Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Self-Inflicted Travel Adventure

I was supposed to fly this morning, Tuesday February 22 from Klamath Falls, OR to Portland to connect with my American flights to Orlando: PDX to DFW to MCO. I had purchased separate tickets for the Klamath Falls legs from United Skywest. I called them last night to confirm my flight and was told that I was not on the passenger list. I managed to find the confirmation code and after a few moments was told that I had a reservation for the March 22 flight. Ooops. The February 22 flight was sold out. I went to Google Maps and checked out the driving time from Klamath to the Portland Aiport: 5 1/2 hours. I was in bed before nine and set the alarm for 3:45 am. I woke for good at 2:48 am and was in the car headed north on Route 97 with a very few snow flurries in the air at 3:49am.

As I approached the turnoff for Route 58 which would take me to Eugene and Interstate-5 North, it began to snow a bit more, but still there was only a dusting on the road. I did not know that 58 would take me over a 4,000+ foot high mountain pass. Can you say “Snow Area” and “Chains On”? A torturously slow hour and a half driving through a white out found me descending 6 and 7% downgrades on a slippery one lane road covered with an inch of snow. Lots of fun. I drove carefully and was not tired at all. Once I got off the mountain the sky began to lighten and the snow mercifully turned to rain.

After a thirty minute nap in the car a final 90-minute driving leg got me to the gate at 11:00am for my 12:35 flight. I am glad that I woke early. And I am glad that I am a lover of what is. (Byron Katie: www.THEWORK.com)

White Sky Flight Lessons

Some folks never photograph birds in flight again white sky backgrounds, much preferring blue skies especially if there are a few puffy white clouds around. With the advent of digital, I quickly came to love photographing birds in flight on cloudy or overcast days. It is much easier to reveal underwing detail when photographing birds in flight in these conditions and the soft light often gives the images a lovely peaceful mood

For the image of the single swan above I added tons of light (2 2/3 stops) because the sky was totally white and there was zero light; it was as if I were working in a huge soft box. With the opening White-fronted Geese image, I added only two stops of light because there was some directional light; there were no shadows but you could tell where the sun was. With the image below of there was actually a hint of sun breaking through the clouds. I started by adding 1 2/3 stops of light but a check of the histogram revealed more than a few flashing highlights so I cut back to +1 stop. The exposure compensations above should work well in the described conditions with the Mark IV as well as with Mark III and 7D bodies. Folks using pro-sumer bodies like the 50D and the 40D, earlier Canon pro bodies like the Mark II series, and Nikon bodies will do well using about 2/3 to a stop less plus compensation than detailed above.

The final lesson here involves photographing groups like those in the first and the third images above. If you wait until the arrangement of the flock is absolutely perfect (as I often do), you will often miss making some great images. At Klamath, I decided that if I had a group of birds flying toward (rather than away) from me, I would make a series of images without any great concern for the arrangement of the birds in the flock. I easily removed a single out-of-formation bird from each of the group shots in Photoshop and was very pleased (as well as a bit surprised) with the pleasing arrangement of the birds in each image.

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the image above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins.

Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera bod.y And this is the very best professional digital camera body that I have even used..

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Gitzo 3530 LS Tripod This one will last you a lifetime.
Mongoose M3.6 Tripod Head Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head.
Double Bubble Level You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. Fast and dependable.

Stunned Three Times in 90 Minutes!

I woke at 3:06 am this morning, 54 minutes before the alarm was set to go off. Denise Ippolito and I left my home in Indian Lake Estates at 5:46am, she on the way to her home along the Jersey shore, me on my way to the Winter Wings Festival in Klamath, OR.

Two-thirds of the way to Dallas Fort-Worth (and on my way to Portland and then Klamath Falls), while sitting in an American Airlines first class seat (paid for with air miles), I asked for a second cup of water with no ice. “We have no more bottled water,” the flight attendant said. I was stunned. No water in first class…. I had not eaten breakfast on the flight and had had not partaken of the wine or the Bloody Marys that seemed a bit too popular for so early in the day. All that I wanted was a glass of water. “Can you check in the back and see if they have any water left there?” I asked. “Already did,” she said sweetly. “They only had four bottles of water for all the folks in coach. We often run out of water.”

I was stunned.

We landed on time at DFW and I was over-whelmed by hunger so I took my blood sugar (79) and injected my pre-meal bolus. I picked the Cool River Café on the D Concourse opposite Gate 25. I ordered the Seared Ahi, medium rare–no balsamic anything, no glaze, just the seared fish on a plate. Plus a side of broccoli. I was not expecting anything too great in an airport. The food came out in twenty minutes.

With my first bite of the fish, I was stunned again. It was scrumptious. And the lightly steamed broccoli was just perfect.

Then I headed to Gate D-29 to catch my flight to Portland, also AA first. At the restaurant I had forked over $7.99 via credit card to T-Mobile to get on line for “24 hours at this location only.” I connected easily after filling in my cc info. And enjoyed a few minutes of e-mailing. I had planned to work on this blog post for about an hour at the gate only when I opened my computer my T-Mobile connection came up as “No Internet Access.”

Stunned again.

Unwilling to give up after getting ripped off, I called Jim at the office and asked him to get a toll free # for me for T-Mobile. He did. I called. “This is no longer a valid number.”

Many, you gotta love it. I gave up.

My flight to Portland and the connecting flight to Klamath were stunningly uneventful.

Pro Flight Photography Tip

When you start making images like the one above, there is a message for you: turn the camera on end and start trying to create tight verticals of the incoming birds. After I made three in a row like this I did just that and came up with the winner that heads this blog post. We were baiting the birds with fish on the recently concluded SW Florida IPT.

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the image above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins.

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2XIII teleconverter.
Canon EF 2X III TC. It seems that the new 2X (the EF 2X III) is noticeably sharper than the old one (the EF 2X II).
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. And this is the very best professional digital camera body that I have even used..

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. Fast and dependable.

If you are considering the purchase of a major piece of photographic gear be it a new camera, a long lens, a tripod or a head, or some accessories be sure to check out our complete Shopper’s Guide.

If I’ve Said It Once…

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. If you are taking a walk or a ride in nature never ever do so without having at least an intermediate telephoto lens on your shoulder (or on the passenger seat if you are driving).

One of my favorite sort of secret spots on the SW FLA President’s Week IPT is a dock well south of Englewood, Florida where we bait both Brown and White Pelicans with fish for the purpose of photographing them in flight and on the water. You can learn of this location and learn all about photographing at there and at dozens of southwest Florida hotspots in the BIRDS AS ART Southwest Florida Site Guide. For more information or to purchase, scroll down here.

We arrived early after a very good morning at the Venice Rookery and after a short nap during INT (Instructor Nap Time) I headed out onto the big pier to try to catch some small bait fish with a cast net. I looked at my 70-200 IS L II lens with the 2XIII TC and the Mark IV in the back of my SUV and decided not to bring it. A few folks joined me including co-leaders Denise Ippolito, Randy Stout, and Dan Cadieux. We were joined by John Snodgrass, one of the participants. Everyone had a lens but me. I guess that you can see where this is going.

Well, there was no bait in the water so I gave up rather quickly. On the way back, my co-leaders were lagging a good distance behind John and me. I pointed out an Osprey hovering about 500 yards out to the east. He dove, and then struggled to get out of the water with his late lunch. And then he began flying a steady course. Right at us. And right down sun angle. As it got closer and closer to the pier, the bird veered slightly away from us and then flew right by us with a big struggling sea trout in its talons. I was screaming instructions to John who had begun firing while the bird was far away. The first image of a five frame burst made once the bird was up in the blue sky and close to us, was the best. That image opened this blog post.

John, from Atlanta, Georgia, is a helluva nice guy. He attended the Jamaica Bay/Nickerson Beach IPT this past August, is signed up for one of the great Homer trips, and will be on a bear boat trip this August. He is working hard at improving his photographic skills and made lots of excellent images on the SW FLA IPT, but none hurt as much as the one above 🙂

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the image above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins.

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2XIII teleconverter.
Canon EF 2X III TC. It seems that the new 2X (the EF 2X III) is noticeably sharper than the old one (the EF 2X II).
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. And this is the very best professional digital camera body that I have even used..

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. Fast and dependable.

If you are considering the purchase of a major piece of photographic gear be it a new camera, a long lens, a tripod or a head, or some accessories be sure to check out our complete Shopper’s Guide.

Pro Focusing/Composition Trick

This bird was swimming very slowly. I made a few images with the central sensor (the only one active and available at f/8) on the leading edge of the bird’s breast just above the water line. The bird was too centered in the frame. I decided to try for an image with a more pleasing composition, one with the bird a bit farther back in the frame. Using rear button to focus as above, I released the rear focus button and panned smoothly a bit faster than the bird was swimming in hopes that at f/11 the bird would be rendered in sharp focus. All three of the frames were sharp with this one the sharpest. This image is pretty much full frame.

You can learn to set up for rear button focus in our camera User’s Guides for the Mark III, the Mark IV, and the 7D.

I Heard He’s a Real A–hole

The image above was created at a marsh not too far from the LaQuinta Inn in Fort Myers. Geri George and Denise and I had spread out as the birds were on the skittish side. The habitat was gorgeous as was the still blue water. I ran into another photographer as I made my way along the side of the impoundment in search of subjects. We chatted for a bit. Later on as we were headed back to the car our paths crossed again.

He had mentioned that he was looking for spoonbills so I suggested that he get out with James Shadle out to Alafia Banks aboard the Hooptie Deux. When he asked how to contact Jim I told him to to visit BIRDS AS ART and check out the Posse/Small Group Instruction link. He had a puzzled look on his face and said, “Isn’t that the Arthur Morris guy?” “Yes,” I said, I heard he’s a real a–hole.” “Yup,” said Denise. He said, “That’s what I’ve heard.”

I stuck my hand out, shook his hand, and said, “Arthur Morris. Glad to meet you.” He had the same reaction as the last guy: “No way!” “Way,” I said, and we all had a good laugh. The guy’s name was Scott Smith, from Maryland I think. He said, “You are a really nice guy.” I responded, “Don’t always believe everything that you hear or that you read on the internet.”

I have come to realize that about 80% of the folks out there love me and the other 20% hate me. But I do not take it personally especially when you consider that of the 20% who think less than kindly of me, not one of them has ever met me or been on an IPT. And 100% of that 20% are bitter, unhappy, jealous folks.

As I’ve been saying recently, I am happy with my life, happy with what I am doing, proud of the body of work and the legacy that I will be leaving, and happy with myself. All in all I am loving it.

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the image above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins.

Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
Canon 1.4X II teleconverter This is my most used accessory; I would be lost without it.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera bod.y And this is the very best professional digital camera body that I have even used..

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Gitzo 3530 LS Tripod This one will last you a lifetime.
Mongoose M3.6 Tripod Head Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head.
Double Bubble Level You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card Fast and dependable.

Worth the Weight? The Skinny on the Two New Canon Super-telephoto Lenses

This morning, February 7, 2011, Canon finally and officially announced the lightweight updated versions of both its 500mm and 600mm f/4L IS USM Series II professional super-telephoto lenses. Both are similar to the EF 300mm and EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM lenses that were released last August. The two new big guns feature completely new optical designs and water-repellant Fluorine coatings along with lighter weight construction. A new IS mode has been added that activates stabilization only during exposure. The lenses also offer optional long or short foot tripod mounts suitable for monopods or tripods and a smoother tripod collar rotation mechanism that should make it easier to rotate the lenses to vertical. (In the past, individual 500s and 600s often became quite sticky with age and some folks had problems right out of the box).

Here is the skinny on the weights:

The new 500 f/4L IS II weighs 7 pounds. This represents a weight reduction of 1.5 pounds from the 8.5 pound 500mm f/4 L IS.

The new 600 weighs only 8.8 pounds, down 3 full pounds from the weight of the 11.8 pound 600mm f/4 L IS lens.

The 800mm f/5.6L IS lens weighs 9.9 pounds.

The relatively new 800mm f/5.6 lens was the first to offer the amazingly revolutionary 4-stop Image Stabilization system. All four of the Series II super-telephoto lenses offer 4-stop IS.

The new 600 IS II offers far greater versatility than the 800mm and offers a longer effective focal length with functioning central sensor-only autofocus (1200mm with the 2X for the 600 IS II as compared to 1120mm with the 1.4X for the 800). In addition, the new 600 weighs 1.1 pounds less than the 800.

It should be mentioned at this time that the Series III teleconverters will offer improved AI Servo tracking accuracy only with the Series II Super-telephoto lenses. The micro-chips in the Series III TCs cannot communicate with the older super-telephoto lenses. Do note however that early reports indicate that the EF 2X Extender III is noticeably sharper than the EF 2X Extender II.

I will surely order one or both of the new lenses right off the bat….. If one, I have not decided which. Prices have not yet been announced 🙂

Here is the press release:

London, UK, 7th February 2011 – Canon today launches two new super-telephoto lenses for its leading EOS Digital SLR (DSLR) range – the EF 500mm F/4L IS II USM and the EF 600mm F/4L IS II USM. Designed to meet the needs of the most demanding sports and wildlife photographers, both lenses offer breakthrough performance, delivering consistently high-quality images and incredible mobility. The launch of the models follows a development announcement in August 2010, and the display of prototypes at Photokina 2010 in Cologne, Germany.

Launching into Canon’s professional L-series, the models replace the widely-respected EF 500mm F/4L IS USM and EF 600mm F/4L IS USM, and are designed to achieve unparalleled levels of image quality. Each includes the highest-quality optics and the latest Canon Image Stabilizer (IS) technology, while magnesium alloy constructions with titanium components make each lens significantly lighter and even more durable. Launching as the lightest lens in its class*1, the EF 600mm F/4L IS II USM benefits from an exceptional 27% reduction (1.4kg) in weight compared to its predecessor, while the EF 500mm F/4L IS II USM offers an impressive reduction of 17% (680g).

New levels of performance

Both lenses feature completely redesigned optics, with 16 elements in 12 groups. Canon has over 40 years of experience in the manufacturing of fluorite lens elements, and has utilized two high performance fluorite elements in these lenses– delivering high resolution, high contrast shots rich in detail across the frame.

Both lens’ optical elements feature Canon’s Super Spectra Coatings and a SubWavelength Structure Coating (SWC), optimized to effectively reduce ghosting and flare. A water-repellent fluorine coating is also used on the surface of the front and rear elements, repelling dust and dirt for clearer shots, and keeping the front element free of marks by ensuring water droplets run off the lens quickly.

Enhanced IS, precise AF

Both models feature Canon’s latest Image Stabilizer system, offering outstanding image quality during handheld shooting and allowing users to shoot at speeds up to four times slower than normally required. IS Mode 2 features new algorithms to improve performance when panning, and the new IS Mode 3 is also included, assisting users when switching between subjects by activating the IS unit only during exposure.

Both lenses offer a constant f/4 aperture, allowing photographers to achieve excellent image quality in low light and capture clear, sharp shots of fast-moving subjects. The wide aperture also allows users to creatively isolate their subjects from the background, with a nine-blade circular iris creating beautiful background blur that instantly adds atmosphere to an image.

Rapid, quiet Auto Focus (AF) is provided by a ring-type Ultrasonic Motor (USM). Photographers can also utilize full-time manual focusing functionality, which enables the fine-tuning of focus even when the AF system is activated, providing even greater control over image capture. Power Focus mode also assists users during video shooting, allowing the photographer to smoothly adjust focus during filming by twisting the focus recall ring.

Premium L-series design

Both lenses have been designed as part of Canon’s renowned elite L-series, combining exceptional-quality optics with stylish designs. Both also feature a revised layout, with carefully-positioned controls that improve everyday operation. The AF stop buttons are now location-adjustable, improving ergonomics by allowing users to custom-select the position of the lens grip where the AF stop buttons are located.

Mechanical improvements include optional long or short foot tripod mounts suitable for monopods or tripods. An improved tripod collar rotational mechanism provides a smoother movement when turning the lens from portrait to landscape orientation, and a Kensington-type wire security lock has also been included, keeping the lenses secure during location-based shoots. The robust design is also weatherproof, making both lenses suitable for use in extreme conditions when paired with a weatherproof EOS body.

*1 According to Canon market research conducted in December 2010.