So Much To Share

This image of a Cosmos blossom was created with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender, a Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), (with the internal TC in place at 784mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/160 sec. at f/8 in Av mode. The 2-4 with two TCs gave me the reach that I needed to isolate this blossom against a killer pink background. Cosmos is a genus, with the same common name of Cosmos, of about 20–26 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.

The Good News, the Bad News, and the Blur Haters 🙂

The Good News

The good news is that the loading times for the blog are now approaching lightning speed and the Comments functionality has been restored. The previous blog post garnered 20 comments and everything there worked perfectly.

The Bad News

The bad news is that images will no longer be sent with the RSS feed folks will need to click on the link to see the photos. Why? Include the images in the RSS feed is a CUP-robbing strategy.

The Blur Haters 🙂

While I did expect a few blur haters I was somewhat surprised that the vast majority of those who responded to the “Keep One or Both?” blog post did not like blurs at all and would have deleted both images. Very few if any of the blur-haters were specific as to what the the main problem with each image was…. I will present the final image and comment on all the blur-hating in greater depth tomorrow.

Serendipity

After photographing at an Urbex site in Atlanta on Friday morning, Denise–thank you very much, drove to Chattanooga while I napped. When I awoke, she was raving about several large fields of flowers, Cosmos, she said, in the cloverleaf medians at an exit a few miles back. We asked around and learned that that exit was right near Old Car City. We made plans to wake early on Sunday and photograph the flowers before the Old Car City In-the-Field workshop. And we did. Along with new friends Steve and Elizabeth Lodwick. I will be sharing more images from that morning with you here fairly soon.

The Chattanooga Seminar

The Saturday seminar that denise and I did for the Photograaphic Society of Chattanooga seminar was a huge success. Despite another other major photographic event–they rescheduled to our dates a month ago, we had 107 folks in attendance and pretty much everyone went home smiling. They asked tons of questions and oohed, aahed, and laughed at all the right moments.

Thanks a stack to Bill Mueller (say “mewler) who organized the event and treated denise and me as if we were royalty. His supporting cast of volunteers was superb as well. When we arrived at the venue at 7:45 am it had been set up for a wedding that night! We were good to go for the seminar at 8:15 am and everything was back in place at 4:14pm after the seminar ended at 4:00pm. All in all, pretty amazing.

I received this e-mail from Bill as I was preparing this blog post:

Well guys, thanks again for an exciting weekend. We had a couple of curve balls (the Pullman yard and the church setup) but we managed to work it all out. I’ve had a fantastic response to both of your presentations. I’ve even gotten positive comments from my sometimes-crabby members so congratulations. I’ve even had someone tell me how brilliant I was for bringing you here. I guess I’ll just sit back and bask in the reflected glory. (:-}

Seriously though, thank you both for a terrific seminar and for taking your time to join in to our social activities on Saturday evening. You’ve made a lot of friends in Chattanooga.

Bill

Grill and hood ornament detail from vintage Plymouth Belvedere. The 3 originals for this in-camera Art Vivid HDR image were created with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (at 250mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/10 sec. at f/16 in Av mode (+/-2 stops). As with many of my flower images I used the 2-second timer and Live View (for mirror lock) to ensure a sharp image. Central sensor/AI Servo/Rear Focus on the 8 and re-compose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Old Car City (OCC) In-the-Field Workshop

Denise and I were joined by nine folks including eight very happy campers. Old Car City was amazing. We felt that you could have picked just one of the thousands of cars and photographed it all day long. There was lots of LCD image sharing and lots and lots of questions. More images and OCC stuff coming soon.

The Canon 200-400 with Internal TC

I continue to be amazed by the incredible versatility of the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender for all types of photography. If what you learned and saw here inspires you to purchase one please consider using our product-specific B&H link as a way of thanking us. Thanks :).

Salem, Connecticut Seminar Next Weekend!

Shooters Gallery Photography Program

October 20, 2013. Salem, CT

Click here to register.

Artie Morris & Denise Ippolito
Date: Sunday – October 20, 2013: Time: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Location: Salem Gardner Lake Firehouse Hall, 429 Old Colchester Road, Salem, CT 06420
Admission Fee: The Artie Morris presentation from 9:00am until 10:45am is free and open to the public courtesy of Canon U.S.A. The presentation by Artie and Denise from 11:00am until 4:00pm is $40.00 (Lunch & morning coffee included)
Host Organization: Shooters Gallery Photography Group

9:00 to 10:45 – “Choosing and Using Lenses for Nature Photography… BIRDS AS ART Style” – Artie Morris (Sponsored by Canon U.S.A.)
10:45 TO 11:00: Break
11:00 to 12:00 – “Blooming Ideas” – Denise Ippolito
12:00 to 1:00 – Lunch
1:00 to 2:00 – “Refining Your Photographic Vision” – Artie Morris and Denise Ippolito
2:00 to 2:30 – “Pro Gear Handling Tips” – Artie Morris and Denise Ippolito
2:30 to 2:45 – Break
2:45 to 4:00 – “Creating Pleasing Blurs” – Artie Morris and Denise Ippolito

Click here to register.

BIRDS AS ART 2nd International Bird Photography Competition

Learn more and enter the BIRDS AS ART 2nd International Bird Photography Competition here. Twenty-five great prizes including the $1000 Grand Prize and intense competition. Bring your best.

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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