March 25th, 2009 The cloudy, breezy afternoon weather here of late has been great for my three mile daily walk. In addition, it has made for some good photgraphic opportunities. (I love white skies.) There are more Ospreys down by the lake than in recent years and many have been carrying moss for their nests. My favorite flight photography combo has been the Canon EOS-50D and the lightweight but pricey Canon 400mmm f/5.6L DO lens. I have written extensiveley of the 50D’s fabulous autofocus tracking accuracy in recent Bulletins–you can visit the archives, which have a great search feature, here: http://www.birdsasart.com/bn.html. Though I have stated clearly that the 50D tracks birds in flight more accurately than any Canon camera that I have ever used, we get lots of e-mails from disbelievers. You can also find a great BPN thread on the subject here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=29716.
The first three images are a sequence. Note that the bird remains in sharp focus even when it flies behind the telephone pole.
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| The image below is my very favorite from the afternoon. It was created it as the bird landed atop the pole. All images as follows: ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops at f/6.3., AI Servo AF/central sensor only. (The shutter speeds varied depending on framing. If that is confusing to you see the ABP/ABP II sale here: http://www.birdsasart.com/books.html). |
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To see this image larger, click here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=232556#post232556,
March 22nd, 2009 For those having image distortion problems related to their browsers, we apologize but will be unable to deal with that problem until we are able to customize Word Press; that will not happen for a while as I am hoping to get my taxes done on time for the first time in years. Anyone who has a solution is of course welcome to e-mail us at birdsasart@att.net.
I had the alarm set for 4am early on Friday morning. I was asleep before 9pm but woke with unabated excitement at 2:07am. I finished a Sudoku puzzle and then gave up on getting any more sleep. Spoonbills can do that to you. I met Captain James Shadle at the dock at Gibsonton. He had a single client, Randy Stout, who had been on the BIRDS AS ART SW FLA Post X-mas IPT. He has since become quite active on BirdPhotographer’s.Net (BPN: It Ain’t just birds; honest critiqutes done gently.) You can see our Image of the Year here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/.
In any case, we were out on the bay in the pitch dark marvelling at the phosphorence in the wake of James’ pontoon boat, the Hooptie Deux. Soon after that we had some nice pre-dawn ibis blast-offs.
Here is an image I made with the 800mm lens alone and the EOS-1D MII (ISO 500: 1/1250 sec. at f/6.3 in manual mode. Evalutive -+2/3 stop off the low blue sky and then confirmed via histogram check):
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| I added canvas right and eliminated a variety of minor but distracting BKGR elemens. Once we had several birds in front of us on the mud flat I wanted to sit down in the water for a lower angle. I shortened the legs on my Gitzo 3530 LS tripod and pulled out the leg tabs. I was wearing my lightweight chest waders without a belt. I spread the legs of the tripod and attempted to sit down behind my rig in about 18 inches of water. The problem was that I began to float…. James called out that the water was about an inch from going over the top of the rear of my waders as my bouyancy attempted to tip me over backwards and he left his rig to give me a hand. Now I had a bigger problem. As I struggled to gain control of myself and my rig I pretty much lost control of the 800 lens with a Mark III on it. Two or three times the camera body came within 1/2 inch of the salt water. Finally, with James’ help, I regained control, pulled the tripod legs together, pushed in the leg tabs, and got on my knees–not my favorite position–behind the tripod, and made some images. It was a close call and I believe that disaster was averted only because I did not panic. Anyway, below is my favorite image from that little adventure. It was created with the 800 f/5.6 L IS lens, the 1.4X II TC, and the EOS 1D MIII. ISO 500. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/9 set manually. |
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| Anyway, below is my favorite image from that little adventure. It was created with the 800 f/5.6 L IS lens, the 1.4X II TC, and the EOS 1D MIII. ISO 500. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/9 set manually. |
If you are or will be in Florida at any time during the next six weeks do make sure to give James a buzz, get out on Tampa Bay, and enjoy some quality opportunities with one of Florida’s most sought-after species. You can reach James via e-mail at either of these addresses: james@wildflorida.net or james@birdphotographers.net or on his cell phone: 813-363-2854. It is better to keep trying than to leave a message. To learn more about James click here: www.wildflorida.net.
March 19th, 2009 I wake up at my home-office at Indian Lake Estates (ILE), Florida about half of each year. (Don’t ask me where the estates are….) In any case, ILE consists of 450 modest homes on 4,000 acres surrounded by 17,000 protected acres on the Lake Wales Ridge. My late masseuse, John Lynott, told me that he saw a Florida Panther in the yard of the local church about 20 years ago, and there are Panther Crossing signs on SR 60 that I travel regularly. On some mornings and even more rarely, on some afternoons, I do get out for an hour to photograph. The tame Sandhill Cranes make good subjects year round, and in early spring there are always some chicks about. In several months they grow to handsome colts. The current issue of My Big Backyard (i.e., Ranger Rick for younger children), featured my image a large chick taking a sip of water and a spread of baby sandhill images inside. Do not laugh: they pay very well.
On the morning of March 15 I created two images that I liked; each required some special handling in Photoshop. The first image was of a displaying Boat-tailed Grackle. I photographed it from my vehicle near a golf course pond with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-50D on the BLUBB (the BAA Big Lens Ultimate BeanBag). I began photographing the bird from a spot just off sun angle when I noticed that if I moved forward a few yards I would be able to separate the three twigs and later, clone out the two distracting ones. I moved the car forward right to sun angle; fortunately the vehicle did not fall into the pond. The problem was that the very best pose was created right off the bat. The solution: I borrowed the foot from a later frame using a Quick Mask, covered the merged twigs with the borrowed foot, rotated and scaled the selection, and finally erased the two extra twigs with the Clone Stamp.
Here is the final image:
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| I liked this pose best because of the wonderully flared tail. BTW, ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/1000 at f/8. |
I found an Osprey sitting on a low post with some dried moss for its nest. Lens and set-up same as above. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/8. With the 50D you need to be more careful about burning the whites in bright sun than with the MIII bodies.
When I viewed the image on my laptop (where I optimize all of my images) I was dismayed to see a large nail in the post. Using the Clone Stamp, the Patch Tool, and a series of Quick Masks, I eliminated the nail and shorted a single long stem of grass that had inesected with the bird’s body.
Here is the image out of the camera:
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| Here is a close-up of the offending area. |
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| Here is that same section after I cleaned it up. |
All of the techniques that I used for the cleanup (as well as our coplete digital workflow and dozens of great Photoshop tips) are described in detail in our Digital Basics File. You can learn more here:
http://www.birdsasart.com/digitalbasics.htm
Finally, here is the final image:
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| Here is that same section after I cleaned it up. |
Notice the perfect look-back head angle.
Oh, by the way, when Jim, Jim Litzenberg, my right hand man, came back from his morning walk (except in summer, I walk in the afternoons), he told me that he had seen a Florida Panther just two blocks from home…. All of you who have dealt with Jim on the phone know that he is personable, efficient, helpful, and friendly. If you would like to meet him, click here:
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=31956
Lastly, here is a killer image of me in action created by Jory Griesman, click here:
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=32199
March 17th, 2009
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| On a nice afternoon at Little Estero, the fog swooped in like some mythic creature. Rather than quit, I suggested that we begin making intentional blurs explaining that getting one great one was like winning the lottery. The image above was created with 70-200mm f/4L IS lens handheld at 78 mm with the 50D. Evaluative metering + 1 1/3 stops in TV mode: 1/8 second at f/29. Much better would have been to have had the correct 9-stop neutral density filter for the 70-200 f.4; then I could have used a much wider aperture to avoid maximizing the few dust spots. A start in that direction would have been to go from ISO 400 to ISO 2oo. |
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| When an IPT visits the Venice Rookery in the morning I have a great afternoon spot about an hour away for both Brown and White Pelicans. The green swatch in the water (that I love by the way) is the reflection of a pressure treated piling.. This image was made with the much maligned 100-400 IS L zoom lens handheld at 120mm with the EOS-50D. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/1600 at f/7.1 in Av Mode. |
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| Early on still mornings at Estero can be magic but only if you are in the right spot at the eastern end of the lagoon where the sun comes up over the Gulf and a distant spit. This image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/10 sec. at f/5.6. The 800 features a new 4-stop IS system that at times seems close to miraculous. I have made sharp images at shutter speeds as slow as 1/6 sec. |
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| Being at Little Estero Lagoon on a low tide with little wind and the sun just coming over the condos can be pure magic, especially when there is a natural feeding spree. This Snow Egret was photographed on just such a morning with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/1250 sec. at f/8. |
March 15th, 2009 On the morning of March 14 I photographed at Little Estero Lagoon in Fort Myers Beach, FL with IPT veterans Brendan Quigley and Bob Blanchard. While we were amazed that there were so few herons and egrets around we still had lots of great photo opps. The bridge over San Carlos Pass was closed for most of the morning for a parade so it took us a while to get to breakfast lunch. Brendan took us to First Watch on the corner of College and Cleveland where we looked at images and had some great chow.
The SW FLA IPT report will be coming soon.
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| Mottled Duck, drake, Little Estero Lagoon, Fort Myers Beach, FL, Image copyright 2009: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark III on the Mongoose M3.5 atop the Gitzo 3530LS CF tripod. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/11. Getting flat on the ground yields intimate images but you need to be willing to get wet and muddy as I did here. I went for some extra depth of field here knowing that with the bird swiming slowly that 1400 sec. was plenty fast enough for making sharp images. |
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| Wilsons’s Plover on beach, Fort Myers Beach, FL, Image Copyright 2009: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark III on the Mongoose M3.5 atop the Gitzo 3530LS CF tripod. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops set manually: 1/320 sec. at f/10. This image is a stitch pano created from three horizontal frames , combined in Photoshop CS3, and then cropped from the righ. To merge the images click on File/Automate/Batch/Photomerge. Whenever you see something that looks great long and low, think stitched pano. |
March 13th, 2009
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| Sandhill Crane flock at sunrise, Bosque Del Apache, NWR, NM. Image Copyright 2009: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS lens handheld at 135mm with the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/400 sec. at f/5. Mid-rage telephoto zooms are extremely valuable at Bosque. This group of cranes was heading north for good so we were actually watching migration in progress. |
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| Northern Pintail, hen swimming, Bosque Del Apache, NWR, NM. Image Copyright 2009: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark III on the Mongoose M3.5 atop the Gitzo 3530LS CF tripod. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/200 sec. at f/10. Most folks do not realize that you can get some nice reflections and killer backgrounds by photographing from the far right-hand end of the flight deck just after the sun has come up. When the main impoundment has high water levels and is clear of vegetation as it was this year, the ducks are constanly swimming back and forth right down sun angle. |
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| Nine Ducks on Cloudy Morning, Bosque Del Apache, NWR, NM. Image Copyright 2009: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Canon 24-105mm lens handheld at 28mm with the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/22. Many folks are turned off when conditions are not spectacular. “Gray clouds instead of red and orange and yellow…. Nine swimming ducks instead of 10,000 geese in flight…. Jeez, what luck. Things are lousy.” Good photographers think more in terms of making soup from a stone. And so should you. Just open your eyes, note the things that interest you, see the patterns, select the best tool (lens) for the job, and get to work making pleasing, effective images. |
March 12th, 2009 After I attended the NANPA Summit in Albuquerque, I led a 2 1/2 DAY IPT to one of my soul places, Bosque del Apache NWR in San Antonio, NM. As always, we stayed at the Socorro Super 8 in the north end of town and ate lunch and conducted our classroom sessions at K-Bob’s right next door-the fajitas are great. When you visit Bosque, be sure to patronize these two establishments; each hosted the NANPA High School Program; K-Bob’s provided complimentary meals and the Super 8 provided lodging for the students and the instructors at no charge.
When I scheduled this IPT I knew that there was a small chance that most of the geese and cranes would be gone. There are usually lots of geese and cranes present well into the last week of February but we ran into bad luck. There were few cranes at the refuge during the IPT and while there had been 20,000 geese blasting off on Saturday there were only a few thousand present at dawn on our first morning, Monday, February 23, and just a handful on the next morning. We switched to plan B, enjoyed some great duck photography both at local ponds and off the Flight Deck, got lucky with some point-blank Ross’s Geese, had fun with a cooperative Roadrunner, had some interesting sunrises and sunsets, concentrated on making soup from stones, and took advantage of every teach-able moment both in the field and in the classroom.
NANPA High School Scholarship student Liam Cofell-Dwyer joined the group as my guest and retired USAF Chief Judge Jim Heupel served as my much appreciated co-leader. Jim was a perfect fit as he is well versed in landscape photography; this came in handy often as at times there were simply no birds :). Most of the group went home happy; multiple IPT veteran and good friend Lou Newman of Sarasota, FL said that it was the best IPT he had ever been on.
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| Ross’s Goose Head Portrait, Bosque Del Apache, NWR, NM. Image Copyright 2009: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-50D on the Mongoose M3.5 atop the Gitzo 3530LS CF tripod. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/9. Fill flash at -2 stops with Better Beamer. In all of my years at Bosque I had never been anywhere near this close to a Ross’s Goose. Note the field marks: short, stubby bill with greenish warts at the base. |
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| Liam and the Old Man. Image copyright 2009 and courtesy of Greg Ferguson. I pretty much use a lens hood only when it is raining or when I am photographing from a vehicle in a dusty environment. I am pictured here with the 800 f/5.6L IS. |
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| American Coot at dawn, Bosque Del Apache, NWR, NM. Image Copyright 2009: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark III on the Mongoose M3.5 atop the Gitzo 3530LS CF tripod. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/160 sec. at f/22. Here, I used the central sensor along with AI Servo AF to focus in the center of the wake. I knew that conditions were bright enough to stop down a lot while still maintaining a shutter speed that would likely yield a sharp image. This decision and many others like it was, and need to be, made in one or two seconds in order to capture the image in your mind’s eye. |
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| Greater Roadrunner on road (where else?), Bosque Del Apache, NWR, NM. Image Copyright 2009: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-50D on the Mongoose M3.5 atop the Gitzo 3530LS CF tripod. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/11. This bird was tame when we encountered it on the IPT but always sat in a tree on the wrong side of the road (and the light). On the day after the IPT, both Jim and I were thrilled to find it sunning on the road in early morning light. The background was out-of-focus salt cedar. It was far enough away that I new I could use f/11 to render the bird sharper without bringing up unwanted background detail. |
More images tomorrow.
March 12th, 2009 Howdy!
Well, it’s gonna be a whole new world. Over time, the hugely successful and popular BIRDS AS ART Bulletins will to some degree, phased out and likely be replaced for the most part, by the BIRDS AS ART Blog. We will be offering the same great photography and Photoshop tips, the same great images with our legendary educational captions, the same great product information and tutorials, and lots lots more.
I hope that you can visit often. Be sure to save www.BIRDSASART-blog.com to your favorites list.
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