Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Stuff

Aside from the one-hour delay, my flight to Islip went smoothly. Younger daughter Alissa picked me up right on the button. I never cease to marvel at how Lissy deals with the daily challenges of raising two autistic sons (and those feelings are of course punched up whenever I visit). I see Dr. Dan Holland this afternoon. Dan, of True Sports Care in Nesconset, is my Long Island chiropractor; the guy is great.

The Streak

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

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me once again with both my DeSoto 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.

This image was created on the 2017 Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a Lifetime IPT 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 255mm), and my favorite sea lion photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stop: 1/320 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: zero. One AF point down and three to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the center of the pinniped’s neck. Click on the image to enjoy a larger, borderline spectacular version. Galapagos Sea Lion playing

Serendipitous Sea Lion Perfection Part I

Even more so than with birds, I find photographing sea lions a big challenge. Getting the right exposure on very dark, very wet creatures can be a challenge. Soft light — cloudy bright in this case — is ideal. As with today’s featured image, a zoom lens is a huge help with framing. And as always, picking the right AF point is both challenging and, when you get it right, rewarding. The last piece to the puzzle is capturing the right moment. With today’s image the animal was playing, rolling in the surf as the gentle waves came in and receded. Once I had the framing right, I created a series of nine images. The pose in this frame, _P3A5051, was beyond perfect. The beautiful curve of the body, and the positions or the head, the tail, and the flippers could not have been better. Did I see this perfect serendipitous arrangement as I held down the shutter button? Of course not. But by having the right exposure, by selecting the right AF point, and by varying the focal length and the framing, I was ready to cash my ticket when the magic moment occurred. Heck, even the diagonal line of the breaking wave above the sea lion was perfectly placed (as a framing element).

“Good luck happens when preparedness meets opportunity.” This quote, often attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca, is especially applicable to all facets of nature photography.

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

I miss DeSoto already 🙂 If you are interested in an early winter DeSoto IPT sometime between mid-November and mid-December, shoot me an e-mail with your date preferences. I will check the tide tables and do my best to accomomdate folks’ preferences.

I fly to Long Island tomorrow to visit younger daughter Alissa and her family and to see my two sisters. And Billy Joel at the Garden on Saturday evening 🙂

Great IPT News

An amazing nine or ten folks — I need to check carefully — have already committed to the new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT with the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip. And all have signed up for the pre-trip. There is just one slot left so if you are interested in joining us, please do not tarry. You can learn more about this great trip here.

The Streak

Today marks sixty-four days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 45 minutes to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me once again with both my DeSoto 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.

This image was created on the 2017 Fort DeSoto Fall IPT 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 my favorite mystery heron photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/1250 sec. at f/9 in Av mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: zero. Upper Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The AF system activated a cluster of three AF points on the bird’s chin right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. Image #1: Mystery egret …

Mystery Egret …

When I first saw this bird it struck me as an unusually light or bleached young (hatch-year) Reddish Egret. But the yellow lores threw me for a loop. It was well smaller than a Great Egret, pretty much right for Reddish Egret. After some pondering I started thinking that it might be a Reddish Egret X Great Egret hybrid; that would explain the yellow lores. The bird had mostly all black legs; the legs of young Reddish Egrets are gray. A leucistic (partial albino) dark morph Reddish Egret might make sense, again but for the yellow lores.

I sent the images to Julian Hough who knows a thing or two about birds –heck, it’s genetic — he’s a Brit, and he reminded me that white morph Reddish Egret might be in the mix somewhere. I had totally forgotten about the white morphs …

This image was also created on the 2017 Fort DeSoto Fall IPT 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 my favorite mystery heron photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2. Upper Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The AF system activated a cluster of three AF points on the bird’s chin right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. Image #2: Mystery egret/head and neck

More on the mystery bird …

We did see the mystery bird in the shallow surf. At no time did it exhibit the the drunken sailor fishing dance behavior that is characteristic of Reddish Egret. There is no sign of any of the neck plumes seen on all adult Reddish Egrets but that would make sense for young birds. A genetically screwed up Great Egret makes sense but for the small size. If you have any ideas, or know someone who might, please leave a comment.

This Just In …

I just got an e-mail from Rosemary Harris who said that photos of this same bird were sent to the e Cornell Lab of Ornithology last year and that they called it a Great Blue Heron X Great Egret hybrid. They even gave it a Latin name: Ardea herodias x alba. The patterning on the neck does suggest that there is some GBH in the mix but I am curious as to why the bird was well smaller than a Great Egret that is in turn, well smaller than a great blue … That said, I do not know much about hybridism in birds, especially in the heron family. I have written the folks at the Lab.

This image was created on the 2017 Fort DeSoto Fall IPT 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 my favorite heron eyeball photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: zero. Upper Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The AF system activated four AF points that painted the bird’s eye and lores to perfection! Image #3: Mystery egret/head portrait …

Large Zone AF

I continue to preach the benefits of Large Zone AF for tight horizontal head portraits (like Image #3) and for vertical head and neck portraits of long-necked birds (as in Image #2). If you are currently using any other AF Area selection mode you will find it much easier to create perfect image designs in these situations simply by choosing Large Zone … In Image #2 note that I was able to place the bird’s neck well back in the frame while maintaining sharp focus on the eye. With image #3 note that I was able to place the bird’s head well back in the frame while keeping the eye well above the horizontal centerline.

Your Favorite?

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

DPP 4 Screen Capture

DPP 4 Screen Capture

Note the activated cluster of AF points illuminated in red. Could you ask for anything better?

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

We had another great morning at DeSoto on Monday. We enjoyed making lots of tight head portraits of various herons and egrets and enjoyed some great flight photography as well. I am looking forward to finishing up teaching and getting back home on Tuesday afternoon. I fly to Long Island on Thursday to visit younger daughter Alissa and her family and to see my two sisters.

Great IPT News

An amazing nine folks have already committed to the new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT with the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip. And all have signed up for the pre-trip. There is just one slot left so if you are interested in joining us, please do not tarry. You can learn more about this great trip here.

The Streak

Today marks sixty-two days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 45 minutes to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.

This image was created on the last morning of the 2017 Fort DeSoto Fall IPT 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 my favorite heron eyeball photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 500. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/250 sec. at f/16 in Av mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1. Upper Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The AF system activated four AF points in the vicinity of bird’s right eye and the base of the bill. Great Blue Heron, from below.

Here’s Looking Down at You!

If you find yourself looking up at a heron or an egret from below, you can make some dramatic images by stopping down, focusing as near to the eyes as possible, and doing your best to design a pleasing image. You need to be patient and wait until the bird is looking right down the lens barrel with both eyes visible. I first came up with this idea about 20 years ago while lying down on the Sanibel Fishing pier and looking up at a Great Egret that was on the railing.

If you were a baitfish and looked up to see the view above, your time might be short …

Depth of Field Note

Note: even at f/16 the distal 1/2 inch of the bill is not even close to being in sharp focus. When do you need to stop down? When you are relatively close to the subject and working near the minimum focusing distance of the lens. Depth of field decreases as the camera to subject distance decreases. And it increases as the camera to subject distance increases. Working at 560mm at about 10 feet with a full frame body the total depth of field is less than 7/8 inch …

This image was created on the first afternoon of the 2017 Fort DeSoto IPT 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 264mm), and my favorite egret photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -2/3 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1. Upper Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The AF system activated three AF points that grabbed the back of the bird’s lower neck. Great Blue Heron, 100% crop of eyes.

Sharpness Question

How does the sharpness of this unsharpened 100% crop look to you?

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

With a tame oystercatcher feeding in an atypical food-rich setting, we had a great morning on the DeSoto Fall IPT; we followed that with a long — 2 1/2 hours — and great image review/Photoshop working lunch session, Instructor Nap Time, and a lousy afternoon. The latter was caused by very strong southeast winds that left the birds facing directly away from us. As one participant, Muhammed Arif, is leaving a day early, we enjoyed our thanks for coming dinner at Good Times Continental Restaurant on Tierra Verde on Saturday evening.

Great IPT News

An amazing nine folks have already committed to the new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT with the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip. And all have signed up for the pre-trip. There is just one slot left so if you are interested in joining us, please do not tarry. You can learn more about this great trip here.

The Streak

Today marks sixty days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took close to two hours to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Latest Used Gear Kudos

Via e-mail from Robert Blanke

Hey Artie. Thank you again–the 5D s sale makes four cameras sold at fair prices and commissions, with the first three going in one day! Cheers Robert

Via e-mail from BPN regular Isaac Grant

Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender with a ton of extras!

Stephen November is offering a Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender in near-mint condition with a slew of extras for the great price of $8399. The extras include a LensCoat in digital camo (installed since day 1), a LensCoat digital camo Hoodie, the Kirk replacement lens foot with KES Sure Grip for Canon 200-400mm lens — part #LP-55SG (a $118 value), a Woodland camo rain sleeve — a British product from Wildlife Watching Supplies (a $66 value), and a Canon drop-in polarizer filter (a $229 value). Also included in the sale are the original product box, E-145C lens cover, the rear lens cap, the wide lens strap, the lens trunk with keys, the original tripod and monopod feet, 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. Photos are available upon request.

Please contact Stephen via e-mail.

This is the world’s best lens for a trip to Africa. It kills also in the Galapagos and in South Georgia, the Falklands, and Antarctica. And I use mine a lot at Bosque and other dusty places where the built-in TC helps to keep your sensor clean. And I love it in the Palouse for its versatility. Most recently, I often found myself wishing that I had taken the 200-400 rather than my 500 II on the Bear Boat Cubs IPT. Many nature photographers use it as their workhorse telephoto lens as it offers 884mm at f/8 with an external 1.4X TC added. As you can see below, it is pretty good whenever you are working around relatively tame birds. The lens sells new at B&H right now for $10,999. You can save a slew of dollars by grabbing Stephen’s lens along with all the extras right now. artie

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.

This image was created on the afternoon of Thursday, September 21, 2017 with the hand held Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (at 490mm with the TC engaged) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops in Av mode: 1/200 sec. at f/6.3. WB: K7700. Left Large Zone/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system worked to perfection selecting an L-shaped array of three sensors with one AF point right on the bird’s eye and the other two below and in front of the eye. Snowy Egret and sun — this JPEG represents the converted TIF.

My Very Favorite Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender Fort Desoto Image

In the Which is your favorite Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender Fort Desoto image? here, I asked:

Which of the images is your favorite? Why?

Which one of the images is my favorite? Why?

My very favorite image was and is Snowy Egret Sunset. Why? I love the out-of-focus sun. I love the fact that I went for the image in exceedingly difficult circumstances. And succeeded. Up until about 7:26pm I had managed to stay clean and dry. In order to get low enough to get the snowy’s head and the sun in the same frame, I had chosen to lie down flat in the very wet sand. Yuck. But Yeah! (Note: the difficulty we had in capturing an image should not matter; it is best only to judge the image itself without considering the circumstances …)

Kudos to Anthony who commented I’d like to see what you can do with the lower right image. Processed, I bet it’d look great! and to Jake who wrote, My favourites are the first and last images. Hazarding a guess … Is your favourite the last image? Stunning images.

My second favorite was the first image, Great Egret Squawking, so kudos again to Jake (above) and to David Policansky who wrote, My favorite is the first image, the great egret squawking.

Great analysis of the mystery bird by IPT veteran Scott Borowy who left this comment:

My first instinct for the silhouetted image was to call it a gull species, however, the large, webbed feet made me instantly question that. I think it is a Double-crested Cormorant, though it’s tough to tell in the shadows what specific cormorant it may be. The overall shape of the head, hooked tip of the bill, shape of the throat, (both which threw me as it is facing slightly toward the setting sun) the webbed feet, and rough, yet rounded ends to the feathers are what I’m basing this on.

My Favorite DeSoto Sunset Spot

To learn the location of my favorite Fort DeSoto sunset spot, you need to do one of two things:

• 1- Sign up for a DeSoto IPT.
• 2- Get yourself a copy of the Fort DeSoto Site Guide.

This image was created on the afternoon of Thursday, September 21, 2017 with the hand held Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (at 490mm with the TC engaged) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops in Av mode: 1/200 sec. at f/6.3. WB: K7700. Left Large Zone/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system worked to perfection selecting an L-shaped array of three sensors with one AF point right on the bird’s eye and the other two below and in front of the eye. Snowy Egret and sun — the optimized version

The Image Optimization

I converted the image pretty much straight up in DPP 4. Once I took it into Photoshop, the first thing that I did was to level the image using the Ruler Tool on the horizon. My next thought was to make the bird black with a Levels adjustment to create a dramatic silhouette. That attempt failed miserably as the image became terribly posterized and incredibly noisy. So then I went to a lighter look which is actually how things looked in life — everything was very soft. But when I lightened the bird to white, the sun became completely washed out. To fix that problem I went to Tim Grey Dodge and Burn, reduced the brush size to just smaller than the sun, and reduced the opacity of the darkening brush to 20% by hitting “2” using Denise Ippolito’s Brush Opacity Magic technique. Two slightly swirling clicks left me as a Happy Camper with a dramatic sun.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac/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)

Everything mentioned above 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. The new e-Guide reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. 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 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.

BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT.

Fort DeSoto Site Guide

Can’t make a DeSoto IPT? Get yourself a copy of the Fort DeSoto Site Guide. Learn the best spots, where to be when in what season in what weather. Learn the best wind directions for the various locations. BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. You can see all of them here.

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

I spent a good two hours on the phone (with help from Jim) setting up an account with our new phone and internet provider; HughesNet satellite. We should have internet by this after, Friday, SEPT 22, but will not have regular phone service for about ten days as I want to keep the current numbers for our two lines. HughesNet needs to file paperwork to “get” the number from Frontier. Frontier doesn’t quite know it yet but they are toast. Then I finished packing and headed over to Fort Desoto stopping by the Ruby Tuesdays on SR 60 in Brandon for lunch along the way. As you will see below, there are lots of birds at the park. There are barely any signs of Irma but for lots of palm tree debris that has neatly been piled up.

Great IPT News

An amazing eight folks have already committed to the new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT with the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip. And all have signed up for the pre-trip. There are just two slots left so if you are interested in joining us, please do not tarry. You can learn more about this great trip here.

The Streak

Today marks fifty-eight days in a row with a new educational blog post — Irma be damned! 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 (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Latest Used Gear Kudos

via e-mail from Robert Blanke

Hey Artie. Thank you again–the 5D s sale makes four cameras sold at fair prices and commissions, with the first three going in one day! Cheers Robert

Brand New Listing

Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender with a ton of extras!

Stephen November is offering a Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender in near-mint condition with a slew of extras for the great price of $8399. The extras include a LensCoat in digital camo (installed since day 1), a LensCoat digital camo Hoodie, the Kirk replacement lens foot with KES Sure Grip for Canon 200-400mm lens — part #LP-55SG (a $118 value), a Woodland camo rain sleeve — a British product from Wildlife Watching Supplies (a $66 value), and a Canon drop-in polarizer filter (a $229 value). Also included in the sale are the original product box, E-145C lens cover, the rear lens cap, the wide lens strap, the lens trunk with keys, the original tripod and monopod feet, 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. Photos are available upon request.

Please contact Stephen via e-mail.

This is the world’s best lens for a trip to Africa. It kills also in the Galapagos and in South Georgia, the Falklands, and Antarctica. And I use mine a lot at Bosque and other dusty places where the built-in TC helps to keep your sensor clean. And I love it in the Palouse for its versatility. Most recently, I often found myself wishing that I had taken the 200-400 rather than my 500 II on the Bear Boat Cubs IPT. Many nature photographers use it as their workhorse telephoto lens as it offers 884mm at f/8 with an external 1.4X TC added. As you can see below, it is pretty good whenever you are working around relatively tame birds. The lens sells new at B&H right now for $10,999. You can save a slew of dollars by grabbing Stephen’s lens along with all the extras right now. artie

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.

All of these images were created on the afternoon of Thursday, September 21, 2017 with the hand held Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens with Internal 1.4x Extender and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. left to right from top to bottom: Great Egret squawking; Great Egret vertical; immature Laughing Gull; Adult White Ibis; adult Tricolored Heron; 1st year Roseate Spoonbill; 1st year Snowy Egret; backlit American Flag; can you identify this bird?; Snowy Egret sunset Clicking on the composite image will make it smaller so view the images simply by scrolling down.

Questions

Which of the images is your favorite? Why?

Which one of the images is my favorite? Why?

What bird is shown in the lower left image, _P3A0524?

I will be optimizing my favorite image right after I publish this blog post early on the morning of Friday,September 22, 2017.

Fort DeSoto in fall is rich with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this October. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

BIRDS AS ART In-the-Field/Meet-up Workshop Session (ITF/MWS): $99.

Join me on the morning of Tuesday September 26, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.

You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive afternoon workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on a BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tour. I hope to meet you there.

Please register by sending me an e-mail and/or by calling me on my cell at 863-221-2372.

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

We got lots done yesterday as I started packing for the DeSoto Fall IPT. Midday on Thursday I will drive over a day early for an afternoon and morning scouting session. I did have time for a relaxing 48-length swim on Tuesday afternoon.

Great IPT News

An amazing seven folks have already committed to the new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT with the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip. And all have signed up for the pre-trip. There are just three slots left so if you are interested in joining us please do not tarry. You can learn more about this great trip and learn more here.

Great News on the BAA Online Store

With help from regular blog readers Gloria Matyszyk and Keith Swindell, Jim was able to get back on line with the Mobile Hotspot on my Verizon Droid. Gloria suggested a wi-fi stick; I was able to grab the last one at our local Walmart’s. And Keith suggested via e-mail that the stick might not be working because the (dead) router was still plugged in. As soon as we removed that cable we were online! Thanks again to Gloria and Keith.

As a result, Jim was successfully able to fulfill a slew of orders that had been backed up in the BAA Online Store for more than a week in a single day. Thanks to all who waited patiently to hear from us as we recovered from Hurricane Irma. I did call Frontier back yesterday and was able to get my repair visit moved up from Monday to today, Wednesday, September 20. If you have been holding off on placing your order, today is the day.

The Streak

Today marks fifty-seven days in a row with a new educational blog post — Irma be damned! This one took about one hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Latest Used Gear Kudos

via e-mail from Robert Blanke

Hey Artie. Thank you again–the 5D s sale makes four cameras sold at fair prices and commissions, with the first three going in one day! Cheers Robert

Used Gear Sale from the past month

Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 5Ds body in like-new condition for $2249.00 in early September.
Ron Paulk sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for $9,899 with lots of great extras in early September.
Lisa Tri sold her Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Zoom lens (the original IS version) in near-mint condition for the BAA record low price of $898 in early September.
IPT veteran Joe Messina sold his Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $7,900 in early September.
Ivan Kuraev sold his Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $1699 and his Canon EOS 5D Mark IV in excellent near-mint condition for $2499 in early September.
IPT veteran Mike Ross sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II with the Canon BG-E16 Battery Grip all in mint condition for $1,099 on the first day it was listed in early September.
Ray Stranagan sold his Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens in excellent condition for $3999 in early September, just three days after it was listed.
IPT veteran Richard Bohnet also sold his Canon EOS 5D MK III (with an L-bracket) in near-mint condition for $1350 and his Canon EOS 7D in excellent condition for $279 in late August.
IPT veteran Richard Bohnet sold his Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens (the “old” 1-4) in excellent condition for an even $500 in mid-August.
Multiple IPT veteran Carlotta Grenier sold her Canon EOS-1DX camera body in excellent condition for $2358 and a never used Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens for Canon EF in better than like-new condition for the BAA record low price of $998.
Eric Karl sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in very good plus condition with extras for $1,300 in mid-August.

Tamron SP 150-600 f/5.6-6.5 Di VC USD

Margaret Page is offering a Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD lens for Canon in like-new condition (used only once) for the ridiculously low price of $699. The sale includes the lens hood, the soft case, the front and rear caps, the instruction sheet, the original box are included, and insured ground shipping via UPS. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Margaret via e-mail or by phone at 706-761-5555 (Eastern time).

Several folks on IPTs have used this lens and made lots of sharp images. A telling factor is that there are no used copies of this lens available on eBay or in the B&H Used Gear listings. artie

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Margaret Page is also offering a used Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition along with a Really Right Stuff B7D2-L Set L-Plate (a $175 value) for the very low price of $949. The body was recently cleaned and checked by Canon. The sale includes the front body cap, the camera strap, and insured ground shipping via UPS. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Margaret via e-mail or by phone at 706-761-5555 (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. artie

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens

Margaret Page is also offering a used Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens in near-mint condition for the great low price of $425. The sale includes the front and rear lens caps, the hood, and insured ground shipping via UPS. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Margaret via e-mail or by phone at 706-761-5555 (Eastern time).

This lightweight versatile wide angle zoom lens fits only Canon crop factor bodies like the 7D II, the 7D, the 50D, and the 40D. The 1.6 crop factor turns it into an effective 16-35mm zoom lens. As it sells new for $649, you can save a bundle while completing your kit with the great wide angle by grabbing Margaret’s lens now. artie

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.

This image was created on our afternoon landing at Inner Farnes with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens and the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 560mm) with favorite young gull photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/250 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. Daylight WB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +1. Center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed on the upper center of the young gull’s breast. Click on the image to enjoy a larger, inexplicably sharper version. Black-headed Gull in fresh juvenile plumage

Simple Yet Perfect ???

There is a very small pond on the middle path that leads up to the lighthouse on Inner Farnes. I alway make a point to check it several times each afternoon. Twice in the past three years I have found a baby puffin there. Last July there were lots of baby Black-headed Gulls swimming around. I made many images of them both last July and on previous trips. Today’s featured image is my favorite by far. Why? I think that the soft light and the fact that I gave the bird lots of room in the frame made this one special for me.

The tendency with images like this it to want to make the bird large in the frame. I have, however, long said this, “For photos that include the whole bird , the general guideline is not to go larger than 75% of either dimension.” As I have aged (or perhaps mellowed a bit if you will), that percentage keeps dropping, often down to 50 (or to well less than that with this image).

Still More 100-400 II Versatility

By adding a 1.4X TC to your 100-400 II you can get out to 560mm. And even in relatively low light, the amazing 4-stop image stabilization system allows you to hand hold at reasonable shutter speeds without having to jack the ISO up too high. You could do every landing on the UK Puffins IPT with just the 100-400 II and a TC in your pocket and go home with lots of great images.

The Image Optimization

During the RAW conversion in DPP 4 I moved the Brightness slider to +.6 as I did not add nearly enough light when I was in the field. Once I had the image in Photoshop I leveled it and then ran RGB Curves Adjustment Color Balancing on a layer. While this eliminated a slight CYAN color cast it made the image just a bit too contrasty for me so I applied my Reduced Contrast preset. This gave me the softer look that I was after. Last I selected the face and the bill with the Quick Selection Tool, put that on its own layer, and applied a Contrast Mask.

Image Design Question

With regards to the size of the bird in the frame in today’s featured image”

a- The bird is too small in the frame
b- The bird is too large in the frame.
c- The bird is just right.

In addition, your comments are welcome.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac/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)

Everything mentioned above 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. The new e-Guide reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. 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 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.

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Please Don’t Forget …

Why start today’s blog post with this feature that is included in most every post? Because most folks do not realize that if they use my B&H links for stuff like Wimberley Heads and plates that they are costing me a pretty penny (while at the same time thinking that they are doing their best to help me and help BAA). Not only will we match B&H’s great low prices, but if they offer free shipping to your location we will do the same provided that you place your order by phone.

As always–and many folks have been doing a really great job for a long time now–please remember to use the BAA B&H links for your major and minor gear purchases. For best results, use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.

Stuff

Jim and I drove into town yesterday. At Lowe’s I picked up three more 5-gallon gas cans and four 50-foot extension cords. I was finally able to get spring water at Publix. Then we filled all seven of our gas cans and topped off my Sequoia. We were preparing for the long hall, perhaps a week or two more without electricity. As we got close to home I joked, “Wouldn’t it be a pisser if the utility trucks had arrived and were repairing the downed utility poles and lines?” (There were actually two poles on the ground, not one as we had previously thought.) When we turned onto Orange Avenue we saw many utility trucks in the vicinity of the drainage ditch that runs past my backyard.

After a short visit we learned that the crew was from Mississippi and that we would have our power restored within a few hours. And that is just what happened. Clemens Vanderwerf and his wife arrived at 1pm for a “Power’s Back On” pool party and barbecue. We enjoyed Sockeye Salmon with barbecued Brussels sprouts and goat cheese and fresh blueberries for dessert.

After lunch Clemens fired up his chain saw and — in a matter of moments — polished off some of the six-to nine-inch thick branches that were impeding our backyard clean-up progress. We estimated that if Jim and I had done what he did with a two man saw it would have taken us about ten hours … After piling up the logs — anybody need some free firewood? — we removed and packed up Clemens’ air conditioner and got it into his car. After a short swim, Clemens took off and headed back to West Palm. They had learned while they were visiting their daughter in Tampa that their power had been restored.

It is good to have wonderful friends.

I drove around the corner to thank the Mississipi crew. I offered them two hundred dollar bills to pay for a nice dinner for the guys. They politely refused saying that they were not permitted to take any tips.

The Bad News and Computer Help Needed

When I asked about the phone lines one of the guys on the crew said that they had needed to cut the phone lines to restore power as the phone lines had been all tangled up with the power lines. So I called our phone company, Frontier — they had taken over from Verizon about a year and a half ago, to let them know that we had no phone service for a week and that we currently have no phone service. After eventually speaking to a supervisor I was told that business account or not, they could not have a repairperson here until September 25. Two things are pretty clear:

• 1-It is likely that we will not have any phone or internet (we have DSL through the phone lines) until at least September 25.
• 2-If you have choice of phone service providers, avoid Frontier at all costs.

Computer Help Needed

I had never realized until Jim informed me this morning that our two Windows desk top office computers are not wi-fi enabled … I had hoped that we could get both of the office computers online via my Verizon Mobile Hotspot on my cell phone. If anyone knows a workaround, please leave a comment asap. with love, artie

The Streak

Today marks fifty-five days in a row with a new blog post — Irma be damned! This one took about ninety minutes to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Latest Used Gear Kudos

via e-mail from Robert Blanke

Hey Artie. Thank you again–the 5D s sale makes four cameras sold at fair prices and commissions, with the first three going in one day! Cheers Robert

Used Gear Sale from the past month

Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 5Ds body in like-new condition for $2249.00 in early September.
Ron Paulk sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for $9,899 with lots of great extras in early September.
Lisa Tri sold her Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Zoom lens (the original IS version) in near-mint condition for the BAA record low price of $898 in early September.
IPT veteran Joe Messina sold his Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $7,900 in early September.
Ivan Kuraev sold his Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $1699 and his Canon EOS 5D Mark IV in excellent near-mint condition for $2499 in early September.
IPT veteran Mike Ross sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II with the Canon BG-E16 Battery Grip all in mint condition for $1,099 on the first day it was listed in early September.
Ray Stranagan sold his Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens in excellent condition for $3999 in early September, just three days after it was listed.
IPT veteran Richard Bohnet also sold his Canon EOS 5D MK III (with an L-bracket) in near-mint condition for $1449 and his Canon EOS 7D in excellent condition for $279 in late August.
IPT veteran Richard Bohnet sold his Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens (the “old” 1-4) in excellent condition for an even $500 in mid-August.
Multiple IPT veteran Carlotta Grenier sold her Canon EOS-1DX camera body in excellent condition for $2358 and a never used Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens for Canon EF in better than like-new condition for the BAA record low price of $998.
Eric Karl sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in very good plus condition with extras for $1,300 in mid-August.

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.

Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. All images were created on the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT Please click on the card to see a larger and inexplicably sharper version.

The new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT. Monday July 2 through Tuesday July 10 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 11.): $7,499. Limit 10 photographers/openings 5, all sign-ups are in for the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip; please see the info below. Co-leader: Peter Kes.

Join me in the UK next July to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet, all at close range. We will also enjoy great chances with Arctic and Sandwich Terns, both with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks; plus Grey Seal. Not to mention lots of great flight photography. As on all IPTs, if you pay attention, you will learn a ton.

Why go all the way to Machias Seal Island in Maine, endure a two hour boat ride, and have to photograph Atlantic Puffins from a cramped blind usually in bright sun (and well off sun angle) when you can hop a red-eye flight from Newark, NJ and be in Edinburgh, Scotland early the next morning, get driven down to Seahouses, and have hundreds of puffins posing at close range all day, every day (usually in cloudy bright conditions) after only a short boat ride?

While we are in Seahouses we will do six planned puffin/seabird trips, all weather permitting of course. In four years we have averaged losing ½ day per year to bad weather. We land at Staple Island in the morning and then sail over to Inner Farnes for our afternoon session. In addition, we may enjoy a session or two of photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level from a rocky beach in Seahouses.

On the morning of Monday, July 9, 2018, we will finish packing, sleep late, and head up to Dunbar Harbor for lunch and an afternoon gannet boat chumming trip: flight photography until you cannot lift your camera. The next morning, Tuesday July 10, we will enjoy our second gannet boat chumming trip. On both trips we will enjoy great views of Bass Rock, a huge gannetry. Included will be two nights lodging at the Pine Martin by Marston’s Inn in Dunbar. Early on the morning of Wednesday July 11, we will leave early and drive up to Edinburg Airport so that everyone can make their flights home in time. We will need to leave as early as need be to get those on early flights there on time. No moaning please. Try for a flight that leaves no early than 8:30am if possible.

The Details

This IPT is all-inclusive except for your airfare and alcoholic beverages. All lodgings, all meals, your National Trust membership, and all boat, entry, and landing fees are included. Weather permitting we will enjoy six full days on the puffin boats, one amazing afternoon gannet chumming trip, and one spectacular morning gannet chumming trips. Plus an afternoon castle and perhaps some nesting kittwakes in the town of Seahouses (if ya’ll are not too, too tired.)

The trip cannot be finalized until I have at least six deposits as I will be renting a lovely 15-passenger bus with our private professional driver who happens to be my web-master, Peter Kes, who is also a skilled photographer 🙂

In Seahouses, we stay 7 nights in gorgeous, modern, upscale, country cottages with Wi-fi. They are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The shared rooms are decent-sized, each with a private bathroom. See the single supplement info below.

We cook our own breakfasts each morning and prepare our own lunches to be brought on the five boat trips. On our mid-IPR gannet day we will enjoy lunch at the wonderful Dunbar Garden Center. We will do a barbeque or two at the cottages but most dinners will be in excellent local restaurants. We stay two nights at the Marston’s Inn in Dunbar. We will enjoy a fine-dining Thank You dinner at the Dunbar Hotel on the Tuesday evening before we fly home.

Incoming Northern Gannet, Bempton Cliffs, UK. Image copyright and courtesy of Mike Poole Please click on the card to see a larger and inexplicably sharper version.

The UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 Bempton Cliffs Pre-trip. Free Instruction with cost sharing (from Edinburgh, Airport). Wednesday June 27 (from EDI) through the morning of Monday, July 1 (ending in Seahouses, UK). Limit 10 photographers. Co-leader: Peter Kes.

This is an offer that you might not be able to refuse … Why travel to Europe and not add on five great days of photography and photographic instruction for barely more than the cost of your food and your room?

I have been hearing about Bempton Cliffs for years. It is about 3 hours by car south of Seahouses, less than five hours from Edinburgh Airport. It hosts the only mainland gannetry in England and also the largest kittiwake colony in mainland Britain. In addition to the gannets and kittiwakes we will get to photograph Razorbill. Much of the photography will be of birds in flight with both incoming birds and top shots (dorsal views of birds flying below us) being especially attractive. My understanding is that sunny afternoons are best; with the right winds, they can be mega. There is a good chance that we can get in a short photo session on our first afternoon.

Northern Gannet with nesting material, Bempton Cliffs, UK. Image copyright and courtesy of Mike Poole Please click on the card to see a larger and inexplicably sharper version.

We will be staying at the Lobster Pot by Marston’s Inn in Bridlington, just ten minutes from Bempton Cliffs. Marston’s Inn properties are both fine and economical: $316.42 for the four nights (possibly plus 20% VAT).
Morning options may include one or two (optional) gannet chumming trips, a visit to the North Yorkshire Moors, about an hour’s drive away, to look for Red Grouse and possibly Red-legged Partridge if we are lucky., or, on cloudy or foggy days, photographing at Bempton Cliffs. I am looking to hire a local guide for one day (with that cost shared by all on the pre-trip).

Incoming Razorbill, Bempton Cliffs, UK. Image courtesy of and copyright Rich Steel Please click on the card to see a larger and inexplicably sharper version.

After our last afternoon session on Sunday July 1 we will drive up to Newcastle where we will be staying at the again economical Holiday Inn Express Newcastle Metro Centre — $116.02 (possibly plus 20% VAT). We will likely do a morning puffin boat trip that Monday after which we will meet the rest of the group (if any) at the cottages in Seahouses.

I am hoping that everyone who joins the IPT will fly over early to join the pre-trip. Those who opt to fly over only for the IPT will need to arrive at Edinburgh International Airport (EDI) on the early morning of Monday, July 2. (There are lots of red-eye flights arriving from around the world at that time). There, they will be met by a 100% reliable, professional driver from Executive Transfers for their transfer to our cottages in Seahouses; I have used their services several times before and they are simply fantastic.

Those who will be making both the pre-trip and the IPT will need to arrive at EDI on the early morning of Wednesday June 27, 2018. (Again, there are lots of red-eye flights arriving from around the world at that time). Interested folks from the UK who are considering driving their own vehicles are asked to e-mail for details.

IPT Details

If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome–please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on February 29, 2018. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855.

Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.

Single Supplement Deposit Info

Single supplement rooms at the cottage are available on a limited basis. To ensure yours, please register early. The single supplement fee is $1575. If you would like your own room, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement; your single supplement deposit check should be for $3,575. As we will need to commit to renting the extra space, single supplement deposits are non-refundable so please be sure that check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below.

Pre-trip Cost Sharing

Enjoy free instruction for five days by agreeing to share the following pre-trip costs equally (by all particpants and artie):

The cost of our vehicle pro-rated for five days.
The cost of gas from EDI to Bridlington and then back up to Seahouses.
The cost of Peter Kes’s food and lodging.
The cost of one or two gannet chumming trips (optional).

You will also be responsible for the following costs in full:

Four night’s lodging in Bridlington as above.
One night’s lodging in Newcastle.
All of your food and beverages.
The cost of your park entry fees.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.

I truly hope that you can join me on this exciting venture.

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

Friday was stiflingly hot and still. Jim and I pretty much finished up our yard clean-up work in an early morning and a late afternoon session. Again, I swam twice totaling one mile. Jim got in the pool twice, something that he rarely does even once. In addition, he has taken up one of my favorite activities, afternoon napping. With no power there is not a lot to do.

It is just before 9:30am on Saturday September 16, sitting in front of a working fan in my air conditioned living room. Super-skilled photographer, many, many multiple IPT veteran, and long-time friend Clemens Vanderwerf, stopped at ILE yesterday afternoon on his way to Tampa with his wife and three big Golden Retrievers. He brought along a five-gallon tank of gas, a chain saw, and a portable window mount air conditioner 🙂 They will be stopping by for lunch on their way back to West Palm on Sunday.

On the power outage front we have much more hope than we did yesterday morning. Late in the day, all of our neighbors on the north side of Granada Drive had their power restored. That meant that the Preco (Peace River Cooperative) sub-station at ILE had gotten power from Duke Energy. Once the downed power pole and lines in our backyard are repaired, we should get our power back.So far nobody from Preco has been seen in the vicinity of the damaged pole and lines. The top of the pole along with the transformer is lying in a drainage ditch. Time will tell, but at least now we have hope.

The Streak

Today marks fifty-three days in a row with a new educational blog post — Irma be damned! This one took about two hours hours to prepare over the course of two days. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.

Revamped

I recently updated the IPT page. If you doubt that I am really slowing down, click here to see the meager IPT schedule. Right now there are only two US-based IPTs on the schedule. Best news is I now have two folks registered for the Fort DeSoto IPT so that will run. Do consider joining us if you would like to learn from the best.

Photographers Wanted

If you would like to learn to become a much better bird photographer, consider joining me on either the Fort DeSoto IPT in late September or the San Diego IPT in January, 2018. With four folks signed up, DeSoto will offer practically private instruction. And you can tack on the In-the-Field/Meet-up Workshop Session on the morning of Tuesday September 26, 2017 for free. Scroll down for details. Click here for complete IPT info and the current but abbreviated schedule.

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.

Please Don’t Forget …

As always–and many folks have been doing a really great job for a long time now–please remember to use the BAA B&H links for your major and minor gear purchases. For best results, use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.

This image was created on the 2017 BAA Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a Lifetime IPT on our second Darwin Bay landing. I used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens with the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 420mm) and my favorite baby booby camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering at about -1 1/2 stops (!): 1/800 second at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB. Two AF points left of the center AF point AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was active at the moment of exposure and fell on the middle of the lower mandible. 3-day old Red-footed Booby chick

I was so excited that …

First of all, note the huge amount of space from the end of the histogram data to the the highlight axis on our right. If your histograms consistently look like this then your images are consistently underexposed.

Darwin Bay, one of the most productive photographic locations on the avian planet, is my single favorite morning landing in the Galapagos archipelago. It is always overcast for an hour or two at least; there is almost always fabulous flight photography in the early mornings with all three morphs of Red-footed Booby, both species of frigatebirds, Nazca Booby, and Swallow-tailed Gull literally filling sky. When the flight action dies down, all of the species above can be found and photographed on the ground or in low bushes, most often at their nests. And often with chicks in the nests, chicks of varying sizes. That only my trip gets to visit Darwin Bay (and Hood Island and North Seymour) twice each is a huge plus. Dates and details for the late-July BAA 2019 Galapagos Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT will be announced here on Monday.

We had been photographing several large Red-footed Booby chicks and the occasional adult in their eye-level nests in Red-Mangroves with hand held intermediate telephoto lenses. Hand holding in this situation is a must as you sometimes need choose your perspective very carefully in order to find a clear shooting slot through mangrove leaves. As there were lots of nests the group was spread out. I was standing next to participant Dietmar Haenchen when the handsome adult intermediate morph bird stood up to show off its three-day old chick. We got off a few snaps when the adult bird sat down as quickly as it had stood up. We called over the folks in the group who were within earshot so that they could at least see the tiny chick. Then the adult stood up and stayed up for about ten minutes. There were maybe three good shooting slots so I rotated folks in and out, taking a turn myself every few minutes. The huge problem was that the tiny chick was begging for food the whole time, shaking its head from side to side constantly like a bobblehead doll on crack.

I am not so sure how I wound up so underexposed but I suspect that because I was so excited by the sight of the tiny, too cute, too pink chick, I accidentally raised the shutter speed when I wanted to raise the ISO (to 1600). In any case, the frame above — though seriously underexposed — was the best in the series. So I went to work.

This image was created on the 2017 BAA Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a Lifetime IPT on our second Darwin Bay landing. I used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens with the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 420mm) and my favorite baby booby camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering at about -1 stop (!): 1/800 second at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB. Two AF points left of the center AF point AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was active at the moment of exposure and fell on the middle of the lower mandible. 3-day old Red-footed Booby chick

Saving the Underexposure

After loading my 5D IV ISO 1600 recipe — I knew that I would need the extra noise reduction — the only two changes I made were to move the Brightness slider to the right to +1 1/2 and move the Highlight slider to the left to -2. Then it was a crop from our right and below and a bit of bill clean-up. Next was a Layer of my NIK 30/30 Color Efex Pro recipe painted onto the chick only via a Hide-all (Inverse, or Black) Layer Mask. Last was a quick and dirty NeatImage Noise reduction on the whole image; the only visible noise was in the background shadows. The dynamic range of the 5D Mark IV is quite excellent.

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

A Day to Remember …

Wednesday was a day to remember. After creating the photograph that is today’s featured image, Jim and I headed to town to try to get some gas so that we could keep running the inverter off of my Sequoia to keep the food cool. I was using about 1/3 tank of gas each long day that I ran the car so it was time. Only one station in Lake Wales had fuel and the line was about a mile long so we skipped that one and headed up towards Winter Haven. We stopped at Lowe’s and I grabbed a 9500 watt generator for about a grand. They had just gotten a shipment and were rolling them out on big carts six at a time. And selling them like hot cakes.

But could not, however, find a place with any gas cans for sale … We found a Murphy’s that was open. After waiting calmly on line for about ninety minutes we were three cars from paydirt. Then came the “no gas” signs 🙂 We kept going on Cypress Gardens Boulevard for a while and came across a Circle K with gas. We waited on that line for about 45 minutes. We were four cars from success when again, the station ran out 🙂

We were getting a bit concerned as we were close to empty and 40 miles from home. We turned right on 17 North and found a Wawa with cars at the pumps. Jim got on our shortest line yet. I went inside to ask if they were running low and the lady said, “No. We have lots of gas and we get a new shipment every four hours.” Hooray.

We stopped at a few likely spots on the way but still no gas cans; but in Lake Wales we did get a pump siphon. It would be easy to siphon gas from my full tank into the generator. Or so we thought. We wrestled the huge generator out of the trunk, wheeled it into the garage to assemble it. The directions were a bit hard to follow and we managed to lose a small nut and bolt (that we later found while looking for something else …) We got the struts on and got the handles on. We followed every instruction. We wired up the battery. We put in the oil. We confidently rolled the generator next to my Sequoia and squeezed and squeezed the bulb, but no gas flowed. Heck, the end of the hose was not even wet with gasoline … I went to our nearest neighbors, a dear couple from the UK to see if they might have a longer siphon. They did. Back to my house, back to the gas tank, same result even with three and one-half feet of tubing. I called a Toyota dealer in San Diego (nobody in FL was answering) and was told that it was not possible to siphon gas out of most newer vehicles because there was a valve that you cannot get past, a valve that keeps vapors from escaping.

I headed back to the neighbor who kindly offered us 2 1/2 gallons of gas. I kindly accepted. We fueled the generator and were good to go. Or so we thought. “Where’s the ignition key?” asked Jim? “I did not see any key.” After lots of swearing we searched and searched again through all of the packets and all of the packing material. No key. We read the owner’s manual from cover to cover twice each, word by word. No mention of where to find the key. So I called Lowe’s seven times and seven times I got disconnected. More swear words. At this point I was having a hard time loving what was. And I was too upset to do The Work on the things that were bothering me. In the meantime, Jim was checking over every inch of the generator in search of the key. No luck. I finally got through to a human at Lowe’s and was told to hold for the duty manager. Just as the woman said hello Jim said, “I found the keys!” I hung up.

Where had the keys been hiding? There was a 1 1/2 by 3 inch white “What to do if your lights are flickering” tag tied onto a piece of black tubing with a yellow string. Right next to that, previously unseen by us, were two very small keys tied on by a thin black piece of string. They key were right below and completely hidden by the larger white tag 🙂

Jim had the generator up and running in short order. We ran the one stand alone freezer and my older refrigerator/freezer until we hit the sack at 9:45pm. All’s well that ends well 🙂

The good thing about our gas acquisition trip was that we spent six hours in an air-conditioned vehicle. As predicted, it was hotter than Hades yesterday with no breeze. And it is looking like more of the same for today, Thursday September 14. I woke at 5am this morning in a pool of sweat. There was still not a breath of air. Amazingly however, despite having drank a ton water right before bed last night, I had slept seven straight hours without a pit stop, a record since my major prostate surgery in March, 2016.

Despite hearing what seemed like mildly encouraging news on Tuesday, it is looking as if everyone at Indian Lake Estates might be without power for at least a week or two. Or not.

Good News

I have signed up several folks for both the 2018 UK Puffins and Gannet IPT with the cost-sharing Bempton Cliffs Pre-trip that includes 100% free instruction and the July/August 2019 Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a Lifetime, the world’s best Galapagos photo trip. By far. Both before they have been formally announced, by word of mouth only. If you would like advance info on either trip please shoot me an e-mail.

The Streak

Today marks fifty-one days in a row with a new educational blog post. I began this blog post late on Wednesday evening, after my wonderful and cooling evening swim that ended just after sunset. I finished it this morning. It took about two hours in all to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.

Revamped

I recently updated the IPT page. If you doubt that I am really slowing down, click here to see the meager IPT schedule. Right now there are only two US-based IPTs on the schedule. Best news is I now have two folks registered for the Fort DeSoto IPT so that will run. Do consider joining us if you would like to learn from the best.

Photographers Wanted

If you would like to learn to become a much better bird photographer, consider joining me on either the Fort DeSoto IPT in late September or the San Diego IPT in January, 2018. With four folks signed up, DeSoto will offer practically private instruction. And you can tack on the In-the-Field/Meet-up Workshop Session on the morning of Tuesday September 26, 2017 for free. Scroll down for details. Click here for complete IPT info and the current but abbreviated schedule.

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.

Please Don’t Forget …

As always–and many folks have been doing a really great job for a long time now–please remember to use the BAA B&H links for your major and minor gear purchases. For best results, use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.

What Would Your Post-processing Plan Be?

After you take a peek at the image immediately below, think about how you would process the image. Then keep reading to learn what I did and how I did it. As usual, I am quite proud of what I did with this one in Photoshop.

This image was created in Jim’s backyard butterfly garden (or at least what survived of it) on the early morning of Wednesday, September 13, 2017 with the Induro GIT304L tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM lens and my favorite flower blossoms camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop as framed: 1/20 sec. at f/7.1 in Av mode. AWB. Flexi-zone Rear button AF (in Live View for mirror lock-up and 2-second timer) with the box right on the lowest open blossom just left of center. Penta (?) blossoms

Hurricane Irma Survivor

I had been thinking of breaking out the 180 macro for quite some time to photograph some of the flowers in Jim’s butterfly garden. After the big tree that fell courtesy of Irma flattened most of Jim’s plantings, I finally got my act together. Only a yellow milkweed and this plant made it. After carefully positioning my tripod I made sure that my body shaded the entire blossom and the entire background. I used my still flower technique: Live View with the two-second timer. If you can positively identify this flower or if you agree that it is a penta of some type, please leave a comment. I would like to learn more about it whatever it is.

Image Success Question

Which of the three things below was most responsible for the success of today’s featured image. Please let us know why you made your choice.

• #1: Positioning the tripod.
• #2: Using Live View
• #3: Getting the right exposure

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

I finished up this blog post on Monday late afternoon, still sitting in my car working off the inverter. My plan to keep the large fridge/freezer running failed — the inverter was not powerful enough — so we are trying plan B. I plugged in the small stand-alone freezer in the laundry room. If that works, we can make ice and use that ice to keep stuff in the freezer of the unit in the kitchen cold. I should know before I hit the sack tonight.

It was relatively cool on Monday with decent cloud cover for much of the day. It is gonna be a lot hotter today with sun and blue skies; 89 a high for today, 91 tomorrow. But I am betting that the outdoor thermometer reads a lot higher than that 🙂

Please understand that I have been totally blessed with regards to Irma. My prayers and best wishes go out to the many who have been way worse off than me.

Jim and I spent about 2 1/2 hours on Monday cutting up the tree that landed on and (almost) just missed my pool cage. 🙂 What fun. I have back muscles hurting that I did not even know I had. After our second session I enjoyed a 48 length swim. The pool was down to a delightful 82 degrees.

Jim got some great news on his home in Melbourne: no damage, family safe in the house with power and all utilities (except for call phone service).

Best News?

I have signed up oodles of folks for the 2018 UK Puffins and Gannet IPT with the cost-sharing Bempton Cliffs Pre-trip that includes 100% free instruction and for the July/August 2019 Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a Lifetime, the world’s best Galapagos photo trip. By far. If you would like advance info on either trip please shoot me an e-mail.

The Streak

Today marks forty-eight days in a row with a new educational blog post. This one took about 90 minutes to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.

Revamped

I recently updated the IPT page. If you doubt that I am really slowing down, click here to see the meager IPT schedule. Right now there are only two US-based IPTs on the schedule. Best news is I now have two folks registered for the Fort DeSoto IPT so that will run. Do consider joining us if you would like to learn from the best.

Photographers Wanted

If you would like to learn to become a much better bird photographer, consider joining me on either the Fort DeSoto IPT in late September or the San Diego IPT in January, 2018. With four folks signed up, DeSoto will offer practically private instruction. And you can tack on the In-the-Field/Meet-up Workshop Session on the morning of Tuesday September 26, 2017 for free. Scroll down for details. Click here for complete IPT info and the current but abbreviated schedule.

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.

Please Don’t Forget …

As always–and many folks have been doing a really great job for a long time now–please remember to use the BAA B&H links for your major and minor gear purchases. For best results, use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.

This image was created on the 2017 Galapagos IPT on our second Darwin Bay landing with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 100mm) and my favorite funny cactus face photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops as framed: 1/250 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2 at W. I selected an AF point that was two to the right and one row up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter button AF as framed. The selected AF point was active at the moment of exposure and was placed just below the cactus’s “eye.” Prickly Pear Cactus pad, Genovesa (Tower Island), Galapagos, Ecuador.

Lost his dentures …

When I saw this prickly pear cactus pad on the ground I could not stop laughing. Even though I was surrounded by Red-footed Booby nests with chicks in low bushes, frigatebird nests with fluffy white chicks at knees level, lots of Swallow-tailed Gulls, and the cutest ever fledgling Nazca Booby with a too cute top-knot, I spent ten minutes photographing this funny cactus face.

Feel free to leave a clever title or caption.

Image Design Question

Would you have cropped this image and/or angled the subject in the frame any differently? Please do leave your suggestions.

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).