What’s Up?
My 93 year old Mom looks pretty darned good and is doing as well as can be expected. There is nothing wrong with her except that she is old. It takes a heroic effort for her to get from her chair to the bathroom or the kitchen or her bed. But she remains in good spirits.
I slept as well as I have in a while on Friday night at younger daughter Alissa’s home in Holbrook. On Saturday I watched lots of the British Open Golf, did some shopping at Whole Foods (aka “whole paycheck), got my Mom a dozen and a half Little-neck Clams on the half shell, and worked on this blog post. And enjoyed a nice swim in the community pool that was mercifully devoid of folks. Tomorrow the plan is to do a mile.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 249 days in a row with a new educational blog post. And I still have dozens of new topics to cover; there should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. AND Please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
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This image was created on DAY 5 of the 2016 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT with the a Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R.. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at about +1 stop: as originally framed: 1/400 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB. One AF point up and two rows to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Spot AF (don’t ask me why…)/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2 Image #1: Atlantic Puffin with fish/light BKGR |
Same Subject…
We landed on the back side of the morning island because of the height of the tide. Right off the bat we were presented with several close puffins, several of them with fish. It was easy to line them up with dark rock backgrounds. I have lots of pure black backgrounds but I liked this pose best. The whole group was lined up in shooting gallery fashion. After I while, I decided that I would like to photograph the same bird with a gray water background. What to do.
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This image–of the same bird–was also created on DAY 5 of the 2016 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R.. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at about -2/3 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB. One AF point to the right and two rows up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Spot AF (don’t ask me why…)/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -2 Image #2: Atlantic Puffin with fish/dark BKGR |
Different Backgrounds…
To achieve the water background I simply walked to our right about 10 meters and photographed the bird from a bit head on. As the subject was a bit smaller in the frame I placed the bird more in the lower left corner. The huge 5DS R image files permitted me to crop to taste without sacrificing image quality.
Your Favorite?
Which of today’s featured image do you like best? Why?
Exposure Multiple Choice Quiz
The exposure for the two featured images was the same, 1/400 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. Why?
a-the light was constant so the exposure on the bird was both correct and the same for each image.
b-when you are in Manual mode you do not have to worry about the effect of a light or dark background on the meter.
c-in heavy overcast conditions you do not have to worry about exposure changes due to working off angle to the light.
d-a, b, and c are all correct.
e-it was just a coincidence.
Related Exposure Questions
1- Why did the first image need about +1 stop Exposure Compensation (EC)?
2-Why did the second image require about -2/3 stop of EC?
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Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. |
2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT
Monday July 3 through Monday July 10, 2017: $5999: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 6). Two great leaders: Arthur Morris and BPN co-owner, BPN Photography Gear Forum Moderator, and long-time BAA Webmaster Peter Kes.
Here are the plans: take a red eye from the east coast of the US on July 2 and arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland on the morning of Monday July 3 no later than 10am (or simply meet us then 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 one of three gorgeous modern country cottages.
There are five days of planned puffin/seabird trips and one morning of gannet photography, all weather permitting of course. In three years we have yet to miss an entire day because of weather… In addition, we will enjoy several sessions of photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level.
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Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. |
The Details
We will get to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet; Arctic, Sandwich, and Common Terns, the former with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks. We will be staying in upscale country-side lodging that are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The shared rooms are decent-sized, each with a private bathroom. See the limited single supplement info below.
All breakfasts, lunches and dinners are included. All 5 puffins boat lunches will need to be prepared by you 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.
If you wish to fly home on the morning of Monday July 10 we will get you to the airport. Please, however, consider the following tentative plans: enjoy a second Gannet boat trip on the afternoon of Monday July 10 and book your hotel room in Dunbar. If all goes as planned, those who stay on for the two extra days will make a morning landing at Bass Rock, one of the world’s largest gannetries. We will get everyone to the airport on the morning of Wednesday July 12. (We may opt to stay in Edinburgh on the night of July 11.) Price and details should be finalized at least six months before the trip but you will need to be a bit patient. It would be ideal if I can get all the work done by the end of September so that folks can arrange their flights then.
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Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. Scroll down to join us in the UK in 2016. |
Deposit Info
If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome–please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on March 29, 2017. 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. 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 shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.
Single Supplement Deposit Info
Single supplement rooms are available on a limited basis. To ensure yours, please register early. The single supplement fee is $1575. If you would like your own room, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement; your single supplement deposit check should be for $3,575. As we will need to commit to renting the extra space, single supplement deposits are non-refundable so please be sure that check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
This trip has sold out far in advance every year so do not tarry. I hope that you can join me.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
Hello Arthur,
Amazing images as usual. Do you use IS when your shooting with the 600mm on a tripod or do you turn it off. The reason I ask is I am thinking of buying a 600mm without IS because I will always be shooting on a enduro tripod. So i am wondering if it really matter if it has IS? Thanks
Hi Richard, I always leave IS mode 2 on even when I am on a tripod. That said, I made thousands of great images with the older 600 lenses without IS…
best of luck,
artie
I also agree with “all of the above.”
Hi, Artie. Delighted to hear your mother is doing well and that you got her grape jelly. My mother loved oysters and other seafood–as do I–and sometimes I’d send her some for her birthday from a restaurant that was near where she lived (but many thousands of miles from where I lived). She said those were her favorite birthday presents from me.
On the abcd multiple choice, a is correct. On b and c, I’d never say I don’t have to worry about exposure. 🙂 Although the principles you stated seem right to me, so if I were grading this test I’d give credit for d (all of the above). So why weren’t YOU using manual mode?
Though not noted until after I read your comment, I had to have been in Manual mode… I use it so much that lots of times I forget to note it. I did not say Av and nothing but Manual mode would make any sense at all.
a
Thanks, Artie. Like Tony Zielinski, I was fooled by your talking about EC; your answer to him cleared that up. Thank you.
Hi Artie,
I’m a little confused about the exposure compensation here.
If you’re shooting in manual mode and setting the ISO, F-stop and shutter speed manually (to 400, F/8, 1/400 sec.), then i don’t understand how adding an exposure compensation would affect the photo. I thought the exp. comp. works when you’re in Av, Tv, or have ISO on AUTO, but should not affect your exposure when you’re in full manual.
In light of my lack of understanding, I’m not sure why you set EC differently for those two photos. I would assume that if your setting is correct for the bird in the first photo that you would leave the settings as-is when you reframed with a different background, since it’s correct for the bird in both photos.
Tony
Hi Tony,
You are missing a big point about working in Manual mode as I was in both situations. There is no EC that can be dialed in when working in Manual. But, and this is a huge but, you note the exposure that you have set relative to the exposure suggested by the camera but looking at the analog scale on the side or the bottom of the camera body depending on which body you are using.
The camera does not record this info (though it could and should with a firmware update); that is why it says in each of the captions: “at about … EC.” 95% of the time I note and remember these values; the other 5% of the time I guess-timate them quite accurately.
As I recall, you asked about the Galapagos IPT; you should join me on that or another–you would be amazed by how much you could learn.
a
I’m starting to get it, now that i’m using that meter at the side of the viewfinder. Thanks!!
I did ask about Galapagos IPT, thanks for remembering. Still negotiating with my wife about that – it’s hard to go without her since Galapagos is on our bucket-list, but she’s not interested in in an IPT. Perhaps the Alaska bear IPT… i could merge that with a family trip to Alaska to keep it inclusive for wife and daughter.
Will you be doing another Galapagos trip in 2018 or 2019? Sure would love to go, just not sure if it’s in the cards for next summer.
tz
Hi Tony, Good on getting the exposure stuff 🙂
I think that I mentioned that being on my trip with Juan as the guide would truly enrich her experience. Unless she wants to do the tourist thing with late breakfasts, little time on the islands, and early dinners. The food on the Samba is amazing but the photography does take precedence.
The very great likelihood is that the Galapagos 2017 will be the last BAA Photo-Cruise to the Archipelago…
Thanks for getting back to me and I do hope to work with you somewhere down the line.
a
I am 16 years younger than your mother. I am blessed to be able to do many of the things I could do when younger. It just takes longer and you have to do them differently. For example. I still frequently lay down to take pictures. I just need a stick to get up. All I have to do is remember where I left the stick.
Your mother is truly an amazing person and you are very fortunate to still have her. Make the most of and enjoy your time with her.
May God bless and watch over your mom.
Pete
Thanks Peter. It takes me a while to get up too…
My Mom wanted some grape jelly from the market so I went to Whole Foods and got her the very best grape jelly on the shelf. She has been a great Mom for a long time.
a
Did you mix up the exposure correction questions?
1st photo needs +1 because of overbright background, leaving subject underexposed.
2nd photo needs -2/3 because camera meter wants to compensate for dark background, blowing out the whites.
of course, “all of the above” is correct. It was nothing less than an epiphany to me when I “got” cloudy-bright direction-less lighting.
Hey Bill, Thanks for catching my screw-up.
Have you ever been on an IPT???
a