43 Hours Door to Door, With a Bad Head Cold; You Gotta Love It!

This Maasai Giraffe image was created with the BLUBB-supported Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (with the internal TC in place at at 448mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/11. Central sensor/AI Servo-Surround/Rear Focus on the giraffe’s head and re-compose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. The grasslands surrounding our mobile tented camp in the Serengeti were wondrously beautiful. Pretty much all 14 of us on the photographic safari agreed that the seemingly endless grasslands were our favorite habitat type as they so typified what one thinks of when the word Africa comes to mind. Here, the acacia tree and a scattering of Wildebeest on the horizon complete the picture.

43 Hours Door to Door, With a Bad Head Cold; You Gotta Love It!

I awoke on Thursday and Friday past with just a hint of a sore throat. I pretty much beat that, but it turned into a case of the sniffles. I awoke at 3:30am Monday morning Tanzania time (that’s 8:30pm on Sunday night on the east coast) at the Beautiful African Tulip Hotel to finish packing and head to the Kilamanjaro Airport for my flight to Dar es Salaam. I was picked up at 5am (10pm Saturday night Florida time) so we will start the door to door clock running there.

My Precision Air flight (advice: if they survive likely bankruptcy, never fly Precision Air) was late so my 8 hour layover turned into a 6 hour layover. I had scheduled a day room for $150 and the to and from airport transfers for another $120. Throw in the brutal Dar traffic and a stop at the pharmacy to pick up some antihistamines) $48 US please) and I got to enjoy 1 hour and 40 minutes of very expensive R&R.

Next was Dar to Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia (3 hours) followed by a 2 1/2 hour layover. By now my head cold was raging and my nose was literally running like a leaky faucet despite my having taken on antihistamine tablet. Then it was Addis to Rome (5 hours, 10 minutes), and hour plus on the ground to refuel, and then the long leg, 10 hours and 5 minutes into Washington’s Dulles airport. I really felt like crap on the Addis to Rome leg and on our descent, I got to enjoy some severe sinus/ear pain in my right ear. In spite of that, I managed to sleep about 3 1/2 hours. I still felt like crap as we took off again, bolstered by some nose drops from a kindly ans sympathetic flight attendant. Amazingly, I slept five straight hours and felt pretty good upon awakening as the antihistamine had kicked in and the nose drops have helped as well.

But there were still 7+ hours to go to get to the US. I had some cashews for dinner, I guess it was dinner, and got back to sleep for another two hours. Then I watched the brilliant My Cousin Vinny for perhaps the fiftieth time, had some more cashews, and napped again. Then it was the silly and predictable Harrison Ford flick, “The Volcano.” 90 minutes later I was on the ground in DC. I quickly made my way through customs with the help of Global Entry and picked up and re-checked my bags.

I typed this blog post while in the United Club at Dulles awaiting my 12:30pm flight to Orlando. Jim is picking me up a bit before 3pm. With our customary stops at Publix and Junior’s Fish Store in Lake Wales I should be home right about 5pm. Was it worth it? Stay tuned for lots of great new Africa images on the blog and in the coming Bulletins. I think that the answer will be fairly obvious.

This African Elephant image was created at Tarangire National Park, Tanzania with the BLUBB-supported Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (at 400mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/5.6. One sensor below the Central sensor/AI Servo-Surround/Rear Focus on the head of the tree rubbing elephant active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Having the 200-400 with arm’s reach of the 600 made wider creating habitat images like this one a snap.

Your Fave?

Which of the two habitat-type images above is your favorite, and why?

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.

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,” and Arthur Morris, Canon Explorer of Light Emeritus 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. 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. If we get lucky, 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.

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.

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.

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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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 🙂 And you will love them in mega-cold weather….
Gitzo GT3532 LS CF Tripod. This one replaces the GT3530LS Tripod and will last you a lifetime. Learn more about this great tripod here.
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.
Double Bubble Level. You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
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.
BreezeBrowser. I do not see how any digital photographer can exist without this program.
Delkin Flash Cards. I use and depend on Delkin compact Flash Cards and card readers most every day. Learn more about their great 700X and 1000X cards here or about my favorite Delkin card here.