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Ilyas snuggling with Grandpa Arthur on the backyard swing in Holbrook, NY. Image created with the hand held Canon Powershot G15 (now replaced by the Canon PowerShot G15 Digital Camera). Image courtesy of and copyright 2013: daughter Alissa |
Ilyas
Ilyas was my third grandchild. Still is. He is now 7. As mentioned previously, he is autistic, on the low functioning end of the scale. He rarely holds eye contact. And though his verbal skills are pretty much non-existent, he does let you know when he is happy or when something is bothering him. Like many autistic kids, he often responds well to touch. He loves to play rough. He is incredibly strong and fast.
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Ilyas at Special Needs Soccer. Image created with the hand held iPhone 4s. Image courtesy of and copyright 2013: daughter Alissa |
Running
Illy loves to run. One of my favorite stories is when he was visiting Florida in October many years ago. I was out trick or treating with Illy, Sam, and Maya. Illy and Maya were running to the top of a sloped driveway and then running down at full speed. After several trips I realized that they were coming down out of control and screamed out at Maya to slow down. Ilyas crash landed at the bottom of the driveway and fell face first into a mud puddle. He stood up with a bloody lip and his face covered in mud. I had a camera in hand but my first instinct was to go to his aid and clean him up. As soon as I got some of the mud off of his face he ran back to the top of the driveway for more fun. I put a stop to that fun very quickly!
ps: I was fairly amazed at the quality of the i-Phone image.
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An out-of-focus image of Ilyas at his 6th birthday party. Created with the hand held 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II (hand held at 165mm) and the EOS-1D Mark IV (now replaced for this type of photography by the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera (Body Only)). |
Illy’s World
In low light, low contrast situations, autofocus can have a hard time. I would have loved to have acquired focus for this happy moment but I never deleted the image. Why? It gets me thinking about what’s going on inside of Illy’s head, about how he perceives his world.
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Ilyas again at his 6th birthday party. This one in focus. Image created with the hand held 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II (hand held at 155mm) and the EOS-1D Mark IV (now replaced for this type of photography by the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera (Body Only)). |
Alissa
With my daughter Alissa being such a wonderful mother, Ilyas knows much happiness. If there is a special needs or autism event within 2 hours of her home, she is there. Theater, sports, theme parks. You name it; she is there. And in the home, she meets innumerable daily challenges with a smile and an amazingly positive attitude.
If you missed the first post on this and related family topics, click here.
Traveling
Please know that artie will be traveling to and from the Galapagos until July 19th. He will not have any internet access while aboard the Samba from July 3-16th. He will be home briefly July 19-20 before flying to Long Island for the sold out Nickerson Beach Baby Birds IPT. Jim will be in the office every weekday to help you with your mail order purchases and Jen will be here handling IPT registrations. The blog will continue to be active as he has prepared more than a few posts for you in advance for you to enjoy during his absence.
If you have a gear or an image processing question please e-mail me after July 19th.
Photographic Society of Chattanooga Seminar
Scroll down here for details on the Saturday seminar that Denise Ippolito and yours truly are doing in Chattanooga on October 12, 2013 and the follow-up Old Car City In-the-Field Workshop. Blog folks who sign up for both are invited to join us at a secret Urbex location in Atlanta on Friday morning October 11. Feel free to e-mail me for details after you are registered for both.
From Greg Clarkson via e-mail
Thanks so much for the awesome and inspiring weekend seminar that you and Denise put on in Brandon! It was greatly appreciated. Greg
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Snow Goose composite, Bosque del Apache NWR, San Antonio, NM. Click on the image for a larger version. |
Bosque del Apache 2013 IPT: “The Complete Bosque Experience.” NOV 26-DEC 2, 2013. 7-FULL DAYS: $3399. Co-leader: Denise Ippolito. Introductory Slide program: 6:30 pm on 11/25. Limit: 12.
Tens of thousand of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks including point-blank American Wigeon and Wood Duck, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with one of (if not the) world’s premier photographic educators at one of his very favorite locations on the planet. Top-notch Photoshop instruction. This will make 19 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for me. Nobody knows the place better than I do. 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 applying what you learned will prove to be invaluable. Includes all lunches and the Thanksgiving Buffet at the Crowne Plaza in Albuquerque. I hope that you can join me for what will be an unparalleled learning experience.
A $500 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. Your balance is due 4 months before the date of the IPT and is also non-refundable. If 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. If 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.
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Images copyright 2012: Denise Ippoltio & Arthur Morris. Card design by Denise Ippolito. Click on the image to enjoy a spectacular larger version. |
Holland 2014 7 1/2-Day/8-Night: A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART/Tulips & A Touch of Holland IPT. April 17-April 24, 2014 :$4995 Limit: 12 photographers/Openings 9
This trip needs 8 registrants to run so please do not purchase your plane tickets until you hear from us; right now we need 5 more folks.
Join Denise Ippolito, Flower Queen and the author of “Bloomin’ Ideas,” BPN Photo Gear Moderator, former Nikon shooter, and technical expert Peter Kes, and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light and one of the planet’s premier photographic educators for a great trip to Holland in mid-April 2014. Day 1 of the IPT will be April 17, 2014. We will have a short afternoon get-together and then our first photographic session at the justly-famed Keukenhof. Peter who is originally from Holland, will be our local guide/interpreter/driver. Most days we will return to the hotel for lunch, image sharing and a break. On Day 8, April 24, we will enjoy both morning and afternoon photography sessions.
The primary subjects will be tulips and orchids at Keukenhof and the spectacularly amazing tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulb fields around Lisse. In addition we will spend one full day in Amsterdam. There will be optional visits the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and the Anne Frank House in the afternoon; there will be plenty of time for street photography as well. And some great food. On another day we will have a wonderful early dinner at Kinderdijk and then head out with our gear to photograph the windmills and possibly some birds for those who bring their longs lenses. We will spend an afternoon in the lovely Dutch town of Edam where we will do some street photography and enjoy a superb dinner. All lodging, ground transportation, entry fees, and meals (from dinner on Day 1 through dinner on Day 8) are included.
For those who will be bringing a big lens we will likely have an optional bird photography afternoon or two or possibly three. The big attraction should be gorgeous Purple Herons in flight at a breeding marsh. We would be photographing them from the roadside. And we might be able to find a few Great-crested Grebes at a location near Keukenhof.
Click here for complete details and some previously unpublished images. And/or click here and see item one for lots more tulip photos and complete trip details.
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Images courtesy of and copyright 2012: Bill Mueller. Card design by Denise Ippolito. |
Old Car City Creative Photography In-the-Field HDR Workshop: Sunday, October 13, 2013/ 9am till 1pm.
White, Georgia: $250 plus a $15 entrance fee donation (cash only on the day of the event) that will go to charity. Limit: 16 photographers.
On October 13, 2013, Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART and Denise Ippolito/A Creative Adventure will be conducting an In-the-Field HDR Workshop at Old Car City in White, Georgia. Old Car City is about an hour north of Atlanta, GA and an hour south of Chattanooga, TN where they will, as noted above, be doing a full day seminar for the Photographic Society of Chattanooga on Saturday, October 12th. Click here for complete details.
Typos
On all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂
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What a beautiful child. Thank you for sharing.
Illy is a real cutie. His face expresses an innocence and joy.