Stuff
Sunday was a lazy day of rest and NFL football on the tube. On Monday it was back to business as usual: work, work, and more work, answering e-mails and doing blog posts. And a swim and lots of exercise.
With only a single slot open on the San Diego IPT I decided to add a second San Diego IPT — shorter and less expensive. The announcement with details follows immediately below.
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2017 in San Diego was a very good year …. |
2018 San Diego 3 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT #2: Sunday, JAN 28 thru and including a morning session on Wednesday, JAN 31, 2018: 3 1/2 days: $1699.
Limit: 8: Openings: 8
Meet and Greet at 6:30pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Saturday, Jan 27, 2018.
San Diego IPT #2: Shorter and Less Expensive!
Please remember: I go with one.
Join me in San Diego near the end of January to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s (usually nesting and displaying) and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Wood Duck and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Whimbrel, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seal (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lion; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well. Please note: formerly dependable, both Wood Duck and Marbled Godwit have been declining at their usual locations for the past two years …
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San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there…. |
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication. You can do most of your photography with an 80- or 100-400 lens …
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
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Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings. |
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include four 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, three 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, three lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. Dinners are on your own so that we can get some sleep.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 11/1/2016. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
The Streak
Today makes seventy-five days in a row with a new educational blog post! This blog post took less than 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.
Booking.Com
Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
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This image was created on the 2017 San Diego IPT with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and my favorite pelican photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/1600 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. Daylight WB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1. Four rows up from the center AF point up/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was just forward of and below the bird’s eye. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version. Image #1: Pacific-race Brown Pelican in stunning breeding plumage/vertical |
Still in Love With Pacific-race Brown Pelicans
After viewing and photographing Pacific-race Brown Pelican for more than forty years, I am still mega-excited about my upcoming San Diego visit. Their fire-engine red and olive-green bill pouches set against distant backgrounds of Pacific-blue in early morning light is a dramatic and compelling combination. Throw in the challenge of creating a perfect head-throw image and there is no place I would rather be at the start of a new year.
If you would like to learn to make images like this and have multiple opportunities to do so, scroll up and consider joining me in San Diego this January.
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This image was created on the 2017 San Diego IPT about 30 minutes after the image above. Again I used the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and my favorite pelican photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/13 in Manual mode. Daylight WB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1. Two rows up and five to the left of the center AF point up/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was just below the bird’s eye. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version. Image #2: Pacific race Brown Pelican in stunning breeding plumage/horizontal |
The Relationship Between Aperture and Background
Which of today’s two featured images has a softer, sweeter background. Why? (Note: I was actually closer to the pelican in Image #2.)
Aperture Question
Why did I stop down all the way to f/13 for Image #2?
Bird Question
Is the bird in Image #1 the same individual as the bird in Image #2? Either way, how do you know for sure?
Your Favorite?
Which of today’s two featured images is do you think is the stronger image? Be sure to let us know why you made your choice. Of the two, I have a very clear favorite.
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.
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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 :).
Hi Artie,
The background looks smoother to me in image #1 (even though you were further away) this is because you were at f6.3 rather than f13 in image #2. I think that you stopped down to f13 for image #2 because; you were closer, you wanted to keep the eyes and the closer wing feather detail in sharp focus and there was a bigger distance from the front to the back of the bird. I think that it is the same bird because of the black speck in the lower right of the eye (but as far as I know this could be a common feature of all breeding plumage birds). I prefer image #2 (even though the background is less clean) because of the shape the bird’s neck has made, I also love the amazing feather detail that is less noticeable in image #1, I also like the contrast between the (lovely) background and the bird in both images.
Jake
Artie,
Image 1 has a softer background because of the aperture at 6.3 and its shallower depth of field.
You used f/13 on image 2 so the entire bird would be in focus. Depth of field on a super telephoto lens close to a subject is very shallow.
Yes it is the same bird. The notches in the feathers on the wing look the same.
Image 2 I like the balance of the negative space.
Hey Todd, Good stuff. Thanks for playing.
with love, artie
Can I presume the Brown Pelicans are in breeding plumage? They are stunning in every way and a gift to a photographer like you Artie.
Best and love
Kel UK
Typo? Shooting 500mm at 255mm?
Hey Chuck, Thanks and fixed. It was a left-over cut and paste typo from yesterday 🙂
with love, artie