhead in my checked bags. I need a ballhead for the short lens/wide angle zoom night scenics and star work so that I can mount the camera body on the ballhead via a Wimberley P-5 camera body plate. Right now there is an instant $50 rebate on the tripods and crazy low prices on the two lightweight, efficient ballheads. Click here to order.
I am taking an empty BLUBB along as I have found it useful in a variety of safari vans. I will also have the Skimmer II along for the night star and scenic photography and for off-camera mounting of the flash for the night waterhole sessions. An Enlight Photo Frio Universal Locking Cold Shoe V2 will be used to mount the flash.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 began working on this possibly very short blog post in the air on my flight from Orlando’s MCO to JFK. If all goes well we (Denise Ippolito and I) will land at Upington, South Africa at about 12:30pm on Wednesday local time, which is 6:30am in NY and Florida. Then we have about a six hour van ride. It should all work out to a 26 hour + travel day 🙂 As mentioned previously, we are doing a short pre-trip to photograph at a desert urbex location. We may get to do some birds as well.
I may or may not have sporadic internet coverage at various points during the trip. Do know that Jim Litzenberg will be in the office weekdays, Monday through midday on Fridays, and that older daughter Jennifer Morris will usually be there during banker’s hours. Both can help you with everything BAA-related included BAA Online Store and ordering matters (especially Jim) and IPT registrations and info.
Till whenever–later and love and great picture-making, artie
This Just In
Arrival Update
A mere 36 hours after leaving the Orlando Courtyard Marriott at 3:15am on Monday, We arrived at the hotel in Luderwitz, Namibia. The worst of is was the final leg, and 8-hour van ride. The great news it that my surgery-related discomfort is down about 75% 🙂 We will have decent internet for the next two days so as of now, the streak is intact. Who knows?
Very Important Personal Note
When I am away on long trips, blog readership numbers plummet. By the time I board my flight to Johannesburg, I will have prepared a brand new educational blog post for every other day till I get back. I may even get to keep the streak going for longer than anticipated. I may recycle some older blog posts, ones with super-important lessons. I ask, therefore, that you visit every day as you usually would. Though I might not be there online to comment on your comments or answer your questions, I will be here in spirit. And as always when I get back, I will make my way through all the relevant comments and questions and respond as I always do.
I ask in return that you guys keep up the great work of using the BAA B&H affiliate links. March was a record month for me and your efforts to thank me for the work that I put into the blog are greatly appreciated. And they sure keep me motivated.
birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100
The companion e-book to the solo exhibit at TheNat, San Diego, California
birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100
My latest e-book, created on a wing and a prayer in less than two weeks–see Harebrained Scheme here–includes the 67 spectacular images that will hang in the Ordover Gallery at the San Diego Natural History Museum in a career-retrospective solo exhibition. In addition, there are an additional 33 images in the spectacular e-book that barely missed making the show.
This exhibition companion e-book makes it possible for everyone to “visit” TheNAT gallery and, in addition, to enjoy seeing my top one hundred bird photographs under one roof. Each image includes a title, the species name, the location, relevant EXIF data, and an anecdotal caption.
birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100: $23 for the professionally produced CD (includes shipping to US addresses only)
Please click here to purchase the physical CD. As above, your purchase price includes shipping to all US addresses. If you would like your CD signed on the inside cover with a black Sharpie, you will need to place your order by phone and request a signed copy: 863-692-0906. For our Canadian friends we are offering the CD for $28 with shipping to Canada via phone orders only: 863-692-0906.
Those who purchase the CD are advised to copy the file to their computers and then archive the CD.
The new e-book via is also available via convenient download for $20 by clicking here.
birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100: $20 via convenient download.
Overseas folks, and anyone else as well, can purchase the e-book via convenient download for $20 by clicking here.
Notate Bene
Please share this e-book only with your spouse or significant other. If a friend asks you to share a copy with them, please direct them either to this blog post or to the appropriate link in the BAA Online Store as above. All of the images and text are protected by international copyright law and may not be copied or printed without written permission from the photographer/author. Many thanks for honoring these requests.
You will–of course–need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF.
Sample page from birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100.
Adobe Acrobat Reader Tip
To maximize your viewing pleasure, click Command + L on a Mac, or Control + L on a PC to view the e-book full screen. And then press Esc to exit full screen.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 🙂
Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. 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. Over the past year, 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 f/4L IS, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily.
Nikon MF 500mm f/4P Manual Focus Lens
David Snyder is offering his Nikon MF 500mm f/4P lens in good condition for only $1199. The sale includes a camo LensCoat, a Wimberley lens plate, the Nikon A2 drop-in filter (39mm), the soft carrying case, and insured ground shipping to US addresses only. This lens was purchased about 15 years ago from Frans Lanting and used frequently since then. It is manual focus lens but has an internal chip that communicates f/stop and shutter speed with all modern Nikon bodies. The lens is very sharp and provides a way for users on a budget to get into long lens photography. It was recently serviced by Nikon. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact David via e-mail or by phone: 561 746 2876 (Eastern time).
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Sandra Calderbank is offering a used Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR camera body in mint condition for $1599. The sale includes a RRS L plate, front cap, the camera strap, all the CDs and cords, the original box with everything that was in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Sandra via e-mail by phone at 1-828-412-1047 (Eastern time/evenings best)
I have used the 5D III for birds on occasion with excellent results, even with the 2X III TC and the 600 II. It has long been my go-to dSLR for flowers, landscapes, and Urbex photography. In my experience, the quality of the image files is second only to those from the 5DS R. artie
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 158 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will likely come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
The Professional Photographers’ Guide to Post-Processing by Arash Hazaghi with Arthur Morris
If you are ever at all concerned with noise in your optimized images this new e-guide will astound you.
The Professional Photographers’ Guide to Post-Processing: $48.
Your e-book (11mb) will be delivered either by e-mail or by Hightail (for download).
Arash’s Take on the guide…
In recent years, advances in CMOS image sensor technology have enabled DSLR cameras to capture detailed, high-quality images at very high ISO settings; this has taken low-light and action photography to a whole new level. To make the most out of your camera’s high ISO performance, proper post-processing, including advanced noise reduction and efficient sharpening, is essential. The first step in effective post-processing is executing an optimal RAW conversion that produces a TIFF file that is clean, free of artifacts, and detailed, without too much sharpening or strong noise reduction. For Canon users, we recommend converting your RAW images in Canon Digital Photo Professional 4 (DPP 4). We cover exactly how to do that in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide. This new supplemental guide deals with the post-RAW conversion processing of your TIFF files for final presentation.
In order to use this guide, you need Adobe Photoshop (CS4 or later) as well as the Neat Image noise reduction plugin for Photoshop. This plugin can be downloaded here. We recommend the pro version. You will need an up-to-date PC or Mac computer to process your files. A modern quad-core processor (Intel i7 or Xeon) with at least 16GB of RAM and a fast SSD drive for running Photoshop is recommended. It is best to do your image processing on a high quality IPS LCD panel capable of displaying Adobe RGB color gamut. We recommend calibrating your screen using a hardware color calibration solution such as Spyder or Xrite. The consumer LCD screens used in many laptops and low-end desktops suffer from poor contrast ratios and a limited color gamut. Images processed on inferior screens may appear noisy, too dark, too bright, or unsharp. And they will often show a color cast when viewed on a high quality monitor that has been properly calibrated.
Artie’s Take on the guide…
This guide is for serious photographers who wish to maximize the quality of their optimized, noise reduced files and who want to learn to sharpen their images after they are sized for a final usage. The emphasis is on sharpening for electronic presentation. The guide includes the brilliant techniques that Arash developed for applying just the right amount of NR to the subject (while retaining all the fine detail) and then applying a lot more NR to the background where it is almost always needed. His efforts were refined by Arthur Morris to ensure that the guide is clear, concise, easy-to-read, and easy to-easy-to-follow; artie’s great strength is his how-to writing. He has used Arash’s brilliant NR and sharpening techniques on his 15 inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display with great success.
The entire guide is based on the remarkable Pro Version of NeatImage. Only the Pro Version supports 16-bit files. This Photoshop Plug-in requires a separate $79.95 purchase. Why NeatImage when there are so many other Noise Reduction programs available?
When someone asked about Topaz Denoise on the blog I got in touch with Arash. here was his response:
I asked Arash about Topaz Denoise. Here is his response:
It cannot calibrate the noise levels. I tried it. It was garbage.
Best
Arash Hazeghi Ph.D.
To which I added:
In the guide, we teach folks to calibrate noise levels for an image or series of images. As an option, also covered in the guide, we teach you to create a Noise Profile for each ISO with a given camera by photographing a NeatImage calibration target.
Arash continued the next day; this published here for the first time:
Here is a more elaborate answer. A preset is a “one size fit all” solution; it is not the same as a calibration. If you look carefully through your images you will find that the ISO value used and the amount of visible noise in the image aren’t always correlated. An image at ISO 400 can look noisier than an image taken at ISO 3200. Many factors other than the ISO determine the amount of visible noise in an image. Two images taken at the same ISO may require significantly different amounts of NR. Furthermore, different areas of the same image often require different amounts of noise reduction.
The presets are made by looking at the noise characteristics of a flat neutral or 18% grey target with no detail. They don’t include shadows, highlights, grain size, or the possibility of the effects of post-capture exposure boosts. (In other words, images made at a given ISO that are lightened during or after conversion will always exhibit more noise than properly exposed images.) The presets are often made using in-camera JPEGs that have been already noise-reduced, sharpened, and compressed thus smearing (destroying) the fine feather detail. Sometimes they are made from ACR RAW conversions that are vastly inferior as compared to properly executed DPP 4 RAW conversions.
A calibrated noise profile is created for each image in its present form independent of the ISO value, the exposure levels, or the RAW convertor. It makes no assumptions. NeatImage NR calibrations can be compared to purchasing a hand-crafted, custom-tailored suit versus buying a suit off the rack at WalMart. In engineering terms, NeatImage calculates the noise spectrum for each image and then with proper adjustment attenuates only the frequencies that don’t overlap with the detail. Other NR tools like Topaz, Nik etc. apply constant attenuation regardless of what the spectrum looks like. Try the guide and see for yourself.
You can learn more about NeatImage or purchase a copy here. NeatImage does offer a demo version.
Sunday night. All packed and in the limo on the way to the airport hotel. Y’all have fun. I should be online sporadically. The new guide will be announced on Tuesday.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 157 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will likely come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
I selected the AF point that was four up from the center AF point and used AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed. Should have been five up… AF was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.
Pacific race of Brown Pelican with strange sub-adult plumage
One Strange Bird!
I have never seen a pelican with plumage quite like this. In life, the bird was very dark brown, even close to black in spots. I made this image on the day that I created the featured image in the blog post here. Though that photo was one of the very first images that I made on what turned out to be 3 1/2+ week trip, it was my favorite San Diego photo by far. This bird is neat because of its strange plumage. The brown and black plumage does not usually go with the red bill pouch. I am sure that it is a sub-adult bird that is simply outside the lines of what is typically normal.
Before and After Neat Image Animated GIF
I let this animated GIF run for 3 seconds rather than the usual 2 so look carefully at the before and after images to see the gentle but effective NeatImage NR on the subject. You can see the grain disappear from the eye and from the feathers while retaining the detail as the GIF switches from Before to After. I used Arash’s 1D X ISO 1600 noise reduction settings during the RAW conversion in DPP 4. If you look hard at the Before version you will note that the ISO 1600 noise is pretty well controlled, but that what little noise is present is eliminated without destroying the fine detail. See more below.
This is a NeatImage screen capture
A NeatImage Screen Capture
5DS R ISO 1600 Neat Image Noise Reduction on the Subject
The area inside the blue box has been noise reduced. The area outside the box has not been noise reduced. After beginning with Arash’s recommended settings for each slider we teach you to visually inspect the image as you tweak the sliders. The NR here is applied only to the subject which is masked above the background layer. Next, we teach you to apply stronger NR only to the BKGR. The technique and the results are magical. During the process of making the guide more readable and understandable I taught the techniques to Patrick Sparkman. There is no better way to cement and reinforce new knowledge than by teaching it to a friend. His reaction: NeatImage and Arash’s techniques are amazing!
The New Guide and NeatImage
The work on on Arash’s new Post Processing Guide is finished and we will be announcing its publication here very soon. The guide will sell for $48. As above, the guide will teach you–as you can see in today’s featured image, to apply a small but effective amount of NR to the bird (while maintaining fine feather detail) and to apply greater amounts of NR to noisy backgrounds to smooth them out. The key to the success of these methods is a combination of Arash’s cleverly developed and innovative techniques and the great NeatImage plug-in. Arash recommends and uses only the NeatImage plug-in for advanced noise reduction. Both artie and Arash recommend only the Proversion as the Homeversion does not work on 16-bit images. Folks who are good with Layer Masking may wish to get a copy of NeatImage and get a head start on using this great program. If not, the new guide will make it simple for you. Learn more on the effectiveness of NeatImage in the blog post here.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmer head portrait, American Oystercatcher dining on surf clam flesh, Common Tern at sunset, Common Tern adult swallowing flatfish, Black Skimmer in flight, newborn Common Tern chick, American Oystercatcher with chick, fresh juvenile Common Tern (with fill flash), and Common Terns copulating.
Meet and greet at 3pm on the afternoon of Monday, July 18. Limit 10.
The primary subject species of this IPT will be the nesting Common Terns. The trip is timed so that we will get to photograph tiny chicks as well as fledglings. There will be lots of flight photography including adults flying with baitfish. Creating great images of the chicks being fed is a huge challenge. In addition to the terns we will get to photograph lots of Black Skimmers courting, setting up their nesting territories, and in flight (both singles and large pre-dawn flocks blasting off). Midair battles are guaranteed on sunny afternoons. And with luck, we might even see a few tiny chicks toward the end of the trip. We will also get to photograph the life cycle of American Oystercatcher. This will likely include nests with eggs and tiny chicks, young being fed, and possibly a few fledglings.
Nesting Piping Plover is also possibly. There will be lots of gulls to photograph; most years I am able to find a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls of varying ages in addition to the Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls. You will learn to identify and age the various gull species. There will likely be some Willets feeding along the surf and with luck we might get to photograph a handsome juvenile or two. In addition to the locally breeding shorebirds, we will likely get to see some southbound migrant arctic-and sub-arctic breeding shorebird species such as Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and maybe even Red Knot.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmers with tiny chick, Common Tern landing with baitfish for young, fledged Common Tern chick in dunes, American Oystercatchers/display flight, adult Common Tern with pipefish for chick, Common Tern fledgling in soft light, American Oystercatcher on nest with eggs, American Oystercatcher 3-egg clutch, battling Black Skimmers.
The IPT Logistics
The tour will begin with a meet and greet on the afternoon of Monday, July 18, 2016. That will be followed by our first shooting session at the beach. From Tuesday through and including all of Friday we will have two photography sessions daily. Our morning sessions will start very early so that we are on the beach well before sunrise. We usually photograph for about four hours. Then we will enjoy a group brunch. We will always have a midday break that will include a nap for me. That followed by our daily afternoon classroom sessions that will include image review, workflow and Photoshop, and a review/critique of five of your trip images. Folks are always invited to bring their laptops to brunch for image sharing. I always have mine with me but heck, I am a big show-off. Afternoon in-the-field sessions generally run from 5pm through sunset.
Breakfasts are grab what you can. Four brunches are included. Dinners (if at all) will be on your own as we will often get back to the hotel at about 9pm. There is a fridge in every room and a supermarket within walking distance of the hotel so nobody should starve. You will learn a ton during the nine shooting sessions, the four in-classroom sessions, and even at lunch. Early morning and late afternoon parking is free. If we want to head back to the beach early we will need to arrange tight carpools and share the $30/vehicle parking fee. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $450 for the whole IPT.
Save a space by calling Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 and arranging to leave your deposit of $599–credit cards are accepted for deposits only. Your balance will be due on April 18, 2016. I hope that you can join me for what will be an exciting and educational IPT.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 🙂
Most of Saturday was spent dealing with post-surgery discomfort 🙂 and watching the Masters Golf Tournament. I am rooting for Jordan Spieth who will begin the last round with a tenuous lead. Sunday afternoon will be nail-biting time for sure.
I am thinking that I had better get packing tomorrow morning as only my Think Tank Rolling Bag is packed so far. I leave for the airport hotel at 7:30pm tomorrow night for my 6:00am flight to JFK on Monday. 🙂
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 156 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will likely come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
BIRDS AS ART Help Needed
We are proud to announce that the new BIRDS AS ART Online Store will go live on May 1, 2016. The old store, rife with problems, has long been due a peaceful death. We do need a few test shoppers. If you would like to help us out, please shoot Jim an e-mail with the words Test Shopper in the Subject line. You will not get to keep the stuff that you order but you will have our thanks.
Great Used Gear News and Lessons
A very good friend who is a multiple IPT veteran recently sold his old 400 DO and a 1D Mark IV to Adorama for $2,000. I had had four old 400 DO lenses listed for many months. I had his lens sold for $2450 the other day but when I e-mailed him he told me that he had sold it and the 1D IV (both in excellent condition) for the criminally low price of $2000. For both I asked. “Yes.” As I could have easily gotten at least $1200 for the camera and had $2450 for the lens lens, my friend, who shall remain un-named, lost at least $1650.
Here are the lessons:
1-Patience is a virtue.
2-If you sell your used gear to a camera store (and that includes my dear friends at B&H Photo Video), you are gonna get ripped off. Doing so is better than taking your gear out to the curb and leaving it with the trash, but not by much.
The prices of the used, original (aka “the old”) 400 DO lenses present an interesting case study. We sold one for $4199 back in May 2014 and another for $3,000 in August 2015. Very recently we sold one for $2400 and two for $2299. At one point we had four listed. Most folks were patient and eventually got a halfway decent price. My good friend got robbed. The major camera stores pay pennies on the dollar so that they can make a tiny profit when the now over-priced items can sell to the occasional ignorant buyer.
What’s Up with Used Gear Sales?
I have been somewhat remiss for the past month or so, mostly due to the San Diego surgery trip, at tending to the Used Gear Page and especially at getting new stuff listed. I am rectifying that here today.
Selling Your Used Photo 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 charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. 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. Over the past year, 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 f/4L IS, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily.
Important Used Gear Stuff that has never appeared on the blog before
When folks receive the Items for Sale Info e-mail, they are asked to read it carefully and to let me know if they accept the terms, especially #s 4 & 5. Once they agree to the terms we work on a price that will get the lens sold while making both the buyer and the seller happy. Most agree to the terms. Here is #4:
#4-If the seller decides not to sell the item after I have done the price research but before it is listed they agree to pay a commission equal to 2 1/2% of the current B&H (low-ball) offer. If the item is listed and the seller accepts a price lower than the asking price, the commission shall be based on the original asking price. If the seller decides not to sell the item, or sells it to a buyer found independently, the seller agrees to pay a commission equal to 2 1/2% of the original asking price.
And here is #5: If you make contact with a buyer and sell them additional items you promise to pay 5% on all sales, even those that were never listed on the Used Gear Page.
Item #4 above is in place as a good deal of work is required to come up with a price that is both fair to the seller and is attractive to potential buyers. I am not a free pricing service 🙂 And item #5 is only fair.
Used Gear Cautions
Though I am not in a position to post images of gear for sale here or elsewhere, prospective buyers are encouraged to request photos of the gear that they are interested in purchasing via e-mail. Doing so will help to avoid any misunderstandings as to the condition of the gear. Sellers are advised to photograph their used gear with care against clean backgrounds so that the stuff is represented accurately and in the best light; please pardon the pun :).
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR Lens
IPT veteran and good friend Mark Hardymon is offering a used Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR lens in excellent condition for the by far BAA record low price of $5999. The sale includes the original trunk (CT-607), a Wimberley low profile tripod foot, the original Nikon tripod foot, a LensCoat soft front lens cover, the original Nikon front lens cover, a black LensCoat, all other original accessories, and insured ground shipping via UPS. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Mark by e-mail or by phone at 614-296-2277 (Eastern time).
The 600 f/4 lenses are ideal for those who do birds and wildlife. This older version of the Nikon 600 weighs 11.16 lbs. This model is still in production and sells new at B&H for $9,394.00. The newer lighter version, the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens (designated by “E” rather than “G” after the f/4) weighs 8.4 pounds but costs $12,296.95. Thus, Mark’s lens is a great buy for someone young and relatively strong who would like to save $3395. artie
Nikon 500mm f/4G ED VR lens
Long-time-ago IPT veteran Myer Bornstein is offering a Nikon 500mm f/4G ED VR lens in excellent condition for the record-low BAA price of $4,999. It just had a complete Nikon check-up. The sale includes a soft cap, a LensCoat TravelCoat, a RRS low mount, the lens trunk, the original leather front lens cover, and insured ground shipping to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Myer via e-mail or by phone at 1-508 944 7401 (Eastern time).
Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II Lens
Paul Roscoe is offering a Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II lens in mint condition and for the record-low BAA price of $9450. The lens includes a LensCoat that has been on the lens since the original purchase and a Wimberley Arca-Swiss compatible replacement lens foot. The sale also includes the lens trunk, the original front lens cover, the lens strap, the original shipping box, and insured ground shipping via Fedex. Your item will not ship until your check or bank wire clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Paul via e-mail or on his cell phone at 1-508-932-5038 (Eastern time).
The 600 II is the world’s premier super-telephoto lens. It is super-sharp and features Canon’s amazing four-stop Image Stabilization system. This, the current version, weighs more than 3 pounds less than the previous model. When I am not weight-restricted, the 600 II is my first choice in super-telephoto lenses. I use it at Bosque, at Nickerson Beach, and from my car on a BLUBB when working down by the lake near my house. Heck, I am renting one in Namibia. When you need maximum reach, the 600 II is the only way to go. As the lens currently sells new at B&H for $11,499, you can save $2,000 by grabbing Paul’s lens right now. artie
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
A New Record-Low BAA Price
IPT veteran Bill Wingfield is offering a used Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR camera body in excellent condition for the record low BAA price of $1498. The sale includes the front cap, the camera strap, and insured ground shipping via major courier. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Bill via e-mail or by phone at 1-843-729-6670 (Eastern time).
I have used the 5D III for birds on occasion with excellent results, even with the 2X III TC and the 600 II. It has long been my go-to dSLR for flowers, landscapes, and Urbex photography. In my experience, the quality of the image files is second only to those from the 5DS R. artie
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 🙂
Did lots of work on Friday on blog posts to be published while I am in Namibia. Lots more to do. The Post-processing Guide is finished. It will be announced in the Sunday blog post.
I was glad to learn that the first two folks signed up for the Nickerson Beach IPT. See below for details. If you would like to save a few bucks on lodging for this IPT I have a male looking for a male roommate. Please get in touch via e-mail. There is only a single opening on the Fort DeSoto IPT. Click here for all IPT info.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 155 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will likely come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Center AF point (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Common Tern fledgling in fresh juvenal plumage
Simplicity, a Single Blade of Beach Grass, and Lots of Room in the Frame
When many beginning photographers get their first long lens, they often wind up stuffing the bird in the frame, barely giving it any room to see or to be. And nowhere to go should the need arise. It is much better to stay back a bit or to resist the urge to do a bill to tail tip “man-crop.” I love the large amount of negative space in today’s featured image. And simple as it is, the single blade of beach grass adds a touch of elegance and helps to establish the setting. My new technique of watching the RGB histogram shift as I adjust the Color Temperature slider during the RAW conversion in DPP 4, worked like a charm. Beach clean-up was minimal. But for that, some added brightness (again during the RAW conversion in DPP 4), and a reduced opacity layer of my NIK Color Efex Pro 25-25 recipe, this un-cropped image looks pretty much as it did when it came out of the camera.
If you want to improve as a nature photographer, learn to keep things simple.
Sun Angle Question
Which shoulder was the sun coming over?
The BIRDS AS ART Style
I am proud to say that this image epitomizes the BIRDS AS ART style, a style that I popularized with the publication of the original The Art of Bird Photography, a style that has been successfully emulated by many of the world’s top bird photographers. Please do not forget, however, that I was inspired early on by John Shaw’s wildflower images and the bird photographs of both Rod Planck and Tim Fitzharris. Best of all, it is wonderful to know that I now count all three of those nature photography legends as friends.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmer head portrait, American Oystercatcher dining on surf clam flesh, Common Tern at sunset, Common Tern adult swallowing flatfish, Black Skimmer in flight, newborn Common Tern chick, American Oystercatcher with chick, fresh juvenile Common Tern (with fill flash), and Common Terns copulating.
Meet and greet at 3pm on the afternoon of Monday, July 18. Limit 10.
The primary subject species of this IPT will be the nesting Common Terns. The trip is timed so that we will get to photograph tiny chicks as well as fledglings. There will be lots of flight photography including adults flying with baitfish. Creating great images of the chicks being fed is a huge challenge. In addition to the terns we will get to photograph lots of Black Skimmers courting, setting up their nesting territories, and in flight (both singles and large pre-dawn flocks blasting off). Midair battles are guaranteed on sunny afternoons. And with luck, we might even see a few tiny chicks toward the end of the trip. We will also get to photograph the life cycle of American Oystercatcher. This will likely include nests with eggs and tiny chicks, young being fed, and possibly a few fledglings.
Nesting Piping Plover is also possibly. There will be lots of gulls to photograph; most years I am able to find a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls of varying ages in addition to the Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls. You will learn to identify and age the various gull species. There will likely be some Willets feeding along the surf and with luck we might get to photograph a handsome juvenile or two. In addition to the locally breeding shorebirds, we will likely get to see some southbound migrant arctic-and sub-arctic breeding shorebird species such as Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and maybe even Red Knot.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmers with tiny chick, Common Tern landing with baitfish for young, fledged Common Tern chick in dunes, American Oystercatchers/display flight, adult Common Tern with pipefish for chick, Common Tern fledgling in soft light, American Oystercatcher on nest with eggs, American Oystercatcher 3-egg clutch, battling Black Skimmers.
The IPT Logistics
The tour will begin with a meet and greet on the afternoon of Monday, July 18, 2016. That will be followed by our first shooting session at the beach. From Tuesday through and including all of Friday we will have two photography sessions daily. Our morning sessions will start very early so that we are on the beach well before sunrise. We usually photograph for about four hours. Then we will enjoy a group brunch. We will always have a midday break that will include a nap for me. That followed by our daily afternoon classroom sessions that will include image review, workflow and Photoshop, and a review/critique of five of your trip images. Folks are always invited to bring their laptops to brunch for image sharing. I always have mine with me but heck, I am a big show-off. Afternoon in-the-field sessions generally run from 5pm through sunset.
Breakfasts are grab what you can. Four brunches are included. Dinners (if at all) will be on your own as we will often get back to the hotel at about 9pm. There is a fridge in every room and a supermarket within walking distance of the hotel so nobody should starve. You will learn a ton during the nine shooting sessions, the four in-classroom sessions, and even at lunch. Early morning and late afternoon parking is free. If we want to head back to the beach early we will need to arrange tight carpools and share the $30/vehicle parking fee. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $450 for the whole IPT.
Save a space by calling Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 and arranging to leave your deposit of $599–credit cards are accepted for deposits only. Your balance will be due on April 18, 2016. I hope that you can join me for what will be an exciting and educational IPT.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 🙂
Great news: I got word from Dr. Parsons the I have his blessings to go on the Namibia trip. I worked all day getting some necessary 2015 tax work done, and getting a few post-surgery meds along with insulin needles and diabetic blood sugar test strips. I got a ton done but still have lots more work to do before I head to the airport hotel on Sunday evening.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 154 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will likely come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created from a sunroom on the ninth floor of La Jolla’s tallest building with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 158mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 200: 5 seconds at f/9 in bright sun at 10:30am! With the Singh-Ray 77mm Warming Circular Polarizer set to dark and the Singh-Ray 5-stop Neutral Density filter.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the right side of the rock in the center and re-compose slightly downward. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see the spectacular larger version.
Wave-washed rock
The Stationary Helicopter Photo Session: High Rise Magic
The moment that I saw the view of the ocean and the rocks below from Leon Shapiro’s 9th floor La Jolla apartment, I knew that there were some great images to be made. Thanks to Leon’s kindness–Patrick Sparkman, new blog regular Kerry Morris, and I–enjoyed a 3-hour photo session on the late morning of Saturday April 2, 2016. Patrick’s wife Robin joined us to enjoy the view and check out the birds.
I used two lenses, the 100-400 II and the all purpose 24-105 when I wanted to go wider. I made some sharp images and lots of slow shutter speed images using both the Singh-Ray 5-stop and 10-stop Neutral Density filters. But it was the Singh-Ray 77mm Warming Circular Polarizer set to dark that really added drama to the images by rendering the water a dramatic dark green. For all of the blurs with that were made with the warming circular polarizer and one of the dark ND filters, the 77mm was mounted on the front of the lens with the Xume (magnetic mounting) system and the ND filter was held in place after rear focus was set. The exposure were determined by trial and error. Note that when I went slow with the 24-105, I switched out the Mongoose for my Induro ballhead and used the Wimberley P-5 camera body plate on the bottom of the camera.
To learn the basics of working with the 5-stop and 10-stop NDs, you are referred to the “Singh-Ray 10-Stop ND Tutorial: making 30 second exposures in bright sun” in the blog post here. You can of course substitute the 5-stop ND for the 10-stop.
Most looking at today’s image would think, “Yeah, just get the filters in place, push the button, and hope for the best,” but as always, it pays to keep your thinking cap on. With today’s featured image I love the main subject, the rock in the middle and I love the dark rocks at the bottom of the photo that server to frame it. When I first began working this scene–in “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs (see below) we recommend creating many images once you are onto something. The big realization here for me was that I was pressing the shutter much too soon, when a breaking wave approached the rock. That resulted in a large surreal cloud of water above the rock. All of those images looked unbalanced, i.e., top heavy. So I began waiting to push the shutter button until the wave was right on top of the rock. This resulted in the perfectly position swirl of water that you see in front of the rock. In addition, this timing made it appear that the water was actually flowing down the rock in the photograph.
Technique Question Answered
In the original blog post, I asked why it was not necessary to use Live View, Mirror Lock-up, or the 2-second timer when doing 15- or 30-second exposures?
As stated eventually in the comments section of the original blog post, the vibrations caused by mirror slap and gear shake last only fractions of a single second so the movements have no effects at all on a really long exposure image. It is recommended that you use either Live View or Mirror lock-up combined with the 2-second timer (or a cable release) when working at shutter speeds between 1/30 sec. and 1 second.
Singh-Ray 77mm Filters
I regularly travel with my Singh-Ray 77mm Warming Circular Polarizer and both the Singh-Ray 5-stop and 10-stop Mor-Slo glass Neutral Density filters. I can use each of them on the 16-35mm f/4L IS, the 24-105mm f/4L IS, the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II, and the 100-400mmL IS II. With the intermediate telephotos I always use the Xume magnetized mounting system; this system makes it easy to mount the filters in just a second rather than having to struggle to get them properly threaded. (See more on the Xume system below). Do not use the Xume system with your wide angle lenses as it will cause serious vignetting at the wider settings.
Click on the logo link above to purchase and use the code artie10 at checkout to receive a healthy 10$ discount.
Singh-Ray Filters
Singh-Ray filters have been used by the world’s top photographers for many decades. Singh-Ray is and has been the name in quality filters. I own several of the 77mm filters so that I can attain slow shutter speeds in bright conditions. No other filter manufacturer comes close to matching the quality of Singh-Ray’s optical glass that is comparable to that used by NASA. And they continue to pioneer the most innovative products on the market like their ColorCombo polarizer, Vari-ND variable and Mor-Slo 15-stop neutral density filters. When you use their filters, you’ll create better, more dramatic images and, unlike other filters, with absolutely no sacrifice in image quality. All Singh-Ray filters are handcrafted in the USA.
Best News: 10% Discount/Code at checkout: artie10
To shop for Singh-Ray’s most popular solid ND filter, the 10-Stop Mor-Slo Glass Filter liter (for example), click on the logo link above, click on “Neutral and color Solid Neutral Density Filters (glass), then click on “Mor-Slo™ 5, 10, 15 and 20-Stop Solid Neutral Density Filters (glass),” choose the size and model, add to cart, and then checkout. At checkout, type artie10 into the “Have a coupon? Click here to enter your code” box and a healthy 10% discount will be applied to your total. In addition to enjoying the world’s best filter at 10% off you will be supporting my efforts here on the blog.
The 10- and 15-stop Mor Slo filters are great for landscapes with water and moving clouds. With the 10-stop, 1/125th becomes 8 seconds and with the 15-stop, 4 minutes. Next, I need to get my hands on a 15-stop Mor-Slo ND…
Xume Stuff!
Here is how I use the magnetized Xume system with my intermediate telephoto lenses:
First I screw one XUME 77mm Lens Adapter onto the front of my 100-400 II and another onto the front of the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS II.
Next I screw my Singh-Ray 77mm 3-Stop Resin Mor-Slo Neutral Density Filter, my Singh-Ray 77mm 5-Stop Glass Mor-Slo Neutral Density Filter, and my Singh-Ray 77mm LB Warming Circular Polarizer into their own individual XUME 77mm Filter Holders. Be sure not to screw the filters on too tightly to the Filter Holders. If you do, it can be a real challenge to remove the filter when you need it for a wide angle lens. Light pressure is fine.
The lens adapters stay on the lenses. The ND filters and the polarizer stay screwed into their own filter holders as noted above. The filter/filter holder combos are stored in the lovely labeled leather pouches that come with each Singh-Ray filter purchase. The three of them fit perfectly into the small upper left zippered pocket of my Xtrahand vest. When I wish to mount a filter onto the front of one of my intermediate telephoto lenses I simply remove the lens hood, grab the filter that I need, and pop it securely into place in less than an instant. Ah, it’s the magnetic thing!
Be sure to replace the lens hood so that you do not accidentally dislodge the filter by whacking it against some shrubbery when you are walking about. To remove the filter simply remove the lens hood, pop the filter off instantly, place it back in its leather case, and stow it. With the Xume system there are no more tears. You do not have to screw and unscrew the filters onto the front of the lens. There are no more jammed threads. The Xume lens adapters and the filter holders are precision-machined to guarantee fast and secure filter attachment every time.
Note that with today’s image I used the Xume system to mount the warming circular polarizer on the lens so that I could turn it to dark and set the focus. Then I held the ND filter in place in front of the lens being sure not to shake the lens while doing so. If I had reversed the order it would have been impossible to set the polarizer to dark while looking through the lens.
It is an elegant system but I can recommend it only for intermediate telephoto lenses: when used with short lenses and short zoom lenses some serious vignetting will occur at the wider focal lengths. As noted above, you must use the Xume system when working with the 10-stop ND so that you can snap the filter in place after setting the focus without messing up either the framing or focus as you might if you needed to screw the filter on.
If you need Xume stuff for front element sizes other than 77mm please use this link; you will find two pages of good stuff!
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 worked all day getting ready for the Namibia trip. With four folks signed up for Japan 2017, there are only five slots left so the trip is a definite go. Scroll down for details.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 153 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Price Reduced $2500
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy.
Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!
Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.
As I really, really want to make it back to Japan in winter one more time, I decided to lower the price of the world’s best Japan in Winter trip by $2,500. Yes my trip has three great leaders including the best bird photography instructor on the planet. That’s the guy who knows where to be when and why. And yes, it is now a bit more expensive than most. And yes, we stay at a fine hotel in Tokyo. And yes, we stay in a marvelous traditional hotel for our three nights at the Snow Monkey Park. And yes, we are perfectly located on Hokkaido, minutes from the premier Red-crowned Crane sanctuary and an easy drive to most of the other wondrous avian attractions. And yes, we enjoy home cooked breakfasts and dinners prepared by Shinobu, the wife of our local Japanese guide. She is an incredible chef. After three visits her meals are now traditional Japanese fine-tuned for the American palate. And yes, my tour is longer than the others, giving us many days with the cranes. I saw one trip with only two days of crane photography; what a bummer. End each day with a traditional onsen (hot springs mineral bath) to complete your immersion in Japanese culture.
Life is short. I hope that you can join me. Scroll down for details.
This image was created on the 2015 Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 117mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 2/3 stops off the snow: 1/250 sec. at f/7.1. AWB.
Two AF points up and one row to the left of the center AF Point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). This was a small crop from above, left, and below. The selected AF point was on the side of the upper breast of the male. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Snow Monkeys copulating
AF Point Question
Why would it have been better in this case to have selected the AF point that was four AF points up and two rows to the left of the center AF Point?
Up the Hill at the Snow Monkey Park
The walk up the hill to the Snow Monkey Park takes about 30 minutes uphill for fast walkers. I take 40 minutes. The good news is that all you need lens wise is an 80- or 100-400 f/5.6 lens or a 70- or 80-200f/2.8 lens. And there is a heated shelter for those who wish to warm up. But it is rarely really cold at this location. The photography is about as easy at it gets as long as you do not monkey around…
Animated GIF Screw-Up
Please note that I reversed the Original and Optimized text layers in the animated GIF above. It is too much work to re-do it so you will need to adjust your thinking 🙂 Thanks to Ryan Sanderson for catching that one. 🙂
The Difficult Pipe Removal
Check out the elimination of the white plastic pipe in the lower right. I used the Clone Stamp Tool, the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, and even the Blur Tool. In addition fairly large, warped quick mask of the water on the right was used to create the water needed to cover the bottom of the pipe. Keys to the relative success of the repairs were to work very large and to eliminate repetitive patterns as soon as they were spotted. I use the Patch Tool and the Spot Healing Brush to do that.
Noise reduction via Arash’s Neat Image techniques was very successful. The new guide is finally done. It will be for sale here soon for $48. A huge amount of work went into its creation.
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.
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 our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 🙂
Image courtesy of and copyright 2016: Bryan Holliday
Happy Bird-day Patrick!
Happy birthday Patrick Sparkman. Pat celebrates the big five-oh today. Above you see him doing what he does best, hand holding the 600 II with the 5DS R and a 2X III TC in place. On this day, it was I who took the pansy-ass route by not venturing out onto the wave-tossed rocks at La Jolla Shores Beach. I hope that you have a great day bro! Are you getting some ice cream to celebrate?
I had my best night’s sleep since the surgery with 1 1/2 to 2 hours between pit stops; with the laser surgery it takes from 2 weeks to 2 months to see real improvement. I did lots to get ready for the Namibia trip including ordering some needed diabetic supplies and getting the right electrical outlet adapter (Type M) thanks to good friend Bill Lloyd who will be on the trip.
The Streak
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 152 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created at La Jolla, CA on the afternoon of Saturday, April with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 312mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. sunny ISO 400 bright white exposure of 1/2500 sec. at f/7.1 (the equivalent of 1/2000 sec. at f/8.) Daylight WB.
I selected one AF point that was two up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the gull’s neck was active at the moment of exposure as is always best when hand holding. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see the spectacular larger version.
adult Western Gull calling
Serendipitously On Sun Angle
Patrick Sparkman and I had made our way down to the low cliffs on a clear afternoon. We were working mostly on Brant’s Cormorants when I noticed this gull land behind us on a pretty nice rock. (Yes, good photographers have eyes in the back of their heads…) To get into position, I moved slowly to avoid pissing off a female Sea Lion. I worked my way to sun angle, selected the AF point that would work for the image design that I wanted, and did an exposure check. Then I got a bit lower by bending and squatting a bit to move the already distant background even farther effectively from the bird.
Just as I got into the perfect position the gull called. I made two images and backed away thinking “It’s just not gonna get any better than that.” In a Birder’s World article entitled “Go For the Gulls” I wrote, “When you point your lens at a gull they will usually do something pretty neat.” This gull made my life too easy!
NeatImage background NR screen capture
NeatImage Background NR Screen Capture
The NeatImage background Noise Reduction screen capture above gives you a sneak preview of our great new post-processing guide. Written by Arash Hazeghi and edited for readability and clarity by yours truly, this e-book will teach you to apply professional noise reduction and sharpening to your images. First, a mild NR is done on the bird, and then a stronger round or two of NR is applied to the background. Arash’s ingenious technique allows you to do this quickly and easily in most cases. You will learn to make an accurate selection of the subject to put this all in motion. Notice the smooth as a baby’s tush background in the screen capture of today’s featured image above.
The area in the blue square has been filtered by NeatImage Noise Reduction. The area outside of the blue box is unfiltered, exactly as it appears on the converted TIFF. While I will assume that everyone will be impressed by the virtually complete absence of noise in the original file, I need to point out that the mid- to dark-toned water is actually one stop to 1 1/3 stops under-exposed. Why? WHITES need one stop less light to be properly exposed than mid-tones in a given lighting condition; thus the mid-to dark middle toned water is one to 1 1/3 stops under it should be, and therefore, more noisy. I am rather amazed that all of the internet experts including some very good photographers and good friends are all proclaiming that high ISO noise with the 5DS R is a problem. But heck, that’s why they are internet experts: they rarely if ever use the gear that they complain about.
The New Guide and NeatImage
The work on on Arash’s new Post Processing Guide is finished and we will be announcing its publication here very soon. The guide will sell for $48. As above, the guide will teach you–as you can see in today’s featured image, to apply a small but effective amount of NR to the bird (while maintaining fine feather detail) and to apply greater amounts of NR to noisy backgrounds to smooth them out. The key to the success of these methods is a combination of Arash’s cleverly developed and innovative techniques and the great NeatImage plug-in. Arash recommends and uses only the NeatImage plug-in for advanced noise reduction. Both artie and Arash recommend only the Proversion as the Homeversion does not work on 16-bit images. Folks who are good with Layer Masking may wish to get a copy of NeatImage and get a head start on using this great program. If not, the new guide will make it simple for you. Learn more on the effectiveness of NeatImage in the blog post here.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmer head portrait, American Oystercatcher dining on surf clam flesh, Common Tern at sunset, Common Tern adult swallowing flatfish, Black Skimmer in flight, newborn Common Tern chick, American Oystercatcher with chick, fresh juvenile Common Tern (with fill flash), and Common Terns copulating.
Meet and greet at 3pm on the afternoon of Monday, July 18. Limit 10.
The primary subject species of this IPT will be the nesting Common Terns. The trip is timed so that we will get to photograph tiny chicks as well as fledglings. There will be lots of flight photography including adults flying with baitfish. Creating great images of the chicks being fed is a huge challenge. In addition to the terns we will get to photograph lots of Black Skimmers courting, setting up their nesting territories, and in flight (both singles and large pre-dawn flocks blasting off). Midair battles are guaranteed on sunny afternoons. And with luck, we might even see a few tiny chicks toward the end of the trip. We will also get to photograph the life cycle of American Oystercatcher. This will likely include nests with eggs and tiny chicks, young being fed, and possibly a few fledglings.
Nesting Piping Plover is also possibly. There will be lots of gulls to photograph; most years I am able to find a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls of varying ages in addition to the Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls. You will learn to identify and age the various gull species. There will likely be some Willets feeding along the surf and with luck we might get to photograph a handsome juvenile or two. In addition to the locally breeding shorebirds, we will likely get to see some southbound migrant arctic-and sub-arctic breeding shorebird species such as Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and maybe even Red Knot.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmers with tiny chick, Common Tern landing with baitfish for young, fledged Common Tern chick in dunes, American Oystercatchers/display flight, adult Common Tern with pipefish for chick, Common Tern fledgling in soft light, American Oystercatcher on nest with eggs, American Oystercatcher 3-egg clutch, battling Black Skimmers.
The IPT Logistics
The tour will begin with a meet and greet on the afternoon of Monday, July 18, 2016. That will be followed by our first shooting session at the beach. From Tuesday through and including all of Friday we will have two photography sessions daily. Our morning sessions will start very early so that we are on the beach well before sunrise. We usually photograph for about four hours. Then we will enjoy a group brunch. We will always have a midday break that will include a nap for me. That followed by our daily afternoon classroom sessions that will include image review, workflow and Photoshop, and a review/critique of five of your trip images. Folks are always invited to bring their laptops to brunch for image sharing. I always have mine with me but heck, I am a big show-off. Afternoon in-the-field sessions generally run from 5pm through sunset.
Breakfasts are grab what you can. Four brunches are included. Dinners (if at all) will be on your own as we will often get back to the hotel at about 9pm. There is a fridge in every room and a supermarket within walking distance of the hotel so nobody should starve. You will learn a ton during the nine shooting sessions, the four in-classroom sessions, and even at lunch. Early morning and late afternoon parking is free. If we want to head back to the beach early we will need to arrange tight carpools and share the $30/vehicle parking fee. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $450 for the whole IPT.
Save a space by calling Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 and arranging to leave your deposit of $599–credit cards are accepted for deposits only. Your balance will be due on April 18, 2016. I hope that you can join me for what will be an exciting and educational IPT.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
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, 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 visiting the BAA 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 began work on this blog post at the San Diego Airport before my flight to Orlando. And continued during the flight after a good take-off nap. The flight is a wi-fi flight but I am having trouble getting online right now. Whomever received the graft money for the creation of the new Rental Car Center at SAN should be jailed. The old system worked great. The new system is horrific. Too many screw-ups in the system this morning to even think about listing them.
Got into Orlando a bit early and waited on the hot runway for 30 minutes for a gate. Jim picked me up right on time, my luggage came out quickly, and we should be home by 7pm or so. Enjoy today’s post.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 151 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. 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. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created by Leon Shapiro at La Jolla,CA with the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens (at 200mm) and the EOS 5D Mark II (now replaced by the Canon EOS 5D Mark III.) ISO 200. Spot metering (!) at zero in Av mode” 1/2000 sec at f/2.8.
Brown Pelican head throw. Image courtesy of and copyright 2016: Leon Shapiro.
By his own admission, Leon knows that this one was a stroke of luck. I quickly had him getting close to the birds, using Evaluative metering, working in Manual mode, creating perfect exposures ever time, and making sharp images with the 2X III TC. Photoshop tweaks by yours truly.
The Backstory
I mentioned in a recent blog post that I ran into a really nice guy, Leon Shapiro, on the cliffs on Thursday and took him out for a morning of instruction on Friday. Below, in Leon’s words, is how it all unfolded. Though his image above is a healthy crop, the pose and the pelican are spectacular.
A Chance Meeting Proves Invaluable
Last week I wandered down onto to the cliffs just north of La Jolla Cove with my big lens, the 70-200mm f/2.8 and the old EOS 5D Mark II. At 7:00am in the morning there was only one other photographer standing–actually sitting, on the cliffs. I made my way down slowly trying not to frighten off any of the birds. It was clear that this person knew what he was doing. I was a little intimidated but struck up a polite conversation. Within five minutes Artie was giving me a few tips and talking about how much he loved making images at La Jolla. I asked if he gave private lessons and he said “Absolutely, what are you doing tomorrow morning?”
I met Artie at the same spot the following morning at 6:30am. He was there waiting for me and had already scouted out the action and knew exactly what shots he wanted me to get. I had already shared with Artie that I did not really have a good understanding of some of the basics and was hoping to learn a few fundamentals during the morning. I wasn’t prepared for the deluge of knowledge, experience and information that was about to come flooding my way.
We had a terrific morning together. I learned more in those five hours than in the previous five years I had been photographing. I left our lesson with an incredible number of tips and pointers that Artie shared with me. As I reflect back on that morning three specific things stood out for me:
1: Technical capability: Artie was able to quickly figure out what I knew and did know about my equipment. I’m sure he could have spent days educating me on all the working in Manual mode and had me making perfectly exposed and sharp photographs inside an hour. Sure I had read about some of these things but having someone at your side showing you what you did and did not do after each image is invaluable. Just understanding how to read and interpret a histogram correctly was worth its weight in gold. It took Artie a minute to figure out that I had actually disabled “blinkies” due to frustration (although he got a good laugh out of it).
2: Light: This is where Artie’s passion for what he does comes shining through. Knowing that you want the sun behind you and your shadow pointing directly at the bird makes sense. Spending a few hours with Artie watching the planning and effort he puts into maneuvering himself into the right position to take a photo way amazingly instructive. And best of all, I was right beside him the whole time. Crawling over the rocks to get exactly into position while Artie was anticipating exactly what the bird was going to do and then having Artie show you the subtle but powerful differences between the various shots was invaluable. I learned how you can take great shots in the shade, how important it was to understand how the light effects the entire photograph, and how to position yourself so you make the best possible use of the available light.
3:Learning style: It did not surprise me when I learned that Artie was a teacher in the NYC public school system. He was very quick to zone in on my learning style and adapt his teaching style accordingly. You can have the most experienced and accomplished photographer in the world teaching you but if they don’t understand and recognize how you learn, they will not be very effective. Artie took the time to understand what I wanted to learn and then figured out the best way to communicate and teach that to me.
Thanks Artie for re-igniting the passion I have for photography and giving me the tools to embrace that passion.
Leon
My Comments
Thanks a stack Leon for sending me the wonderful e-mail above. I must add that you were a bright, interested, and eager-to-learn student and that it was a pleasure working with you. At times, some folks on my Instructional Photo-tours profess that they already know everything. I loved your clean slate style of learning. I must make one correction: it was only minutes before I had you making sharp, properly exposed images. And that was on the first morning that we met!
I would also like to add two items to Leon’s list:
#4: Leon learned that in some situations if you get low and move slowly it is possible to get very close to more than a few free and wild birds. Prior to our getting together Leon was content to sit way back, create small in the frame images, and crop the heck out of them.
#5: On a related note, Leon had told me the first morning that we met that he did not bring his 1.4X teleconverter on his photo walks because he could not make any sharp images with it. So I set him up with a Series III 2X the next morning, showed him how to hold the lens steady using his own personal knee-pod, and had him make sharp head-portraits of the cormorants that we had gotten close to. When it came to learning both the sharpness techniques and the stalking techniques, Leon was a quick study.
I have preached here before and often that it is always a good plan to be open to serendipitous encounters. Leon needed no prompting on that matter.
Best of all, Leon turned out to be a super-nice guy. Heck, that was obvious from the moment that we met. He wound up inviting me (along with some friends!) up to his mega-luxurious apartment high above La Jolla on the weekend while he was attending a fundraiser on the east coast. That after he gotten to know me for a grand total of five hours… We created some amazing sea- and rock-scapes from the open windows of his spectacular 9th floor place using the Singh-Ray 77mm warming circular polarizer (set to dark) and either the 5- or 10-stop Singh-Ray Mor-Slo Neutral Density filter. New blog regular Kerry Morris, who joined us for a morning of photography, saved the day by sharing her Sing-Ray 77mm warming circular polarizer with both Patrick and me. And she in turn borrowed one of my two ND filters. Patrick’s wife Robin relaxed, enjoyed the luxury, and spotted birds on the rocks for us. We all had some great fun, thanks to Leon.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmer head portrait, American Oystercatcher dining on surf clam flesh, Common Tern at sunset, Common Tern adult swallowing flatfish, Black Skimmer in flight, newborn Common Tern chick, American Oystercatcher with chick, fresh juvenile Common Tern (with fill flash), and Common Terns copulating.
Meet and greet at 3pm on the afternoon of Monday, July 18. Limit 10.
The primary subject species of this IPT will be the nesting Common Terns. The trip is timed so that we will get to photograph tiny chicks as well as fledglings. There will be lots of flight photography including adults flying with baitfish. Creating great images of the chicks being fed is a huge challenge. In addition to the terns we will get to photograph lots of Black Skimmers courting, setting up their nesting territories, and in flight (both singles and large pre-dawn flocks blasting off). Midair battles are guaranteed on sunny afternoons. And with luck, we might even see a few tiny chicks toward the end of the trip. We will also get to photograph the life cycle of American Oystercatcher. This will likely include nests with eggs and tiny chicks, young being fed, and possibly a few fledglings.
Nesting Piping Plover is also possibly. There will be lots of gulls to photograph; most years I am able to find a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls of varying ages in addition to the Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls. You will learn to identify and age the various gull species. There will likely be some Willets feeding along the surf and with luck we might get to photograph a handsome juvenile or two. In addition to the locally breeding shorebirds, we will likely get to see some southbound migrant arctic-and sub-arctic breeding shorebird species such as Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and maybe even Red Knot.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmers with tiny chick, Common Tern landing with baitfish for young, fledged Common Tern chick in dunes, American Oystercatchers/display flight, adult Common Tern with pipefish for chick, Common Tern fledgling in soft light, American Oystercatcher on nest with eggs, American Oystercatcher 3-egg clutch, battling Black Skimmers.
The IPT Logistics
The tour will begin with a meet and greet on the afternoon of Monday, July 18, 2016. That will be followed by our first shooting session at the beach. From Tuesday through and including all of Friday we will have two photography sessions daily. Our morning sessions will start very early so that we are on the beach well before sunrise. We usually photograph for about four hours. Then we will enjoy a group brunch. We will always have a midday break that will include a nap for me. That followed by our daily afternoon classroom sessions that will include image review, workflow and Photoshop, and a review/critique of five of your trip images. Folks are always invited to bring their laptops to brunch for image sharing. I always have mine with me but heck, I am a big show-off. Afternoon in-the-field sessions generally run from 5pm through sunset.
Breakfasts are grab what you can. Four brunches are included. Dinners (if at all) will be on your own as we will often get back to the hotel at about 9pm. There is a fridge in every room and a supermarket within walking distance of the hotel so nobody should starve. You will learn a ton during the nine shooting sessions, the four in-classroom sessions, and even at lunch. Early morning and late afternoon parking is free. If we want to head back to the beach early we will need to arrange tight carpools and share the $30/vehicle parking fee. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $450 for the whole IPT.
Save a space by calling Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 and arranging to leave your deposit of $599–credit cards are accepted for deposits only. Your balance will be due on April 18, 2016. I hope that you can join me for what will be an exciting and educational IPT.
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