Stuff
My flights were fine. I met up with three of my six clients and we car-pooled down to Pullman. Everyone enjoyed the introductory program. We slept in (Palouse style) and did not leave the hotel until 6:00am! What a luxury. We did old cars and trucks followed by one of my favorite red barns (with yellow streaks). We are headed for lunch soon.
The Streak
Just in case you have not been counting, today makes 17 days in a row with a new educational blog post 🙂
2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Monday July 3 through Wednesday July 12, 2017: $5999 + $1499: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 5). The (really cheap) two-day Gannet/Bass Rock Add-on is now part of the trip.
Please call 863-692-0906 for info on the substantial Late Registration Discount.
Here is some great info on the July 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT: I have finalized the cottage and vehicle rental arrangements. We have room for several additional folks, at least for a couple and single. And I am in position, as noted above, to offer a rather substantial late registration discount. Please call us at 863-692-0906 or get in touch via e-mail. Click here and scroll down for additional details and the travel plans.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of 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.
Please Don’t Forget …
As always–and folks have been doing a really great job for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major and minor 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 BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Selling Your Used 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 charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, 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. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar above.
Just so you know …
I very much love everything about the image that I posted in the Wedding Dress — Like it or hate it? Do Not Hesitate! And Auto Tone Magic blog post here. I am fine with the fact that one poster would have deleted it instantly and fine with the fact that most who commented found fault with one thing or another. I even liked the image title 🙂
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This image was created recently at Gatorland on a rainy Friday afternoon with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and my favorite bird photography camera, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800: 1/320 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode (was the left-over exposure from a baby Tricolored Heron and resulted in a significant over-exposure). Daylight WB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1. One row down and one AF point to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF. As originally framed (see the DPP 4 screen capture) the selected AF point was on the bird’s neck. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a larger version. Snowy Egret — fledged young yawning |
Do Not Hesitate Part II
I was working a baby Tricolored Heron. Though it has some white on it, the WHITEs are not nearly as bright as the WHITEs on any Snowy Egret. My young snowy was sitting on a fence post. I saw it yawn, and knowing that the resulting image would be over-exposed I pointed, frame, acquired focus, and fired off two frames. Blinkies city. But as the blinkies were not too extensive I thought that I might have a chance to save the WHITEs during the RAW conversion in DPP 4 and then again in Photoshop. As we saw in the Wedding Dress — Like it or hate it? Do Not Hesitate! And Auto Tone Magic blog post here yesterday, if I had stopped to change the exposure or even if I had tried to move the AF point, I would have missed the yawn and come up empty. Keep reading to learn how I saved the WHITEs.
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DPP 4 Screen Capture |
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
Notice that the RGB values for the RAW file are 254, 254, 254. And that is with the Brightness slider pulled back to -.50, one-half stop. I moved the Highlight slider to -2 and converted the image. There were still some 254, 254, 254 WHITE RGB values in the converted TIFF so I made a Color Range selection of the brightest WHITEs, put them on its own layer, and applied a 20% Linear Burn. To my taste, the whites in the optimized image at the top of this blog post look just fine.
Most everything above is detailed in my Digital Basics File, an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete (former PC) digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, details on using all of my image clean-up tools, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, the basics of Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs and Dodge and Burn, a variety of making selections, how to create time-saving actions, and tons more.
The Curves on a Layer Color Balancing technique will be included for the first time in the all-new Current Workflow e-guide that better reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. It will include a section on ACR conversions, DPP 4 BASICS, and a simplified method of applying Neat Image noise reduction. Along with all of the Photoshop stuff from Digital Basics that I still use. Learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair. Learn how and why I and other discerning Canon shooters convert nearly all of my Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 using Canon Digital Photo Professional in the DPP 4 RAW conversion Guide 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.
Amazon.com
Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.
Amazon Canada
Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.
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 :).
Lovely, the ruffled feathers, open mouth and intensity in the eyes are all 10/10. I can make out the brightest whites that seem to lack detail on the back of the bird, but it doesn’t detract from the image at all.
Thanks and I agree.
with love, artie
Very nice. Classic Arthur Morris.
clear, sharp, awesome capture, great feather fluffing-detail, green background.
nearly looks like it was shot in a studio!
Thank you girl-Kerry. I am glad that I did not hesitate 🙂
with love, artie
Nice, Artie. With the wind-ruffled feathers and the open beak the composition takes on a narrative quality. We get a good description of the bird’s volume from your treatment of the white tones on the torso. If I had not heard you describe the behavior as a “yawn,” I would be interpreting the bird’s expression as “perturbation.” Where this photo improves on “Do not Hesitate Part I” is that the natural history being documented is not being obfuscated by high-key abstraction.
This one’s definitely a keeper!
You are probably right about it being perturbed. Now that I think of it it was probably squawking at another bird flying by.
with love, artie
Very nice image. I love the semi-circle of feathers around the bird’s neck. Was there a breeze coming from behind the bird?
Yes to the wind from behind the bird. With love, artie