Revisiting An Old Friend...

What’s Up

The IPT was great. The group was fabulous. The afternoons have been so amazing that I extended my stay another day so that I can get out once more to photograph the spectacle. If you own the Fort DeSoto Site Guide and send me an e-mail that includes a cut and paste of the first page of the guide, I will be glad to let you know the currently hot location. It has been amazing and I made some really amazing discoveries on Friday afternoon… As you might imagine, those are coming soon.

Though my daily post-surgical improvements continue to be small, I am surely doing better each week. And last night I enjoyed a great night’s sleep, my best since the surgery. I will be home on Sunday afternoon in time for a swim.

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 190 days in a row with a new educational blog post, dozens of new topics to cover, and no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. 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. Please remember 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 appreciate your business.

This image was created very early on Friday morning on the Fort DeSoto IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop in soft light: 1/400 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Daylight White Balance. (Converted at 10,000K.) AF micro-adjustment: 0 Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the bird and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Great Blue Heron in pre-dawn backlight

Revisiting An Old Friend…

There was a single Great Blue Heron standing stock still (as Great Blue Herons are wont to do) in the gorgeous water so I grabbed an old friend from my Think Tank Rolling bag, the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. After all, the bird was static.

This image was created This image was created on Friday morning on the Fort DeSoto IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop in soft light: 1/400 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Daylight White Balance. Center Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click on the image to see a larger version. Dunlin feeding–breeding plumage

Both

We switched locations well before the sun came up over the single large cloud in the east. As I was packing my Wheeleeze, I decided to bring a 5DSR along with my new friend, the 1DX Mark II. I sat low adjacent to a lovely shallow pool photographing Dunlin while most of the group was photographing a white morph Reddish Egret that was dancing up a storm. I assumed that it was the ratty one we had seen near the protected area the day before but it turned out to be one in pretty snazzy breeding plumage with a nice pink bill. I guess I had been missing the incredibly sharp and detailed 5DS R image quality so I went with that body for my shorebird photography.

Click here for Wheeleeze and surf bootie info.

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IPT Similarities

The Fort DeSoto and the Nickerson Beach IPTs have a lot in common. Lots of birds, lots of sand, and lots of learning. The big difference is that there are lots more flight opportunities at Nickerson: hovering terns, birds landing at the nest, and with luck and the right morning winds, skimmers skimming.

From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmer head portrait, American Oystercatcher dining on surf clam flesh, Common Tern at sunset, Common Tern adult swallowing flatfish, Black Skimmer in flight, newborn Common Tern chick, American Oystercatcher with chick, fresh juvenile Common Tern (with fill flash), and Common Terns copulating.

Nickerson Beach Terns/Skimmers/Oystercatchers Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT): July 18-22, 2016. 4 1/2 DAYS: $1899. Limit 10/Openings 8.

Meet and greet at 3pm on the afternoon of Monday, July 18. Limit 10.

The primary subject species of this IPT will be the nesting Common Terns. The trip is timed so that we will get to photograph tiny chicks as well as fledglings. There will be lots of flight photography including adults flying with baitfish. Creating great images of the chicks being fed is a huge challenge. In addition to the terns we will get to photograph lots of Black Skimmers courting, setting up their nesting territories, and in flight (both singles and large pre-dawn flocks blasting off). Midair battles are guaranteed on sunny afternoons. And with luck, we might even see a few tiny chicks toward the end of the trip. We will also get to photograph the life cycle of American Oystercatcher. This will likely include nests with eggs and tiny chicks, young being fed, and possibly a few fledglings.

Nesting Piping Plover is also possibly. There will be lots of gulls to photograph; most years I am able to find a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls of varying ages in addition to the Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls. You will learn to identify and age the various gull species. There will likely be some Willets feeding along the surf and with luck we might get to photograph a handsome juvenile or two. In addition to the locally breeding shorebirds, we will likely get to see some southbound migrant arctic-and sub-arctic breeding shorebird species such as Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and maybe even Red Knot.

From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmers with tiny chick, Common Tern landing with baitfish for young, fledged Common Tern chick in dunes, American Oystercatchers/display flight, adult Common Tern with pipefish for chick, Common Tern fledgling in soft light, American Oystercatcher on nest with eggs, American Oystercatcher 3-egg clutch, battling Black Skimmers.

The IPT Logistics

The tour will begin with a meet and greet on the afternoon of Monday, July 18, 2016. That will be followed by our first shooting session at the beach. From Tuesday through and including all of Friday we will have two photography sessions daily. Our morning sessions will start very early so that we are on the beach well before sunrise. We usually photograph for about four hours. Then we will enjoy a group brunch. We will always have a midday break that will include a nap for me. That followed by our daily afternoon classroom sessions that will include image review, workflow and Photoshop, and a review/critique of five of your trip images. Folks are always invited to bring their laptops to brunch for image sharing. I always have mine with me but heck, I am a big show-off. Afternoon in-the-field sessions generally run from 5pm through sunset.

Breakfasts are grab what you can. Four brunches are included. Dinners (if at all) will be on your own as we will often get back to the hotel at about 9pm. There is a fridge in every room and a supermarket within walking distance of the hotel so nobody should starve. You will learn a ton during the nine shooting sessions, the four in-classroom sessions, and even at lunch. Early morning and late afternoon parking is free. If we want to head back to the beach early we will need to arrange tight carpools and share the $30/vehicle parking fee. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $450 for the whole IPT.

Save a space by calling Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 and arranging to leave your deposit of $599–credit cards are accepted for deposits only. Your balance will be due on April 18, 2016. I hope that you can join me for what will be an exciting and educational IPT.

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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 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 visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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