Painstaking, or Not? And DPP 4.0 Complexity/Or Not?

The Streak Continues: 311

Yesterday was a typical day of work and relaxation with a nice 1/2 mile swim. I have lost 7 1/2 pounds since getting home from Long Island and getting back in the groove of healthy eating. This blog post, the 311th in a row, took me about 2 1/2 hours to prepare. All of the work was done on Tuesday morning. It was published just before 8:45am from my home in Indian Lake Estates, FL.

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Fort DeSoto October Updates

The Friday Afternoon October 10 BAA Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Workshop meet-up is now sold out.

For information on the October Fort DeSoto IPT and the late registration discount please see the blog post here.

Join us for a day on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday for $299 including lunch and image review. Or join us for a morning on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday for $199 including lunch and image review.

GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 14-28, 2015 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $12,499. Limit 14 including the leader:/Openings: 3 or 4.

If you are considering this trip it would be best to act soon as there are now only 3 or 4 slots left on this amazing Photo-Cruise IPT. Scroll down in this blog post for additional information or e-mail for the complete itinerary.

This image was created on the 2013 Galapagos Photo-Cruise with the hand held the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (with the internal TC engaged at 560mm) and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops off the light blue water: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode was about 1/2 stop too dark. AWB. Central Sensor/AI Servo-Surround/Rear Focus AF barely caught the petrel’s right wing as originally framed and was of course active at the moment of exposure. Learn everything there is to know about the 1D X and 5D III AF systems including how to manage the various AF Area Selection Modes, when to use which one, and several ways to move the AF sensor around in my 1D X AF Guide and the 5D Mark III User’s Guide. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. . Galapagos Storm Petrel dip feeding

The Situation

The panga (zodiac) was tied up to the Samba after our very last landing on North Seymour, rife with Blue-footed Boobies and both species of frigatebirds. It had been a great morning with lots of nests of all three species with chicks of varying sizes. As usual, I was the last one to get off the panga. As I gathered my gear I noticed that some storm petrels were feeding right off the stern of the boat. I called to the group but most were already down in their cabins. Those who heard me answered, “What’s wrong with you? The trip is over and we are beat.”

I had fun. 🙂

Painstaking, or Not?

Did this image take 8 minutes to optimize? Or one hour and eight minutes to optimize? Is there any evidence that major Photoshop “fowl” play or is this pretty much straight out of camera with a fairly large crop? If the former, what did I do?

This is a DPP 4.0 screen capture.

DPP 4.0 Complexity/Or Not?

The first time that I opened DPP 4.0 I felt as if I were sitting in the cockpit of a Boeing 747. And I had as much chance of properly converting a RAW file as I did of flying a 747. But after studying and re-crafting Arash Hazeghi’s first draft of the DPP of our DPP 4.0 RAW Conversion Guide I soon realized that working in DPP was fairly simple. As long as you know what you are doing.

The DPP RAW Conversion Guide

To learn why I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) to convert every image that I work on, click here. Coming very soon: The DPP 4.0 RAW Conversion Guide by Arash Hazeghi and Arthur Morris. The more that I use DPP 4.0 for my RAW conversions the more I learn about it and the more I learn about it the more I am impressed with it. Note: at present, DPP 4.0 will work only with 1D X, 5D III, and 6D images.

The new guide should be available for purchase within two weeks at the most. It will sell for $40.

Do consider joining me for a once in a lifetime trip to the Galapagos archipelago in July, 2015.

GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 14-28, 2015 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $12,499. Limit 14 including the leader:/Openings: 3 or 4.

There are now only 3 or 4 slots left on this amazing Photo-Cruise IPT.

My two-week Galapagos Photo-Cruises are without equal. The world’s best guide, a killer itinerary, a great boat (the Samba), and the best leader with eight Galapagos cruises under his belt. Pre-trip and pre-landing location-specific gear advice. In-the-field photo instruction and guidance. Jeez, I almost forgot: fine dining at sea!

The great spots that we will visit include Tower Island (including Prince Phillips Steps and Darwin Bay), Hood Island (including Punta Suarez, the world’s only nesting site of Waved Albatross, and Gardner Bay)—each of the preceding are world class wildlife photography designations that rank right up there with Antarctica, Africa, and Midway. We will also visit Fernandina, Puerto Ayora for the tortoises, Puerto Egas—James Bay, North Seymour and Isla Lobos for nesting Blue-footed Booby (most years), South Plaza, Floreana, and Urbina Bay, all spectacular in their own right. We visit every great spot on a single trip. Plus tons more. And there will he lots of opportunities to snorkel on sunny mid-days for those like me who wish to partake.

We will be the first boat on each island in the morning and the last boat to leave each island every afternoon. If we are blessed with overcast weather, we will often spend 5-6 hours at the best sites. And as noted above, mid-day snorkeling is an option on most sunny days depending on location. Note: some of the walks are a bit strenuous. Great images are possible on all landings with a hand held 70-200mm lens and a 1.4X teleconverter. I bring a longer lens ashore on most landings as that fits my style. I generally work with either the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS or the Canon 200-400mm f/4 L IS with Internal Extender.

Do know that there is a NatureScapes Galapagos trip: one week for $8495. Thus, my trip represents a tremendous value; why go all that way and miss half of the great photographic locations?

The Logistics

Fly to Guayacil, Ecuador on July 12, 2015. Travel insurance/rest day: July 13 (We may or may not offer a photo outing on the 13th). Fly to the archipelago on July 14 and board the Samba. Get off the boat on July 28. Fly to Guayacil that afternoon. Fly home on the early morning of July 29 unless you are staying on or going elsewhere (or catching a red-eye flight on the evening of the 28th).

$12,499 includes just about everything: all transfers, guide and park fees, all food on the boat, transfers and ground transportation, your flights to the archipelago, and three nights (double occupancy) in a top notch hotel in Guayacil. If you are good to go, a non-refundable deposit of $5,000 per person is due immediately. The second payment of $4,000 is not due until 11/1/14. The final payment of $3749 per person will be due on 2/1/15. A $200 discount will be applied to each of the balances for couples or friends who register at the same time.

Purchasing travel insurance within 2 weeks of our cashing your deposit check is strongly recommended. On my past two cruises a total of 5 folks were forced to cancel less than one week prior to the trip. My family and I use Travel Insurance Services and strongly recommend that you do the same.

Not included: your round trip airfare from your home to and from Guayacil, beverages on the boat, phone calls, your meals in Guayacil, personal items, and a $600/person cash tip for the crew and the guide—this works out to roughly $40/day to be shared by the 7 folks who will be waiting on us hand and foot every day for two weeks. The service is so wonderful that many folks choose to tip extra.

Please e-mail for the complete itinerary and for additional info and images. Please cut and paste “Galapagos 2015 Info Please) into the Subject line.

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Typos

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