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.
The Streak: 404!
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, 404 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.
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This image was created on Saunders Island by multiple IPT veteran George Golumbeski (say Go-lum-BESS-kee) with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/5.6. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +12. Fire of Love/backlit copulating Black-browed Albatrosses, Saunders Island, The Falklands
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Fire of Love
When we first saw this image on George’s laptop, we all gasped. As George explains in the MP4 video interview below, the orange light outlining the female’s head is from the setting sun just getting through the space between the two birds. Though the image stands quite well on its merit the fact that the winds were gusting to 35 knots that afternoon makes it even more remarkable. Do you think that this image has contest potential? Please let us know why or why not. Thanks a stack to George for allowing me to share his glorious image with you here on the blog.
An MP4 Video Interview with the Photographer
In the video George shares the experience of creating Fire of Love and his thoughts on the various IPTs that he has attended.
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Image #1: Black-browed Albatross chick flapping |
Falklands Cheap Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019: Limit 7 photographers/Openings 5 or fewer: $7499
Just so you know, I will be leading an innovative land-based Falklands IPT leaving from Stanley, The Falklands on SAT 22 DEC 2018 and flying back to Santiago, Chile on SAT JAN 5, 2019. Why innovative? We will be spending six nights at The Neck on Saunders Island, one of the premier wildlife photography destinations on the planet. We will be ending up on the amazing Bleaker Island. I will let you know in January when the trip will be formally announced as to we will be spending seven nights on Bleaker or 3 nights on Sea Lion Island and 4 on Bleaker. I will make that decision after visiting Sea Lion on the DEC 2016 land-based Falklands IPT that I am leading.
What else is innovative? Most two-week land-based photo trips have you visiting four or five islands hopping on a FIGAS plane every two days or so. As you are at the mercy of the flight operations you may miss several mornings or afternoons of photography. Why not stay in two or three of the best locations, locations that offer the best photo opps without any long walks. Saunders and Bleaker will get you close-up to the great species with ease. At The Neck we will be staying in rustic cabins right in the heart of the action. On Bleaker we will be enjoying near-luxury accommodations and great home-cooked meals. We will have two vehicles at our disposal.
What else? The first Black-browed Albatross chicks hatch every year on or about 12 DEC. If you visit in early January you will miss most of the tiny chicks. And worse yet, the Rockhopper Penguin chicks are leaving by the second week of January. This trip if timed to get you tons of chances on tiny fluffy white albatross chicks, some of the larger fluffy white chicks, and the rockhopper chicks as well.
With several years of experience on the Falklands, more than six in fact, nobody knows how to read the sky conditions, the wind, and the light better than me and have the group in the best possible spot at all times. With lots of strong west winds, you will need someone who knows how to put you in position to make good images on near-impossible wind against sun mornings.
If you are seriously interested, please shoot me an e-mail and I will get back to you during the second week of November. Though this trip is more than two years away, two folks have already committed and two more are seriously interested. I am betting that it will sell out far in advance. See more chick images here.
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.
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 🙂
Stunning , BBC worthy.
Great image. Enter it in any wildlife competition. That little bit of back light gives just enough separation outline between the birds to break up all the white.
Beautiful. Hand holding a 600 is just a memory to me. Yes, Georges Map Quest saved our ass, but Artie’s mastery of the stick shift and his driving just about killed us!
On Wisconsin, go Badgers.
Absolutely stunning. I agree..enter it.
Yes! It has it all…beauty, emotion, composition, light and a unique perspective.
Congratulations!
A wonderful and stunning image.
Agree with Maggi..enter it!
Just fabulous and in my opinion, a very worthy winner of any wildlife photographic competition…..