Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

The Streak Goes On…

We killed again today at the Snow Monkey Park…. I am finishing this post at 8:45pm Japan time on Monday February 25, 2104. That is 6:45am on the same day in Florida or in New York. I will be asleep well before 9pm :).

This post marks 88 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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.

Enjoy.

This image of a Snow Monkey family huddled together was created on the February 25, 2014 at 12:26pm on the Japan in Winter IPT with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (with the internal extender in place at 345mm) and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +3 1/3 stops off the snow: 1/125 sec. at f/14 in Manual mode. Color temperature 7,000K. Central Sensor/AI Servo-Surround/Rear Focus AF on the lowest monkey’s eyes and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.

One Better?

Two years ago I created the image below. I liked it from the moment I saw it on the back of the camera. It made it to the final round of BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition judging.

On our first day at the Snow Monkey Park folks were asking, “When do we get that big pile of monkeys?

Just before lunch today there were three monkeys huddled together on the edge of the onsen (hot springs pool). They were facing into the pool. The problem was that there were about 8 photographers behind them piled in tight. So there was no shot from the other side of the pool. The three monkeys posed and posed. The gathered photographers were taking images of their backs with wide angle lenses. The three monkeys posed and posed and posed. Finally I could not take it any longer. I called out, “The shot is from this side of the pool. All that you are getting are the same close-up face images that you have been getting all morning. If you folks would move over here we could all do well.” Nobody listened at first. Then a tall gent from South Africa backed me up. One by one everyone joined us on the side of the pool with the monkeys facing the photographers. But by this time two or three of them were sleeping.

I was patient. I know that the potential for a great image was there. I waited and waited. Some folks gave up and moved on. Then a fourth monkey joined the pile. And they all slept. Then, two monkeys got into a fight on the hill behind us. The four monkeys woke up and posed perfectly. Everyone who stayed wound up thanking me 🙂

Please let me know which image you think is the stronger one, the new image above or the older image below? And to let me know why.

The original Snow Monkey Family Trio. Click on the image to see a larger version.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

The Streak Goes On…

I am nearly finished with this post as we sit in the Hokkaido Airport on Sunday morning getting ready for our flight to Tokyo and the bus ride to our Nagano hotel near the snow monkey park. Our Hokkaido stay was beyond wonderful. Our guide, Makoto, was masterful, his staff, amazingly helpful. And the food at the lodge was delicious, plentiful, and Japanese.

This post marks 86 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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 am finishing up this blog post at 9:18pm on Sunday February 23, 2014 (in Japan) thanks to the kindness of Denise Ippolito. The AC adapter for my workhorse laptop died this afternoon and Denise bravely allowed me to try her brick to charge my machine even though the voltages were slightly different. I shall remain indebted to her 🙂

Isolation at 840mm

The 600mm f/4L IS with the 1.4X III TC on a full frame body allows the photographer to isolate the subject. By choosing the right perspective the 840mm focal length (approximately 16.8X magnification) enables the photographer to come up with clean backgrounds free of distracting elements that often would include other birds.

This incoming Whooper Swan image was created at 8:11am on February 20, 2014 on our great swan morning at Lake Kussharo on the Japan in Winter IPT with the Gitzo 3532 LS carbon fiber tripod, the Mongoose M3.6 head, the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops off the snow: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Color temperature: 7000K. Central sensor/AI Servo/Surround Rear Focus AF on the bird’s left breast was active at the moment of exposure. Note that the point of focus was nicely on the same plane as the bird’s face. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #2: Incoming Whooper Swan

Flight at 840mm

A comment on the blog the other day asked “Is it true that AI Servo AF flight sequences made with a super-telephoto lens and a 1.4X TC would always include several out-of-focus images?” I replied that such assertions were ridiculous. With all of my big lenses and the 1.4X III TC virtually all images in a flight sequence are sharp on the bird’s eye. When many folks get one or more unsharp images in a flight sequence they are quick to blame the camera, the lens, the teleconverter, or all three. I look in the mirror and assume operator error. Most times I can put my finger on the reason that an image is not sharp. The most common one (often overlooked) is that the active AF sensor was on an area with little or no contrast. AF needs contrast to be able to see and to be able to track the moving subject. The next most common reason is pure operator error; the photographer was late in framing the image and acquiring focus; the shutter button was depressed before the AF system began to track the subject.

These Whooper Swans were photographed on the morning of February 20, 2014 at 7:55am on the Japan in Winter IPT with the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (hand held at 200mm) and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 stops off the snow worked out to +1/3 stop as framed: 1/1250 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Color temperature: 7000K. Central Sensor/AI Servo-Surround/Rear Focus AF on the head of the bird in the middle and re-compose slightly while panning slowly. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #3: Whooper Swans on Frozen Lake

The Good and the Bad

What are the pleasing elements in the image above? What do you like about it? What is the biggest negative?

Note again the great versatility of the 200-400; dis-engaging the internal TC and zooming out allowed me to quickly get to 200mm and create the image that I wanted that included the swans and the distant woods. Learn more about the versatility of the 200-400 here.

Action City

On our first morning at Lake Kussharo we enjoyed swans and mist and steam. On our follow-up visit we enjoyed virtually non-stop action for three hours with incoming flight and displaying birds. After that many of the birds went to sleep and I went to work with the 600 and the 2X III TC. I will share those images with you here at some point.

Your Favorite?

Please take a moment to leave a comment and let us know which of the 4 images above is your favorite, and do let us know why.

Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014: $4995 Limit: 12/Openings: 5

We still have room for 5 more flower photographers on this great trip.

Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.

The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 7) are included. For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two.

Click here for additional info or to register.

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

And The Insane Streak Goes On

I wrote this post midday on Thursday in Japan on the way from Lake Kussharo to Rausu where we–especially Malcolm MacKenzie–are hoping to get out on the boat to photograph the Steller’s and White-tailed Sea Eagles… The road to Rausu opened this morning. Now we just need some sea ice within range…. We had an absolutely amazing morning with the swans with tons of flight and displaying action and wide angle & 1200mm chances as well. Oh, and I forgot fish eye opps. And every focal length in between.

This post marks 84 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. It appears that our lodge has great internet. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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.

Today’s blog post took 2 hours to prepare. Enjoy. Update from 6pm Japan time on February 21: after much trepidation we absolutely killed, killed, killed on our morning and afternoon eagle boat trips. More tomorrow.

Lying Down on the Job

We were all hot to photograph a crane lying down on the snow resting. We had a few near misses where a bird would lie down only to be surrounded by other cranes or stand back up almost immediately. On our last afternoon at the Itoh sanctuary I made a few frames of the bird above but was less than thrilled that the crane did not give me a decent head angle and that there were a pair of out-of-focus crane legs in the upper right corner. Then I decided to get low.

Getting Low

I took the 600 off the tripod, got down in the snow, and supported the lens on the lowest fence rail. I created the image above and quickly thereafter, the image below, and felt immediately that I had gotten too low as there was not quite enough snow between the top of the bird’s head and the distant woods.

This, again the same resting Red-crowned Crane, was photographed with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X. The rig was supported by the lowest fence rail. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops off the snow: 1/1000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Color temperature: 7000K. Central sensor/AI Servo/Surround Rear Focus AF on the bird’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.

When Supporting the Lens

In situations like the one above where you are supporting a big lens–in this case on a fence rail, it is important not to rest the focusing ring on the support else focus will likely be thrown off when you re-compose. The same goes when working on a bean bag. And that is true whether you are using Rear Focus or One-Shot AF. If you can work in AI Servo AF and keep AF active at the moment of exposure your images will likely be sharp.

Soon after I made the image above the resting crane was surrounded by other cranes. Nature called so I headed to the rest room.

The Blue Color Casts

As I knew that the image below would be my favorite, I did not do any final color corrections to the three images above. Folks with a discerning eye for color will note the small but definite BLUE cast in each of the images above. With the image above I ran an Average Blur Color Balance adjustment layer at 80% and followed that up by reducing the BLUE saturation 100%. The brightest WHITEs on the snow came in at R= 209m G=210, B=210, just about perfect.

You can learn do do an Average Blur Color Balance (and to create a matching action as well) in my Digital Basics File. as detailed in my Digital Basics File, an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Digital Basics includes my complete digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro basics, my killer image clean-up techniques, Digital Eye Doctor, and lots more.

Learn the details of advanced Quick Masking techniques in APTATS I. Mention this blog post and apply a $5 discount with phone orders only. Learn advanced Layer Masking Techniques in APTATS II. Mention this blog post and apply a $5 discount with phone orders only. by the pair, APTATS I and APTATS II and we will be glad to apply at $15 discount with phone orders only.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

Big News

After seeing the accurate colors that I get from my DPP RAW conversions Japan in Winter co-leader Paul McKenzie is switching to DPP conversions and Denise Ippolito is considering doing the same. Now that is amazing…. To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

The Middle Rail

When I returned from the john I was surprised to see the crane still lying on the ground and was thrilled to see that it was now in the clear and giving up a nice parallel head angle. Instead of resting the lens on the bottom rail I went off the middle rail. This yielded the desired all snow background. After just a few images the crane stood, walked up the gentle slope to the crane departure area, and took flight.

In Retrospect

In retrospect I decided that while I loved the final image, that the photo with the woods in the background held a different appeal. As noted above, I needed to get a bit higher to put some space between the top of the crane’s head and the tree-line. Live and learn.

Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014: $4995 Limit: 12/Openings: 5

We still have room for 5 more flower photographers on this great trip.

Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.

The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 7) are included. For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two.

Click here for additional info or to register.

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

And The Streak Continues…

I began working on this and the next post at about 4:30am Japan time on Wednesday. That works out to 2:30pm on Tuesday in Florida and New York. Why up so early with nothing to do? We were supposed to leave at 5:30am this morning to photograph the swans and then continue on to Rausu to do the sea eagles. But the roads to both Kussharo and Rausu are closed because of the wonderful snow storm. 🙂

This post marks 82 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. It appears that our lodge has great internet. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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.

Today’s blog post took 1 1/2 hours to prepare. Enjoy.

Keep or Delete?

It’s a simple question: keep or delete? It was one that is made at least hundreds, sometimes thousands of times each day as we sort through our images. Would you keep or delete the image above? Be sure to let us know why. If the former, how would you go about optimizing it?

Related Questions

Is the image above over-exposed?

Can you age the bird in the photo?

The Answers

I will be back tomorrow with all the answers.

Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014: $4995 Limit: 12/Openings: 5

Act soon: this trip is a go and is filling quickly.

Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.

The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 7) are included. For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two.

Click here for additional info or to register.

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

And The Streak Continues…

After a morning of tree and scenic photography with too much sun, we returned to Tsurui-Ito Tancho Sanctuary in hopes of clouds as the wind direction was perfect. We got off to another slow start but the action developed quickly and stayed hot for several hours. How good was it? Denise Ippolito created 2,345 images in five hours.

This post marks 80 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. It appears that our lodge has great internet. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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.

Today’s blog post took 2 1/2 hours to prepare. Enjoy. With more snow tomorrow we are sleeping in with breakfast at 8am,

The Blizzard

Be careful what you wish for; you just may get it. We awoke on February 16 to ten inches of soft snow with a stiff northwest wind blowing the stuff sideways. We were all dressed and ready to leave when our guide announced that all roads were closed. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then got dressed again to leave at 8:30 only to learn that our guide had gone scouting and “would be back in a while.” In the meantime the snow continued to pile up.

Finally at about 10:30am we got dressed for a third time and drove the 5 minutes to the Tsurui-Ito Tancho Sanctuary. There were three very distant cranes that were visible at times through the white out. The cameras could not focus. We hung around for several hours and the storm subsided just a bit. Red-crowned Cranes began to arrive in numbers. With the continued heavy snow getting autofocus to lock on was difficult. Properly exposed, the images on the rear LCDs looked just like the whiteout. But fun we had.

For hours. By about 3:30 most of us quit soaking wet and shivering cold. Paul and Alan & Pat stayed on and enjoyed another great hour.

The Pano

For the image above I created the lazy man’s pano, using a wide angle lens and then cropping. Absolutely perfect technique would have called for using the tripod-mounted 70-200 f/2.8L IS II, creating six or seven verticals, and stitching them together in Photoshop.

This Red-crowned Crane flight image was created during the Day 4 blizzard on the Japan in Winter IPT with the Gitzo 3532 LS carbon fiber tripod, the Mongoose M3.6 head, the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 stops off the white sky: 1/1000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Color temperature: Custom Pre-set. Central sensor/AI Servo/Surround Rear Focus AF fell squarely on the bird’s right ankle (the visible leg joint) 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.

White on White

Again, the properly exposed RAW file for the image above looked completely washed out. Many in the group could not believe that creating a work of art from the RAW file would be quick and easy. I will share the image optimization technique with you here soon.

Was it Worth It?

In your opinion, was it worth it staying out in the blizzard?

Images copyright 2012: Denise Ippoltio & Arthur Morris. Card design by Denise Ippolito. Click on the image to enjoy a spectacular larger version.

Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014: $4995 Limit: 12/Openings: 5

Act soon: this trip is a go and is filling quickly.

Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.

The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 7) are included. For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two.

Click here for additional info or to register.

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

And The Streak Continues…

We had a great day today with the Red-crowned Cranes and the raptors. Our days are so jam-packed with photography that I have not even looked at a single image from today. And it is time for bed: almost 8:30pm. We are all excited as the forecast is for 10 inches of snow tonight!

This post marks 78 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. It appears that our lodge has great internet. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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.

Today’s blog post took 1 1/2 hours to prepare. It’s late, and I gotta get up soon. Again!

This Red-crowned Crane Flight flight image was created on the Japan in Winter IPT with the Gitzo 3532 LS carbon fiber tripod, the Mongoose M3.6 head, the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/3200 sec. at f/7.1 in Manual mode. Color temperature: AWB. Central sensor/AI Servo/Surround Rear Focus AF on the bird’s neck just behind the head 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. Image #1: Red-crowned Crane

Tobu Tori Answers

At times on the blog folks ask such insightful questions that the original lesson may pale by comparison to the answers. Such was the case with yesterday’s blog post. As the lessons were so important and relevant to flight photography I did not want to risk folks missing the material.

Quazi Ahmed Hussain

February 14, 2014 at 1:08 pm

Some stunning images. Thanks for posting. Could you please explain ‘at f/6.3 in Manual mode was an underexposure?

Thanks in advance. Quazi

Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

February 14, 2014 at 3:47 pm

It was an underexposure because I noticed–after the fact, that the histogram was much too far to the left. It was a difficult situation and the action was fast paced. Different settings were required for the various species as they were all of different tonalities…. With their bright whites sunlit the cranes and the Steller’s Sea-Eagles required the least light, the white-tailed needed a bit more light as the white tail is not as bright at the whites on the two previous birds, and the black-eared needed a third stop more light.

As always, learn everything that you need to know about exposure for nature photography in the two-book bundle: ABP and ABP II.

This Black-eared Kite flight image was also created on the Japan in Winter IPT with the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (hand held with the internal extender in place at 506mm) and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 400: 1/1250 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode was more than 1/2 stop too dark. AWB. Central Sensor/AI Servo-Surround/Rear Focus AF on the bird’s right wing as originally 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. Image #2: Black-eared Kite

Chris Houston

February 14, 2014 at 2:30 pm

Really nice photos. I can’t choose between the three raptor shots for my favorite. Since I’ve been trying recently to improve my flight photography I’m even more impressed than usual. It’s not nearly as easy as you make it look to get the light and positioning and composition and sharp focus right!

Either that or maybe you’re a bird whisperer and when they see you the birds all just fly right at you to give you perfect shots. 🙂

Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

February 14, 2014 at 4:01 pm

Actually it is just a matter of understanding the direction of the wind, the light, and bird behavior. As I think I mentioned above, we had pretty much the worst possible flight conditions: fairly bright sun with the wind pretty much in our face though a bit from north. I instructed the group to watch for birds turning and circling to get in on the action and for birds flying the wrong way for whatever reason. After that it is just a matter or pressing the shutter button when the bird is in the zone: coming towards you (and the light)or at least not flying away and filling a suitable amount of the frame. Strength–which I do not have much of, and hand-eye coordination are also major factors but they are trumped by understanding the situation and knowing bird behavior and understanding how the direction of the wind and the direction of the light affect the photography of tobu tori….

Best way to learn all of this stuff: join us on an IPT that features lots of flight photography like this one:

Bosque del Apache 2014 BIRDS AS ART/A Creative Adventure Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT). NOV 29-DEC 3, 2014. Totaling 4 FULL-DAYS: $1449. Leaders: Arthur Morris and Denise Ippolito. Introductory Slide program: 7:00pm on Sunday 11/29.

Tens of thousand of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with two of the world’s premier photographic educators at one of their very favorite photography locations on the planet. Top-notch in-the-field and Photoshop instruction. This will make 21 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for artie. This will be denise’s 6th workshop at the refuge. Nobody knows the place better than artie does. Join us to learn to think like a pro, to recognize situations and to anticipate them based on the weather, especially the sky conditions, the light, and the wind direction. Every time we make a move we will let you know why. When you head home being able to apply what you’ve learned on your home turf will prove to be invaluable.

Learn more by scrolling down here.

APTATS II

I used techniques from APTATS II to move the birds in each of the images above into a more pleasing position in the frame. The crane image took about 20 seconds, the kite image about 90 seconds as I needed to move the bird with four separate operations and four Layer Masks.

Mention this blog post and Jim will be glad to apply a $10 discount on your APTATS II purchase with phone orders only. Throw in APTATS I to hone your Photoshop image clean-up skills and Jim will be glad to enter a $15 discount for the pair, again, on phone orders only.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Your Favorite?

Please take a moment to leave a comment and let us know which of the two images above you feel is stronger. And be sure to let us know why.

Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014: $4995 Limit: 12/Openings: 5

Act soon: this trip is a go and is filling quickly.

Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.

The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 7) are included. For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two.

Click here for additional info or to register.

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

The Streak Goes On…

After getting in bed at 8:20pm and falling asleep instantly, I woke on Thursday at 2:20am, 1 hour 40 minutes before alarm was set to go off. I spoke at length to Peter Kes in Switzerland on Skype and then finished packing. Denise and I met the group in the lobby at 5:15am, took the bus to Haneda Airport, and flew to Hokkaido. By 2pm we were at the Akan Crane Center photographing Red-crowned Crane, White-tailed and Steller’s Sea Eagle, and Black-eared Kite. The Winter in Japan IPT got off to a great start.

This post marks 76 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. It appears that our lodge has great internet. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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.

Photographing Frantic Action

The great blue grabbed the baby mullet from the bait bucket and was immediately accosted by several pelicans. As he fled to my right I tried to keep the AF sensor on the bird’s face and succeeded to some degree. I pressed the shutter button twice. In the original frame there was some motion blur on the eye so I grabbed the eye from the next frame with a Quick Mask, put on its own layer, brought the layer into the properly framed image (that second image was horribly mis-framed with the end of the bill cut off by the frame-edge), and wound up painting away all but the sharper pupil with a Regular Layer mask.

Here is the main lesson: when photographing frantic or unexpected action, push the shutter button now and ask questions later. If you try in situations that are difficult or near impossible for AF, you might wind up with something worth keeping. If you do not try, you wind up with nothing (but only 100% of the time….) If you are not making some really bad, out-of-focus, mis-framed images then you are not gambling enough and not pushing yourself or the camera’s AF system to the limit.

Image Question

In view of the fact that a faster shutter speed would have been a better choice as I would have had a better chance of freezing the action, why was I at 1/800 sec. at f/10 rather than 1/2000 sec. at f/6.3? (I think that my math is correct…..)

This is the Breezebrowser Main View screen capture for today’s image.

The Breezebrowser Main View Screen Capture

Above is the BreezeBrowser Main View screen capture for today’s image. Note that the illuminated red square (on the bird’s neck) shows the AF point that was active at the moment of exposure.

Note: in Breezebrowser you need to check “Show Focus Points” under View to activate this feature. To see the focus points in DPP check “AF Point” under View or hit Alt L. Hit Alt M to see Highlight Alert. To learn how and why I use DPP (Canon Digital Photo Professional) to convert my RAW files, see the info on our DPP RAW Conversion Guide here.

Note the perfect histogram the WHITEs creeping into the rightmost histogram box. Regular readers know that I use and depend on BreezeBrowser every day of the year. It allows me to sort my keepers and delete the rejects faster than any other Windows browsing program. We use it on the main computer in the home office to catalog our images file-drawer style. And the companion program, Downloader Pro allows me to download my images quickly and conveniently. It automatically adds my IPTC data and the shooting location. I have it set up to create a folder named by the Month/date/year. The Breezebrowser/Downloader Pro combo saves me many hours each week. To learn more or to purchase this great PC only program, click here. As far as the BreezeBrowser/Downloader Pro Combo goes, if you are using a Windows platform and are not using these two great programs you are at best, wasting your valuable time. My understanding is that Photo Mechanic is best for Mac-users who do not opt to run Parallels or VM Ware fusion on their Macs so that they can enjoy the many advantages of BreezeBrowser. See BreezeBrowswer on a Mac for details.

Image Question

Aside from the rapidly moving subject, why is it remarkable that the AF system was able to keep up with the focus at all?

This is the mis-framed image.

The The Mis-framed Image

This is the mis-framed second image from the two-frame sequence; as described above, I used the pupil from this one to replace the motion-blurred pupil in the image that opened this blog post. Note that when editing our images we need to learn to think digitally, to be open to keeping images that might serve as source material for a variety of purpose, images that would surely have been insta-trashes in the days of film.

Images copyright 2012: Denise Ippoltio & Arthur Morris. Card design by Denise Ippolito. Click on the image to enjoy a spectacular larger version.

Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014: $4995 Limit: 12/Openings: 5

Act soon: this trip is a go and is filling quickly.

Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.

The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 7) are included. For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two.

Click here for additional info or to register.

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

The Streak Goes On…

I am posting this at 7:27pm Tokyo time (which is 5:27am Florida time) from the Narita Airport as we wait for the bus. My flight was great. Denise and Alan and Pat Lillich kindly waited for me for almost five hours. God bless them all!

This post marks 75 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. I am not sure how good the internet access (if any) will be in Japan. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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 Onliine store as well.

Thanks and enjoy today’s blog post!

This Double-crested Cormorant image was created on the San Diego Short Notice IPT with the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (hand held with the internal extender in place at 560mm) and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. White Balance = K 7500. Four sensors up from the Central Sensor/AI Servo-Rear Focus AF on the bird’s chin 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. Image #1: Clarabell the Clown

The 600 f/4L IS II & the 200-400 f/4L IS II with Internal Extender Combo

Though difficult to travel with, the 600 II with both TCs available and the 200-400 with Internal extender is a great combination for birds and wildlife, giving folks a focal length range of from 200-1200mm.

Orientation-linked AF Points

If you own a 1D X or a 5D III and you do not have your camera set up for Orientation-linked AF Points you are really hurting yourself. The camera senses whether you are working in horizontal or vertical format and uses the AF Selection Area and the last selected points for each. You can probably figure things out by consulting the camera manual but in the two User’s Guides below I share the details of set-up, explore the various options, and let you know how I have my cameras set up to enable me to get the shot quickly without having to fiddle around.

EOS-1D X Autofocus Guide

Learn the ins and out of the great AF system of the 1D X. Of special interest to bird photographers will be my comments and strategies involving Cases 1-6, the custom-Case that I created and use for most of my bird photography (with detailed instructions for setting it up of course), my strategy for Select AF area selection mode (on AF4, the fourth purple menu), and pretty much anything that has to do with 1D X autofocus….Get your PDF via e-mail here for only $25. Setting up and using Orientation-linked AF Points is of course covered in detail.

5D Mark III User’s Guide

5D III folks can learn everything that I know about 5D III exposure fine points, the top LCD and all camera control buttons, the 5D Mark III drive modes, how to manually select an AF sensor, choosing an AF Area Selection Mode; how and why (includes extensive detail), Menu Item Access, coverage of almost all Menu Items and Custom Functions including the following: Image Quality, Auto Lighting Optimizer, Highlight Tone Priority, AF Configuration Tool (includes details on the custom setting that I use), Acceleration/deceleration tracking, Tracking sensitivity, Lens drive when AF impossible, Orientation-linked AF point (I love this feature on the 5D III!), Highlight alert, Histogram display, Auto rotate, Custom Shooting Mode set-up, Safety shift, using the Q button, and setting up rear focus. The guide is–of course–written in my informal, easy-to-follow style.

You can learn more about the 5D Mark III User’s Guide or have the PDF sent to you by clicking here.

This Double-crested Cormorant head portrait was created with the Gitzo 3532 LS carbon fiber tripod, the Mongoose M3.6 head, the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 2x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero as framed: 1/250 sec. at f/14 in Manual mode. Central sensor (by necessity) Expand/AI Servo Rear Focus AF just below and behind the base of the lower mandible active at the moment of exposure. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #1: Tight Head Portrait

Snazzy

Breeding plumage Double-crested Cormorant in full breeding plumage is indeed a snazzy bird. Both eastern and western birds feature the neat crests. Eastern birds have black crests that are not as snazzy as the fluffy white crests of their western counterparts. But the color of the inside of the mouth of the eastern birds in full breeding plumage gets to be a much brighter cobalt blue than the mouth linings of the western birds. I just saw some image of western birds photographed last week in LaJolla by IPT veteran Donna Bourdon with the mouth lining as bright as I have seen on the eastern birds at Anhinga Trail. Donna was extolling the virtues of the San Diego Site Guide.

Donna wrote: Hi Artie. Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your e-book on photographing the pelicans in San Diego. I just returned and got some great shots. Your directions to the cliffs were perfect. We saw pelicans, two Peregrine Falcons, lots of cormorants, and lots of Harbor Seals and California Sea Lions. I appreciate all the instruction I have received from you through your visit to Chattanooga and your sharing of knowledge in your e-books. Attached are a few examples. Donna.

She send some very nice images including a killer shot of a peregrine taking flight.

On the San Diego Short Notice IPT (likely to be repeated next January) both species of cormorants (double-crested and Brandt’s) were several weeks ahead of an average year in terms of breeding plumage and soft parts coloration. We had great fun photographing both species. I will be sharing more cormorant images and education with you here in the not too distant future.

Questions

Which of the two images do you like best and why?

Why f/6.3 for the opening image and f/14 for the head portrait? I think that many of you are getting this concept :).

Images copyright 2012: Denise Ippoltio & Arthur Morris. Card design by Denise Ippolito. Click on the image to enjoy a spectacular larger version.

Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014: $4995 Limit: 12/Openings: 5

Act soon: this trip is a go and is filling quickly.

Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.

The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 7) are included. For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two.

Click here for additional info or to register.

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

The Streak Goes On…

I continue to feel pretty good, I fly to Japan tomorrow Denise Ippolito and Paul McKenzie will be leading the Winter in Japan IPT with me.

This post marks 74 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another day or so, or not. Or more…. I am not sure how good the internet access (if any) will be in Japan. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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 Onliine store as well.

Thanks and enjoy today’s blog post!

If you are interested in joining us on a Japan in Winter IPT in February 2016 shoot me an e-mail.

Japan in Winter IPT Gear Bag

I head to the Orlando Airport Courtyard Marriott this afternoon, Sunday February 9, 2014, to overhight for my 8:35am flight to Dallas on Monday. I arrive in DFW at 10:30am for my 11:40am flight to Tokyo’s Narita airport arriving at 4:15pm on Tuesday. Yikes. I will be meeting co-leader Denise Ippolito and good friends and multiple IPT veterans Alan and Pat Lillich (say LILL-ick) all of whom arrive ahead of me. From there we take a bus to our Tokyo hotel for a full day of rest on Wednesday. We fly to Hokkaido on Thursday. Double yikes!

Important gear decisions must be made whenever you travel and getting ready for this trip was no exception. All of my gear is packed up in my Think Tank Airport Security Rolling Bag in either my beloved wool watch caps or in various LensCoat LensPouches, LensCoats, and Body Bags. Each of the big lenses is of course protected by a LensCoat to prevent dings on Canon’s pretty, white, heat-reflective finish. Having your lenses protected by a LensCoat will increase the resale value far in excess of the cost of a LensCoat. My favorite pattern is Hardwood Snow.

For the first time in as long as I can remember I will not be traveling with my black, hard-sided plastic Delsey suitcase; that bag has been around the world with me several times over. Why the switch? There will be times in Japan when I need to move all of my stuff at once. With my laptop bag strapped atop the Think Tank Bag and 2 regular rolling bags, that is impossible as I do not have 3 arms…. Denise has been using and loving two Samsonite soft-sided spinners, a 25″ case and a 29″ case. She can pull her roll-aboard camera bag with her laptop bag on it with one arm and maneuver her 2 checked bags with the other. As I routinely travel with a lot more stuff than she does, two 50 pound checked bags to be exact, I went for 2 of these: Samsonite Lift 29″ Spinner Luggage Navy – Exclusive. You position them back to back and stroll on down the concourse with ease.

Think Tank Bags

Spend more than $50 using this link and earn a free small bag of your choice. In addition to a great line-up of rolling bags and accessories Think Tanks also has some great backpacks.

Here’s what’s in my Think Tank Airport Security™ V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag:

Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens: as this is my sole long straight super-telephoto I pretty much go nowhere without it. Two years ago I took the 800 f/5.6L IS that has been more than ably replaced by the 600II.

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens; I did great with this lens on my first Japan trip with the 1.4X III TCs on the eagle boat, with cranes in flight, and with the Snow Monkeys.

Both the 300 II and the 600 II have a 4th Generation Design CR-X 5 Low Foot attached. The CR-X 5 is pretty much mandatory to prevent torque when the lenses are mounted on a Mongoose M3.6 and there is enough room between the foot and the lens to make it easy to carry the gear by the lens foot.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens; I used this lens with great success with the 1.4X TC on my last trip for both the swans in flight and the Snow Monkeys. The 70-200 is of course equipped with a Wimberley P-20 plate, the perfect Arca-Swiss compatible plate for virtually all intermediate telephoto lenses.

As regular readers know I recently sold my Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoom lens, having upgraded to the all around and edge-to-edge sharper Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens; it meshes perfectly with the 70-200 II and will soon become my new favorite B-roll all purpose short zoom lens that I will never leave home, or the car, without! See Laziness, Turtle Soup, and the Moral of the Story… to learn why.

Two Canon EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera bodies; I never travel for birds without two of Canon’s top of the line professional digital camera body along for the ride.

One Canon EOS 5D Mark III so that I can run three lenses at once when needed and avoid having to switch camera bodies. As we are staying an extra five days to visit Kyoto where the 5D III will be my main camera body for temple and building photography where I will be doing lots of In-camera Art Vivid and Natural HDR stuff.

As the temps might be as low as -5 F or even lower, I already have the Canon BG-E11 Battery Grip for 5D Mark III installed with two Canon LP-E6 Rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries. (7.2V, 1800mAh). Using off-brand batteries carry the risk of error warnings at best or malfunction at worst.

Three Canon 1.4x EF Extenders III (Teleconverters); I cannot risk being without at least two of this valuable accessory so I always travel with three :).

Two each Canon 2x EF Extenders III (teleconverter): one for use with the 600II and one as a back-up.

I have a Delkin 64gb 700X e-film Pro Compact Flash Card in each camera body and a few extra assorted cards in a Delkin CF Memory Card Tote. I have used and depended on Delkin digital media for well more than a decade. Fast and reliable works for me every time.

All of the above fit snugly into my big Think Rolling bag that came to 46 1/2 pounds on the doctor’s scale in my bathroom.

After I sent my Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens with Internal 1.4x Extender to the Irvine, CA repair center for a repair, I had it shipped to Alan and Pat Lillich in Los Gatos, CA so that they could borrow it for their Yellowstone in Winter trip. In return, they are bringing it to Japan, bringing it back home, and shipping it to me. The three of us will share my 200-400 and my 300 II on the trip. And Denise of course is welcome to try the 2-4 if she would like.

As always, my Gitzo 3532 LS carbon fiber tripod and my Mongoose M3.6 head are in one of my checked bags along with the hoods for the 3 telephoto lenses and the removable tripod collar for the 70-200 f/2.8L IS II. I also have my Giottos’ tiny ballhead, my tool kit that has a Wimberley P-5 camera body plate stored in it, and my Lens Pen sensor cleaning kit.

I will be wearing my Xtrahand vest with not much in it besides my insulin with gel ice paks, my blood sugar meter, a good supply of fish salad so that I can eat well on the long flight to Japan, and my latest airport novel; I buy them from the Lake Wales Public Library for a buck each. The vest will be invaluable on pretty much all of our shoots.

My laptop bag is packed to the gills with various items and tips the scale right at about 20 pounds.

All gear questions are of course welcome. If you have additional questions about the right camera or lens for you, please feel free to e-mail me.

Wish us luck!

Images copyright 2012: Denise Ippoltio & Arthur Morris. Card design by Denise Ippolito. Click on the image to enjoy a spectacular larger version.

Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014: $4995 Limit: 12/Openings: 5

Act soon: this trip is a go and is filling quickly.

Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.

The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 7) are included. For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two.

Click here for additional info or to register.

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!

We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!

Amazon

Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant. Support the blog by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below. No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up. Why make it a habit? Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.

The Streak Goes On…

I continue to feel pretty good today. I fly to Japan next Monday. Denise Ippolito and Paul McKenzie will be co-leading.

This post marks 72 straight days with a new educational blog post, a record by far that should be extended for at least another few days or so, or not. I am not sure how good the internet access (if any) will be in Japan. To show your appreciation for my efforts here, we ask that use our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We sell only what I use and 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.

You can find the following items in the store: Gitzo tripods, Mongoose M3.6 and Wimberley heads, plates, low feet, and accessories, flash brackets, , Delkin e-film Pro Compact Flash Cards, LensCoat products, and our unique line-up of educational materials including ABP I & II, Digital Basics, Site and Set-up e-Guides, Canon and Nikon Camera Users and AF e-Guides, and MP-4 Photoshop video tutorials among others.

We would of course appreciate you using our B&H and Amazon affiliate links for all of your B&H and Amazon major gear, video, electronic, household, and personal purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we 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 Onliine store as well.

Thanks and enjoy today’s blog post! With no images, this one took only a bit more than an hour to prepare.

Laziness?

When photographing at Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park I always bring my longest telephoto, currently the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens. I have the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens usually with the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III in place with the rig conveniently on my shoulder and easily within reach with a Black Rapid RS-7 strap. In my vest I routinely stow another Canon Extender EF 1.4X III along with a single Canon 2x EF Extender III (Teleconverter). (Note: because they are so important to the work that I do I travel with three 1.4X III TCs and two 2X III TCs.) As I preach often, never head into the field without a short zoom lens on your person. I have traditionally kept my Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens in one of the large pockets of my Xtrahand vest. Having just sold that lens I will begin keeping my new Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens in the vest.

On the morning of February 2, 2014, the 2nd morning of the Anhinga Trail IPT, I headed down the path with all of the above-mentioned gear in place. We had some good chances early on. With my vest packed with the 24-105, my tool kit, water, and on that morning, the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens as well, I always try to remember to remove my vest and place it on the ground when working a good situation. I did that as I headed back towards the visitor center and as an afterthought, took the 70-200 off of my shoulder and placed it atop the vest that had been placed off the trail on the grass. As there was not much flying around I figured that it would be nice to travel light. As I go halfway to the big tree now on my left, a Black Vulture flew right at me into the east wind right down sun angle. I reached for my 70-200 but quickly realized that I had decided to leave it behind. Ooops. Then, as if to taunt me, the vulture circled and again flew right into the perfect flight photography zone….

Turtle Soup

The next afternoon marked the end of a long ten days of teaching and photography. Having not learned my lesson, I had already decided not to lug the 70-200. Then I decided after some hemming and hawing to leave the 24-105 in my SUV. I remember asking Denise, “Should I bring the 24-105?” She said, “Bring it.” I didn’t listen…. So I headed out with only the 600 II. We had yet another excellent afternoon with a clean Green Heron and a pair of very handsome preening Anhingas. It was just about sunset and I was messing around with a fishing Great Egret when I couldn’t help but see and hear a loud splash right in front of me in the slough. I called out to everyone within earshot, “A gator’s got something.” In the low light of dusk I strained to see what the prey was. At first I thought it was a large fish. Then the gator, about a 7-footer, climbed out of the slough with a huge Soft-shelled Turtle in its jaws.

Oh how I wished that I had not left the 24-105 in the trunk…. Even the 70-200 would have been OK with the 1.4X TC quickly removed. With only the 600mm, I was dead in the water as the gator and its prey were blocked by grasses on both sides. It was as Deirdre suggested later, “Turtle soup.” The gator’s chomps on the shell of the turtle were accompanied by loud cracking sounds. The turtle was trying to bite the side of the big reptile but its efforts seemed feeble at best. Then, remarkably, the turtle broke free and bolted towards the slough. The gator made a lightning fast turn with its jaws fully open and once again chomped down on the now hapless and helpless reptile. Deridre’s images showed later that the gator had the turtle completely within its jaws.

I mentioned to the group that the person who had made the best images of the encounter was a youngster of about ten who walked right up to the low fence and photographed the carnage with his cell phone….

The Moral of the Story

Here is the moral of the story:

If you are thinking about leaving a certain piece of gear behind always opt to bring it. If you don’t, you will almost always learn quickly why you should have brought it.

Here is another important lesson: the longest lens is often not the best lens for the job.

One final thought: it is often said that if God or whomever is in charge of such things gives you a lesson and you don’t get it, then God or whomever will keep giving you that lesson again and again until you learn it. Maybe I learned the lesson for good on the Anhinga Trail IPT. Or not….

Join me for the 2014 Tanzania Summer Safari!

2014 Tanzania Summer Safari, 14-day African Adventure/leave the US on August 9. Fly home on August 24: $12,999.

Co-leaders Todd Gustafson & Arthur Morris. The limit is 12. Three photographers/van; you get your own row of seats. Our trip is a bit more expensive than the average safari for good reason. It is the best. We have the best driver guides with a total of decades of experience. They have been trained over the years by Todd and by me to drive with photography in mind. We have the best and most knowledgeable leaders. We stay in the best lodges and camps. We hope that you will join us for what will be Todd’s 35th African safari, and my 8th.

If you are seriously interested please e-mail me; I will be glad to send you the illustrated PDF with the complete itinerary and deposit info.

What else makes this expedition unique?

•Pre-trip consultation and camera equipment advice
•Award-winning photographers as your guides
•A seamless itinerary visiting the right locations at the best time of year
•Hands-on photography instruction in the field
•Specially designed three roof-hatch photo safari vehicles
•Proprietary materials for preparation, including free copy of “A Photographer’s Guide to Photographing in East Africa.”
•Post-safari image critiques

All-inclusive (double-occupancy) except for your flights to and from Kilamajaro Airport, bar drinks, soda & water (except at the Intimate Tented Camp where everything is free for our entire stay), tips for drivers and camp staff, personal items, and trip insurance.

Breathe deeply, bite the bullet, and live life to its fullest; we all get only one ride on the merry-go-round… Join me on this great trip. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Southern Ocean…

If you would like to explore the possibility of joining me on the Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris Antarctica/The Extended Expedition Voyage< trip: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands: December 13, 2014 to January 10, 2015, click here for additional information and then shoot me an e-mail.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here.

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Typos

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IPT Info

Many of our great trips are filling up. See especially info on the South Florida, Holland, and Nickerson Beach IPTs. Two great leaders on most trips ensure that you will receive individual attention, have all of your questions answered, and learn a ton including how to think like a pro, see the situation, and get the right exposure every time. In addition you will have fun, and make lots of great images. Click here for IPT details and general information.