Mid-Trip Summary & My Very Favorite South Georgia Image

What’s Up?

I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.

I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer pricing advice to those who agree to my terms, usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily and that big, heavy Nikon super-telephotos have been nearly impossible to sell.

Recent Sales

William B Ellison, Jr.sold his a used Canon EOS 5D Mark III in near mint condition for the then BAA record-low price of $1497 in early December.

Ron Ozuna sold his Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens in near-mint condition for $2699 in early December.

• IPT veteran and good friend Mark Hardymon sold his used Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR lens in excellent condition for the by far BAA record low price of $5700 in late November.
• IPT veteran Mark Overgaard sold his Canon EF600 f/4L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for $9,295 in mid-November.
• IPT veteran Larry Master sold his Canon EF600 f/4L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for $9,295 in mid-November.
• Bill Hill sold his like-new Canon EOS 5DS R for an incredibly low $2599 five minute after it was listed in early November.
• Bob Serling sold his Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $4449 and his older, Canon EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens in excellent plus condition for the shock-the-world price of $2399 within a day or three of listing them here. Why? He wanted to sell them and listened to my pricing advice.
• Multiple IPT veteran Larry Master sold his Canon EOS 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens in excellent condition for $549 to a private buyer.

Used Gear Sales/New Listings

Canon EOS 5D Mark III

Richard Goldman is offering a used Canon EOS 5D Mark III in excellent condition for the BAA record-low price of $1399. It has been maintained by Canon Professional Services with their routine clean and checks after photo trips (and includes a very recent clean and check). The shutter count is 46,644. The sale includes the original box, the manuals, the strap, the front body cap, the cable, one Canon battery, the battery charger, and insured ground shipping via UPS to US addresses only. You camera will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Richard via e-mail.

I have used the 5D III for birds on occasion with excellent results, even with the 2X III TC and the 600 II. It was my go-to dSLR for flowers, landscapes, and Urbex photography for many years until I replaced it first with the 5DS R and then with the 5D Mark IV. In my experience, the quality of the image files is superb. . artie

Canon 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 Telephoto Zoom Lens

Richard Goldman is also offering a used Canon 100-400mm L IS Zoom lens, the old 1-4, in excellent condition for the BAA record-low price of $529. Please contact Richard via e-mail. The sale includes the original lens case and strap, the front lens cap, the rear lens cap, the lens hood, the removable tripod collar, and insured ground shipping via UPS to US addresses only.

Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Richard via e-mail.

The 100-400 is a versatile intermediate telephoto zoom lens with 1,000+ uses. It makes a great starter lens especially for folks who do general nature and wildlife in addition to birds. I’ve sold 100s of images made with the old 1-4. Richard’s 100-400 is priced to sell. artie

Canon EOS 24-105mm f/4 L IS Lens

Richard Goldman is also offering a Canon EOS 24-105mm f/4 L IS Zoom lens, the original model, in excellent condition, for the BAA record-low price of $519. The focusing motor was replaced several years ago by Canon Professional Services. The sale includes the front and rear lens caps, the lens hood, the lens pouch, and insured ground shipping via UPS to US addresses only.

Please contact Richard via e-mail.

The 24-105 is my go to B-roll lens. I use it for scenics, bird-scapes, Urbex, images of people, and tons more. It makes a pretty good quasi macro lens at 105mm. Whenever I leave this amazingly versatile lens at home or in the vehicle, I wish that I hadn’t. As the early word on the street is that the version II is not any better optically than the original version, Richard’s lens is priced to sell. artie

The Streak: 396!

Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 396 days in a row with a new educational blog post. 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.

This image was created on our last South Georgia landing at Right Whale Bay with the hand held Canon 24-105mm zoom lens (at 28mm) now replaced by the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6. Manual selection center AF point/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF one-third of the way into the frame and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. King Penguins/mostly Oakum Boys in the Salisbury Plain colony

A Mid-Trip Summary and My Very Favorite South Georgia Image

It is the morning of Sunday, November 6, 2016 as I type in the library of the Sea Spirit as it sits at the dock in Ushuaia, Argentina. I will be staying in a very nice hotel for five days of R & R before heading to Peru for a 2 ½ week photo adventure.

My big concern on what is now scheduled to be a 10 ½ week journey was and is my health. I realized that I might be forced to cancel the remainder of the trip at any time if things went seriously south. So far, so good. After my first six-day cold I fought off a second cold in only two days and am in the process of beating cold #3 after only four days. I hope. The last cold has been the nastiest. In between the colds, I have felt amazingly good. It is pretty obvious that the surgery, the anesthesia, and the antibiotics left my immune system compromised.
The South Georgia portion of the CES expedition went quite well after we lost a full day to high winds in Stanley, The Falklands. We tried twice to land at Elsehul—once at the beginning and one at the end–but were blown out each time. The landings the King Penguin colonies at Salisbury Plain, Fortuna Bay, Gold Harbor, and St. Andrews Bay were spectacular as always. Some folks made the icy climb up the hill to the Macaroni Penguins but most, including me, chose a safer zodiac cruise and did quite well especially with a nice raft of Black-browed Albatross on the water.

Our very best South Georgia landing, however, was saved for last. On the morning of October 30 we departed the zodiacs to find six inches of fresh snow on the ground at Right Whale Bay; it was a photographer’s paradise. I had not been in a rush that morning so I was on the fifth zodiac to land. When I saw the group of penguins featured in today’s image walking toward the landing site I quickly grabbed a camera body and my 24-105mm lens so that I could get to the right of the approaching birds before the railroad crossing would be closed until the whole flock went by.

If I had remained beachside, I would have more than a few folks in my image. In addition, getting by the birds let me include the line of the beach and the distant mountain range in the image. Note that I got close and tall enough so that the penguin’s heads did not merge with the shoreline. Though I was unable to get the rest of my gear for more than 30 minutes, I was glad that I had seen the developing situation and made the image that turned out to be my favorite of the trip.

I was ready to make the Sea Lion Island landing but the landing was called off when it was determined that it was too rough to land. One zodiac of staff was flipped but all were rescued and all were safe. I skipped the next two Falkland landings—Steeple Jason and New Island—as my third cold developed. The Steeple Jason landing at the world’s largest Black-browed Albatross colony was especially incredible. In retrospect, I know that staying on the ship to rest was the right decision for me.

Speaking of the ship, the Sea Spirit served as a wonderful and luxurious home for our 2 ½ week journey. The food was fine dining at sea, the dining room was spacious and quiet, the staterooms were large and well appointed (with a small fridge for my insulin), and the Sea Spirit handled the rough seas beautifully. The ship’s staff was great as expected. If you ever have a chance to sail to some magical location on this great ship, do not miss it.

Please Remember to use my 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 please remember that I am 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, 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.

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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 🙂