What’s Up?
Disaster Averted
I arrived early on Monday evening past for the Orlando Camera Club presentation: Lessons from the Field/BIRDS AS ART-Style. As we were setting up it dawned on everyone that we did not have the proper cable connectors, we could not hook up my new computer to the projector … My one and only photographer teacher, old friend Milton Heiberg, was in attendance so I turned to him for help. It took a while but he came up with the perfect solution. He advised that I export the Keynote program as a PDF. We copied the PDF to a thumb drive and stuck that into an ancient PC that was hooked up to the projector. My Logi-tech mouse worked! And even better, the images looked great. The show was well-received by the more one hundred folks in attendance.
What Else?
Today’s post features some great images made on the February Spoonbill Boat IPT by many times over multiple IPT veteran Anita North of Toronto, Canada. Please leave a comment letting us know which of Anita’s five images is your favorite. And why. Many tanks!
|
|
This image was created by Anita North on the February Spoonbill Boat IPT. She used the the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III, and the mega mega-pixel Nikon D850 DSLR.. Image #1: Roseate Spoonbill walking on white sand beachImage courtesy of and copyright 2019: Anita North |
A Student’s Great Work!
Anita North has been on many IPTs. She has worked very hard for several years improving her skills. On the spoonbill boat IPT she pretty much killed me … Sometimes the students simply get too good; can you say Loren Waxman, Clemens Van der Werf, and George Golumbeski among others?
|
|
This image was created by Anita North on the February Spoonbill Boat IPT. She used the the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II, and my souped up (9 fps) mega mega-pixel Nikon D850 DSLR.. Image #2: Roseate Spoonbill braking to landImage courtesy of and copyright 2019: Anita North |
Shooting Flight with a Tripod-Mounted Super-telephoto Lens
Shooting flight with a tripod-mounted super-telephoto lens is a difficult skill to master. I am still working on improving in that area. Anita has long professed that she “couldn’t do it.” But here she did quite well …
|
|
This image was created by Anita North on the February Spoonbill Boat IPT. She used the the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III, and the mega mega-pixel Nikon D850 DSLR.. Image #3: Roseate Spoonbill bathingImage courtesy of and copyright 2019: Anita North |
Bathing Spoonbills
Getting to photograph a bathing spoonbill is a rare treat. Here Captain James Shadle was in the water maneuvering the Hooptie Deux into perfect position. Anita did the rest!
|
|
This image was created by Anita North on the February Spoonbill Boat IPT. She used the the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III, and the mega mega-pixel Nikon D850 DSLR.. Image #4: Roseate Spoonbill in flight Image courtesy of and copyright 2019: Anita North |
Flight Photography at Alafia Banks
There is lots of great flight photography on the spoonbill boat IPTs. Mornings are mostly off the tripod while in the water, afternoons are mostly hand holding with intermediate telephoto lenses or zooms.
|
|
This image was created by Anita North on the February Spoonbill Boat IPT. She used the the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens and the mega mega-pixel Nikon D850 DSLR. Image #5: Roseate Spoonbill pre-dawn blurImage courtesy of and copyright 2019: Anita North |
Pre-dawn Blurs
Many IPTs allow for the creation of pre-dawn blurs. On those trips I teach the Tv (S with Nikon) Shutter priority Auto ISO (or ISO Safety Shift) with Exposure Compensation (EC) technique. That works perfectly if the birds are flying only against the sky. But when the birds are flying low with vegetation in the background it is mandatory to go to Manual mode to keep the meter from overexposing the subjects. And that is just what Anita did to create this quite pleasing blur of an early morning spoonbill.
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 :).
I am sure that Anita will be thrilled to see all of your comments. Right now she is in northern Manitoba hoping to photograph baby polar bears coming out of their dens. At -50 below F…
with love, artie
Great set of images and glad someone is using the TC 1.7x and providing excellent results. Colour on those spoonbills is stunning the ones here are totally white
Need to try some blurs myself. Do you have the shutter speed of that one?
Just a comment, are the whites on top of first spoonbill overexposed?
Thanks for sharing
The white spoonies are birds from last year. Most blurs are at about 1/15 sec. but when the birds are closer and you are doing single birds 1/30 to 1/60 is often better.
I saw the TIFF on the first image and it looked good but when you make JPEGs the contrast is increased. That said, it was a very tough backlit situation .. So yes, the WHITEs in the JPEG are very bright but I am not sure that they are toasted.
Good questions.
with love, artie
ps: why do I know your name?
All images are good. I like the #1.
#1 is the best by a wide margin. Then #5.
Wow! Great shots.
My favorite is #3, Spoonbill bathing and looking straight on at you!
very active, dynamic shot. the water drops really add a lot of interest.
Beautiful & contest-winner worthy!
All these a great but my favorites are #1 and #3. Nice work Anita!
Love #3, the Spoonbill bathing, because it is not a behavior you have the opportunity to photograph very often. Great photo.
Anita… Your photos are UNREAL!!!!
I love the Water Gliding Roseate Spoonbill (#3) and the Flying Roseate Spoonbill Blur (#5)…
Congratulations to Anita and her mentor Artie!!!
Take care and see you both soon!!!
All lovely, but my favorite are #3 and #5.
Wow, Anita!
My favourite is #5 followed very closely by #3:
#5 as art – if it were mine i’d have that hanging on a wall.
#3 for the symmetry and the humour.
Fantastic.
#3 is my favorite! Great shots, Anita!
#3….Like the gesture.
Great looking images. Particularly like 1,2 & 3 with one and 3 my favorites. Like the white sand backdrop brings out birds colors without any distractions. Water bathing or landing shot is really nice showing bird behavior and splashing of water, dig it. Not a big fan of most blurs but a technique I wouldn’t mind learning more about to give it try. Thanks for allowing Artie to post your picks. Lends so much credence to his teaching and his IPT’s.
Thanks for your kind words. So what are you waiting for? I hope to see you on an IPT soon. How about the puffins?
with love, artie
Very cool!
Love the Images, but favorite is close to water looking straight at you.
Let’s me think I’m right there.
Fantastic images.
Great work