Helen Hayes/Great Island “CBS This Morning” Feature Aired Yesterday
It was wonderfully done. Older daughter Jennifer and I laughed a lot. Helen’s understated humor cracked us up. When Michelle Miller asked “How did you learn to get along with them?” Helen answered,
“Oh, I got a hat. That made all the difference.” (Tern researchers wear a variety of headgear designed to keep the birds from opening up their scalps while defending their eggs, young, and territories.)
I was happy to see six BAA tern images on TV in the CBS “Taking Flight/Researcher helps migratory birds make a comeback” feature. It was yet another great tribute to the amazing ornithologist, Helen Hays. Those of you who did not get to see or tape it can enjoy “Woman revives Great Gull Island’s tern population” hereor on You Tube here. Thanks to Jay for leaving a comment with the link to the story on the CBS website and to Andrew Grandys for the You Tube link.
Important Bosque Festival of the Cranes Event Registration Notice
Registration for all Festival of the Cranes workshops, seminars and programs is open. Please click here and read carefully to avoid missing out on several wonderful and inexpensive educational opportunities. Please do not tarry as we expect all of the BAA/A Creative Adventure sessions to sell out quickly, especially the early morning In-the-Field Workshops.
The Streak Continues: 278
This blog was published just before 7:15am from my home in Indian Lake Estates, FL after another good night’s sleep. I did have stem cell/PRP/Prolozine injections in my right shoulder (the 2nd set) and the first ones for my left knee. The procedures were a lot more painful than they were the first time around. A very lot…. This post, which took me about 3 hours to prepare, makes 278 in a row.
As always, I would appreciate your using the BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases, using our Amazon logo-link for all of your household purchases, and visiting the BAA Online Store for your tripod, tripod head, LensCoat, miscellaneous, accessories, and eGuide purchases as well.
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This image was created on last June’s Palouse scouting trip with the Gitzo 3532 LS carbon fiber tripod, the Mongoose M3.6 head, the Two sensors above and two to the right of the central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF near the base of the lower of the two blades of grass was active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version. |
Mysterious All Around…
Exploring old abandoned buildings in the Palouse was an exciting adventure, as was exploring the entire, insanely beautiful region.
#1: Aside from the grasses, what exactly are we looking at (or through)?
#2: Where was I standing?
#3: Why -1 stop? (A peek at the DPP 4.0 screen capture below might help.)
#4: Describe the lighting.
#5: What setting accentuated the ORANGE tones in the image?
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This is a DPP 4.0 screen capture for today’s featured image. |
DPP 4.0
In the new DPP 4.0 RAW eGuide Arash Hazeghi and I will teach you how to set up and customize DPP 4.0 so that it is most efficient. We teach you how and why to view the various palettes and where to put them. And we teach you how to set and use those two long bars each with lots of buttons and icons. As I said originally, DPP 4.0 is a whole different animal as compared to previous iterations of Canon Digital Photo Professional. There is a somewhat steep learning curve–heck, that’s what we are here for, but the results are clearly superior to those attained with any other RAW converter. I am working hard every day at re-crafting Arash’s original and brilliant first draft and each weekend we fine-tune things with a long phone conference. Writing is a process, a difficult one at best….
Most obvious in the screen capture above is the stuff in BLUE, the Shadow warnings. Those with good vision will see a smattering of Highlight warnings in RED. Likewise, those with perfect vision will note that the active AF sensor is illuminated in RED. The hard-to-see items are of course plainly visible on your laptop or computer monitor; here we are limited by the presentation of a small JPEG image file.
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Please note that there are two Palouse IPTs in place. Hope that you can join us 🙂 Card and design by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. |
The Palouse A Creative Adventure/BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT)/Eastern Washington State. June 5-9, 2015/5 Full Days: $1699/Limit 12 photographers/Openings 4; this trip is a go.
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will likely enjoy spectacular sunrises and possibly a nice sunset or two. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. We will take you to some really neat old abandoned barns and farmhouses in idyllic settings. There is no better way to improve your compositional and image design skills and to develop your creativity than to join us for this trip. Two great leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris. Photoshop and image sharing sessions when we have the time and energy…. We get up early and stay out late and the days are long. For a sample of what you will be learning, click here.
After 6 days of back-breaking scouting work in early June 2014 we found all of the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and views. We will teach you what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time.
What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, our newfound but very extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions when possible.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills. You will learn to get the right exposure every time. You will learn to develop your creative eye. You will learn the basics of HDR (high dynamic range) photography. You will learn a variety of in-camera creative techniques; Canon 5D Mark III bodies are a plus. And most importantly you will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images. Do see both of our blogs for lots more on that in the coming weeks. You will learn how the quality and direction of light combine to determine the success of your images. And–please don’t gasp–we will be working quite a bit with sidelight when creating landscapes. Lastly, we will be touching on infrared photography.
A non-refundable $699 deposit is due now. The balance will be due on January 29, 2015. With the unpredictable nature of the photography business, I have not said this often lately, but it seems quite likely that this one will fill up very quickly. Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining us. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours or send us a check; the latter is preferred.
Please send your deposit check made out to “Arthur Morris” to us at Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail. You can also contact denise via e-mail here
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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. 🙂
Well the first one was very good anyway, I will get the second one too.
Jackie, I do not think the DPP 4.0 Guide has been published by Artie and Arash yet. It’s coming this month though.
I got the one that is currently in the store for version 4, are you doing a whole new one? I am using the 5 DMark III.
Should read DPP guide:)………(mac spellchecker!)
Fixed :).
I have just starting using the DPP guide. Initially I became interested for converting IR images, but didn’t know much about the settings. So after a couple of conversions I can say the colours are much more accurate, and the sharpening looked perfect. Noise wasn’t much of an issue as I shot at 100 ISO. But colour is very important to me so I will continue to convert using the program. The only thing I am having trouble with is when it says “open in Photoshop”, and the program doesn’t seem to be able to do it. I would not have had no clue how to use the software without this guide. Artie, small typo, bottom of the fourth page, “he” should read “the”. Thanks to Arash and Artie. I am really pleased and more confident in further exploring what the program can do. At $15 dollars, this is a good investment in my opinion. Who knew what this program could do!
Thanks Jackie. I will ask Arash about the “open in Photoshop” problem. Is the typo in the current DPP Guide? What camera are you using? artie
Hi Arthur, very cool looking image! My guess is that you were positioned to photograph a window, looking towards the outside, of an old abandoned home. The grasses are silhouetted against a weathered drape or blind.
I can barely wait for the new DPP 4.0 guide. I installed the software update, but I’m holding off on using it because I want to learn it correct from the beginning from you and Arash!
Good on you. I just got off the phone with him. Again! I need to finish so that I can do my 2013 income taxes…. artie
Robin and I really enjoyed the CBS segment. I think it was very fortunate that you happened to be there while they filmed and they added your images to the segment. While Helen was great, having those beautiful images come up while she was talking really made it. Your images made a good story great!
We both liked the wing stretch (or was it a flap), and the adult portrait near the end. Thanks for giving us the heads up on the segment.
Thanks, glad, and agree :). The first one was a juvie roseate doing a double-overhead wingstretch, the adult was a displaying adult Roseate Term from my visit last spring.
love you both, a