Response to “Your Help Needed”
Thanks to the many who responded to my request for help in the last blog post here.
Here is the story: as we thought, performance and loading times for some had been poor for three weeks or so. The good news is that performance and loading times are now reported to be very good to excellent for all.
The relatively bad news is that the fix for improving performance and loading times–which involves a system of cacheing (a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster), has severely hampered us in other public areas, most notably with folks having problems leaving and viewing comments. In addition folks who subscribe to the blog using RSS feeds are also reporting a host of problems, those mainly dealing with formatting.
We are aware of the problems and are working hard to resolve them. We have upgraded our server at additional expense to us both one-time and with our monthly charges. At some point, I will stay away from the blog for a weekend and the great and wonderful Peter (Peter, Pumpkin-eater) Kes will attempt to figure out what is going on.
What You Can Do
If you attempt to leave a comment and someone else’s name pops up, simply type in your correct info and then post your comment.
If you encounter new problems in any area please post a comment.
A Big Wow for Delkin
As regular readers know, I have used and depended on Delkin Compact flash cards for well more than a decade. I have never had a Delkin 32 or 64gb card fail me. They are super fast and reliable. At present, I currently have a Delkin 700X 64gb e-film Pro compact flash card in each of my three camera bodies. Learn more about the Delkin products that we carry here. In the event that you would like a Delkin product that we do not carry, like their great SD cards, we would be glad to have them drop-shipped for you to US addresses. Please contact Jim via e-mail to follow up.
Delkin Image Makers
Delkin recently unveiled their Image Makers site here. At present it features the work of nine very, very good photographers. I spent about ten minutes the other day perusing the work of the featured folks and was more than impressed. Their work spans a wide genre; at times it is great to take a look at good photography from outside of your preferred field. For me that means studying great images of subjects other than birds and animals and flowers.
If you do click on the link to do some surfing as I advise, please leave a comment and let us know whose outside of nature work impressed you the most. You can even comment on a specific image or two. I was wowed and am sure that you will be too.
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This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/30 sec. at f/4.5 in Manual mode. Two sensors to the left of the central sensor (Surround)/AI Servo Rear Focus AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
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The Tuesday In-the-Field Workshop
The Tuesday morning In-the-Field Workshop went off smoothly despite the gloom and doom weather forecasts. I had been to Huntington Beach State Park maybe 20 years ago, maybe more than that. I wound up walking five miles in total up and back to the jetty with the old 800mm f/5.6L lens and film. It was April and I did get a few decent images of molting Western Sandpipers but that was one long walk.
Some time ago they moved the entrance and the new road brings you onto a causeway with nice habitat on both sides. As you can see by the exposure data for the image above, it was very, very dark. But it did not rain until just before we left at 11:00 am. And though it was very windy after the first half hour, there were lots of birds and lots of action with many hundred Great Egrets flying around and fishing along with about two dozen Wood Storks and a variety of other wading birds including a few Roseate Spoonbills.
Everyone had a great time and made at least a few good images. As I suspected on this gloomy day the biggest problem was with folks underexposing their RAW files by not adding enough light. If I said it once, I said it 1,000 times :), “Be sure to be two stops over the meter reading off the light grey water.”
I was doing blurs when the bird above caught a fish so I raised my ISO and my shutter speed one stop and relied on the 600II’s great 4-stop image stabilization and excellent sharpness techniques to create a very sharp image at only 1/30 sec. I had been burned too many times in the past by inaccurate weather forecasts that predict Armageddon-like conditions to cancel the workshop because of the “bad weather.” Nobody especially me likes to photograph in the pouring rain but by opting to head out in possibly marginal conditions you often wing up making lots of very good or even great images.
I will be sharing lots more images from what turned out to be a great morning here with you soon. I will share my faves with you at some point.
Japan in Winter: FEB 12-26/27, 2014: $12,999.
Included: all lodging (double occupancy–single supplement available) including Tokyo hotel(s), all breakfasts and dinners, ground transport and transfers, four eagle boat trips (ice conditions permitting), all entrance fees, and in-country flights. Not included: international flights and alcoholic beverages.
There are three award winning photographers as co-leaders: Paul Mckenzie, multiple BBC and Nature’s Best honoree, Denise Ippolito, Nature’s Best honoree, and Arthur Morris. This trip is a go. I had thought for almost a year that it was sold out. Are you the lucky one? A non-refundable $5,000 deposit is required to hold your spot. Vary Happy Campers only please. Please e-mail to check on availability or call my cell at 1-863-221-2372.
Itinerary (as always, subject to change to maximize your photographic opportunities based on the local conditions):
Arrive Tokyo Wed Feb 12, overnight Tokyo
Thurs Feb 13 Morning flight from Tokyo to Kushiro City in Hokkaido. Transfer to Hickory Wind (Guide’s lodge). Afternoon photography at Crane field beside guide’s lodge/house.
Friday 14, Sat 15, Sun 16, Mon 17 – Crane photography; accommodations at Hickory Wind
Tuesday 18 morning – Swan photography at Lake Kussharo; afternoon drive to Rousu, overnight Rausu
Wed 19 – 2x boat trip on pack ice; overnight Rausu
Thursday 20th – 2x boat trip on pack ice. Dept Rausu mid/late afternoon. Overnight Hickory Wind.
Friday 21st – All day swan photography at Lake Kussharo. Overnight Hickory Wind.
Saturday 22nd – All day swan photography at Lake Kussharo. Overnight Hickory Wind.
Sunday 23rd – Early morning crane photography on river. Breakfast Hickory Wind. Mid-morning flight to Tokyo. Transfer to Tokyo Central station. Train to Nagano (2 hours) followed by separate train to Yudanaka (45 mins). Hotel owner will collect us from the station. Overnight in Yudanaka.
Monday 24th – All day Snow Monkey photography. Transfer to the monkey park will be by taxi (10 mins). We will arrange for taxis to pick us up on the way back. Overnight Yudanaka.
Tuesday 25th – All day Snow Monkey photography. Overnight Yudanaka.
Wed 26th – Morning Snow Monkey photography. Mid-afternoon train to Nagano. Separate train to Tokyo Central station. Overnight Tokyo (if departing night time on 26th, no need to stay overnight in Tokyo).
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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/Openings: 7.
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. 🙂
Bosque IPTs/Late Registration Discount
For information on both the 7-Day and the recently announced short version of the 2013 Bosque IPTs please click here and scroll down. Please e-mail me for late registration discount info.
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Are there no women in Delkin’s pantheon of Image Makers?
No problem with leaving comments today. Artie, would you mind commenting on the use of image stabilization with a tripod. I couldn’t remember where you have previously written about the subject. As you know my experience is limited and I keep getting conflicting opinions from professional photographers.
I keep IS 2 mode on on the tripod at all times. Have for years and have advised others to do the same. Except for super-long exposure ? 1 second. later and love, artie
Thanks
I did try during “that” period and gave up. In Bull. 448, under the animated GIF “…filling in of the canvas use the John Heado Content Aware Fill method …. as described in Digital Basics.” The most recent edition of DG that I have is January 2013 and I cannot find this method? Am I up to date or in dire need of new glasses and improved reading skills?
Looked through all the photos on the Image Makers site. While I appreciate what the other photographers have done, and there are two other photos I like quite well, those contain horses in the snow and a lone ranch hand with a group of horses. I saved yours for last so as not to be biased. However, possibly I’ve appreciated your work for so many years that I can no longer see the beauty in the work of these people. I mean no disrespect to those individuals or their work but after looking at the photos, I found much more beauty in the work of many people at bird photographers.net.
Jim, I was in error on the John Heado item. It will be in the next update. Thanks for your kind words but there are some killer images by some world class photographers on the Delkin site….