Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
January 27th, 2018

Same Photographer, Same Lens. Hard to Believe … Answers

Stuff

Friday morning at the cliffs was the worst morning since I arrived in San Diego. With the lower tide levels and the lack of big surf all of the pelicans were roosting in a spot where it was impossible to get on sun angle. That did not stop lots of folks … Lee Sommie and I got out of there pretty quickly and did well with some cormorants and pelicans in flight in a new morning location. In addition we had fun with a tribe of California Sea Lions. A herd? A ??? In the evening we Patrick, Lee, and I, worked the pelicans again and finished with some Brandt’s Cormorant blurs.

I am doing much better with the D-850/200-500 combo. I created some amazing images and a sharp 45-mega-pixel D-850 file offers incredible cropping options. I have pretty much solved the AF problem when using the TCE 14 at close range. Lots of lessons and photos coming soon.

The Streak

Today makes one hundred eighty days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

Same Photographer, Same Lens. Hard to Believe … Answers

In the Same Photographer, Same Lens. Hard to Believe … blog post here, I asked lots of questions. Here they are along with the images, and my answers and explanations.

This image was created on morning of Thursday, January 18 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 420mm), and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/10 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:29am on a clear morning.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +5.

Upper Large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter button AF as framed; the system performed perfectly by activating an array of five AF points on the left side of the bill half way down.

Brown Pelican, Pacific race in pre-breeding plumage, preening individual feather

Super-Tight

This gorgeous pelican was quite comfortable with our presence; there were at least five of us from the group photographing it from close range for close to an hour. I was the lowest and this enabled me to be the closest; others were standing and shooting over me. I created lots of head and bill vertical portraits with lovely Pacific-blue backgrounds. Then I decided to get even closer and try some abstract and quasi-abstract stuff. Why did I go super-tight? The bird had a chunk of feathers missing on one side of its forehead. Note that I went with just a bit of extra depth of field: f/10 instead of the wide open f/9. But at point-blank range, this did not make any real difference at all. Note als0 that I am zoomed out a bit here; from 560 to 420mm.

The JPEG here represents the full frame image capture.

Question #1

Does this image need to show the bird’s eye to be successful? Why or why not?

Artie Says

I do not think that all images need to show the bird’s eye to be successful and that includes the image above. In fact, as someone commented, this one might not have been as powerful if it had included the pelican’s eye. As present it is clean, tight, graphic, angular, a bit abstract, and to my mind, quite effective.

This image was created on late afternoon of Wednesday, January 17 at La Jolla Shores Beach, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 176mm) and my favorite bird-scape photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/200 sec. at f/5.6 in Av mode. K7500 at 5:11pm with light clouds and fog on the horizon.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to -2.

Five AF points to the right of and two rows down from the center AF point/AI Servo/Surround/Shutter button AF as seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below.

Willet foraging in the surf at sunset

Willet Foraging in the Surf at Sunset

When we got to the beach it was 100% foggy. We played around with the gulls and made some nice images. Just as it seemed that the sun might break through two folks left. Those who stayed were rewarded with a pretty decent soft salmon-toned sunset.

Question #2

Which of the two images above do you like best? Why?

Artie Says

As another comment noted, comparing the two images above is like comparing apples and oranges; the mood and feel of each is totally different. While I like both images, if I had to chose only one it would be the pelican abstract. Why? I love the Pacific race pelicans in breeding plumage.

Question #3

How would you attempt to level this image?

Artie Says

This question generated lots of interest. Take a peek at the screen capture below and read my explanation below that.

a close-up look at the horizon

A Close-up look at the Horizon

Above you can see the upper right portion of the image. I have darkened the image to make the horizon line more discernable. Once you recognize that as the horizon it is a simple matter of using the Ruler Tool (my keyboard shortcut R) to draw a line along the horizon, hitting Image > Rotate > Arbitrary (or use my keyboard shortcut (Command + /), and then hitting OK. On very rare occasion I will disregard the leveling results so that the image appears more “normal.” That was not the case with this image; as I was shooting at an angle to the waves it is natural that the waves would appear askew and for the same reason, that the Willet’s wake would look slightly askew.

In short, if the horizon is made level the image will in fact be level.

Kudos to PhilA who left this comment:

  • #3 From the horizon it looks level. The waves at an angle look like perspective. Yes?
  • DPP 4 Screen Capture

    Question #4

    What was I attempting to do by moving the Shadow slider to -5?

    Artie Says

    I was trying to blacken the silhouetted bird. That helped only a little.

    Question #5

    Why should I have used Single Point/Manual Selection AF instead of AF (Expand) Surround?

    Artie Says

    It is likely that AF would have been more accurate and that the Willet would have been rendered sharper.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.





    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 26th, 2018

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II of Many.

    Stuff

    I tried out my brand new Nikon D-850 on Thursday morning. It was mostly cloudy and not the greatest of mornings. I was not too excited by the 45 mega-pixel images but when I shared them with Patrick Sparkman and Lee Sommie, they both were. I guess I need to either clean my glasses or get an attitude adjustment. The three of us got together in the afternoon and photographed at La Jolla. We had a ball. I will give it a go with the D-850 in the morning. My plan at present is to keep the D5, use it with the 200-500, and go with the D-850 on the tripod-mounted Nikon 600mm f/4. That will likely be delivered to my home in Florida.

    Those interested in learning even more about my recent switch to Nikon might wish to read the many and varied comments along with my responses in the last few blog posts.

    I was glad to learn recently of the sale of Walt Anderson’s barely used EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in mint to like-new condition with extras for the BAA record low price of $9395.00 and that NANPA President Don Carter sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition for $849.00 and his Canon EOS-1DX in near-mint condition for the BAA record-low price of $2298.00, both two days after they were listed.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-nine days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    This image was created by multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin on the first 2018 San Diego IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 213mm) with the Canon EOS 7D Mark II.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race, preening back

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II

    Exhibit A

    Canon makes a variety of relatively inexpensive intermediate telephoto lenses and lightweight camera bodies. The 100-400II is an amazing lens and I will miss it.

    This image was created by Bryan Holliday with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my former favorite flight photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.

    Northern Pintail, drake in fight

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II

    Exhibit B

    Are you kidding me? Kudos to Bryan for creating this image at 1200mm with hand held Canon gear. I will be borrowing a Nikon TCE 20 from B&H in late spring and try it out with my 600mm f/4 to see if what everyone says is true: “Harry, it sucks!”

    If you know who Harry is please leave a comment. 🙂

    This image was created by BPN Avian moderator David Salem with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the EOS-1D X (now replaced by the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.)

    Cinnamon Teal, drake in fight

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II

    Exhibit C

    As this and the next two images show, David is right up there with the world’s best ducks in flight photographer; do you know anyone who is better? Cinnamon Teal is one of my favorite ducks. I have seen it only a few times in thirty five years and have zero good images of this small, fast flying duck.

    This image was created byBPN Avian moderator David Salem with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the EOS-1D X (now replaced by the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.)

    Northern Shoveler, drake in fight

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II

    Exhibit D

    What you need to make image like this with hand held super-telephoto lenses: good gear, strength, endurance, great hand-eye coordination, and lots of determination.

    This image was created by BPN Avian moderator David Salem with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the EOS-1D X (now replaced by the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.)

    Green-winged Teal, drake in fight

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II

    Exhibit E

    A fast frame rate helps David capture the dramatic downstroke poses seen here and with the shoveler image above. The downstroke poses reveal the beautiful colors of the speculum feathers.

    This image was created by Arash Hazghi with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.

    Short-eared Owl in flight

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II

    Exhibit F

    Using Canon gear, Arash has made many of my favorite-ever flight images.

    This image was created by Arash Hazghi with the hand held Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens and the EOS-1D X (now replaced by the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.)

    Great Grey Owl incoming

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II

    Exhibit G

    Arash has worked hard developing settings for his Canon cameras that will maximize his chances of getting razor sharp on the eyes images of birds flying right at him.

    This image was created by multiple IPT veteran and dear friend Patrick Sparkman at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens and the mega megapixel Canon EOS 5DS R.

    Brandt’s Cormorant, incoming, with seaweed for its nest

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part II

    Exhibit H

    Patrick borrowed my 400 DO II on many occasions and usually did quite well with it.

    Your Favorite?

    Which of the Exhibits above, all made with Canon gear, is your favorite? Please let us know why you made your choice.

    Canon EOS 5DS R

    Mansoor Assadi is also offering a used Canon EOS 5DS R digital camera body in like-new condition for only $2649. The sale includes the front body cap, a RRS L-plate, a LensCoat BodyBag, the Canon batter grip (with only one battery), the original box with everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Mansoor via e-mail or by phone at 415-559-8027 (Pacific time).

    The 5DS R is one of the premier dSLRs for landscape photography and as Patrick Sparkman and I proved, it is a great body for bird, wildlife, and nature photographers who have good sharpness techniques, especially those who make large prints; it’s image quality is unmatched. artie

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.





    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 25th, 2018

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part I of Many. And the First Nikon System Issue.

    Stuff

    I enjoyed a great session with private client Brian Goebel this morning at La Jolla and another great lunch at Rubio’s! I spent the afternoon unpacking and trying to set up the brand new Nikon D850 DSLR that I got from Bedford Camera via next day Fed Ex. Thanks to the BAA Blog, all six D-850s that Steve Elkins had in stock sold in hours. Sometimes the power of the blog amazes even me …

    There are still two openings on the Spoonbill IPT. Click here for details. If anyone would like to join me for 1 1/2 days on the Spoonbill Boat on February 19th and the morning of the 20ieth, please e-mail for details.

    Late Registration Discount

    Due to a cancellation, there is a single opening on the second San Diego IPT. I am offering a $200 discount on the course fee. It is mandatory that you get in touch via e-mail or call me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Scroll down here for details on San Diego #2.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-eight days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    This image was made by Arash Hazeghi from his SUV with the lens that is for sale below, the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens (with the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.) ISO 640: 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6.

    You might consider this as Exhibit A in the matter of Canon does not suck … See what others had to say about this image in the BPN post here.

    American Kestrel diving
    Image courtesy of and copyright 2017: Arash HAzeghi

    Brand New Listings

    Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens

    BPN Avian Moderator Arash Hazeghi is offering a Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for $9450.00. The lens has had LensCoat on it since day one and thus there are no marks on the lens barrel. The glass is perfect. This lens has created many award winning images for me; it is tack sharp with 1.4X III and 2X III, and the focus is fast and smooth. There are some tiny marks on the groove at the base of the hood (from normal use) caused by mounting and un-mounting the hood. There are a couple of small marks on the hood but it’s on the paint finish; the carbon fiber is intact. The bottom of the lens foot has a couple of marks from mounting the lens on tripod. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Arash via e-mail.

    WMD: Weapon of Mass Destruction!

    The 600 II is a state of the art super-telephoto lens for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports. If I can get it to a location, it was my go-to long lens for more than a decade. It is fast and sharp and deadly alone or with either TC. With a new one going for $11,499, you can save a cool $2,049.00 by grabbing Arash’s lens right now. artie

    Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS II DO USM Lens

    Price reduced $100 on January 25, 2018

    BPN Avian Moderator Arash Hazeghi is offering a Canon 400mm f/4 IS II DO USM lens in like-new condition but for a few tiny scratches on the lens foot the low price of $5,799.00 (was $5899.00). The sale includes a Lens Coat, the the lens trunk, the lens strap, the padded fabric front lens cover, the rear lens cap, the original box and everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Arash via e-mail.

    I own the 400 DO II and find a way to take it on most trips. I take it to Scotland and Nickerson Beach and San Diego. It has served as my big gun in the Galapagos and on Southern Ocean (the Falklands and South Georgia) trips. It is a killer for flight with or without the 1.4X III TC. I used it most recently in San Diego for the ducks and the White Pelicans with both the 1.4X and the 2X III TCs. And I am planning on using it as my big gun and ship photography lens on next October’s hoped for Emperor Penguin chicks trip … No guarantees there. And really skilled folks have had amazing success hand holding it for flight and for action. With this lens in high demand and new ones selling for $6899, Arash’s lens is a great buy that will save you a smooth a $1,100!. artie

    All of the images above were created by Brian Goebel on the morning of Wednesday, January 24, 2018. He used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. The last three images in the Photo Mechanic composite were made with the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III in place. All with Evaluative metering in Manual mode and AWB.

    Brown Pelicans, Pacific race
    Images courtesy of and copyright 2018: Brian Goebel

    My Morning with Brian Goebel

    I was hired by Celeste Banks of Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC of Seattle, to provide a morning of photography instruction for Brian Goebel of Huntington Beach, California. CA. Celeste learned of me two years ago when she visited my exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Brian recently retired as an actuary from Molina Healthcare and the folks at Carpenter thanked him with the gift of a morning photo session with yours truly. It was obvious from the get-go that Brian was a super-nice guy who was anxious to learn.

    He has been photographing for a while but had never concentrated much on birds. He showed up with a 5D IV, a 100-400 II, the 1.4X III TC, and good hand holding techniques. He had no clue on getting the right exposure, had never worked in Manual mode, and had no clue on either the AF Area Selection Modes or moving the AF points. He was a quick study. In 30 minutes he had mastered getting the right exposure by using the histogram and checking for blinkies. I showed him how to work in Manual mode, explained the AF Area Selection Modes, and discussed the importance of moving the AF points around to get the composition that you want. I also explained the importance of Orientation-linked AF Points and AF Area Selection modes. I set him up with Surround for horizontals and Upper Large Zone for verticals. It seemed like no time at all until he started making great images. Above are my favorite six of his images from our morning together.

    All six images had data in the right-hand box of the histogram and all were tack sharp.

    If you own a 5D Mark IV and were confused by any of the stuff above that I taught Brian, you would likely benefit by getting a copy of the Canon 5D Mark IV User’s Guide and studying it.

    Canon Surely Does Not Suck: Part I of Many

    Yes, my instruction helped Brian immensely, but the reason that I started the Canon Surely Does Not Suck series with this little tale is because it shows that the Canon system is an excellent one with an accurate AF system for all types of general photography. That Canon stuff is easy to use and is capable of creating high quality image files. All that even for a relative bird photography beginner. In addition, the light weight of the 100/400 II/5D IV rig makes it easy for most folks to hand hold successfully for extended shooting sessions. There will be lots more on this topic coming soon.

    Your Favorite?

    Which of Brian’s six images is your favorite? Do let us know why you made your pick.

    First Nikon System Issue

    I encountered some serious problems acquiring focus when using the 200-500 with the TCE 14 and the D5. Strangely enough, those problems exist only with static subjects! I’ve tried group, d9, and single point with similar results. Stranger still is the fact that even when I manually pre-focus and get the AF right on the bird’s eye, the system sometimes searches hopelessly. Even in high contrast situations. Any and all advice or comments are welcome.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.





    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 24th, 2018

    Why I Switched From Canon to Nikon

    Stuff

    The last two days have been busy, chaotic, and exciting. Even I have been impressed by the reach of the blog — at 3:55am Pacific time on Wednesday, January 24, 2018 I have sold all but a single listed Canon item (with several folks interested in the 70-200mm f/4L IS). Thanks to all who purchased my stuff at the give-away prices. I have a private client this morning and look forward to being joined by my new friend Lee Sommie midday tomorrow. Lee is signed up for San Diego #2.

    Coming on Thursday

    Coming on Thursday, a blog post entitled “Canon Does Not Suck.” So stay tuned.

    Late Registration Discount

    Due to a cancellation, there is a single opening on the second San Diego IPT. I am offering a $200 discount on the course fee. It is mandatory that you get in touch via e-mail or call me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Scroll down here for details on San Diego #2.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-seven days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took more than two hours to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    This image was created on January 22 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 440mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 400. Matrix metering probably +2/3 stop: 1/200 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB at 7:52am on a mostly clear sunny morning.

    Center Group Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race, taking flight.

    The Dramatic Take-off Image

    I tried and failed for decades to create images like this with my Canon gear. Do understand that many others, more skilled than I, have made images like this with their Canon gear. With my new Nikon gear I now feel that I at least have a good chance. That gives me more confidence to at least try in difficult or even near-impossible situations.

    It took me a while to realize that when a big wave hit a pelican or two would take flight. I finally figured it out with this image. There is an amazing Content Aware Fill story that goes with this photo. I will share in a future blog post.

    Why I Switched From Canon to Nikon

    I was one of the original 55 Canon Explorers of Light. After speaking with Dave Metz (who was then with Canon) at some photographic event, I was invited into the program — probably in 1996 or so — by Michael Newler (aka “Captain Explorer.”) It was quite an honor. I served in that role for about eighteen years. Canon was exceedingly generous. Right after I signed up I did a commercial for the EOS-1V film body that aired worldwide. At some point Michael left Canon and Dave Metz took over the EoL program. When Dave moved on, Steven Inglima assumed leadership of the program. Michael, Dave, and Steve were all good to me. Unbelievably good to me. When I submitted no end of speaking gigs for EoL approval, Michael liked to argue, Dave seemed like a tough guy but had a heart of gold beneath that facade, and Steve liked to ask questions. That said, those three wonderful gentlemen approved everything single thing that I proposed. Heck, they often lined up speaking gigs for me and sent me on the next plane. That support included two major exhibits of my work, the first at the Peterson Institute in Jamesburg, NY, and the second at the National Zoo in Washington, part of the Smithsonian. Canon sponsored both of those exhibits to the tune of $30,000.

    About three or four years ago, Steven Inglima called me. Steve never called me. He was going on and on about nothing and suddenly it dawned on me: I was being let go as an Explorer. And that’s what happened. As a result of political BS at Canon. Steve fought hard to keep me in the program. In about a year he was fired too. He did get one concession. I, and the other photographers who were let go, were OKed to use the title Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus. And the plan was that while we would not have formal Canon contracts, that EoL would continue to support our speaking endeavors on Canon’s behalf. That worked for a total of two events. But the new team at EoL steadfastly refused to support my exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum. B&H came to the rescue. Canon EoL did support the slide program that opened the exhibit. And one more speaking gig in South Florida. I submitted a request for support for a speaking engagement near Denver but they never responded. When the gentleman trying to arrange the program wrote them, they responded with a simple answer. “No.”

    I opted to choose the high road. I continued to support Canon on the blog most every day of the year. I had a great 18 year run with EoL and Canon’s generosity was unparalleled. So thanks again to Michael, Dave, and Steven, to good friends, the technical advisors Rudy Winston and Chuck Westfall, and to Canon USA and Canon Japan.

    For years I had seen the great flight and action images of some of the top bird photographers made with Nikon gear. I simply assumed that they were more talented than I. When I heard recently that BPN Avian Moderator Doug Brown of Albuquerque, NM, had switched, that got me thinking; Doug is a quite competent flight photographer. As I was no longer an EoL in any way, shape or form, I decided to borrow some Nikon gear and see if it was any better for flight and action. From the first moment that I acquired focus on a bird in flight three days ago on January 20, I thought “This is different. This is much, much better.” Like Canon, the system acquired focus quickly. The difference, for me at least, was that the system would hold focus perfectly even with bird flying in front of a cliff or just over the ocean. Talk honestly to any top bird photographer who uses Canon gear and they will voice their frustrations. “I was locked on and then had to bump the focus. AF keeps going to the background. More than half of my flight images are not sharp on the eye.” There is none of that with the D5. I probably created 100,000 images of birds flying right at me at 60 mph with my Canon gear. 99.99% of them were sharp. Sharp on the feet. For me, Canon AF simply could not keep up. Some of the very best Canon flight photographers have had success in this area with their cameras set up perfectly for flight. But never me. With Nikon this situation is a piece of cake. I will share a Brandt’s Cormorant image with you here soon.

    Before I even saw the images on my laptop I realized that I would almost surely be switching. Once I saw the consistently sharp results on my Macbook Pro with Retina Display, I was convinced: for me, photographing birds in flight with Nikon gear would be a huge improvement, the chance to be the flight photographer I always wanted to be. With the Canon gear I rarely made more than two or three images of a given bird on a flight pass. Several times in the past few days with the Nikon gear I have created 12- and 15-frame flight sequences with all of the images well-framed and sharp on the eye. AF is that sure even when and if the AF Group cluster is nowhere near the bird’s face, head, or neck. There is no way in the world that I could have created today’s featured image with my Canon gear. Others maybe, but not me. I look forward to thousands more quick-grab and take-off images in my Nikon future.

    If Canon versus Nikon for flight photography were a championship prize fight, they would be best to stop the bout at the weigh-in …Unless you totally screw-up there is no need at all to bump the focus. The whole Nikon thing has been like a re-birth.

    I thought on the dilemma for about a day and then decided to go all-in by selling off my Canon gear, most of it in a single afternoon.

    Folks have asked if my decision was vengeful in any way, if it was politically motivated, if I was now under contract with Nikon, or if it had to do with my being let go by Canon as an EoL. The honest answers are no, no, no, and no. In The Work (The Work of Byron Katie) we learn to ask if the thing that we fear the most (being let go as an Explorer) could possibly be the best thing that could have happened … In this tale, that has been exactly the case.

    Other factors include Canon’s continued denial of oil spatter on the sensor problems with individual EOS-1DX Mark II bodies (like my first one) and problems with folks using Canon Repair centers. No worries on that though; I have heard that Nikon repair service is much worse. 🙂

    What would I have done if I had learned that Nikon was the best system for me while I was still an Explorer of Light? That is a very tough question and I am a very loyal man, but boy, I would have been very tempted to end my relationship with Canon …

    I have enjoyed the firestorm on the blog and on my two Facebook pages and have enjoyed the challenge of learning to work with an entirely new system. And most of all, I have been having a ton of fun.

    Summing up I can only say that I switched knowing that Nikon was better for me at this point in my life. Please do not be fooled into thinking that the Nikon system is dead solid perfect; there are many things that bug me. I will be sharing those with you in future blog posts.

    Many fear that I will quit teaching folks about Canon on the blog. That will not be true. If I never posted a single Nikon image I could do a blog post every day for the rest of my life with as yet unpublished Canon images. That said, the switch will allow me to broaden my horizons and become an even stronger teacher. Wait till I learn my two new camera bodies and learn how to zoom out with the 200-500!

    Those who have read this far would likely enjoy reading my replies to various comments in the last three or four Nikon-related blog posts …

    Nikon Menu Help Needed

    If you know how I can assign Focus Stop to the AF ON button please leave a comment.

    The San Diego Site Guide

    Whether you are visiting San Diego for photography for the first time or live in the area and have done the pelicans many dozens of times, you will learn a ton by studying the San Diego Site Guide. Why spend days stumbling around when you can know exactly where and when to be depending on the wind direction and sky conditions? In addition to the pelican primer, there is great info on the best beaches for the gorgeous gulls, on Marbled Godwit, on the lower cliffs, Lesser Scaup, and Wood and Ring-necked Ducks as well.

    Learn more or purchase your copy here.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.





    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 23rd, 2018

    More on the Switch to Nikon. And Used Canon Gear at Below Fire Sale Prices Update.

    More on the Switch to Nikon

    Thanks to the many who sent me leads on purchasing a Nikon D850 DSLR along with the Nikon MB-D18 Multi-Power Battery Pack (that gets you up to 9 fps) and an extra Nikon EN-EL18b Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery (10.8V, 2500mAh). The first few leads did not pan out.

    Don Hamilton suggested that I get in touch with Steve Elkins of Bedford Camera. I called and texted him early in the day. Just as the sun was coming over the hill onto the pelicans at La Jolla, my cell rang and in short order, the deal was done. I was and am thrilled. The D-850 will be the perfect complement to my Nikon D5 DSLR (with Dual XQD slots). My lenses at present consist of the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR and the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR lens. I am in the process of ordering the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens from B&H. I also own the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III.

    Huge Nikon D-850 News

    Getting a Nikon D-850 had been just about impossible for the past few months. Steve Elkins of Bedford Camera has six in stock along with six of the battery grips. If you have been searching for one you can order yours here or get in touch with Steve via e-mail. They offer free overnight shipping on the D8-50; they collect sales tax only in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. If you order from them, please mention the BAA Blog. Important note: the website shows “Pre-order.” To get yours be sure to e-mail Steve first as above.

    Coming Tomorrow

    Coming tomorrow, the in-depth explanation of why I made the switch.

    Coming on Thursday

    Coming on Thursday, a blog post entitled “Canon Does Not Suck.” So stay tuned.

    And Used Canon Gear at Below Fire Sale Prices Update

    Monday afternoon was chaotic and I was a bit frantic. I was getting an e-mail a minute for many hours; I sold — heck — pretty much gave away nearly all of my Canon gear. I could have dickered and priced the stuff a bit higher but my goal was to make the prices so attractive that any serious buyer could not possibly say no. The plan worked well.

    Immediately below is the tally, below that are the remaining items and one or two that I forgot. Thanks to the many who were disappointed that they missed the great values. Everyone was understanding and I appreciated that.

    Sold at Fire Sale Prices/Just In

    The newer of my Canon 100-400 II lenses sold for $1399.
    One Canon 1.4X III TCs sold for $229.
    Another 1.4X III TC and a 2X III TC sold for $229 each.
    $3500 for the almost new Canon 1DX II with < 11,000 actuations and $229 for the other 2X III TC. The older Canon 24-105 sold for $299. The Canon 600 II sold for $7500. With shipping to US. In very good to excellent condition with one serious ding near the red dot at the near end of the lens barrel, a less than 1/8 by 3/16 inch dent. It affects nothing. And a few other scuffs. The glass is immaculate and as seen on the blog every day it is in perfect working condition. The Canon 500mm f/4l IS II lens sold for the fire-sale price of $6799. One Canon 5D Mark IV in very good condition sold/fire sale priced at $1899. Another 5D Mark IV sold for $2099 and the almost-new one for $2349. Canon 16-35mm f/4 L IS for $549. Canon 8-15mm given away for $799! Canon 100 macro IS fire-sale sold for $449. My Canon 200-400mm f/4L IS Lens with Internal 1.4X Extender went for a paltry $7500. And the 400 DO II for only $5399.

    Still Available

    Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS Lens

    Canon 180mm Macro Lens

    Just sold!.

    Canon EF 12mm Extension Tube (two to be sold together)

    If you are seriously interested in buying something above or below, please shoot me an e-mail or call my cell at 863-221-2372.

    I will probably have more stuff to list when I get home.

    January 23rd, 2018

    This Just In: Internet Experts State That the Nikon 200-500/1.4X TC-14E III/D5 Combo is Not Sharp!

    Stuff

    Despite seemingly perfect conditions it was a relatively slow morning for flight at La Jolla on Monday.

    After the Canon Gear Fire Sale announcement post I was a busy boy and wound up selling nearly all of my Canon stuff in four hours. Folks may question the low prices but my plan was to unload everything quickly rather than spend weeks trying to squeeze out a few more dollars. My plan worked well.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-six days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.

    New Used Gear Listing

    Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM Lens (the “old five”)

    Mark Casola is offering a Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens in excellent plus condition (like new but for a scratch on the lens foot) for the BAA record-low price of $3649.00. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original leather front lens cover, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Mark via e-mail

    The 500mm f/4 lenses have been the world’s most popular telephoto lenses for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports for many decades. I owned and used and loved my “old five” for many years. If you don’t have the cash for the 500 II and can handle the additional 1 1/2 pounds, then this is your best super-telephoto option. Most everyone can produce sharp images with this lens and a 1.4X TC. Folks with good to excellent sharpness techniques can do the same with a 2X TC. With the new 500 II selling for $8,999 you can save a neat $5299.00 by grabbing Greg’s lens (plus the two TCs!) artie

    Price Drop

    Canon EOS-1D Mark III Professional Digital Camera Body

    Price Reduced $50 on August 2, 2017.
    Price Reduced another $50 on January 22, 2018.

    David R. Gibson (the original owner) is offering a Canon EOS-1D Mark III in near-mint condition but for a few very faint scratches on the rear LCD for only $499 (was $599). The sale includes the front cap, the Canon LP-E4 Rechargeable Lithium Ion and the charger, the Canon camera body manual & pocket guide, a new Canon Pro Neck Strap 1, a Sandisk 8GB Ultra Compact Flash memory card, and insured ground shipping via UPS to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears, unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact David via e-mail or by phone at 1-757-816-2825 (Eastern time).

    Two EOS-1D Mark IIIs served as my workhorse camera bodies for more than 2 years. I created thousands of consistently sharp, saleable images with them. B&H currently has a used 1D III in excellent condition (8+) for $799.95; that makes David’s body a superb buy. As with my 1D III bodies, David never had any AF problems. artie



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    This image was created on January 22 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III (at 350mm), and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 400. Matrix metering probably +2/3 stop:: 1/800 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:432am on a clear sunny day.

    Upper Left Group/Shutter Button AF.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race, tight face detail
    This is the full frame original

    This Just In: Internet Experts State That the Nikon 200-500/1.4X TC-14E III/D5 Combo is Not Sharp!

    Via blog comment by my Nikon mentor, Krishna Prassad Kotti:

    I heard from lots of folks on internet that Nikon 200-500 is not sharp. And that it is not sharp with 1.4X TC.

    My response is the unsharpened 100% crop below …

    This is an unsharpened 100% crop of Brown Pelican, Pacific race, tight face detail

    My Response to the Internet Experts

    I am confused. The 100% crop above looks pretty sharp to me. What do you think? In any case, I can’t wait to get my hands on the 45-mega pixel Nikon D850 DSLR … Several friends have confirmed that they have not experienced pixel smear as many did with the Canon 5DS R.

    The Nikon D-850

    The Nikon D-850 is one hot ticket. It is pretty much impossible to purchase one right now at any price. If you know of one sitting on a shelf somewhere, please shoot me an e-mail.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 22nd, 2018

    Switching to Nikon. Used Canon Gear at Below Fire Sale Prices ...

    Used Canon Gear at Below Fire Sale Prices

    Please see the list of items sold cheap below

    Please note today’s date. It is not April 1.

    As many have surmised, I am — after 34 1/2 years of using Canon gear, after about 18 years as a Canon Explorer of Light (not many know that I was fired from that role about four years ago), and after 17 years of using Canon digital gear, switching to Nikon. If you do lots of flight photography, you should switch too. If not, I far prefer my Canon gear. Some of the AF stuff with Nikon — such as switching the AF patterns — is horrifically designed. But if you want sharp images of birds in flight then you should/will switch to Nikon. The funny thing is that I recently figured out — with help from Arash Hazeghi — how to make the most of the AF systems of my 5D Mark IV bodies and especially with my newly replaced EOS-1DX II. But for birds in flight Nikon is light years ahead. After 30 seconds of working with the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots), I was pretty sure that I was gonna switch even before I saw the images. To make sure that I not was crazy, I had Patrick Sparkman try out the Nikon rig. After one bird flew by he said, “I am switching.”

    More on the plusses and minuses of both systems will follow in future blog posts. The Nikon stuff is not all positive.

    Here is the important stuff: I am selling all of my Canon gear now. I have three 5D Mark IV bodies for sale I have an almost new 1DX II that does not have oil spatter on the sensor problems. I am selling my 600 II, my 500 II, my 400 DO II, my relatively new 100-400 II, my my 24-105, my like-new circle lens, the 8-15mm, the 180 macro, a like-new 100mm L IS Macro, and a like new 16-35mm. I have likely forgotten a few items. Several Series III teleconverters for starters.

    I use my gear hard. Some of it shows signs of wear. The 600 II has a ding on the proximal lens barrel. The great news is that it all works perfectly. I price it to sell quickly. If anyone is interested in a long lens and one of the camera bodies I can likely sell them a micro-adjusted match set. I am at the Ramada San Diego North Hotel & Conference Center in San Diego (5550 Kearny Mesa Road, Kearny Mesa) and am free for the next few days. I can of course ship the stuff anywhere when I get home.

    The prices will be so low that I will not publish them. If you are seriously interested in buying something please shoot me an e-mail or call my cell at 863-221-2372.

    If you switch to Nikon based on the above please be sure to use my generic B&H affiliate link on the right side of each blog post page. I will have lots more to say on both Nikon and Canon, especially when and if I ever get a Nikon D-850. Right now I am vouching for the D5 and would stake my life on the D-850 as well. They both have the same AF system.

    Sold at Fire Sale Prices/Just In

    The newer of my Canon 100-400 II lenses sold for $1399.
    One Canon 1.4X III TCs sold for $229.
    Another 1.4X III TC and a 2X III TC sold for $229 each.
    $3500 for the almost new Canon 1DX II with < 11,000 actuations and $229 for the other 2X III TC. The older Canon 24-105 sold for $299. The Canon 600 II sold for $7500. With shipping to US. In very good to excellent condition with one serious ding near the red dot at the near end of the lens barrel, a less than 1/8 by 3/16 inch dent. It affects nothing. And a few other scuffs. The glass is immaculate and as seen on the blog every day it is in perfect working condition. The Canon 500mm f/4l IS II lens sold for the fire-sale price of $6799. One Canon 5D Mark IV in very good condition sold/fire sale priced at $1899. Another 5D Mark IV sold for $2099 and the almost-new one for $2349. Canon 16-35mm f/4 L IS for $549. Canon 8-15mm given away for $799! Canon 100 macro IS fire-sale sold for $449.

    January 22nd, 2018

    The Blue-eyed Chocolate-Covered Cherry. The Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6 VR lens with the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III

    Stuff

    On Sunday I spent another morning with the borrowed Nikon gear. With a nice east wind it was a great morning for pelican flight photography: I had 40 pelican flight keepers. What a pleasure it is to edit a series of flight images and simply look for the best poses without having to pray that this one or that one might be sharp …

    The afternoon was spent at Patrick and Robin’s house watched the NFL playoffs on the tube and eating too much. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I was asleep at 7:30pm, woke at 2:30am, and edited about 10,000 images from my Phoenix and San Diego trips. I am all caught up.

    There are only two slots left on the Spoonbill Boat IPT. The Master Classes will be announced soon.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-five days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the images. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Used Gear Page New Listings

    Canon EOS 7D Mark II

    With Extras!

    NANPA President Don Carter is offering a Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition for $849.00. The sale includes the Canon BG-E16 Battery Grip (a $209 value), a Kirk L bracket, an extra battery, the front lens cap, one battery charger, and insured ground shipping to US addresses via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Don via e-mail or by phone at (630) 390-0909 (Mountain time).

    Both Patrick Sparkman and I used and loved the 7D Mark II until about two years ago when we both committed to using full frame Canon bodies. We both made some truly great images with it. Two of my three 2016 Nature’s Best honored entries were created with the 7D II, one still, and one video. One thing is for sure: the 7D Mark II is the greatest value ever in a digital camera body. With a new one alone going for $1499 you can grab Don’s 7D II along with some great extras. artie

    Canon EOS-1DX Professional Digital Camera Body

    BAA Record-low Price!

    NANPA President Don Carter is also offering a Canon EOS-1DX in near-mint condition for the BAA record-low price of $2298.00, The sale includes the front cap, a Kirk L-bracket, an extra battery, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Don via e-mail or by phone at (630) 390-0909 (Mountain time).

    Two 1DX bodies severed admirably as my workhorse digital camera bodies for several years. The original 1DX has a superb AF system and produces high quality image files. It is fabulous for photographing birds in flight and in action. Some folks wish that they had kept there 1DX bodies and not upgraded to the 1DX Mark II … artie

    This image was created on January 21 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III (at 350mm), and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 400. Matrix metering probably +1/3 stop:: 1/640 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB at 9:12am on a clear sunny day.

    Upper center Group/Shutter Button AF.

    Image #1: Brown Pelican, Pacific race, two year old, vertical head and bill portrait

    The Blue-eyed Chocolate Covered Cherry

    We saw the beautiful bird featured in today’s blog post flying around early in the day as many pelicans left and returned to the cliffs after visiting an offshore feeding spree. At one point, it landed close to us in a big crowd of birds. I added the 1.4X TCE, got on the ground, and slowly inched closer. As the pelicans shifted position, the chocolate-covered cherry bird finally came completely clear for a vertical head and bill portrait.

    This image was created on January 21 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III (at 600mm), and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 400. Matrix metering probably at zero: 1/800 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB at 9:09am on a clear sunny day.

    Left Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Image #2: Brown Pelican, Pacific race, two year old, tight head portrait

    Tight Horizontal Head Portrait

    I zoomed in tight to create image #2 when the object of my desire was surrounded by several other pelicans. The sharpness of the Nikon 2-5 with the TC-E 14 is astounding.

    This image was created on January 21 at La Jolla, CA by Patrick Sparkman with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 500. Matrix metering probably +1/3 stop: 1/2500 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:40am on a clear sunny day.

    Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Image #3:Brown Pelican, Pacific race, 2nd year, in flight
    Image courtesy of and copyright 2018: Patrick Sparkman

    Potty Break

    When I needed to visit the outdoor mens’ room-in-a-crevice, I took two out of focus images of the dirt and handed the rig to Patrick who was anxious to try it out. When I got back I took two more images of dirt so that we could easily locate Patrick’s images. As I was yesterday, he was quite amazed by the AF system of the D5. When I downloaded the shared XQD card, I saw that Patrick had had a good flight chance with our special bird. I was wishing that I could have held it a bit longer … Patrick, a long time Canon shooter, also had big problems with the “wrong direction zoom twist.”

    Your Favorite?

    Which of today’s three images is your favorite? Why?

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 21st, 2018

    Flight Photography with the Nikon 200-500 and the D5

    Stuff

    I spent the day with my borrowed Nikon gear. For now, I am withholding my overall comments until I get to know the camera and lens better. If it were not for the help I received from IPT veteran and blog regular Krishna Prasad Kotti, I would not have been able to make a single good image on Saturday. He kindly and generously helped me set up the D5 during a long FaceTime session on Friday evening.

    There are only two slots left on the Spoonbill Boat IPT. The Master Classes will be announced soon.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-four days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about two hours to prepare including the time spent optimizing the images. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    This image was created on January 20 at La Jolla, CA with Canon gear by BAA friend Ivan Turpin.

    Yours truly with his Nikon gear
    Photo courtesy of and copyright 2018: Ivan Turpin

    Say It Ain’t So!

    It was nice running into Ivan Turpin at La Jolla. It was a cold morning with a strong west wind. A fair amount of clouds made photography possible. More than a few years ago Ivan kindly helped me with medical advice when my hand became infected after trigger finger surgery.

    This image was created on January 20 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 1600. Matrix metering probably -2/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:19am in the shade on a cloudy morning.

    Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race landing

    The Nikon D5 — the good

    Working though the menus was easier than I had feared. Krishna was a great help. The AF system is quite excellent. The body seems lighter than the Canon 1DX II.

    This image was created on January 20 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 330mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 2000. Matrix metering probably +2/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB at 8:30am on a mostly cloudy morning.

    Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race, top shot

    The Nikon D5 — the bad

    To switch from Group AF to d9 AF you need to press a tiny button on the front left bottom of the camera and then turn the index finger dial. It is manageable when you are working horizontally but is ergonomically almost impossible when hand holding a relatively heavy telephoto lens … The engineers might coulda shoulda thought of something simpler 🙂

    This image was created on January 20 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 2000. Matrix metering probably +2/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB at 8:30am on a mostly cloudy morning.

    Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race, top shot

    The 200-500 Lens — the good

    The extra 100mm of reach is a godsend (as compared to the Canon 100-400mm II) and the constant f/5.6 aperture is another plus.

    This image was created on January 20 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 1250. Matrix metering probably +2 stops: 1/1000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB at 8:36am on a mostly cloudy morning.

    Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race, landing gear down

    The 200-500 Lens — the bad

    The lens zooms backwards as compared to the Canon 100-400mm; that will take some getting used to. And the zoom is stiffer. The lens is relatively heavy and a bit on the clunky side.

    This image was created on January 20 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 800. Matrix metering probably -1 1/3 stops: 1/3200 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB at 8:57am on with the sun peeking out.

    Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race, incoming backlit

    Exposure Question

    Why did this image need so much negative EC?

    This image was created on January 20 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 800. Matrix metering probably +2 stops: 1/5000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB at 9:57am with the sun out.

    Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Brandt’s Cormorant with nesting material/strong>

    Getting the Right Exposure With a New System

    Getting the right exposure with a new system was a snap. Make a test image. Check the histogram. Adjust as needed. Just like always. Experience and a working knowledge of exposure theory helps with your initial settings. The brand of camera does not make one bit of difference.

    This image was created on January 20 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 400. Matrix metering probably -1/3 stop: 1/2500 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB at 4:09pm on a sunny afternoon.

    Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    Western Gull, late afternoon light/strong>

    How Did I Do?

    Considering that I was using brand new gear for the first time, how do you think that I did?

    Which of the seven images is your favorite? Why?

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 20th, 2018

    The 1/100 second Sharp Miracle

    Stuff

    The last morning of the first San Diego IPT was our first cloudy one. We went down the hill to work the Brandt’s Cormorants. The original group of seven participants had dwindled to three, numbers reduced by the flu and by family and travel plans. Now that the first IPT is over I should have some free time to edit more than 10,000 images that I created during the 4 1/2 day IPT. Stay tuned for info on next year’s San Diego IPT; there will be only one.

    The 2nd San Diego IPT is now a sell-out and there are only two slots left on the Spoonbill Boat IPT. The Master Classes will be announced soon.

    This Just In!

    After my plea for Nikon help on Friday afternoon, I spent an hour on the phone and on FaceTime with IPT veteran and blog regular Krishna Prasad Kotti. He kindly and generously helped me set up the new Nikon camera. When I first picked it up I felt hopelessly overwhelmed. Right now I am confident that I can head out tomorrow morning and start making great images with the new rig. Huge thanks Krishna! The process was actually much easier than I thought it would be and — thanks to Krishna — I am able to comfortably navigate the menus! I am excited.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-three days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    This image was created on the morning of Thursday, January 18 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 286mm) and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 1600 (set by ISO Safety Shift). Evaluative metering + 1 1/3 stops: 1/100 sec. at f/5.6 in Tv mode. AWB at 6:5am in predawn light.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to -3.

    One AF point up from the center AF point AI Servo/Surround/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

    On-camera fill flash at -1 stop with the fabulous Godox VING V860IIC TTL Li-Ion Flash Kit for Canon Cameras

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race, pre-dawn flight blur

    1/100 second Miracle

    Don’t ask me how I wound up at 1/100 sec. I often try flying bird blurs at 1/30 or 1/60 sec. At 1/125 second you can get a nice blur with birds at fairly close range and on rare occasion, get the eye sharp. Remember that in most cases the bird needs to be flapping in order for you to create a pleasing blur. I was using my tried and true pre-dawn Tv mode blur technique: Tv mode and dial in the correct EC (exposure compensation). I set Safety Shift to ISO on all of my Canon camera bodies so that I do not have to waste time setting Auto ISO. Today’s featured image was a one shot wonder. It looked nice enough on the back of the camera to share with several of the folks in the group to show them what I was trying to do. I never bother to check for sharpness in the field; I do not want to miss the next fly-by. I never expected the eye to be razor sharp at 1/100 sec. hoping instead that the eye and the face might be just sharp enough to make the image worth processing.

    When I saw the image on my laptop at lunch I was stunned.

    The flash here helped to render the eye and face sharp but it is not a classic flash blur. In a classis flash blur the flash is set to a higher power and produces one sharp correctly exposed image of the bird atop the blurred image.

    A Guide to Pleasing Blurs

    Learn everything there is to know about creating pleasingly blurred images in A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly. This 20,585 word, 271 page PDF is illustrated with 144 different, exciting, and artistic images. The guide covers the basics of creating pleasingly blurred images, the factors that influence the degree of blurring, the use of filters in creating pleasing blurs, and a great variety of both in-the-field and Photoshop techniques that can be used to create pleasingly blurred images.

    Artie and Denise will teach you many different ways to move your lens during the exposure to create a variety of pleasingly blurred images of flowers and trees and water and landscapes. They will teach you to recognize situations where subject movement can be used to your advantage to create pan blurs, wind blurs, and moving water blurs. They will teach you to create zoom-blurs both in the field and during post-processing. Artie shares the techniques that he has used and developed for making blurred images of flocks of geese in flight at his beloved Bosque del Apache and Denise shares her flower blur magic as well as a variety of creative Photoshop techniques that she has developed.

    With the advent of digital capture creating blurred images has become a great and inexpensive way to go out with your camera and have fun. And while many folks think that making successful blurred images is the result of being a sloppy photographer, nothing could be further from the truth. In “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs” Artie and Denise will help you to unleash your creative self.

    The Godox Flash/Save $300!

    The Godox VING V860IIC TTL Li-Ion Flash Kit for Canon Cameras is simply amazing. Priced at exactly $300 less than the Canon Speedlite 600EX II-RT, the Godox flash is a virtual replica of the top of the line Canon 600 EX II-RT. I will soon be publishing a simple guide to using the Godox flash for bird photography. In the meantime you can learn everything there is to know about using flash for bird photography in the Flash Simplified section of The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images on CD only): ETTL flash as fill, flash as main light techniques, high speed synch flash (available on the Godox flash) and manual flash. Plus tons more!

    Dealing With Flash Eye

    In the Before frame you can see the deleterious effect of flash on a bird’s pupil. To repair the eye I selected it with a Quick Mask, placed the selection on its own layer, hit Command U (Hue-Saturation) on a layer, desaturated the image 100%, and moved the lightness slider all the way to the left to darken the pupil. It was still too light so I went to Tim Grey Dodge and Burn and made it nice and black. While I was there I lightened the iris to white. All that after converting the image in DPP 4 and executing a crop from below and behind the bird.

    Almost forgot: I selected the head and the base of the bill with the Quick Selection Tool, placed the selection on it’s own layer, and applied my NIK Color EFEX Pro 30/30 Detail Extractor/Tonal Contrast recipe. Folks with sharp eyes viewing the Before and After animated GIF can note the effects of NeatImage noise reduction on the background especially. I applied 95% NI noise reduction to the background and only 50% NI noise reduction the bird’s head and upper bill using the technique detailed in the The Professional Post Processing Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly.

    Note: the posterization on the pelican’s crown is the unavoidable result of the creation of the animated GIF.

    The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac or PC/Photo Mechanic/Photoshop workflow that will make it easy for you to make your images better in Photoshop (rather than worse). That true whether you convert your images in DPP 4 or ACR. See the blog post here to learn lots more and to read a free excerpt.

    You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a Paypal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand.

    The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

    Your guessed it, everything mentioned above (and tons more) is covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Learn more and check out the free excerpt in the blog post here. While the new e-Guide reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow, folks using a PC and/or BreezeBrowser will also benefit greatly by studying the material on DB II. Do note that you will find the RGB Curves Adjustment Color Balancing tutorial only in the new e-guide. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.

    The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):

    • The Wingtip Repairs MP4 Video here.
    • The MP4 Crow Cleanup Video here.

    Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here.

    You can learn how and why I and other discerning Canon shooters convert nearly all of their Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 using Canon Digital Photo Professional in the DPP 4 RAW conversion Guide here. And you can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair. Folks can learn sophisticated sharpening and (NeatImage) Noise Reduction techniques in the The Professional Post Processing Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 19th, 2018

    Nikon D5 Help Needed

    Nikon D5 Help Needed

    If you live in San Diego and know your way around the Nikon system, more specifically, the Nikon D5, and would like to help me out, I would love to hear from you. I’d be glad to trade a morning of photo instruction in La Jolla for a morning of Nikon instruction. I have borrowed a D5 and the Nikkor 200-500 from B&H to test. I am ready to go but have no clue as to how to work the camera 🙂

    If you are interested, please shoot me an e-mail and include a good phone number.

    If you do not live in San Diego but think that you could help me via phone, please shoot me an e-mail and include a good phone number.

    with love, arite

    This Just In!

    I just spent an hour on the phone and FaceTime with IPT veteran and blog regular Krishna Prasad Kotti. He kindly and generously helped me set up the new Nikon camera. When I first picked it up I felt hopelessly overwhelmed. Right now I am confident that I can head out tomorrow morning and start making great images with the new rig. Huge thanks Krishna!

    January 19th, 2018

    Same Photographer, Same Lens. Hard to Believe ...

    Stuff

    We had our fourth great morning with the pelicans. We went back to Santee Lakes in the afternoon and it was worse than the first time we have gone when things were pretty bad compared to prior years …

    The 2nd San Diego IPT #2 is now a sell-out and there are three slots left on the Spoonbill Boat IPT. The Master Classes will be announced soon.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-two days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (with extras)

    BPN Avian Moderator Arash Hazeghi is offering a Canon 580EXII flash in excellent condition for $200. The sale includes the soft case, stand and manual, and insured Fed Ex groups shipping to continental US addresses only.

    Please contact Arash via e-mail.

    I own two of these and still use them on occasion. They are more intuitive than the newer 600 EX-RT. artie

    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    This image was created on morning of Thursday, January 18 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 420mm), and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/10 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:29am on a clear morning.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +5.

    Upper Large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter button AF as framed; the system performed perfectly by activating an array of five AF points on the left side of the bill half way down.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race in pre-breeding plumage, preening individual feather

    Super-Tight

    This gorgeous pelican was quite comfortable with our presence; there were at least five of us from the group photographing it from close range for close to an hour. I was the lowest and this enabled me to be the closest; others were standing and shooting over me. I created lots of head and bill vertical portraits with lovely Pacific-blue backgrounds. Then I decided to get even closer and try some abstract and quasi-abstract stuff. Why did I go super-tight? The bird had a chunk of feathers missing on one side of its forehead. Note that I went with just a bit of extra depth of field: f/10 instead of the wide open f/9. But at point-blank range, this did not make any real difference at all. Note als0 that I am zoomed out a bit here; from 560 to 420mm.

    The JPEG here represents the full frame image capture.

    Question #1

    Does this image need to show the bird’s eye to be successful? Why or why not?

    This image was created on late afternoon of Wednesday, January 17 at La Jolla Shores Beach, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 176mm) and my favorite bird-scape photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/200 sec. at f/5.6 in Av mode. K7500 at 5:11pm with light clouds and fog on the horizon.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to -2.

    Five AF points to the right of and two rows down from the center AF point/AI Servo/Surround/Shutter button AF as seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below.

    Willet foraging in the surf at sunset

    Willet Foraging in the Surf at Sunset

    When we got to the beach it was 100% foggy. We played around with the gulls and made some nice images. Just as it seemed that the sun might break through two folks left. Those who stayed were rewarded with a pretty decent soft salmon-toned sunset.

    Question #2

    Which of the two images above do you like best? Why?

    Question #3

    How would you attempt to level this image?

    DPP 4 Screen Capture

    Question #4

    What was I attempting to do by moving the Shadow slider to -5?

    Question #5

    Why should I have used Single Point/Manual Selection AF instead of AF (Expand) Surround?

    The San Diego Site Guide

    Whether you are visiting San Diego for photography for the first time or live in the area and have done the pelicans many dozens of times, you will learn a ton by studying the San Diego Site Guide. Why spend days stumbling around when you can know exactly where and when to be depending on the wind direction and sky conditions? In addition to the pelican primer, there is great info on the best beaches for the gorgeous gulls, on Marbled Godwit, on the lower cliffs, Lesser Scaup, and Wood and Ring-necked Ducks as well.

    Learn more or purchase your copy here.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 18th, 2018

    Another Sharp Boring Perfect Flight Image made with the new AF Area Selection Mode and settings ...

    Stuff

    On Day Three, the first San Diego IPT group had fog in the morning and fog in the afternoon. Both sessions turned out to be fantastic, especially for those who stuck it out in the afternoon when things were not looking too good … With the high tide and big surf, the morning session featured a zillion flying pelicans.

    I was glad to learn on Wednesday that Karen Jordan sold her Canon EOS 7D Mark II digital camera body in near mint condition for $949 and her Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS Zoom Lens (the original 1-4) in excellent plus condition for the BAA record low price of $528 within days of their being listed in mid-January. Scroll down to see what she had to say about the experience of selling her used gear on the BAA Used Photo Gear page.

    The 2nd San Diego IPT #2 is now a sell-out and there are only two slots left on the Spoonbill Boat IPT. The Master Classes will be announced soon.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy-one days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

    Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

    Recent Used Gear Kudos

    From Karen Jordan via e-mail

    I just received full priced payment for both the 7dII and the 100-400L and shipped them both off to their respective new owners this afternoon. What a painless, pleasant and fast way to sell!!! Karen

    List of recent Used Gear Page Sales

    Sales of cameras and lenses have been through the roof recently with stuff selling at prices that thill the buyers and please the sellers.

    Karen Jordan sold her Canon EOS 7D Mark II digital camera body in near mint condition for $949 and her Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS Zoom Lens (the original 1-4) in excellent plus condition for the BAA record low price of $528 within days of listing in mid-January.
    Walt Anderson sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for the BAA record low price of $1299.00 and his new in the box Nikon SB-5000 AF Speedlight in new condition for $499.00, both in early January.
    Rowland Jackson sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM super telephoto Lens (the “old five”) in near-mint condition for a fabulously low $3799 in early January.
    Walt Anderson sold his Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens in like-new condition for $1799.00 just day after it was listed in late December.
    Hisham A. sold a Canon EOS 5D Mark III in very good condition for the BAA record low price of $999 in mid January.
    Hisham A. sold his Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens very good condition (with perfect glass and in perfect working order) for the BAA record low price of $999 and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM lens in very good condition (with perfect glass and in perfect working order) for the BAA record low by far price of $549in early January.
    Hisham A. sold a Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (teleconverter) in like-new good condition for $329 and the original Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens in like-new condition for $449 in late December.
    BAA friend Jim Roetzel sold his Xtrahand Vest, green — size XL — for $275 in December.
    Mike Rust sold his Canon 600mm f/4L IS II ISM lens in near-mint condition for $9396.00 and his Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for $699.00. Both on the first day of listing.
    Mike Rust also sold his Canon EOS-1DX Mark II like-new condition for a BAA record-low, shock-the-world price of $3997.00, his Canon 400mm f/4 IS II DO USM lens in like-new condition for the amazing low price of $5999.00, his Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM Lens in like-new condition for $1799.00, a 1.4X III and two 2X III TCs, all in like-new condition for $329 each, and a Wimberley V2 Tripod Head in excellent condition with extras for $399.
    IPT veteran Carolyn Peterson sold her Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera body in excellent condition for $1399 in mid-December.
    Pradip Thachile sold his Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS DO lens (the original version) in excellent condition for the BAA record low price of $2097.00 in late December.
    Joel Williams sold his Fujifilm XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR lens in like-new condition for $1199 right after it was listed in mid-December.
    Mike Newman sold his Canon EF 100mm f2.8/L IS USM macro lens in like-new condition for only $599 in mid-December, right after it was listed.
    Joel Williams sold a Fujifilm XF 1.4x TC WR teleconverter in like-new condition for $299 in mid-December, 2017.

    New Listings

    Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS II DO USM Lens

    BPN Avian Moderator Arash Hazeghi is offering a Canon 400mm f/4 IS II DO USM lens in like-new condition but for a few tiny scratches on the lens foot the amazing low price of $5899.00. The sale includes a Lens Coat, the the lens trunk, the lens strap, the padded fabric front lens cover, the rear lens cap, the original box and everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Arash via e-mail.

    I own the 400 DO II and find a way to take it on most trips. I take it to Scotland and Nickerson Beach and San Diego. It has served as my big gun in the Galapagos and on Southern Ocean (the Falklands and South Georgia) trips. It is a killer for flight with or without the 1.4X III TC. I used it most recently in San Diego for the ducks and the White Pelicans with both the 1.4X and the 2X III TCs. And I am planning on using it as my big gun and ship photography lens on next October’s hoped for Emperor Penguin chicks trip … No guarantees there. And really skilled folks have had amazing success hand holding it for flight and for action. With this lens in high demand and new ones selling for $6899, Arash’s lens is a great buy that will save you a smooth a grand!. artie

    Canon EOS 5D Mark IV (with extras)

    Sold in one day!

    BPN Avian Moderator Arash Hazeghi is also offering a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV in mint condition for $2499. The sale includes the original product box and everything that came in it including the front lens cap and the strap along with an extra Canon LPE6N battery, an extra 3rd party battery, a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CF card, and insured Fed Ex groups shipping to continental US addresses only.

    Please contact Arash via e-mail.

    What can I say. The 5D IV is my favorite ever digital dSLR. I own and use three of them. If you have been dreaming of a 5D IV, grab Ivan’s camera body right now and save a cool $800. artie

    Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Lens (the “old five”) with extras!

    Greg Morris is offering a Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens in very good plus condition for $3700. The lens was cleaned and checked by Canon in December 2017 and the lens mount was replaced. The sale includes a Canon Extender EF 1.4X II, a Canon Extender EF 2X II (both in like new condition with caps and pouches), the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the leather front lens cover, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only.

    Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Greg via or e-mail by phone at 1-580-678-5929 (Central time).

    The 500mm f/4 lenses have been the world’s most popular telephoto lenses for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports for many decades. I owned and used and loved my “old five” for many years. If you don’t have the cash for the 500 II and can handle the additional 1 1/2 pounds, then this is your best super-telephoto option. Most everyone can produce sharp images with this lens and a 1.4X TC. Folks with good to excellent sharpness techniques can do the same with a 2X TC. With the new 500 II selling for $8,999 you can save a neat $5299.00 by grabbing Greg’s lens (plus the two TCs!) artie

    ps: The Series II TCs work perfectly well with the older super telephoto lenses; the series III TCs are best when working with the newer Series II lenses.

    Canon Canon EOS 7D Mark II

    BAA Record-low Price

    Martin Mikulas is offering a Canon EOS 7D Mark II in like-new condition for the BAA record-low price of $799. The shutter count is under 15,000. The sale includes the front lens cap, the strap, the battery, the original box and everything that came in it, and insured ground shipping to US addresses via major courier to US addresses only.

    Please contact Martin via e-mail or by phone at 1-757-356-1529 (Eastern time.)

    Both Patrick Sparkman and I used and loved the 7D Mark II until about two years ago when we both committed to using full frame Canon bodies. We both made some truly great images with it. Two of my three 2016 Nature’s Best honored entries were created with the 7D II, one still, and one video. One thing is for sure: the 7D Mark II is the greatest value ever in a digital camera body. With a new one going for $1499 you can save a cool $700 by grabbing Martin’s lens. artie

    Featured Item

    Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens

    BAA Record-Low, Shock-the-world priced

    Walt Anderson is offering a barely used EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in mint to like-new condition with extras for the BAA record low price of $9395.00. The sale includes the LensCoat that has protected his 600 since day one, a RRS stuff foot (installed), the original foot, the lens trunk, the original box and everything that came in it: front cover, rear cap, manuals, & the rest, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your personal of certified check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Walt via e-mail or by phone at 1-847-721-8319 (Central time).

    WMD: Weapon of Mass Destruction!

    Walt, a long time BAA friend and an IPT veteran as well, is the inventor of the Better Beamer Flash Extender, the very first BAA mail order item. When it comes to taking care of his gear, Walt is fastidious.
    The 600 II is the state of the art super-telephoto for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports. If I can get it to a location, it is my go-to weapon. It is fast and sharp and deadly alone or with either TC. With a new one going for $11,499, you can save a cool $2,005.00 by grabbing Walt’s might-as-well-be-new lens right now.
    artie

    ps: I used my 600 II to create today’s featured image.

    This image was created at the Gilbert Water Ranch in Phoenix, AZ on morning of January 8. I used the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering + 2 1/3 stops off the gray sky: 1/2000 sec. at at f/5.6. AWB at 9:36am on an overcast morning.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -3.

    All AI Servo/Shutter button AF as originally framed. The additional AF info is classified.

    Great Egret Landing

    Great Egret Landing

    As I mentioned previously on the blog and above, on January 8, 2017 I came across a half-filled lake at Gilbert that hosted about 20 Great Egrets. They were fishing and catching. With my 1DX II set up as detailed in Arash Hazeghi’s Birds in Flight Photography Guide; Basics for Canon EOS Users –2017, I was excited to come across such an excellent opportunity to test both my skills and the new settings. The results — at least for me — were astounding. See more keepers below.

    The next day the pond was filled to over-flowing with nary a bird in sight … Gilbert can be a tough place to photograph as the water levels often change dramatically from day to day.

    Your Thoughts?

    Please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on this image, the good and the bad.

    These images was created at the Gilbert Water Ranch in Phoenix, AZ on morning of Thursday, January 18. I used the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering + 2 1/3 stops off the gray sky: 1/2000 sec. at at f/5.6. AWB on an overcast morning. The shutter speed for the GBH flight image was 1/1600 sec. it should have been 1/1250 sec.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -3.

    All AI Servo/Shutter button AF as originally framed. The additional AF info is classified. Click here to see the last version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see the spectacular larger version.

    My Dozen Favorite Keepers from that Morning

    My Dozen Favorite Keepers from that Morning

    All of the images in the composite above are razor sharp on the eye …

    Birds in Flight Photography: Basics for Canon EOS Users/2017 edition

    Birds in Flight Photography: Basics for Canon EOS Users/2017 edition: $55.00

    If Arash’s guide helped me a ton, imagine what it could do for you. You can learn more or order your copy here. Please note that this guide will not be updated for future Canon bodies.

    Arash Hazeghi

    Arash Hazeghi, Ph.D. is an electron device engineer. He received his MS.c. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 2006 and 2011, from Stanford University, Stanford, California. His pioneering research on Carbon Nanotubes and quantum capacitance have been cited many times. He is currently focused on the development of cutting edge non-volatile memory technologies such as the ones used in imaging cards for DSLR cameras.

    In his free time, Arash enjoys photographing avian species in their natural habitat and in flight: these are very challenging subjects. He has been working on hand held super-telephoto technique to capture dynamic, highly-detailed in-flight images of many different avian species. His birds in flight images, featured numerous times on the web, in printed media, as well as in prestigious museums and art galleries have inspired many photographers. Arash’s work was recently on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum for a period of 8 months. His work has also been featured many times in the annual publications of NANPA (North American Nature Photographer’s Association).

    He is an Moderator in the Avian Forum on BirdPhotographers.Net and a premier photographer at 500px.com. He is the co-author of the Canon DPP 4 Raw Conversion Guide and the Post Processing Guide with Arthur Morris, which detail RAW conversion and post processing techniques for both professional and the enthusiast photographers. This guide is a result of extensive field experience in making in-flight images with various Canon equipment. The author wishes that every photographer finds this guide useful and effective in improving the quality of their photos.

    I will add that Arash’s images of birds in flight amaze many. I will be sharing some of them here soon. For faster results, go to BPN and do a search for his name and follow his started threads … artie

    The San Diego Site Guide

    Whether you are visiting San Diego for photography for the first time or live in the area and have done the pelicans many dozens of times, you will learn a ton by studying the San Diego Site Guide. Why spend days stumbling around when you can know exactly where and when to be depending on the wind direction and sky conditions? In addition to the pelican primer, there is great info on the best beaches for the gorgeous gulls, on Marbled Godwit, on the lower cliffs, Lesser Scaup, and Wood and Ring-necked Ducks as well.

    Learn more or purchase your copy here.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 17th, 2018

    2018 Roseate Spoonbill Boat IPTs

    All images on this card were created by Arthur Morris on the Hooptie Deux at Alafia Banks

    2018 Spoonbill Boat 1 1/2 DAY IPT: $1199.00. Limit: 6 photographers/Openings 3.
    2018 Spoonbill Boat 2 1/2 DAY IPT: $1999.00. Limit: 6 photographers/Openings 2.

    FEB 19 & 20: one full day with morning and afternoon photo sessions via customized pontoon boat. FEB 20, morning photo session.

    FEB 23 & 24: two full days with morning and afternoon photo sessions via customized pontoon boat. FEB 25, morning photo session.

    We will be leaving the dock very early for the morning sessions (weather permitting) in hopes of photographing the pre-dawn White Ibis blast-offs. The morning sessions are planned for the Alafia Banks Roseate Spoonbill Rookery. We have several options for the afternoons including returning to Alafia. There will be lots of opportunities for flight photography of several species including and especially Roseate Spoonbill. Also likely for flight photography are nesting Brown Pelican, Great Blue Heron, and Double Crested Cormorant, many carrying nesting material. This IPT includes all boat and guide fees, in the field instruction, chest waders (feel free to bring your own of course to assure a perfect fit), and two working lunches on Friday and Saturday. For the most part we will be standing in mid calf to knee high water behind our tripods. We help you get in and out of the boat with your gear. This is likely not the best trip for folks with mobility or balance problems. Note however that some folks may opt to stay on the boat to photograph. They usually have lots of chances for flight photography of spoonbills and other species but are almost always pretty far away from the spoonbills that land.

    I recently saw a similar trip advertised two months too late for breeding plumage spoonbills. The Hooptie IPT represents an incredible opportunity and with 3 slots filled already the remaining three spots should be filled very quickly. I do hope that you can join us. There will be a meet and greet at 7:00pm sharp on the evening of Thursday, FEB 22. All of the images on the card were made on the Hooptie Duex during the last two weeks of February, prime time for the spoonies in mega-breeding plumage. Many folks have written expressing interest so please do not tarry.

    You may hold your spot with an e-mail request; the next two are in. Then you may either secure your spot by calling Jim or Jennifer at the office at 863-692-0906 and leaving the $400 deposit on credit card or sending your check for payment in full to us as follows with the check made out to:

    BIRDS AS ART

    Please send it via US mail here:

    BIRDS AS ART
    PO BOX 7245
    Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855

    If you call to leave your deposit you will be asked to mail your check for the balance asap.


    hooptie-card-shadle-aa

    Images courtesy of our guide; copyright 2017 Captain James Shadle (aka Froggie). All of the images here were created at Alafia Banks. Card creation and design by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART.

    Roseate Spoonbill is one of if not the most sought after avian photographic subjects in Florida. They are generally hard to find and somewhat difficult to approach. They are relatively easy to find at Alafia Banks—heck, you can’t miss seeing them, but even there they can on some days be somewhat difficult to approach. On some days we may be able to get ridiculously close to them. The huge incentive to get out to Alafia Banks in mid-February is the chance to photograph this species at the height of its spectacular breeding plumage…. with long telephoto lenses. A 500 or 600 with a 1.4X TC is perfect for flight.

    As above, there will — weather permitting — three boat trips — 2 mornings and 1 afternoon — on the first IPT –, five boat trips: 3 mornings and 2 afternoons on the second. Mornings to Alafia Banks for spoonbills and Brown Pelicans (with lots of flight photography often with the birds likely carrying nesting material), Double-crested Cormorants, ibises (both Glossy and White) in breeding plumage. Many of the White Ibises will be sporting their spectacular, distended, red, naked (un-feathered) throat pouches—typically larger in the females. In addition we will get to photograph egrets including Great and Reddish, both in full breeding plumage, shorebirds, and more. There will be lots of flight photography opportunities. Afternoon trips either to Alafia Banks for spoonbills and more or to a more sheltered inland rookery location for a variety of nesting birds. In the event of horrific weather artie will either take the group to Fort DeSoto or will conduct an image review/Photoshop session. This IPT includes lunches on the full day with small group image sharing and review and some over-the-shoulder Photoshop instruction.

    January 17th, 2018

    When in Rome, Do As Arash Does (if you wanna be a good flight photographer ...)

    Stuff

    The first San Diego IPT group enjoyed a second sensational morning with the pelicans on the cliffs of La Jolla. Isolating single birds was much more difficult than it was yesterday as there were about five times as many birds. But that made for better flight photography. After seeing some of my super-tight images at lunch several in the group vowed to go to longer effective focal lengths on Wednesday. 🙂

    There is only one slot left on the San Diego IPT #2 …

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred seventy days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    More on my 1DX II

    I may have jumped to conclusions when I stated that my brand new (replaced by Canon) 1DX II showed the first oil spatter after 18 frames … It seems that there is not an oil spatter problem with the new body. That said my original 1DX II was a dust magnet and so is my replacement. I cleaned the sensor of the replacement body with the big blower brush and got rid of all the dust spots but two. And heck, they might have been new ones …

    There is, however, no denying the killer accurate AF. And the blazingly fast frame rate is addictive … But the 5D Mark IV image files are clearly superior. Lots more on the 1DX II soon.

    This image was created on Day one of the first San Diego IPT — the morning of Monday, January 15 at La Jolla, CA. I used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 200mm) and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering + 1 stop off the sky: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB at 7:53am on a clear morning.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to -2.

    One AF point up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Shutter button AF as originally framed. The AF Area selection mode for this image is classified. The selected AF point was on the rear crown as originally framed.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race in pre-breeding plumage in flight

    When in Rome, Do As Arash Does (if you wanna be a good flight photographer …)

    I am on a two part mission to become a better flight photographer. Part two will shock a lot of folks. Part one began when Arash Hazeghi kindly sent me a copy of his Birds in Flight Photography: Basics for Canon EOS Users/2017 edition. I had pretty much quit using my 1dX Mark II when I came across this chart in Arash’s e-Guide:

    AF Comparison Chart for Four Canon Camera Bodies with Series II Super-telephotos with and without Series III Teleconverters

    Inspired by Arash …

    At that point, I was inspired to go back to my 1DX II for flight and action. As it turned out, the replacement body (as noted above) does not at present (after 2812 frames) seem to have oil spatter problems. How did I set up my 1DX II for flight photography? The way that Arash suggests in his guide. The biggest change for me was his preferred AF Area Selection mode. I have been doing things his way for more than two weeks now and have been consistently making some of the best flight images in my career …

    Birds in Flight Photography: Basics for Canon EOS Users/2017 edition

    Birds in Flight Photography: Basics for Canon EOS Users/2017 edition: $55.00

    If Arash’s guide helped me a ton, imagine what it could do for you. You can learn more or order your copy here. Please note that this guide will not be updated for future Canon bodies.

    Arash Hazeghi

    Arash Hazeghi, Ph.D. is an electron device engineer. He received his MS.c. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 2006 and 2011, from Stanford University, Stanford, California. His pioneering research on Carbon Nanotubes and quantum capacitance have been cited many times. He is currently focused on the development of cutting edge non-volatile memory technologies such as the ones used in imaging cards for DSLR cameras.

    In his free time, Arash enjoys photographing avian species in their natural habitat and in flight: these are very challenging subjects. He has been working on hand held super-telephoto technique to capture dynamic, highly-detailed in-flight images of many different avian species. His birds in flight images, featured numerous times on the web, in printed media, as well as in prestigious museums and art galleries have inspired many photographers. Arash’s work was recently on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum for a period of 8 months. His work has also been featured many times in the annual publications of NANPA (North American Nature Photographer’s Association).

    He is an Moderator in the Avian Forum on BirdPhotographers.Net and a premier photographer at 500px.com. He is the co-author of the Canon DPP 4 Raw Conversion Guide and the Post Processing Guide with Arthur Morris, which detail RAW conversion and post processing techniques for both professional and the enthusiast photographers. This guide is a result of extensive field experience in making in-flight images with various Canon equipment. The author wishes that every photographer finds this guide useful and effective in improving the quality of their photos.

    I will add that Arash’s images of birds in flight amaze many. I will be sharing some of them here soon. For faster results, go to BPN and do a search for his name and follow his started threads … artie

    The San Diego Site Guide

    Whether you are visiting San Diego for photography for the first time or live in the area and have done the pelicans many dozens of times, you will learn a ton by studying the San Diego Site Guide. Why spend days stumbling around when you can know exactly where and when to be depending on the wind direction and sky conditions? In addition to the pelican primer, there is great info on the best beaches for the gorgeous gulls, on Marbled Godwit, on the lower cliffs, Lesser Scaup, and Wood and Ring-necked Ducks as well.

    Learn more or purchase your copy here.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 16th, 2018

    I Can't Get Enough: Fewer Pelicans Makes for Better Photography. And the Super Fine-Point Question Answers.

    Stuff

    The first San Diego IPT got off to a great start with lots of isolate-able pelican, some nice head throw, gorgeous light, and some early flight chances … We were headed for ducks in the afternoon but after our Photoshop program, it had turned cloudy/foggy so we headed for the coast. We had a large (but unexpected for the location) flock of shorebirds including more than 100 willets, about 30 Marbled Godwits, and a single Surfbird. And lots of gulls. And then as I had hoped, the sun broke through the lighter clouds in the west and lit the water golden. I wore my sneakers rather than the hiking boots I wear on the cliffs in anticipation of getting wet. And get wet I did.

    When the dust cleared, I had created 1335 images on day one. Those included more than a few good ones. 🙂

    There is only one slot left on San Diego #2 …

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred sixty-nine days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    More on my 1DX II

    I may have jumped to conclusions when I stated that my brand new (replaced by Canon) 1DX II showed the first oil spatter after 18 frames … It seems that there is not an oil spatter problem with the new body. That said both my original and my replacement 1DX II are dust magnets. I cleaned the sensor with the big blower brush and got rid of all the dust spots but two. And heck, they might have been new ones …

    There is, however, no denying the killer accurate AF. And the blazingly fast frame rate is addictive … But the 5D Mark IV image files are clearly superior. Lots more on the 1DX II soon.

    This image was created on the morning of Monday, January 15 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm), and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:47am on a clear morning.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -4.

    One AF point up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Surround/Shutter button AF as framed; The selected AF point was on the base of the bill pouch where it meets the white neck.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race in pre-breeding plumage scratching

    I Can’t Get Enough; Less Equals More …

    I just love photographing the pelicans in La Jolla. The only morning I have ever missed was the day after my major green light laser prostate surgery two years ago. On day two, I was back on the cliffs.

    This year there are far fewer pelicans than in an average year; numbers on the cliffs at La Jolla are probably down 70%. But there are lots of gorgeous ones of all variety including chocolate-naped in full breeding plumage, white-naped pre-breeding, orange bill pouch variants, two years olds, a few strange dark birds, and even some juveniles. But few better birds makes for better photography. The biggest factor: it is far easier to isolate single birds. This in turn makes it easier to photograph a great variety of behaviors.

    Super Fine-Point Question Answer

    In the La Jolla Photography Cautions and Lessons. And Another Perfect, Boring Vertical Pelican Portrait blog post here, I wrote: Is there a possible way that I could have eliminated the darker water at the bottom of the frame in the field? Actually there are two ways …

    Many folks suggested getting lower. That is the obvious correct answer. Some folks suggested waiting for the waves to subside a bit. That is problematic for two reasons:

    • 1-This bird in particular was posing with its head slightly angled away. When he did turn perfectly two degrees towards me it was time to press the shutter button.
    • 2-The water nearer the cliff is always appears darker than the distant water …

    The Second Solution

    The second solution was a simple one that nobody thought of: switch from the 100-400 II to the 500 II with the 1.4X III TC and move well back. All things being equal this would decrease your angle of declination and effectively move the background much farther away. This is just another way of getting lower.

    The San Diego Site Guide

    Whether you are visiting San Diego for photography for the first time or live in the area and have done the pelicans many dozens of times, you will learn a ton by studying the San Diego Site Guide. Why spend days stumbling around when you can know exactly where and when to be depending on the wind direction and sky conditions? In addition to the pelican primer, there is great info on the best beaches for the gorgeous gulls, on Marbled Godwit, on the lower cliffs, Lesser Scaup, and Wood and Ring-necked Ducks as well.

    Learn more or purchase your copy here.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 15th, 2018

    Success with Action

    Stuff

    I got to the cliffs early on Sunday morning and enjoyed another great morning. Although I am sure that they had not, it seemed that everyone had; all of the photographers stayed well back and to the right for the first hour. Heck, it was the nicest, friendliest group of photographers I have ever run into at La Jolla. It was great also to see Patrick Sparkman. Condolences to him and to Robin to his Mom and the rest of the family on the recent loss of Patrick’s Dad.

    I meet the first San Diego IPT group at 7pm on Sunday night.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred sixty-eight days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.

    Featured Listing

    Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens

    BAA Record-Low, Shock-the-world priced

    Walt Anderson is offering a barely used EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in mint to like-new condition with extras for the BAA record low price of $9395.00. The sale includes the LensCoat that has protected his 600 since day one, a RRS stuff foot (installed), the original foot, the lens trunk, the original box and everything that came in it: front cover, rear cap, manuals, & the rest, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your personal of certified check clears unless other arrangements are made.

    Please contact Walt via e-mail or by phone at 1-847-721-8319 (Central time).

    WMD: Weapon of Mass Destruction!

    Walt, a long time BAA friend and an IPT veteran as well, is the inventor of the Better Beamer Flash Extender, the very first BAA mail order item. When it comes to taking care of his gear, Walt is fastidious.
    The 600 II is the state of the art super-telephoto for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports. If I can get it to a location, it is my go-to weapon. It is fast and sharp and deadly alone or with either TC. With a new one going for $11,499, you can save a cool $2,005.00 by grabbing Walt’s might-as-well-be-new lens right now.
    artie



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    More on the 1DX II and Me Questions

    Lots of folks have been asking what happened to my 5D Mark IV bodies 🙂

    Mark Harrington
    January 13, 2018 at 10:45 am

    Artie, are you giving up on the 5D Mk IV?

    Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
    January 13, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    Hi Mark, Good question but not at all. Canon replaced my oil spattered 1DX II with a new one. I had my first oil spatter on the brand new body after 18 frames … I want to use it to see how bad it gets. There is, however, no denying the killer AF. And the frame rate is addictive … But the 5D Mark IV image files are clearly superior. Lots more on the 1DX II soon.

    with love, artie

    Via e-mail from Hossam Sadak:

    Happy New year and hope all is well.I have been following your blog for a long time, and am a big fan. I noticed your comments re: oil spatter on sensor of your 1DX II, and your switch to the 5DIV (two for the price of one 1DxII!). I recently traded in my 1DX and bought my second 5DIV during the holiday sales because I found oil spatter issues with my 1DX and after four tries with Canon, I was not happy with the results.

    I now see that you are posting images with 1DX II on the blog. Are you back to the 1DxII? What about the 5DIV?

    Thanks
    Hossam

    My Revised Reply

    Hi Hossam, Thanks for writing. I had heard of oil spatter problems with some 1DX bodies but fortunately never experienced it myself. Canon replaced my badly oil spattered 1DX II with a new one. I had my what I assumed to be the first oil spatter on the brand new body after 18 frames … I want to keep using it to see how bad it gets. There is, however, no denying the killer AF and with what I understand to be more battery power allotted to AF, the AF system does perform superbly. And the frame rate is addictive … But the 5D Mark IV image files are clearly superior. Lots more on the 1DX II soon.

    with love, artie

    This image was created on morning of Saturday, January 13 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 328mm), and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/10. AWB at 8:37am on a clear morning.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +2.

    The AF Area Selection Mode for this image is classified information. You can likely figure it out if you study the DPP 4 screen capture below.

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race in pre-breeding plumage, head throw

    Success with Action

    Saturday was a great morning for heads throws so I concentrated on them. With only a few birds up top, things were easier than normal; isolating single birds was a snap and you did not have to guess which one out of 25 was gonna do a head throw next; there were only three or four candidates. 🙂

    DPP 4 Screen Capture for Brown Pelican head throw

    Be sure to click on the image to see the larger size with more histogram detail.

    The DPP 4 Screen Capture for Today’s Featured Image

    Note the pretty darned good early morning light histogram, again reflected in the red-rich RGB values: R=241, G=232, B=215. The active AF points are illuminated in red. Lastly, note that I cropped with the 2X3 proportion pre-set from the bottom right to the upper left to tighten up the image design.

    The Image Optimization

    After converting the image in DPP 4 I brought the TIF into Photoshop and and executed the 2X3 crop mentioned above. I have rarely been using my Nik Color Efex Pro Detail Extractor/Tonal Contrast recipes lately but this image needed it; my 30/30 recipe did a good job with the darker tones of the bill pouch and the inside of the bill pouch. The WHITEs got a bit dark so I erased the effect there with the addition of a Regular Layer Mask.

    The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac or PC/Photo Mechanic/Photoshop workflow that will make it easy for you to make your images better in Photoshop (rather than worse). That true whether you convert your images in DPP 4 or ACR. See the blog post here to learn lots more and to read a free excerpt.

    You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a Paypal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand.

    The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

    Your guessed it, everything mentioned above (and tons more) is covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Learn more and check out the free excerpt in the blog post here. While the new e-Guide reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow, folks using a PC and/or BreezeBrowser will also benefit greatly by studying the material on DB II. Do note that you will find the RGB Curves Adjustment Color Balancing tutorial only in the new e-guide. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.

    The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):

    • The Wingtip Repairs MP4 Video here.
    • The MP4 Crow Cleanup Video here.

    Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here.

    You can learn how and why I and other discerning Canon shooters convert nearly all of their Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 using Canon Digital Photo Professional in the DPP 4 RAW conversion Guide here. And you can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair. Folks can learn sophisticated sharpening and (NeatImage) Noise Reduction techniques in the The Professional Post Processing Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 14th, 2018

    La Jolla Photography Cautions and Lessons. And Another Perfect, Boring Vertical Pelican Portrait, This One Made with the Hand Held 100-400 II, the 1.4X III TC, and the Canon 1DX II

    Stuff

    After a very long day on Friday I managed to stay awake until 9:30pm Pacific time. I slept until a bit after four. I am getting more efficient with my 8 Postural Restoration exercises; they took only 48 minutes early on Saturday morning. I had a great morning with the pelicans — La Jolla is one of my favorite places in the world to photograph. Then I walked from the cliffs to the Green Patch and back up the hill, about 1 1/2 miles in all. Then back to the room for lunch, more exercise, working on photos and blog posts, and answering e-mails. One NFL playoff game down, three to go. I meet the first San Diego IPT group on Sunday evening. There is still an opening or two on the 2nd San Diego IPT.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred sixty-seven days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    1DX II and Me Question

    Lots of folks have been asking what happened to my 5D Mark IV bodies 🙂

    Mark Harrington
    January 13, 2018 at 10:45 am

    Artie, are you giving up on the 5D Mk IV?

    Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
    January 13, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    Hi Mark, Good question but not at all. Canon replaced my oil spattered 1DX II with a new one. I had my first oil spatter on the brand new body after 18 frames … I want to use it to see how bad it gets. There is, however, no denying the killer AF. And the frame rate is addictive … But the 5D Mark IV image files are clearly superior. Lots more on the 1DX II soon.

    with love, artie

    This image was created on morning of Saturday, January 13 at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 560mm), and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 250. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/320 sec. at f/9. AWB at 7:47am on a clear morning.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +5.

    Upper Large Zone/AI Servo/Surround/Shutter button AF as framed; the system performed perfectly by activating an array of four AF points centered on the red of the bill pouch, right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. As seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below

    Brown Pelican, Pacific race in pre-breeding plumage

    La Jolla Photography Cautions and Lessons

    As you approach the pelicans before the sun comes over the big hill to your right, you must stay to the right side of the cliff. You must move very slowly. You must carry your tripod in front of you not on your shoulder. If you opt not to follow these cautions, you will usually scare all or most of the roosting pelicans. If you are working the birds on the lower cliff, everything above goes double when you get to the right hand edge of the upper cliff. Whatever you do, be sure to stay to your right until about 7:30 or so. This will leave lots of room for incoming pelicans to land. In short order, you can practically pet the birds. Unless you have scared them all away by being careless.

    On my first morning in San Diego this year, I was halfway down to the lower cliffs trying to isolate single pelicans from a crowd of about 15 birds when suddenly most of them flew away. A photographer who I have seen before but did not know had come walking down the cliff as if she were in a big hurry. With her tripod on her shoulder … When I explained to her that she had just scared most of the birds away by approaching too quickly she said, “The pelicans were very tame the other day.” I explained that folks need to take extreme care when approaching the birds early in the day. I continued to work the remaining pelicans on the low cliff and ten minutes later when I turned around the cliff was overrun with photographers none of who had stayed to the right. I was lucky in that there were a few good looking, nicely positioned pelicans up top; I had a great morning.

    Note that my 600II, my 500 II, and my 400 DO II were all safely in the trunk of my rental car while I went with the 100-400 II. Working without a tripod allows me to move around easily on the cliffs and to to stay low and get close. With the 1.4TC in place I have full frame range of from 140 to 560mm. And in the low light before the sun hits the bird the four-stop IS works well allowing me to create sharp images at 560mm with shutter speeds down to 1/60 second. I am working on a great new head throw AF technique and created many nice ones in that category. But the boring image above was my favorite from the session. Keep reading to learn why.

    Another Perfect, Boring Vertical Pelican Portrait

    The possibility of creating images like this has been bringing me (and countless others) to San Diego in winter for about three decades.

    Your Thoughts?

    Please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on this image, the good and the bad.

    My Thoughts

    I love this image. It excites me. I especially love the rich, warm light, and the gorgeous white-naped bird. I love that I was working right on sun angle; this allowed the bird to be evenly lit. I love the framing and the sharpness. I love the distant Pacific-blue background. And I love the perfect head angle, two degrees toward us. What’s not to love? Actually, not a lot. On an ideal day, however, the ocean would have been calmer; this would likely have eliminated the darker water in the lower fifth of the frame, that a result of swells growing in size as waves approached the cliff.

    Super Fine-Point Question …

    Is there a possible way that I could have eliminated the darker water at the bottom of the frame in the field? Actually there are two ways ..

    DPP 4 Screen Capture for Brown Pelican, Pacific race in pre-breeding plumage

    The DPP 4 Screen Capture for Today’s Featured Image

    Note the perfect early morning light histogram reflected in the red-rich RGB values: R=241, G=232, B=215. And note why I love Large Zone AF for verticals.

    Help Support the Blog

    Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

    If In Doubt …

    If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






    Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

    To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

    As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

    I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, 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 those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

    Facebook

    Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

    Typos

    In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

    January 13th, 2018

    More Mist, and a Nice Relationship With a Tiny Tree

    Stuff

    I woke at 2:56am Mountain time on Friday, finished yesterday’s blog post, did my Postural Restoration exercises for 1 hour, 14 minutes, threw all of my stuff in the car half packed, grabbed some breakfast, and headed back to the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch for sunrise and arrived a bit late at 7:00am. I finished up by 8:30am, packed my Think Tank bag in the parking lot at the preserve, filled the tank of my rental car, re-packed my two checked bags in the parking lot at Desert Hand Therapy, and was early to my last-for-now therapy session.

    After my session with Amy and John I headed to the PHX Rental Car Center. I was amazed that folks flying Southwest can check their bags on the main floor of the facility without having to lug them on the rental car shuttle bus! How convenient; just another reason to love SW.

    I did have time during my long and busy Friday to reply to all of the comments left at yesterday’s A Perfect Dramatic Fire in the Mist Image. Made With Lots Of Skill, Vision, and Creativity. And Even More Luck! … blog post here.

    I started work on this blog post at the gate for my 3:15 flight to San Diego. And finished it early Saturday morning in San Diego.

    The Streak

    Today makes one hundred sixty-six days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.



    Booking.Com

    Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


    Gear Questions and Advice

    Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

    This image was created on morning of Friday, January 12 at the Gilbert Water Ranch in Phoenix, AZ. I used the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/1250 sec. at f/9. K7500 at 7:50am shooting into backlit mist.

    LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -3.

    Center AF point/AI Servo/Surround/Rear button AF on the base of the heron’s bill and release. Click here to see the last version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see the spectacular larger version.

    Great Blue Heron and tiny mesquite tree

    More Mist, and a Nice Relationship With a Tiny Tree

    When I got to my Water Ranch sunrise location, there was no ground fog on the water as their had been the day before, despite the cool temps. As the sun rose it warmed the atmosphere things got very sweet with the backlit mist that developed as the sun rose behind the distant trees. I made lots of lovely silhouetted images of the Canada Geese and of this GBH but it took a while for the mist to develop and turn things orange-red and that dramatic lighting did not last very long.

    For whatever reason or reasons, this bird had some sort of connection to the tree seedling as it stood in close proximity to it for well more than 45 minutes. (I was unsure that I used the word seedling correctly so I checked on line and found this at Merriam Webster.com this: a young tree before it becomes a sapling.) It was remarkable that the bird stood at right angles to the back of the camera on the exact same plane as what I believe to be a tiny mesquite for more than 15 minutes. The framing at 840mm was perfect but I did need to back away as far as I could from where I originally stood behind the bullrushes.

    In this case f/9 was not leftover from having used the TC; I stopped down four clicks from wide open (f/5.6) for a bit more depth-of-field.

    Your Thoughts?

    • 1-Please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on this image, the good and the bad.
    • 2-Standing in the exact same spot with the same gear and using Rear button focus might there be an alternate image design?

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    Typos

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    January 12th, 2018

    At the Last Second ...

    Stuff

    I just learned that there was a last minute cancellation for the first San Diego IPT so I now have a single slot open. If you are local or have some air miles to use please shoot me an a href=”mailto:samandmayasgrandpa@att.net”>e-mail to learn about the substantial late registration discount.

    with love, artie

    2017 in San Diego was a very good year ….

    2018 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT: Monday, JAN 15 thru and including the morning session on Friday, JAN 19, 2018: 4 1/2 days: $2099. Limit: 8: Openings: 1

    Meet and Greet at 6:30pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Sunday, Jan 14, 2018.

    Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s (usually nesting and displaying) and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Wood Duck and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Whimbrel, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seal (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lion; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well. Please note: formerly dependable, both Wood Duck and Marbled Godwit have been declining at their usual locations for the past two years …


    san-diego-card-neesie

    San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….

    With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication. You can do most of your photography with an 80- or 100-400 lens …

    Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?


    san-diego-card-b

    Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.

    The San Diego Details

    This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.

    A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.