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You know the drill!
The EOS-1D W/70-600mm Aftermath….
Those very few of you who read yesterday’s blog post and believed every word of it obviously missed the two links at the end of the article that brought you to the page with this on it:
Belated Happy April Fools Day!
I would like to wish all of you a belated happy April Fools Day. There is no 1D W and there is no EF 70-600mm f/4L IS-W with Internal Extenders USM/STM lens. If you had read more carefully, you would have already known that :).
I would like to thank Bryan Carnathan of The Digital-Picture.com who kindly granted me permission to adapt and re-publish his clever spoof here on my blog on April 2, 2014. You can read the original here. Thanks also to Ron May who alerted me to the original April Fools joke.
Bryan obviously did a great job as I have received several e-mail complaining about Canon :). Some from folks who should have known better… There are some really cool image galleries on Bryan’s site; here is a link to one of my favorites: Kid Picture.
For a really good chuckle, see the comments here and check out those who got taken in hook, line, and sinker. I hope that in retrospect most of them would be able to look in the mirror and have a good laugh at themselves and say, “Good one Artie. You got me. I should have read more carefully.”
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All of the images created at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and copyright Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART From top left clockwise to center: Snowy Egret pair in breeding plumage, breeding plumage Cattle Egret with fill flash, large Great Egret chicks in the nest, killer breeding plumage Snowy Egret displaying, flash-as-main light Great Egret chick happy to see mom, Little Blue Heron chicks, Cattle Egret breeding plumage head portrait, flash flight Wood Stork with nesting material, Great Egret landing at the nest, large Snowy Egret chicks. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version. |
St. Augustine Alligator Farm Short-Notice IPT. 3-FULL DAYS. Early entry/Late stay. May 5-7, 2014. Meet and greet at 8pm on Sunday May 4: $1299. Two Great Leaders: Arthur Morris and Denise Ippolito
This trip needs four to run.
Breeding herons, egrets, and Wood Storks. Eggs and chicks in the nest. Some fledged young possible. Breeding behaviors including displaying and copulations. Flight and flash flight. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, Tricolored Heron, Wood Stork. Early May rocks at the Farm as the weather is usually gorgeous and there should be lots of both small and large chicks in the nest. And you avoid the possibly oppressive heat of June and July.
Includes in-the-field instruction, early entry, late stay, $5/person late-stay gratuity, informal, small group Photoshop and image review sessions. Three lunches.
Not included: your lodging, your St. Augustine Alligator Farm photographer’s pass ($79.95 for the year); we will be more than glad to pre-order your pass for you. Please let us know when you register.
What you will learn:
How to see the good situations.
How to best avoid the clutter of a rookery by choosing the very best perspective.
How to properly evaluate the histogram and come up with the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure
How to see and understand the light.
How to to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system.
Why you must work in Manual mode 95% of the time when photographing at a rookery and how to do it.
How to evaluate and process your images.
Via intensive instruction how to use fill flash flash as main light, and Manual flash.
Flash flight techniques including the necessary use of high speed sync.
And tons more.
Please call Jim or Jen at 863-692-0906 to hold your spot with your non-refundable $299 credit card deposit and then put your check in the mail along with your signed registration form; you can find the form here.
Suitable airports: Jacksonville (JAX), Daytona Beach (DAB), Orlando MCO).
We look forward to seeing you in the nation’s oldest city for three days of fun and learning.
Note: Folks interested in possibly continuing on to Fort DeSoto–great in spring, are invited to shoot me an e-mail.
The e-Mail from Tim P.
On Wednesday, April 2, 201 I received an e-mail from a Tim P. I chose to share it with you here along with my response. He is TP. I am AM.
TP: Mr. Morris
I was going to post a comment on your blog about your new canon products blog but I’m sure you would (sic) just delete it as you mentioned you have deleted some already. So I’m hoping a personal email will get through to you. You have disappointed me greatly.
AM: Hey Tim, Great to hear from you. Do know that disappointment is a choice. But it is your lucky day as I did get your e-mail. And not only that, not only am I not going to delete it, I decided to publish it on the blog. As noted by you, I did delete a few comments that would have spoiled the fun for some of the boys and girls who had not yet seen the post. To make up for your disappointment, I have opted to post your entire e-mail here for all to read. Along with my response.
TP: I hope you take the time to read this email before you delete it—but I bet you don’t.
AM: I guess that you would have lost that bet….
TP: I read your blogs all the time including the one today about the new canon products including the new 70-600 lens—I guess I am gullible.
AM: That is one excellent guess. It is great to know that you were visiting the blog often and learning each day.
TP: And why?—well you are a professional photographer and well respected and I believe what you write—not anymore. You should be above this sort of ‘joke.”
AM: Is that your opinion or an absolute fact? Tim seriously, can’t you take a joke??? Heck, maybe your e-mail was a belated April Fools joke….
TP: I wasted 15 minutes reading it and embarrassed myself with 6 of my photography friends by forwarding it to them.
AM: Sorry, but feeling embarrassed is also a choice. You state that you wasted 15 minutes reading the post. Apparently you did not read very carefully. If you had, you would have read this in the first section, 4th paragraph:
“That the new Canon EOS-1D W is going to revolutionize wildlife photography is unquestionable” says EoL Rick Salmon after 3 months of field testing the new camera. Mr. Salmon was recently announced as the Director of Photography for BBC’s upcoming “Planet Life” series. “We spend weeks waiting for the an animal to be in the right position. When that perfect moment arrives, we cannot risk any camera-related issues causing a missed shot. The EOS-1D W is a game changer. Like my hair gel, it never misses.”
In retrospect, would you not agree that the hair gel comment indicated that there was something very fishy about Mr. Salmon’s comments? Please excuse the pun.
TP: Fortunately one of them is more informed than I, knew it was fake and let me know.
AM: Wow, he must be absolutely brilliant.
TP: I pride myself in not forwarding junk to my friends—only good information that can help them. You have embarrassed me and you should be embarrassed as a professional—I expect better from someone in your position.
AM: Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I find it very hard to believe that there are six other photographers who, like you, have absolutely no sense of humor. That is really remarkable. As for me, I am not at all embarrassed. In fact, I am rather proud of myself that I managed to snag at least a few folks with the spoof. Thanks again to Bryan Carnathan for graciously allowed me to adapt and publish his copyrighted April Fool’s joke a day late.
As far as junk, had you forwarded links to the previous 124 blog posts to them?
On the subject of jokes, do these words mean anything to you: Lighten up. Get a life. Breathe deeply and have some fun. Enjoy life. Can’t you take a joke?
TP: I have attended an IPT with you in Bosque where you were more interested in taking your own photos than helping paying students like myself.
As it states clearly on the web site on the IPT general information page:
Do know that the leader, that’s me: Arthur Morris, and the co-leaders, photograph during IPTs. We let you know what we are doing, and why, and we are always available to answer your questions. We often teach by example. In addition to the in-the-field sessions, there is much teaching done during the lunches and even during dinners; many folks take advantage of these times to ask a multitude of questions on a great variety of photography topics. In addition, folks (including me) often learn a ton from skilled IPT participants.
As far as not helping paying students like you, is that absolutely true? Did you stay close? Did you ask questions? Did you keep your eyes and ears open? The only folks who ever go home unhappy after an IPT are those who arrive as bitter, unhappy campers. I can’t help those folks.
How long has it been since your IPT? A decade, or longer? IAC, you might ask yourself this: why did I wait so many years to get this off of my chest? I think that an honest answer to that question would be quite revealing.
TP: I will never again attend another with you and have discouraged many of my friends from attending your IPT’s
AM: I guess that I will just have to count this as one of my luckier days.
TP: And its no wonder to me you were at Gatorland recently by yourself.
AM: That was just a weird coincidence. On the first two Saturday In-the-Fields at Gatorland 5 folks attended. Each went home thrilled. And I have 5 folks signed up for this coming Saturday’s session. That sort of blows holes in your theory, no?
Not to mention the fact that we average about 60% repeat participants and that most IPTs sell out even in today’s crazy market where the only requirement for leading a photo tour is that one owns a camera…. I, along with Denise Ippolito, receive dozens of e-mails each month from folks who were thrilled with what we have to offer. Much of that praise is effusive.
TP: I think the word is gradually getting out. Art Morris doesn’t like anyone that is not a ‘happy camper’.
AM: Wow, thanks for helping spread that word. I choose to be associated with happy folks who want to learn and improve rather than to surround myself with the bitter unhappy folks who go out of their way to spread their poison and rob others of their energy. To think that you see that as a fault is beyond my comprehension, but again, it says a lot about you.
TP: The other pros that I know like feedback—both good and bad so they can improve. I don’t believe that is the case with you.
AM: If you spent any time on BPN you would know that I am open to good, constructive criticism. I see none of that in your e-mail.
TP: Yes you are a wonderful photographer but you lack the skills to be great when it comes to your followers and students.
AM: That is absolutely hilarious. Would that be in your humble opinion? Perhaps you should ask the 2,700+ folks who visit the blog daily. Or the hundreds of happy campers who have traveled with me over the past three decades. Or the thousands who have attended my or our programs and seminars.
TP: You have lost me forever, Tim
AM: I wish that I could say that leaves me distraught but it does not. Tim, you really need to work on your sense of humor, and on your ability to laugh at yourself when you have been had. I wish you the best with those.
later and love, artie
Please Let Me Know
Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on Tim P’s e-mail.
Slomo
For a great read, and an inspirational video that might change your life, or not, check out the post here by Josh Izenberg is a filmmaker based in San Francisco, on the NY Times “The Opinion Pages.” It is about a respected doctor who walked away from his practice to skate up and down the path by the ocean at Pacific Beach in San Diego. Thanks to Dr. Cliff Oliver of The Center for Balance for sharing.
The main message: “Do what you want to.” You might guess why I identify to some degree with Slomo. That’s his nickname, shortened from Slow Motion.
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There is a single opening left on the April 5 ITF Workshop. But three folks are leaving early; if you are interested in an afternoon only session ($149), please contact me via e-mail. Please note that I have added the Sunday morning session below. |
Gatorland Short Notice Sunday Morning In-the-Field Workshop
Sunday April 6, 2014. 7:15am till 10:30 photo session.Lunch, image review, and Photoshop session included: $299.
The cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s Pass is not included.
Payment in full via credit card is due upon registering. Please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. Please ask for me if you have any questions. Or get in touch via e-mail. Lens rentals are available.
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Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂
Missed the blog for a while, and now catching up – April is the month of my birth and I’ve been a fan of April fools’ jokes for as long as I can remember. I had many a good laugh reading this post.
I’ve done a similar spoof but told people it was Bower who made a DIY lens package 10-1200mm f/2.8 or some ridiculous nonsense. Didn’t catch as many fish as you did though 🙂
Art;
Enjoyed the joke and thanks for all you do for photography. I have this quote hanging on the bottom of my computer and I don’t know who wrote it. Here is the quote. [Be who you are and say what you feel….. because those that matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter], Love your blog. Thank You. Joe Moran
Thanks for the belly laughs!
I enjoyed the April fools joke…had me for a moment…but the price listed for the lens put an end to any further consideration…if it had been real that is of course 🙂
As far as TP…well, you can’t please everyone…lots of credit to you for spending so much time responding…
Thanks a stack Henry :).
A great description. Breathless enthusiasm carried beyond what most of us could ever muster. I especially liked the sly critic of ever increasing camera and lens prices.
The only words that come to mind are Yikes. Wow. Holy moly. Pretty damn sad. If only you could tell me the 1DW+70-600 was true and the TP email was the real April Fool’s joke.
Brilliant! I was fooled.
After re-reading the post, I am embarrassed. Really — a built-in WILDLIFE CALL????
ROFL!!!!
So sorry to hear that this was all a joke. After reading about this new camera and lens I went out and threw my camera and 800mm lens in the ocean, like instructed. I guess it won’t do me any good to try to fish them out seeing that they have been in salt water for all those hours. The good part of this is, I will call my bank and tell them I will not need that second mortgage now.
Poor Tim – IMHO, he provides support for the old saying “You can satisfy some of the people some of the time, but you can’t satisfy all the people all the time.” There are also those who can never be satisfied, no matter what you do for them. To Tim, I would say – “I am one of the repeat customers who would not have come back if I wasn’t convinced that I could learn something from Art and Denise.” Art, my “photo travel” budget is fully committed for 2014, but I hope to join you on an IPT or 2 in 2015, assuming you haven’t retired before then.
Enjoyed your post yesterday. I hope the Canon engineers were reading it too. The ‘W’ would be a fine advance but there are several additions that would make more BIF friendly. I have taken the liberty of listing some of them.
1. CO2 laser to quickly dispatch those annoying twigs that ruin a good rookery shot.
2. Automatically identify and place in EXIF the name of the bird being photographed along with the specific place, weather conditions, and the fowl words spoken as the shutter was released.
3. “Black Eye’ view finder that is activated when the annoying tourist ask “Can I look through there”… Sure, be my guest.
4. An anti-gravitational gyro that stabilizes the camera at any angle and height negating the need for a tripod.
5. Utilize modern missile detection and tracking technology to automatically detect a bird in flight and lock onto it without operator intervention.
6. Menu item to set the desired sun angle and position. (Defaults to 15 degrees at your back. This may require input from the Almighty.)
7. Menu item to select the wind speed and direction, atmospheric clarity, amount of fog etc.
8. Menu item to set a 2 minute rain for that ‘wet bird’ look.
9. Sport’s Illustrated calender to keep track of those important photo dates.
P.S. I enjoyed shooting with you that rainy Saturday in Gatorland.
You have some good ones there 🙂 artie
You had me all the way through (high gullability quotient). Thank god I don’t have to start saving up! Mike
You had me for about 15 seconds (and I was already trying to scheme up ways to justify my 1D-X as a backup body), but the proximity to April 1 and the over-the-top specs gave it away. “The eyes are always in focus” did it in completely; I didn’t even check B&H 🙂
I thought that your choice to publicly shame Tim P. with his email was a bit petty of you, but it’s sounding like that was a joke too. If it wasn’t, then Tim obviously has some personality issues and calling him out on the blog was a bit mean (IMHO :))
Perhaps… Or perhaps not. Tim’s e-mail was not a joke. He felt that I would not share his crtical comments with the folks here. He was wrong. artie
Yup, I got fooled on that one even though I noticed the 70-200 on the lens, I’m a sucker for these jokes 😉 Hope Tim feels better soon!
Art-You got me since I did not expect it on 2 April !
Thank goodness it was a joke!!!! Otherwise, Nikon would have answered with a 16-750mm f/1.4!!!!
Artie,
Well, I must admit…..you had me, mostly!!! I even know a few guys that would drool for this combo. Poor Tim P. He missed the boat. I personally got a kick out of it! Cheers to you and God Bless.
Keep up the good work, too!
Mary Jane
Hey Mary Jane, Thanks for being a good sport with a sense of humor 🙂 artie
Hi, Artie. Yes, you did get me; if I’d been a trout–or even a salmon–I’d have swallowed that fly, the leader too. The post did arrive on April 2, and I’d let my April 1 defenses down, but it was an excellent joke. As for your and TP’s email exchange, I never understand people who complain about the way other people are when they have an easy solution: If you don’t like Artie, then why read the blogs? It’s not as if you hide who you are, so TP had no reason to be surprised by who you are. It’s not as if you forced him to be here; you invite us to be here. Your house, your rules. I find your rules comfortable, so I say thanks for your hospitality and the learning opportunities
I have it on good authority that Tim P’s note was a complete spoof. Like most of us he enjoyed the 1D-W announcement but decided to fool the fooler with an over the top protest of Artie and the universe in general. This information comes straight from Pollyanna Whittier herself and was confirmed by Hayley Mills.
Thanks George. That is great news. artie
Whoops, posted too quickly. For meaning, such as it is, insert Pollyanna Whittier before the link.
Yeah…you got me too. I forgot all about April Fools Day. I’ve been following you pretty much since the very beginning and attended a few IPT’s. I have never been disappointed. I’ve learned so very much from you as have many others. Thanks for ALL that you do. It is very much appreciated. You did piss off my better half though. If I had purchased the lens and body, she would have held it against me any time she wanted to go shopping. She would have also been using my 600 which she loves.
Nicely done Artie…
Thanks Carl. What is your last name? artie
Shaw
Thanks Carl Shaw! artie
The part about Rick Salmon with the hair gel still makes me giggle 🙂
:). I was glad to hear the Rick Sammon (no fish!) liked it.
” SHUCK’s … I was looking forward to what Nikon was going to counter with ???!!!
I love April fools & applaud the effort expended for our entertainment, shame not everyone feels the same.
Poor TP. How can anyone get so out of sorts from an April Fool’s joke? I must admit I was getting very excited as I read your post Artie. You had me even past the hair gel comment. It wasn’t until I noticed the lens said 70-200 on it, and you started talking about twin internal TCs that I started to realize you had me on the hook! I checked the date (I am half a day ahead in time zones) and realized that this must be a good April Fools joke–not many April 1 jokes can get me hooked like you did. Heck, I was already trying to figure out how to pay for the new body (and keep it quiet from my wife–which would have been very difficult with the camouflaged body!) so it was actually somewhat of a relief when I realized I had been had, and did not have to worry about it. You are going to have to try even harder next year Artie as more folks will be on guard, (and old sourpuss TP will probably be sneaking a look anyway so as not to miss anything that his six buddies may learn). Still dreaming of the eye-lock focus!
Thanks for being a good sport Richard. Please do not forget that most of the credit needs to go to Bryan Carnathan at The-Digital-Picture.com
As far as Tim’s email…unfortunately, there will always be more. Even if he didn’t read one word that was in the blog, simply clicking on any of the external links should’ve been the first clue. Plus, this joke had been posted on so many other sites, including BPN and Fred Miranda.
I’m also surprised, because I’m ‘assuming’ he’s been following you for awhile. If so, he should know about your switching to Nikon April Fool posts and been prepared. Heck, I get excited when April comes up because I love to see the people who get caught. I know I believed it when I first joined, so many years
ago. Doug
Thanks Doug. It will be tough to top Bryan’s creativity next year… artie
Oh and one more thing.
The part where he was complaining about your IPT. I know first hand that you’ll go out of your way to make even the unhappy folks satisfied. That was back in 2006 at Bosque with ‘Barry’ when you went out of your way to come up with a solution that satisfied him. Doug
I remember him. He spelled it with an “i”, either Barrie or Barri. It took a lot of effort but once he let us know what was bothering him we were able to help him a great deal. It’s the folks who keep everything bottled up who are hard to reach…. BTW, thanks! artie
If I’m wrong on this, please feel free to delete this, edit…whatever is fine…
but…
You’re not out there to hand hold us. This isn’t beginning photography.
You’re there to make us better bird photographers, not how to operate
a camera that was just bought a week ago.
Will you answer questions? Sure you will, but you’re not a mind reader,
the person has to ask!
You also can’t force them to ask for help, if they say nothing, what else
can you expect?
Maybe you should require the purchase of your books before people attend
their first IPT so they know and acknowledge what’s involved 🙂
Doug
Unhappy camper, I would say.
BAD, BAD, BAD Artie! 🙂 But it was fun dreaming of the possibilities though.
:). I’d love to see the twin internal TCs in a 600 III!