Thanks

Sincere thanks to the many who left congratulatory comments on a solid year of educational blog posts. Your kind words were and are greatly appreciated. I enjoyed taking a day off from the blog after 366 consecutive posts. 🙂

What’s Up?

Today is a rare day off. In spite of that, i’ve been up working since well before 3am. No worries, I was asleep by 8:30pm. I drive Denise to the Albuquerque Airport for her redeye flights to Chile’s Patagonia. Best wishes to her for a great trip. I’ll check out the eastern sky before deciding whether to head down to the refuge for a short afternoon photo session.

This image was created at 6:46am on December 3, the fourth and last morning of this year’s 4-day Bosque IPT. I used the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens (at 120mm) and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 400. Evaluative metering + 1 1/3 stops as framed: 1/60 sec. at f/7.1 in Tv mode. Could have been +2 stops. Central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version. Color temperature: 4000K.

Ice Blue

Things were looking good on Wednesday morning for what we thought would be three out of four spectacular red sunrises but as I say often, “You don’t ever want to get into the business of predicting sunrise or sunset color.” When the clouds predominated, I went to 4000K to heighten the BLUE look. We did enjoy both the different look and several huge fly-ins and blast offs.

We finished the IPT at noon with a sensor cleaning tutorial session in the hotel lobby followed by lots of good-bye hugs. Again, several new folks mentioned that they were surprised to find out that I was such a nice guy and that I was so helpful and caring (after what they had been hearing about me). 🙂

Folks marveled about how I had the group in the exact right place pretty much all the time. You can learn to photograph t0 Bosque like a 20-year veteran by purchasing and studying my Bosque Site Guide (see same below)

The 70-200mm f/2.8L IS at Bosque

Having a 70-200 f/2.8 L IS on a Black Rapid RS-7 Strap in the pre-dawn and at dusk can pay huge dividends. There are many other intermediate telephotos that can be equally effective. Wednesday morning was the first time in two weeks that Denise Ippolito used her big lens at sunrise. Previously, she had depended entirely on her 70-200 enjoying the freedom of hand holding and being able to move around quickly.

Zoom lenses offer a great deal of flexibility when it comes to framing the skeins and flocks of geese. Adding either teleconverter gives you even more options. Intermediate telephoto options include the following:

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens
Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM lens for Canon EOS
Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM lens for Nikon
Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD Telephoto Zoom lens for Canon Digital SLRs
Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD Lens for Canon

The Bosque Site Guide

All BAA Site Guides are designed so that with a bit of study you can show up at a great place and know exactly where to be at what time on what wind and in what lighting conditions. With a Site Guide on your laptop you will feel like a 20-year veteran even on your first visit. Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. If you plan on visiting the refuge it would be foolish to make the trip without having this guide in hand. Why spend money on gear and travel and then spend days stumbling around in the wrong spots? If you have visited previously, and are still unsure of where you should be at this time of day with that wind, this guide will prove invaluable to you as well.

You can order yours here or check out all of our site guides here.

This image was created at 6:39am on December 2, the third morning of this year’s 4-day Bosque IPT. I used the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens with the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 140mm) and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 160. Evaluative metering + 2/3 stop as framed: 1/30 sec. at f/7.1 in Tv mode. Cloudy White Balance. Central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version.

Fire

The Tuesday morning sunrise was a barn burner. You could have pointed a cell phone at the eastern horizon and made some great images. Pretty much everyone embraced my predawn strategy of using Tv mode with Auto ISO and exposure compensation to work faster and more efficiently than when working in Manual mode. With the former, you need only to change one parameter–the exposure compensation– to keep on photographing. And you have the option of changing the shutter speed by simply rolling the index finger wheel. Note: rather than using Auto ISO I set a low ISO such as 100 and use ISO Safety Shift as described in my various camera body User’s Guides.

My strategy is so simple that yesterday morning even Denise Ippolito tried it.

Wednesday was the first morning that I did not have a third camera body with either the Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM or the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens with me in the pre-dawn. As is almost always the case when you get lazy, you pay. At one point the entire eastern sky was filled with geese and color. 🙂

Learn the secrets of creating contest winning images in our “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs.”

A Guide to Pleasing Blurs

While lying in bed in the middle of last night and thinking of finishing this blog post, I realized that the two oof bird images were actually de-focused blurs, one of the many categories that we discuss and detail in our great eGuide, A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly.

Pleasing Blurs are not accidents. Learn pretty much everything that there is about creating them in this instructive (as always) guide.

Speaking of Denise Ippolito

Here is the comment that I left on Denise’s blog yesterday:

You can see Denise’s outstanding and inspiring collection of images in her “Reflecting on My Time at Bosque…” blog post here.

In 2015, we are offering a 3-DAY IPT before Thanksgiving and a 4-DAY IPT after the holiday. You can attend either and spend Thanksgiving Day with your family. Sign up for both and we will be glad to apply a $100 discount to your balance. We know that there are lots of less costly workshops being offered these days. Please remember that you get exactly what you pay for. If you want the finest in photographic instruction and want to be assured of being in the right spot at exactly the right time, do join us.

Bosque del Apache 2015 BIRDS AS ART/A Creative Adventure Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT). 3-FULL DAY IPT: NOV 22-24, 2015. $1149. Meet and greet and introductory slide program after dinner on your own at 7:00pm on SAT NOV 21.

Two great leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris

Tens of thousands of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with two of the world’s premier photographic educators at one of their very favorite photography locations on the planet. Top-notch in-the-field and Photoshop instruction. This will make 21 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for artie. This will be denise’s 7th workshop at the refuge. Nobody knows the place better than artie does. Join us to learn to think like a pro, to recognize situations and to anticipate them based on the weather, especially the sky conditions, the light, and the wind direction. Every time we make a move we will let you know why. When you head home being able to apply what you’ve learned on your home turf will prove to be invaluable.

This workshop includes 3 morning and 3 afternoon photography sessions, an inspirational introductory slide program after dinner on your own on Saturday, 11/21, all lunches, and after-lunch digital workflow, Photoshop, and image critiquing sessions.

There is never a strict itinerary on a Bosque IPT as each day is tailored to the local conditions at the time and to the weather. We are totally flexible in order to maximize both the photographic and learning opportunities. We are up early each day leaving the hotel by 5:30 am to be in position for sunrise. We usually photograph until about 10:30am. Then it is back to Socorro for lunch and then a classroom session with the group most days. We head back to the refuge at about 3:30pm each day and photograph until sunset. We will be photographing lots of Snow Geese and lots of Sandhill Cranes with the emphasis on expanding both your technical skills and your creativity.

A $449 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 7/25/2015. If you cancel and the trip fills, we will be glad to apply a credit applicable to a future IPT for the full amount less a $100 processing fee. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Whether or not your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.

Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check (made out to “Arthur Morris.”) You can also leave your deposit with a credit card by calling the office at 863-692-0906. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

In 2015, we are offering a 3-DAY IPT before Thanksgiving and a 4-DAY IPT after the holiday. You can attend either and spend Thanksgiving Day with your family. Sign up for both and we will be glad to apply a $100 discount to your balance. We know that there are lots of less costly workshops being offered these days. Please remember that you get exactly what you pay for. If you want the finest in photographic instruction and want to be assured of being in the right spot at exactly the right time, do join us.

Bosque del Apache 2015 BIRDS AS ART/A Creative Adventure Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT). 4-DAY IPT: (three full and two 1/2 DAYS) NOV 28-DEC 2, 2015. $1499. Meet and greet at 3pm on SAT NOV 28 followed by an afternoon photo session at the crane pools and the introductory slide program after dinner on your own.

Two great leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris

Tens of thousands of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with two of the world’s premier photographic educators at one of their very favorite photography locations on the planet. Top-notch in-the-field and Photoshop instruction. This will make 21 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for artie. This will be denise’s 7th workshop at the refuge. Nobody knows the place better than artie does. Join us to learn to think like a pro, to recognize situations and to anticipate them based on the weather, especially the sky conditions, the light, and the wind direction. Every time we make a move we will let you know why. When you head home being able to apply what you’ve learned on your home turf will prove to be invaluable.

This workshop includes 4 afternoon (11/28through 12/1), 4 morning (11/29 to 12/2) photography sessions, an inspirational introductory slide program after dinner on your own on Saturday, 11/28, all lunches, and after-lunch digital workflow, Photoshop, and image critiquing sessions.

There is never a strict itinerary on a Bosque IPT as each day is tailored to the local conditions at the time and to the weather. We are totally flexible in order to maximize both the photographic and learning opportunities. We are up early each day leaving the hotel by 5:30 am to be in position for sunrise. We usually photograph until about 10:30am. Then it is back to Socorro for lunch and then a classroom session with the group most days. We head back to the refuge at about 3:30pm each day and photograph until sunset. We will be photographing lots of Snow Geese and lots of Sandhill Cranes with the emphasis on expanding both your technical skills and your creativity.

A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 7/25/2015. If you cancel and the trip fills, we will be glad to apply a credit applicable to a future IPT for the full amount less a $100 processing fee. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Whether or not your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.

Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check (made out to “Arthur Morris.”) You can also leave your deposit with a credit card by calling the office at 863-692-0906. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo Tours (IPTs)

For a listing of all currently offered IPTs, click here.

Click here for BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) General Information.

Click here for BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) Deposit and Cancellation Policies.

Click here for BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) Registration and Release Forms.

DPP 4 eGuide 7D II Update

If you have purchased the DPP 4 eGuide and have purchased a 7D II, please request the free update by shooting Jim an e-mail with the words DPP 4 7D II Update cut and pasted into the Subject Line. You must include some sort of proof of purchase; a cut and paste of page 2 of the current guide will suffice. If you send your request without including proof of purchase your updated eGuide will not be sent 🙂

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Typos

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