What’s Up?
On Saturday 25 FEB I had a great morning with the Whooper Swans and then relaxed for most of the rest of the day and thought about packing for the trip home 🙂 I will have good internet access every day. I get home late on 28 FEB.
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.
The Streak: 470!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 470 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–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. 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.
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These image was created in the harbor at Seahouses, the UK with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 271mm) with the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/640 sec at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1. Three AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as originally framed as is always best when hand holding. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #1: Ladder |
Photographing Stuff: Whatever Catches Your Eye …
You’ve spent an entire day photographing puffins and murres and razorbills and kittiwakes. The boat is headed back to the dock, gliding through the calm waters of Seahouses Harbor. Most folks have long since stowed their photographic gear. But folks who truly love photography not only have their gear at hand, they are actively scanning the harbor for something that catches their eye …
For today’s Image #1, the colors and textures along with the old rusting ladder caught my eye. Framing with the 100-400II was easy. I boosted the colors and added just a touch of grunge effect to achieve the look that I wanted. While I have long been a fan of in-camera HDRs I must finally admit that the image quality of those images is a bit lacking … On the Palouse IPT I will be teaching you how to achieve the HDR look without every going anywhere near an HDR program. In-camera HDRs can be very convenient but the loss of image quality has finally turned me off on creating them.
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These image was created in the harbor at Seahouses, the UK with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens and the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/1250 sec at f/4 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -6. Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed as is always best when hand holding. he selected AF point was on the top of the “k. “Click on the image to see a larger version. Insignia on work boat |
Bright Colors
While some folks love pinks and pastels and soft colors, bright colors have always been favorites of mine. I had the 400 DO II in my hands on the way back hoping for some flight photography. Once I saw the BK dot 1 insignia painted on the the boat I simply needed to wait for the boat I was sailing on to provide the correct framing, sort of human zooming by watercraft if you would. In any case, once I had the framing that I wanted with the strip of white across the top, I fired off two images.
Your Favorite?
Which if either of today’s featured images floats your boat? Be sure to let us know why.
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Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. |
2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT
Monday July 3 through Monday July 10, 2017: $5999: Limit 10 photographers — Openings: 6). Two great leaders: Arthur Morris and BPN co-owner, BPN Photography Gear Forum Moderator, and long-time BAA Webmaster Peter Kes.
Here are the plans: take a red eye from the east coast of the US on July 2 and arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland on the morning of Monday July 3 no later than 10am (or simply meet us then at the Edinburgh Airport–EDI, or later in the day at our cottages if you are driving your own vehicle either from the UK or from somewhere in Europe). Stay 7 nights in one of three gorgeous modern country cottages.
There are five days of planned puffin/seabird trips and one morning of gannet photography, all weather permitting of course. In three years we have yet to miss an entire day because of weather… In addition, we will enjoy several sessions of photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level.
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Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. |
The Details
We will get to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet; Arctic, Sandwich, and Common Terns, the former with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks. We will be staying in upscale country-side lodging that are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The shared rooms are decent-sized, each with a private bathroom. See the limited single supplement info below.
All breakfasts, lunches and dinners are included. All 5 puffins boat lunches will need to be prepared by you in advance, taken with, and consumed at your leisure. I usually eat mine on the short boat trip from one island to the other. Also included is a restaurant lunch on the gannet boat day.
If you wish to fly home on the morning of Monday July 10 we will get you to the airport. Please, however, consider the following tentative plans: enjoy a second Gannet boat trip on the afternoon of Monday July 10 and book your hotel room in Dunbar. If all goes as planned, those who stay on for the two extra days will make a morning landing at Bass Rock, one of the world’s largest gannetries. We will get everyone to the airport on the morning of Wednesday July 12. (We may opt to stay in Edinburgh on the night of July 11.) Price and details should be finalized at least six months before the trip but you will need to be a bit patient. It would be ideal if I can get all the work done by the end of September so that folks can arrange their flights then.
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Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Click on the card to enjoy a spectacular larger version. Scroll down to join us in the UK in 2016. |
Deposit Info
If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome–please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on March 29, 2017. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. If your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.
Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.
Single Supplement Deposit Info
Single supplement rooms are available on a limited basis. To ensure yours, please register early. The single supplement fee is $1575. If you would like your own room, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement; your single supplement deposit check should be for $3,575. As we will need to commit to renting the extra space, single supplement deposits are non-refundable so please be sure that check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
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.
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 :).
Artie, I like the first one. The angle of the ladder and the mix of cool and warm tones make it interesting beyond the subject matter.
Thanks John.
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I prefer the first image. I find it more interesting and richer.
Thanks Stu.
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Artie: I love both of them. A friend of mine recently complimented me by saying I am a member of the Photograph Anything Club. “Human zooming by watercraft.” Great line. Can you explaine “grunge effect” and how to achieve it?
Thanks Dr. Fish. The grunge look is usually created in an HDR program: over-saturated and highly detailed, sort of grungy 🙂
I am still working on getting the look in Photoshop as with the first image above; the orignal RAW file was B.O.R.I.N.G!.
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