Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro Lens for Cute Blonde Chick???

The Streak Continues: 241

This post was published just before 5:30am am from Gull Island Project, NY. Winter has returned early to GGI: it is cold and windy, from the NW at about 25mph. With clear skies, that pretty much puts the kibosh on most bird photography this morning. I enjoyed a great day of photography on GGI yesterday. And I had a wonderful midday swim without any jellyfish. The afternoon was one of my best ever and most exciting ever, surely in the top ten of the past 31 years. And I say that without having looked a single image…. Magic kept happening right in front of me. Pictures soon.

This post, which took me more than 2 hours to prepare, marks 241 consecutive days with a new enjoyable and educational blog post. Thanks a stack to Denise Ippolito who patiently guided me through the creation of the animated GIF in CS-6. I had that technique mastered a while ago but you know what happens when you don’t write it down and you don’t practice….

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This image was created at 10:42 am on a partly cloudy morning with the hand held Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens and the and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 as framed: 1/125 sec. at f/10 in Av mode.

One sensor above and one to the right of the Central Sensor/AI Servo/Rear Focus Single Point AF on the bird’s left eye was active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Thanks Ian!

Thanks to GGI tern researcher Ian Putnam who found this blonde Common Tern chick and shared it with me this morning. It was one of two blonde chicks in the same nest. This one was 3 days old when I created this image. I shaded the chick with my body and went to f/10 in hopes of sharpening up the egg tooth. It worked!

The Image Optimization

Note the bill and BKGR clean-up. I used the ULC. I also used Tim Grey Dodge and Burn to darken the ULC. Then I put the whole image on a new layer and de-saturated that layer 50 points. Then I added a Hide-All (Black or Inverse) Layer Mask and painted in the desaturation, again in the ULC.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) 3.14 to convert every image that I work on, click here.

Digital Basics

Everything that I did to optimize today’s images are detailed in my Digital Basics File–written in my easy-to-follow, easy-to-understand style. Are you tired of making your images look worse in Photoshop? Digital Basics File is an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro basics, my killer image clean-up techniques, Digital Eye Doctor, creating time-saving actions, and lots more.

APTATS I & II

Learn the details of advanced Quick Masking techniques in APTATS I. Learn Advanced Layer Masking Techniques in APTATS I. Mention this blog post and apply a $5 discount to either with phone orders only. Buy both APTATS I and APTATS II and we will be glad to apply at $15 discount with phone orders only. Please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-221-2372 on Tuesday to order.

The 2015 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT

June 29 through July 5, 2015: $5499: Limit 10 photographers/Openings 8. Two great leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris.

Here are the plans for next year: take a red eye from the east coast of the US on 28 June arriving in Edinburgh, Scotland on the morning of Monday 29 June (or simply meet us then either at the Edinburgh Airport (EDI) or later in the day at our cottages if you are driving your own vehicle either from the UK or from somewhere in Europe. Stay 7 nights in two gorgeous modern country cottages.

There are 5 days of planned puffin/seabird trips—weather permitting, and 1 full day of gannet photography with 2 sessions on the boat.

The Details

All breakfasts, lunches and dinners are included. All 5 puffins boat lunches will need to be prepared in advance, taken with, and consumed at your leisure. I usually eat mine on the short boat trip from one island to the other. Also included is a restaurant lunch on the gannet boat day and a farewell fine dining thank you dinner. The cost of your National Heritage Trust is also included; that covers the twice a day landing fees.

Plan to fly home on the early morning of Monday 6 July or to continue your stay or travels.

We are planning this as double-occupancy only but we should be able to arrange for singles by renting a 3rd cottage. We would need to know well in advance, i.e., soon, and it would be pricey and would need to be paid with your non-refundable deposit of $2,000. The shared rooms are decent-sized, each with two roomy single beds and a private bathroom. There are two king rooms available for couples. The upscale country-side cottages are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for image sharing and Photoshop lessons.

The single supplement is $1475. As we will be renting a third cottage the $1475 is due with your deposit and is also non-refundable.

If you are good to go please send your $2,000 deposit check now to save a spot. We do expect this workshop to sell out very quickly as we have already sold 2 slots even though the trip has not yet been formally announced till right now. Not to mention that everyone loves puffins. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855.

We do hope that you can join us.

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Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂

Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART