Poult

You Be the Judge: Blur Voting

Voting on the Blur category will be closed at 4pm on Thursday, July 5. If you would like to pick your 5 favorites, click here.

This image of a Wild Turkey poult was created this morning down by the lake at my home in Indian Lake Estates, FL (using my SUV as blind) with the Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV.  ISO 400.  Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/8 in Av mode. The lens was supported by the BAA-designed Big Lens Ultimate Beanbag (BLUBB)on the lowered car window with a Double Bubble Level. in the hot shoe. Central sensor (by necessity)/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF on the bird’s neck and recompose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image for a larger version.

Poult

poult (noun) pōlt: a young fowl; especially, a young turkey

Image Processing

The RAW file was converted in ACR as usual. Image clean-up also as usual with a large Quick Mask to cover the bird in the lower right corner, lots of 40% Clone Stamp Tool work, some Patch Tooling, and a bit of Protect and Defend Cloning on a layer. With NIK Color Efex Pro I painted in a 40% Detail Extractor layer on the bird’s face and ran a 75% Tonal Contrast layer on the bird only (via the Quick Selection Tool). That was followed by some Eye Doctor work and selective sharpening of the bird’s face. All but the NIK stuff is covered in detail in Digital Basics. The NIK stuff will be covered in the next update of Digital Basics. All updates are free.

Canon EOS-7D On Sale: $1349 at B&H

I am not sure when this offer expires but I know that it expires quite soon so if you are in the market for a 7D click here. Purchase includes your choice of a free accessory.

New York City Weekend Nature Photography Seminar December 8-9, 2012

Detail for this great weekend seminar are available here. Do consider joining Denise Ippolito and me for a great learning experience. Do click on the link to see many of Denise’s incredible tree and flower images. Camera club discounts available; see the details at the link.

5D Mark III Guide Pre-publication Version Still Discounted

Click here for details. When the guide is complete it will sell for $50. Folks who purchase now will receive the final version and any updates for no additional charge so ordering now is a win-win proposition. If you click on the link above you will see that the list of items not yet covered is continues to shrink….

I spent the better part of Tuesday and today working on the 5D III UG; when I am done, the price goes to $50. Buy now to save! The more I study this camera the more I learn how complex it is. Rudy Winston at Canon has been a huge help and so as Denise who helped me with the section on Multiple Exposures today. I still have some work to do.

Nickerson Beach/JBWR Photo-Tour August 15-17, 2012: Only 1 slot left!

Nickerson Beach/JBWR Photo-Tour August 15-17, 2012: $999. Co-leader: Denise Ippolito. Introductory slide program: Tuesday August 14 at 7pm. Limit 8/Openings:1.

This photo-tour is almost sold out. But with two great leaders each tons of experience at this site and the promise to learn a ton of great Photoshop stuff it does make a lot of sense.

For more info and a collection of images click here.

For info on Denise Ippolito’s July 14-15 Nickerson Beach trip–featuring lots of Common Tern chicks and fledglings, click here.

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear used to create the images in today’s blog post. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens. Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
Canon 1.4X III Teleconverter. Designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. My two Mark IVs are my workhorse digital camera bodies.

And from the BAA On-line Store:

LensCoats. I have a LensCoat on each of my big lenses to protect them from nicks and thus increase their re-sales value. All my big lens LensCoat stuff is in Hardwood Snow pattern.
LegCoat Tripod Leg Covers. I have four tripods active and each has a Hardwood Snow LegCoat on it to help prevent further damage to my tender shoulders 🙂
GT3532 LS. This one replaces the GT3530LS Tripod and will last you a lifetime. I’ll be commenting on this new model soon. In short, I like it, and it will last you more than a lifetime.
Mongoose M3.6 Tripod Head. Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head.
CR-80 Replacement Foot for Canon 800. When using the 800 on a Mongoose as I do, replacing the lens foot with this accessory lets the lens sit like a dog whether pointed up or down and prevents wind-blown spinning of your lens on breezy days by centering the lens directly over the tripod.
Double Bubble Level. You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
Be sure to check out our camera body User’s Guides here.
The Lens Align Mark II. I use the Lens Align Mark II pretty much religiously to micro-adjust all of my gear an average of once a month and always before a major trip. Enjoy our free comprehensive tutorial here.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV User’s Guide. Learn to use your Mark IV the way that I use mine. Also available for the 7D and the Mark III here.