2020 « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Learning a Ton by Re-visiting An Exercise in Thinking Part I. American White Pelican flapping v-Log. And how to help a bird spread its wings more fully ...

What’s Up?

Today is Tuesday 8 December 2020. It dawned clear and chilly with a NW wind, so I opted to stay in and create a short v-Log video for y’all instead of heading down to the lake with wind against sun conditions.

I had a ton of fun with my loaner Canon gear […]

Two Oldies But Goodies Topazzed to Print! Catching up with Jim Brandenburg ...

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There were lots of incisive comments on the Two-part Exercise in Thinking blog post here. Old friend and BAA student, the very skilled and oft-published bird photographer, Cliff Beitel, spotted my SUV in the eye of the B&W vulture image! Note: with the sun coming up in the southeast and the bird angling […]

A Two-part Exercise in Thinking

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I woke early today — Saturday 5 December 2020 — and checked the weather forecast for Indian Lake Estates: cloudy with NW winds. So I worked in bed till almost 8am helping out BPN-friend Paul Burdett with a White-faced Heron image. You can see this interesting post here.. I got out of bed […]

An Honest and Extensive Comparison: the Canon R5/RF 100-500L IS lens/Extender 1.4X versus the SONY a9 ii/200-600 G OSS lens/FE Teleconverter 1.4X. And more Topaz DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI examples & tips.

What’s Up?

The cold front has come and gone. The pool is down more than eight degrees. I have been working hard for several days preparing this blog post, more than a dozen hours in all.

Understand that I have no horse in this race, no ties to SONY or to Canon. Technically, I […]

DPP4 Installed! Puns for the Educated. Focus Breathing Clarifications. My Evaluation of Nine R5 Face detection + Tracking/AI Servo AF Images (plus one more) along with my (somewhat surprising?) conclusions. And Shame on SONY!

What’s Up?

With help from several blog regulars, especially Ryan Sanderson and Joe Subolefsky, I continue to learn more about my Canon loaner gear, the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM lens with the Canon Extender RF 1.4x, and the highly touted 45MP Canon EOS R5 Mirrorless Digital camera body. I had planned on publishing […]

Topaz Cyber Monday Sale. GBH with a very large needlefish!

What’s Up?

Not much. It is cloudy here today at ILE and a big cold front will be arriving tonight. I am publishing this just before noon and will be doing my swim right after I hit Publish. I have been doing my slow half-mile (44 lengths) every day since I got back.

I […]

A Bad Morning in Lakeland. Using and Learning a Ton About My Canon Gear. My Thoughts on the R5/RF 1-5 Here Soon

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On Friday morning, our only session at DeSoto, I worked exclusively with my loaner Canon rig, the R5 and the RF 100-500 almost always with the RF 1.4X teleconverter.

On Saturday and Sunday morning Anita North and I decided to head back to Lakeland. The American White Pelicans that typically loaf on […]

My Very Brief Initial Canon R5/RF100-500/1.4X TC Thoughts. And help needed installing DPP4 (Digital Photo Professional 4.13.10 for macOS)

Very Brief Initial R5/RF100-500/1.4X TC Thoughts

I used the loaner Canon gear to create 1408 images at DeSoto on Friday morning. DeSoto was good but not great, though we had an amazing finish to the morning after the R5 battery died (too soon for me). As we were having trouble getting an AirBNB for the […]

Headed Out to Play with the Canon R5/100-500/1.4XTC. Switching Back to Canon? A Great GBH Nest in Lakeland. More Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen AI Tips. Getting Rid of a Stick and Its Shadow on a Bird's Face ...

Thanksgiving at ILE

Kudos to Anita for preparing a sumptuous feast that was enjoyed by my daughter Jennifer, her husband Erik, my right-hand man Jim Litzenburg, me, Anita, and Olivia — Jen’s wonderful rescue dog. Olivia has an amazingly sweet disposition and thrills at chasing the Cuban Anoles around inside the pool cage. We dined […]

Happy Bird Day! Don't Eat Too Much ...

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Anita North and I drove over to Lakeland early on Wednesday morning to photograph the American White Pelicans. They were there in force, but we quickly spotted a Great Blue Heron nest atop a Cyprus tree and concentrated on the activity there as the male was very active. He brought a stick to […]

ISO 5000: the New Normal? I HATE Topaz by Patrick Sparkman. A Gigapixel AI Question. And a question that I had been expecting ...

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After resting up for two days from the rigors of the recently concluded road trip (to Denver and back), Anita North and I opted to rest on our first two mornings back at ILE. The fact that both Sunday and Monday dawned cloudy-dark just might have had something to do with that 🙂 […]

Home! The SONY 200-600 + 1.4X TC at 840mm (or not?)

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On Friday, we left Lakewood, CO at 3:21am Mountain time, drove for 18 hours and 45 minutes, and checked into a Hampton Inn in Nashville, TN at 11:06pm Central time. We were in a single lane (construction zone) on I-24 about an hour outside of Nashville when traffic stopped suddenly. After a few […]

Tandem Brown Pelican Sunset Dive Image: Gigapixel AI to the Stunning Rescue. Do You Have a SONY Callus?

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We pulled out of the driveway at 3:21am Mountain Time. The sun rose at 6:33am. About thirty minutes after we crossed into Kansas, we lost an hour as we entered the Central time one. Yes, Dorothy — there are two time zones in Kansas! I posted this at 12:14pm somewhere in Kansas. We […]

Road Trip News. And Flight Pose: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

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We spent our first day near Denver, CO photographing White Pelicans, Green-winged Teal, and Cackling Goose (a small race of Canada goose).

After careful consideration, Anita North and I have – for a variety of reasons — decided to forego the remainder of our planned road trip and head back to Florida […]

Finger Mullet in the Surf. One-Stop Shopping with the Amazing Topaz Gigapixel AI! And What Makes a Good Flight or Action Image?

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On Saturday morning past, we enjoyed another fine photography session in the shallow bay just past the Convention Center on South Padre Island. Once again the American White Pelicans and the Franklin’s Gulls were the stars. We headed back to the jetty at Isla Blanca Park that afternoon. After two great afternoons, this […]

Two Good Reasons Not to Be a Baitfish in the Gulf of Mexico at South Padre Island ... And a New Topaz Sharpen AI Tip

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As we get to know the bay behind the Convention Center on South Padre Island better and better, we are having more and more success each morning. There are lots of birds, including a nice flock of southbound Franklin’s Gulls, all set in still blue water with perfect reflections. Similarly, we are doing […]

A Lesson From the Last DeSoto IPT: After Bath Flight Photography Primer ... Huge Canon 1D X Price Drop

What’s Up?

We had a good morning in the bay behind the Convention Center on South Padre Island on Tuesday. There were lots of birds and lots of slick sticky slippery mud. On Wednesday morning we headed early to Laguna Atascosa NWR. There were no birds (and no fence-posts) on the highly touted road to […]

We've All Been There ... And Another Topaz AI Miracle Save

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On Saturday, we spent our fourth straight morning at the great raptor blind on the Laguna Seca Ranch with Gene Gwin. The day began with some fog so we started with the 600 f/4 lenses in the low light conditions. Yesterday, we paid our first visit to the raptor blind at the Santa […]

SONY 200-600 G Lens with the a9 ii on the Laguna Seca Ranch: the (Crested Caracara) Bank is Open! Bosque Bad News?

Bosque Bad News?

It’s official. Because of the drought, neither crane pool at Bosque del Apache NWR will be filled with water this season. Photography-wise, that is an absolute crippler. Ed KranePool, the southern-most of the two (former) pools — which has been filled in recent years, has been consistently very good to fantastic in […]

What the heck is a TwinShooter? Two for the Price of One!

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Still uncertain as to whether or not we will be visiting Bosque, Anita and I decided to spend some extra time in the Rio Grande Valley and possibly head back up the Texas coast for a bit. On Sunday and Monday we spent two great days in the songbird blinds at the Santa […]