Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

What is the Best Under-$1500 Canon Intermediate Telephoto Lens for Me?

Rarely a week goes by when I do not get asked, “Which is the best under-$1500 Canon intermediate telephoto lens for me? In each instance, the person asking the question is looking for an everyday workhorse lens for bird photography. Last week I was asked the same question several times; this prompted me to write this post. Many of the thoughts that I will share with you here were published in The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages on CD only) nearly five years ago. The more things change the more they stay the same. 🙂

For years, mostly in the days of film, the 400mm f/5.6L IS lens was my very favorite flight lens. I carried it on my shoulder whenever I was out in the field photographing birds. Then along came the Canon Telephoto EF 300mm f/4.0L IS Image Stabilizer USM Autofocus Lens, a stop faster with Image Stabilization. I bought and used one of those. That was followed soon after by the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Autofocus Lens. More reach than the 300 f/4 IS and much more versatile then either that or the 400 f/5.6. So I bought one of them. Actually several. I treat my equipment harshly and the 100-400 is not the world’s most ruggedly built lens.

The question at hand however, is not which of these three lens might be best as an auxiliary lens for me then or now (the answer to that is none of the above), but which of the three would make a good choice for beginning bird photographers looking to purchase as their first intermediate telephoto lens to use with their 40D, 50D, or 7D. If you will be working on a tripod nearly all of the time, will be buying a 1.4X teleconverter, and have good vision and are adept at focusing manually, then the older 400mm f/5.6L (non-IS) would be my recommendation. Why? It will give you the greatest reach: 400 X 1.6 for the crop factor X 1.4 for the TC = 896 mm effective focal length with 17.9X magnification. But most folks are not willing to purchase a good tripod like the Gitzo 3530 LS or the right head for the job, the Mongoose M3.6. And even fewer are willing to carry a tripod in the field. For those folks I would quickly rule out the 400mm f/5.6.

The next most obvious choice is the extremely popular 100-400 IS L zoom lens. It offers 400mm at the long end but will not autofocus with the 1.4X TC when used with a pro-sumer body like those mentioned above. As you can see by the two Chinstrap Penguin images, this lenses is incredibly versatile. If you like birds but also like to photograph a variety of natural history subjects then this may the best choice for you. Over the years I made a zillion quality images with this lens and sold a good many of them. It is a great blur lens at places like Bosque Del Apache. And it is the prime lens for several excellent photographers who hand hold exclusively: BPN crack Avian moderator Dan Cadieux and BPN member Aidan Briggs. Whenever I hear folks whining about how good they could be if only they could afford a long lens I send them to see the images created by Dan and Aidan with “only a 100-400.”

If you insist on hand holding and want a lens mainly for birds then the Canon Telephoto EF 300mm f/4.0L IS Image Stabilizer USM Autofocus Lens is the clear choice for you. You will have autofocus with the 1.4X TC and IS all the time. One of the sweet features of this lens is its extremely close focus. It is great for frogs and turtles and dragonflies and butterflies and large bugs and flowers. And it is a great flight lens as well.

Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS Lens

For complete info on this lightweight, versatile lens, see “I Can’t Believe That I Forgot This One.”

The fact is that all of the lenses above are capable of making great images in the right hands. At this point in my life, I would not consider a lens without IS so my old toy lens is on the shelf (though it is likely that I could still use it effectively. 🙂 Unless you wish to use a tripod all the time (except when doing flight photography), your choice is between the 100-400 IS and the 300 f/4 IS. It is a tough choice. Good luck making it 🙂

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear discussed 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. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Canon 400mm f/5.6L. My beloved toy lens is still a great flight lens. Just not for me as I now rely on Image Stabilized lenses.
Canon 100-400mm IS L zoom lens. I used this lens for years with great success.
Canon 300mm f/4L IS lens. A great lens for flight, hand held bird photography, and large macro subjects.
Canon EF 1.4X III TC. This new TC is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
Canon EOS-7D. I loved my 7D but sold it so that all of my bodies would be the same. Less strain on the brain that way.

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 all intermediate telephoto lenses.
Double Bubble Leve.l You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am on a tripod and not using flash.
Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. Fast and dependable

Digital Basics FEB 2011 Update

I am proud to announce that the February 2011 Digital Basics Update was sent on Friday afternoon (March 11, 2011) to all on the Digital Basics Purchase List. Folks who purchase Digital Basics now will of course receive this latest Update. Updates are free for as long as I am around to write them. This update took me about ten hours to write. All of the brand new material has been incorporated into the text in red type. If you already own Digital Basics and you did not receive your update, please indicate that in an e-mail and be sure that you let us know how you paid. If you have gotten a new e-mail address since you purchased DB, please let us know both the old address and the new and be sure to indicate which is which 🙂

Digital Basics, an e-mailable PDF, includes free updates for the life of the author 🙂 Unless you are already a Photoshop Whiz, getting a copy will likely be the best $20 you ever spend on photography. (Many folks have expressed that exact sentiment.) You can send a PayPal for $20 to us at this e-mailaddress. You can call Jim at the office at 863-692-0906 during the week or try me at the same number on the weekends if you suspect that I am home. Folks who prefer the convenience of using the BAA On-Line Store can click here to order a copy. If you order on a weekend your PDF will be sent via e-mail on the first work day of the week.

Digital Basics–written in clear, precise, easy to understand English–details the following:

• The advantages of digital capture.
• Understanding histograms.
• The basics of digital exposure.
• My complete digital workflow from capture to image optimization.
• BreezeBrowser & Downloader Pro (for PCs only). Not using both? You should be!
• Image editing, storage, and back-up.
• Making RAW conversions in ACR (revised and improved!).
• Fine-tuning White Balance.
• Dozens and dozens of great Photoshop tips including Cropping & Cloning, Leveling & Image Rotation, using the amazing Patch Tool, making Curves Adjustments, using Selective Color, Robert O’Toole’s great Average Blur Color Balancing Trick, using a Contrast Mask, Adding Canvas, Sharpening, Using and Creating Actions, Batch Processing, Digital Eye Doctor, making Color Range Selections and Linear Burns, using and creating your own Keyboard Shortcuts, and creating stitched panoramas.
• The Basics of Quick Masking.

Note: many of the topics above have been revised and improved.

All-new in this update are the following:

• Re-setting the ACR sliders (page 44).
• An all new way to set your White point during ACR conversions (page 47).
• Tim Grey’s Non-destructive Dodge & Burn (page 54).
• Getting rid of the annoying Pixel Grid once and for all! (page 84).
• New Spot Healing Brush and Clone Stamp Tool Tips (page 93).
• An easy-as-pie Color Cast Removal Trick (page 97).
• And the pièce de résistance, “Layer Masking for Dummies” (pages 97-99).

I am very proud of “Layer Masking for Dummies.” As recently as 18 months ago I simply could not–try as I might–understand Layer Masking at all. With the help first of Robert O’Toole, and then more recently Denise Ippolito, I mastered not only the use of regular Layer Masks but the use of Inverse (or Hide-all) Layer Masks. Today I use one or more Layer Masks (sometimes many more) on each image that I process. Adding a Layer Mask to a layer enables you to quickly and easily fine-tune the changes that you have made to the layer. I took special care as I always do to make sure that even a third grader would be able to create and use Layer Masks to help them make better images.

This Great Cormorant was photographed with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS Lens, the 2X III TC, and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/100 sec. at f/13. I used Live Mode/Quick Mode AF to focus accurately as described in the Mark IV (& 7D) User’s Guides. If you own Photoshop CS-3, 4, or 5 and cannot confidently transform the before image above into the after image as seen in the animated GIF, then you need to order a copy of Digital Basics PDF right now 🙂 Theo took several of us by four wheel drive SUV to photograph these gorgeous breeding plumage birds.

In a comment to this post, Marvin Falk asked a very important question. I have added it here (along with my reply), for completeness.

Marvin’s comment: Digital Basics… I have the Art of Bird Photography II and the APTATS-1 disk. Does the new update update these, or is this an entirely different animal? Sorry for the confusion.

Marvin, You are helping to clear up the confusion so there is no need at all to apologize. 🙂 The Digital Basics chapter in ABP II was actually extracted from the manuscript in progress in about 2004 and sold as the first Digital Basics. Since then it has undergone about six major updates. In 2009 my workflow had changed so much that I revised and re-wrote the entire thing. By then the end product had no resemblance at all to the Digital Basics chapter in ABP II. I would therefore recommend your getting a copy of Digital Basics if you wish to improve your Image Optimization skills 🙂 Note: both APTATS I (advanced Quick Masking) and APTATS II (advanced Layer Masking) continue to stand on their own. All that I do is Digital Basics is share the basics covered in of each of Robert’s PDFs. To whet folks appetites… artie

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the images 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. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2X III teleconverter. I also use it a lot–depending on the situation–with the 1.4X III TC.
Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens. Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
Canon EF 1.4X III TC. This new TC is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
Canon EF 2XIII teleconverter. The new 2X III TC is a bit sharper than the previous version, the EF 2X II TC.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. The very best professional digital camera body that I have ever 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 Leve.l 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

In Memoriam: Hugh P. Smith Jr. (1920 -2011)

I learned via a forwarded e-mail from my friend, noted avian artist Julie Zickefoose, that our mutual friend Hugh P. Smith had died quietly at his home in Santa Barbara, CA on Friday, March 5, 2011. He was a beloved husband to Sue, his wife of 62 years, as well as a wonderful father to his four children Nancy Bishop, Hugh Smith III, Chuck Smith and Carolyn Swain. He is survived by them and his six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. There will be a memorial service in Santa Barbara at 10AM on Thursday March 10 at St. Michael’s University Episcopal Church with a reception to follow at Maravilla. Those who knew Hugh may wish to send a donation in his name to his favorite charity, the Santa Barbara Food Bank: 4554 Hollister Ave, Santa Barbara, CA 93110-1700.

Here is the e-mail that I sent to Sue after I heard:

Dear Sue, I am sending lots of love, strength, and energy to all. I loved Hugh with all of my heart and will forever remember his wonderful chuckle. So many great memories: the Yellow-billed Magpies in the backyard; Hugh removing the stitches from Sugar’s belly–my how my Elaine loved that cat; the quail that jumped up on the perch when Hugh shouted, “Up quail!” And the pancakes smothered in hot blueberries in town.

I am sending a special hug for you as I know the road that you are on.

If anyone has a copy of the article that I did on Hugh for Bird Watcher’s Digest way back when, I would love to receive a scan if at all possible.

later and love to all, artie

Daughter Carolyn was kind enough to send the requested scan. My older daughter Jennifer typed it up for me today. It appears below.

“House and Garden Host” by Arthur Morris (as it appeared in the March/April 1995 issue of Bird Watcher’s Digest).

A stunning male California quail struts along the path in Hugh Smith’s backyard, where I am photographing birds for the first time. “Y’all gonna photograph that mighty pretty, bird, Artie?” asks Hugh, his South Carolina roots quite evident. “Nah. The gravel’s too bright a background for me,” I reply, m y New York upbringing just as obvious.

“No prob-LEM-uh,” answers my host. I imagine that he will try to lure the bird up into his “peanut BUD-der tree” with some special quail fare, but Hugh simply calls out loudly, “Up quail!” And the plump little male, his top-knot aquiver, jumps right up onto a bare branch and poses—like some sort of sedated bobblehead doll—for more than a minute.

Since that day, Hugh and I have become close friends, but whenever I tell the story of that obedient little quail, Hugh says that he has no recollection of the incident; I seriously doubt it happened that way, Artie,” he always says. But it did.

Hugh and his wife, Sue, live now in the hills above the Danish tourist town of Solvang, California. His passion in life, like mine, is photographing birds. His articles and photographs have appeared in these pages, and his images have appeared in many other magazines and books. And a great many of them were taken in his wonderful backyard.

Hugh is a friendly, southern gentleman; when I phoned for the first time from my parents’ home in San Diego and identified myself, he answered, “I’ve been enjoying your dissertations on bird photography in Bird Watcher’s Digest for some time now. Why don’t ya’ll come up and spend a few days with us?” We did.

Days in the Smith household traditionally begin with a trip to town in the pre-dawn blackness for breakfast at the Solvang Restaurant, the home of Arne’s famous aebleskivers—round fritters filled with raspberry jelly. Hugh always insists on picking up the tab.

As the sun rises over the hills to the east, Hugh is busy in his backyard setting the table for the birds. Seed trays and hummingbird feeders are filled, and additional seed is scattered on the ground for the quail and sparrows. Orange and apple slices are affixed to various trees. And a recycled mouse is left for the roadrunners—they raised three young in the backyard in the spring of 1994.

Next, the ‘peanut BUD-der tree” is treated. A dozen or more yellow-billed magpies often line up on the Smiths’ roof the moment that Dr. Smith emerges with a jar (or a tub) of peanut butter. Several years ago, Hugh—much to the consternation of his neighbors—planted a small dead tree in the center of his yard. He bored several large holes on the back (shady) side of the tree so that when he stuffed peanut butter into the holes each morning, the gooey stuff would not be visible in his photographs. (The back of Hugh’s house, which abuts the garden, faces north so that he is able to photograph birds through his open study window from dawn til dusk as the sun travels across the southern sky.)

Even without the numerous feeding stations, Hugh’s hillside garden would be a haven for avian life because of the extensive plantings. Burford holly, banksia rose hedge, and pyracantha provide a wealth of berries from late summer through winter. The blossoms on the apple, apricot, and peach trees are so attractive to sparrows and finches that the trees rarely bear fruit. Hummingbird sage, nicotiana (a wild tobacco with tubular yellow flowers), and several eucalyptus trees with red blossoms are extremely popular with the hummingbirds that visit regularly.

During my three brief visits to Hugh’s Solvang backyard, I have seen turkey vultures, sharp-shinned, Cooper’s, red-tailed, and ferruginous hawks, American kestrels, mourning doves, greater roadrunners, Anna’s and rufous hummingbirds, downy, Nuttall’s and acorn wood[eclers, scrub jays, house and Bewick’s wrens, northern mockingbirds, California thrashers, “Audubon’s” warblers, rufous-sided and California towhees, song, lark, golden-crowned, and countless white-crowned sparrows, Brewer’s blackbirds, “Bullock’s” orioles, pine siskins, American and lesser goldfinches, house finches, and of course, California quail and yellow-billed magpies.
To the yard list the Smiths add Lawrence’s goldfinch, black-headed grosbeak, hooded oriole, western meadowlark, western tanager, western bluebird, Allen’s black-chinned, Costa’s and calliope hummingbirds, cliff swallow, plain titmouse, bushtit, American crow, red-shafted flicker, orange-crowned warbler, hermit thrush, white-tailed kite, red-winged and tricolored blackbirds, band-tailed pigeon, white-winged dove, cedar waxwing, ash-throated flycatcher, Say’s phoebe, and Lincoln’s sparrow. And Hugh has photographed them all!

Hugh P. Smith, Jr., born in Hartsville, South Carolina, in 1920, has always been interested in birds. He began collecting eggs (“a popular and commonplace activity in those days,” he says) while hunting with his father. He continued collecting through his early college years at The Citadel. So as not to leave any human odor at the nest site, Hugh always used a spoon to take only a single egg from each nest that he found.

“Momma saved that collection forever,” recalls Hugh. “I could recognize each one of ‘em 40 years later.” Sue adds, “Every one of our four children took them for show-and-tell at least a dozen times.”

Hugh transferred to the University of North Carolina, graduated in 1940, and enrolled in their medical program. After Pearl Harbor, he decided to “drop out of med school, join the army, and go to the war.” He phoned his father, who advised, “They need doctors more than they need soldiers.” Hugh agreed. In 1942, Hugh transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in December, 1943.

Hugh enrolled in a Navy medical program and interned t San Francisco City and Country Hospital for nine months. As a Navy doctor assigned to the 2nd marine Division, he wound up on Saipan just before the war ended. Six weeks after an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Hugh was among the first troops to land there. He spent a year in the devastated city, “wandering all around the radioactive ruins. They didn’t tell us anything about it.”
When he left the service, Hugh took an internal medical residency at Emory University. There, as chief resident, he met “this charming lady, Susie, and got married up with her” on June 2, 1948. After another year of residency in Boston, and a half year studying X-ray in Philadelphia, Hugh and Sue moved to South Carolina, where Hugh entered joint medical practice with his father and became board-certified in internal medicine.

In 1956, the Smiths relocated again, this time to California, fulfilling a longtime dream of Hugh’s. After practicing internal medicine for several years, Hugh studied X-ray for three years at Long Beach Veteran’s Administration Hospital and became board-certified in radiology. After moving to Boise, Idaho, and running a vascular laboratory three for five years, Hugh once again moved to be near his parents, this time, to Naples, Florida. Dr. Smith practiced radiology in southwest Florida until 1982, when he retired to Solvang, California.

Hugh had been interested in photography since high school; he remembers returning from Japan with “two rolls of film and some excellent pictures.” With retirement and lots of free time, he dusted off his camera and lenses and began taking pictures again.

For almost five decades, Hugh Smith had been “too busy to notice birds.” But when he photographed a hummingbird in flight through his kitchen window, the photograph won first prize at a local camera club.

Hugh’s longtime interests, birds and photography, were at last united. For the hungry birds of Solvang, and for the many photographers lucky enough to have visited Hugh’s amazing backyard, this was a most fortunate occurrence. And for himself and the many readers who have enjoyed his photographs and articles, Hugh Smith’s retirement interests have proven most rewarding.

Note: I spoke to Sue on Tuesday night and she seemed to be doing quite well.

Another Dutchman: Jan van der Greef

I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Jan van der Greef on the NOV 2010 Bosque IPT. He stunned everyone when he presented his images–including the one above–for critiquing. Jan is quite a skilled photographer who is well traveled despite the fact the he had polio when he was a kid and gets around on crutches. I have always admired folks like Jan and my Dad who simply took their alleged handicaps in stride and never looked back. (My Dad lost his right arm in WWII on Okinawa. He used his left arm that at one point hung on by a thread to pull luggage off of shelves at Roebling Luggage in NYC for more than 30 years despite the lack of a functioning elbow joint.)

Always smiling, Jan rode with Robert O’Toole during the IPT. Everyone admired his spunk and spirit.

I have never had three Dutchman on a single IPT before 🙂 Clemens van der Werf and Peter Kes rounded out the cast. Each one nicer then the next. Clemens was featured in a blog post here and Peter is responsible for the re-design of both the BAA blog and the BAA web site.

You can see more of Jan’s photography at his web site here. The various themes take a while to load but the wait is well worth it.

I hope to get to photograph this species well on my trip to the Netherlands next spring.

ABP II/Flash Comments

At the Better Beamer Basics post here Glen Fox posted the following comment:

“It would be wonderful if you WOULD rewrite the whole section on the use of Flash and teach us from the ground up. The more I shoot, the more I know I need flash, but my knowledge of “how” is next to nil. There is also the whole subject of “when” to use fill flash.”

Here is my expanded repsonse:

Hey Glen, Yes, it would be wonderful however each blog post requires an hour or two on average of work on my part. The section on flash in ABP II is 16 pages long and included both images and lots of explanatory text. At some point I do need to make a few bucks for my efforts. In addition to the information on flash ABP II includes thousands of great tips on everything that I learned about nature photography from 1998 through 2006. Do consider purchasing a copy to support my efforts here and in the Bulletins where I have been sharing everything that I have learned about nature photography from 2006 through yesterday. And coutning 🙂

The “when” to use fill flash is largely a matter of personal taste and even our varying moods. Traditionally fill flash is used on dreary days but I use it on bright sunny days as well. Sometimes I go for months and rarely use the flash at all. Then I will go for several weeks using flash on pretty much every image. Go figure. One thing that I know for sure is that flash was much more necessary when we used film than it is in the digital age.

Finally…

I wrote the following on morning of Sunday, October 25, 2009. It was saved as a draft but never published:

“I got out early this morning to do some bird photography down by the lake.  (I had been working hard in the office about 14 hours a day for two weeks so it felt good to get out.)  The day dawned clear and the light was gorgeous.  The wind however was out of the north-northwest; this is about as bad a wind as you can have for morning bird photography as the birds will be facing into the wind and away from the light.  I was working from my SUV with the 800 lens on the BLUBB (the BAA Big Lens Ultimate Beanbag).

You gotta love it.  I will try for this bird again soon and will share anything that I get with you.”   

Actually, I had been trying to get the eagle on the perch for more than ten years, ever since I moved from Deltona down to Indian Lake Estates in Polk county. It would turn out to be another 16 months until I finally got lucky. As Denise and I drove past the bird it was on top of a small tree. It flushed but landed up on its favorite perch. That gave me hope. I drove by the bird, made the u-turn, and held my breath. The image above was created with the 800 and the 1.4X II TC just before the bird took flight. The image below was my first effort; I was so nervous that I did not realize that I had not mounted the teleconverter….

It is interesting to note the huge difference in the size of the bird in the frame with the addition of the 1.4X II TC. Folks fail to realize that that is a factor of the square of the focal lengths…. (Neither image was cropped at all.) I was happy with both of the images above. Denise in the meantime was in the back seat not taking any pictures. Though she had her 500mm f/L IS lens and a 1.4X teleconverter, she was hand holding the Canon 100-400mm IS L zoom lens hoping that the bird would take off. After about ten minutes it did and Denise created the spectacular image below.

I am constantly telling folks that since I use long lenses and like to work tight that I am not very good at capturing images of birds in action and birds in flight. The tale and the three images above would seem to indicate that I am not blowing smoke.

I fly to London late this afternoon for the first ever Dalmatian Pelican IPT. Co-leader Robert O’Toole is picking me up at the Thessaloniki airport on Sunday afternoon. My Web/IT expert Peter Kes is coming as my guest. We have seven other photographers joining us for what should be a wondrous trip. I should be on line most of the time.

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 EF 1.4X III TC. This new TC is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. This is the very best professional digital camera body that I have ever used..

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. Fast and dependable.
The BLUBB. Ellen Anon’s son Josh forgot his BLUBB on a recent trip to Chicago so he called Jim yesterday and had one over-nighted for Saturday delivery!