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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