It was clear in La Jolla on Tuesday morning for the first time since I got to San Diego. That meant no hummingbird photography in the morning as the sun would have been right in my face so I finished early at the low cliffs after getting some good stuff on adult Spotted Sandpiper and Whimbrel. Then I decided to take a nice long meditation walk. That’s when things got really exciting. Continue reading below for the whole story.
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: 6!
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, 6 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.
Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up
Join me in Kissimmee, FL as below, to photograph Great (with chicks in the nest) and Snowy Egrets in breeding plumage, Wood Stork, American Alligator (captive), and more. Tricolored Heron likely. We should get to make lots of head portraits of all the bird species and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. All of the birds are free and wild.
This Weekend’s Schedule
Friday afternoon, 4pm till closing: $75
Saturday morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $100. Lunch and Image Review: $75 additional.
Saturday afternoon till closing (late stay): $100.
Sunday morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $100.
To pay for one or more sessions in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass or passes. Please shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.
This image was created at La Jolla, CA with the I-Phone 6+
Image #1: My New Friends …
Image copyright Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
Absolute Proof That the Universe is Friendly
Just after I turned around on my meditation walk on Tuesday morning, I encountered a sweet couple on the curved seawall/breakwater at Children’s Pool. The husband was photographing the wife with his cell phone. As I walked by, I said. “Howdy” with a big smile. (More on that in a future blog post.) I asked them if they would like me to make a photograph of the two of them. When they said “yes,” I said, “Even though I make a living as a photographer, you need to show me how to photograph with a cell phone.” They did. After I created the image above, I suggested that I move in to make a tighter head and shoulders portrait. The wife had a lovely purple and pink patterned handbag so I suggested that she hold it up above her waist so I could include the whole thing in the photo. I was not making myself clear so I took the bag from her to demonstrate. As I did, I dropped the cell phone. It bounced once on the concrete path, hopped over the edge, and fell down onto the rocks below. The rock right near the wall was covered with Harbor Seals. The phone bounced its way down a series of steps and wound up in an inch of salt water. The casualties also included the man’s driver’s license and a folded $100 bill that had — unbeknownst to me — been with the cell phone.
“Here’s my business card,” I said, almost before the phone stopped tumbling, “I will pay for your new phone.”
The man said that that would not be necessary as I had been kind to offer to photograph them. His wife agreed and thanked me for being “so nice.” As the beach below is off limits to all but the seals, we managed to roust a very nice young lifeguard who hopped the fence in short order, climbed down, picked up the license, the $100 bill, and the cell phone, and climbed back up. Everyone was amazed when the man turned the phone back on and it worked just fine.
We chatted for a while and I learned that his name was Abdul, his wife, Yasmin, that they were originally from Fiji, and that they now lived near San Francisco. When I offered again to pay for a new phone he said that his contract was running out soon and that he needed a new one anyway. Then lots of hugs and we said our goodbyes with smiles and hugs all around.
Go figure.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
Patrick Sparkman kindly loaned me his 600 II, his two TCs, and his 5D Mark IV so that everything I would be working with had been micro-adjusted. I spent almost four hours on Monday morning standing in one spot. I created 1,115 images, all but about 20 of them of the same bird, a handsome male Anna’s Hummingbird. After the first edit I was able to get down to one House Sparrow image, 5 oriole images, and 137 hummer photos. Then Patrick helped me get down to the 24 best hummingbird photographs. One of those 24 graces today’s blog post.
I fly home from San Diego today on the wonderfully convenient Southwest Airlines SAN to MCO nonstop.
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: 5!
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, 5 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.
Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up
Join me in Kissimmee, FL as below, to photograph Great (with chicks in the nest) and Snowy Egrets in breeding plumage, Wood Stork, American Alligator (captive), and more. Tricolored Heron likely. We should get to make lots of head portraits of all the bird species and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. All of the birds are free and wild.
This Weekend’s Schedule
Friday afternoon, 4pm till closing: $75
Saturday morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $100. Lunch and Image Review: $75 additional.
Saturday afternoon till closing (late stay): $100.
Sunday morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $100.
To pay for one or more sessions in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass or passes. Please shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.
Four AF points up and two to the left of the center /AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was right on the hummers head.
Image #1: Anna’s Hummingbird on agave
100-400 II
I travelled to The School for the Work with just my 100-400 II, a 1.4X III TC, and one of my 5D Mark IV bodies. I was supposed to fly home on 16 MAR but on the way to LAX I decided to stop by San Diego to visit the Sparkman’s and Dr. Cliff Oliver. So I was a bit under-gunned when Patrick found a beautiful male hummingbird that perched regularly in the same agave. When I made this image my TC was in the trunk of the car. That allowed me to go for a true habitat image, a small-in-the-frame bird in the agave.
Image Design Question
How would pointing the lens about 1/2 inch more to my right have improved this image?
Two AF points to the right and two up from the center AF point/Manual selection/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF points was right on the bird’s eye.
Image #2: Anna’s Hummingbird male with gorget lit up
Borrowing Pat’s Gear
With Patrick returning to work on Monday I was able to borrow his 600 II and the rest of his stuff as noted above. It was a cloudy day so I went straight to the bird and stayed with him. For the first two hours he visited only sporadically but after that he sat and sat and sat for the better part of two hours. He would often sit on the same perch for five to ten minutes. For the image above I moved my tripod to get the edge of the underwater cave as background; this yielded a very nice gradient.
Your Favorite?
Don’t be lazy; leave a comment letting us know which image you like best and why? Which image more closely reflects your style–wide with lots of habitat or clean, tight, and graphic?
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10/Openings 4. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I may be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
Completely and Utterly Stupid: How’s That for Being Non-Judgmental?
As many friends and regular readers know, I am pretty much apolitical and on the blog, I do my best to stay out of the political morass that exists today. Robin Sparkman passed the item below along and to me and it just would not feel right to pass it by. So here you are:
Ryan Zinke rode into office on his first day as secretary of the Interior, proclaiming his love for the outdoors. Then, he signed an order undoing protections for wildlife and the environment.
Tell Interior Secretary Zinke to restore the lead ban in wildlife refuges by clicking here.
The policy Zinke reversed would have phased out toxic ammunition and fishing tackle from national wildlife refuges by 2022. The purpose of this common-sense safeguard was to reduce lead, a powerful neurotoxin that persists in water and soil for a long time. Birds like Bald Eagle and California Condor are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning. Ducks and waterfowl rooting around the bottom of wetlands accidentally eat discarded lead. Birds of prey eat animal carcasses that contain lead bullet fragments — making lead poisoning a huge threat. While other government agencies are moving forward with policies to limit lead exposure, the Interior Department is going backward. It’s especially frustrating since nontoxic alternatives already exist for hunters and anglers.
That Zinke undid this protection on his first day is extremely disconcerting given his professed dedication to the environment. Please take a moment to sign the petition and demand that Zinke reverse himself and reestablish the transition away from lead in wildlife refuges by clicking here.
I am working on this blog post early on Monday morning (Pacific time) so I am not sure yet what the day will bring. Aside from peace and happiness. Living The Work after attending The School for the Work last week has left me a changed man–at least this week 🙂 Among the issues I worked on there and will be continuing to work on are the following: being too judgmental; my fierce need for love, attention, and approval; my inability an/or unwillingness to consider that any criticism might be true, my fierce desire to prove that I am right in a given situation, and my tendency react too quickly by defending and then attacking (not physically) in many different situations … I continue to wear my School for the Work name tag on a string around my neck to remind me of the amazing stuff that I learned in Ojai, stuff that will help me grow and enjoy a lot more peace in my life, in my dealing with folks in general, and in my relationships.
I fly home on Wednesday on the wonderfully convenient Southwest SAN to MCO nonstop flight.
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: 5!
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, 5 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.
Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up
Join me in Kissimmee, FL as below, to photograph Great (with chicks in the nest) and Snowy Egrets in breeding plumage, Wood Stork, American Alligator (captive), and more. Tricolored Heron likely. We should get to make lots of head portraits of all the bird species and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. All of the birds are free and wild.
This Weekend’s Schedule
Friday afternoon, 4pm till closing: $75
Saturday morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $100. Lunch and Image Review: $75 additional.
Saturday afternoon till closing (late stay): $100.
Sunday morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $100.
To pay for one or more sessions in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass or passes. Please shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.
Selling Your Used Gear Through BIRDS AS ART
Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar above.
Unsolicited, via e-mail, from Gerry Keshka
Hi Artie, I wanted to share how much I appreciate your Used Gear “service.” You have posted how you help sellers, but the other side of the equations is how much this service helps buyers. I have purchased three lenses (Canon 200-400, 500 f4 II, and 70-200 F2.8) all lovely experiences and I saved almost $5K over retail. Each of the sellers was delightful, willing to help me assess if the purchase was right for me by sharing their experience with the lens. Each lens was in the condition advertised (or better), and typically included several “add-ons” that would have cost several hundred dollars.
Recent Successful Used Gear Sales
Mike Kaplan sold a Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition for $925 to a buyer who contacted him on day one when the body was listed in early March.
Sue Sanborn sold her Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $4100 in early March. The value of this great lens has plummeted after the introduction of the 400mm f/4 IS DO II.
Sandra Calderbank sold her used Canon EOS 7D Mark II in excellent plus condition with less than 20,000 shutter actuations for $948 in early March.
Mike Pace sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS lens in very good condition for $4699 CAD to a Canadian only days after it was listed in early March.
Kenton Gomez sold his Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II lens in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $7349 in early March, 2017.
Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin sold his Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens in very good-plus condition for the very sporting price of $2199 USD to a Canadian buyer less than a week after it was listed.
Owen Peller sold his Canon EF 400m f/4 IS DO telephoto lens — the “old 400 DO,– in like-new condition for $2,299 in early MAR, 2017.
Brian Patteson sold his Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM super telephoto lens in near-mint condition for $4099 in early February.
IPT veteran Dick Evans sold his NIKKOR AF-S 70-200 f2.8G ED VRII Lens in like-new condition to a local camera store and kindly sent me a check for the 2 1/2% of the original listed price.
Steve Traudt is sold a Canon 500mm f4/L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens in excellent condition for $3550 in mid-February, 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM zoom lens in excellent condition for $899 in early February 2017.
Dow Morris sold his Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM lens in like-new condition for $579 a few days after it was listed in early February 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 100-400 zoom 1:4.5 – 5.6 L IS telephoto lens in excellent plus condition for a very low $549 in early February.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II body in like-new condition for $949.00 in early February 2017 just two days after it was listed.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS-1D X body with the Canon GPS receiver in like-new condition for $2499.00 within hours of it being listed.
New Listing
Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens
Steve Traudt is offering a Canon 500mm f4L IS USM Super Telephoto lens in near-mint condition for $3899. The sale includes: rear lens cap, the lens trunk, lens trunk keys, lens hood (with neoprene camo cover) and front lens cover. Also included is a Wimberley P-40 Arca-Swiss compatible lens plate. Insured ground shipping via FedEx to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made. Bank cashier’s check preferred.
Please contact Steve via e-mail or by phone at 970.260.7723 (Mountain time).
The old five is a fairly lightweight super-telephoto lens that work well with both TCs. It is fast and sharp. I used mine as my workhorse lens (along with the old 600mm f/4) for almost ten years to photograph birds and wildlife all over the world. Both have been replaced for me by their far more costly version II counterparts. The 500 f/4s have long been the world’s most popular super-telephoto lenses for wildlife and sports. With these lenses selling quite well the demand for a near-mint copy should be high so best to act quickly if you think that this lens has your name on it. artie
Large Upper Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system selected a cluster of four AF points that fell on and just above the bird’s eye.
Image #1: Wood Stork tight vertical head portrait
Razor Thin …
Notice: at 520mm with a shutter speed of only 1/80 sec., this image is razor sharp on the bird’s eye. Notice also that even at f/10 — two clicks stopped down from wide open: f/8 — that the bill is not at all in sharp focus because of the razor thin depth-of-field, that due to the point blank sensor-plane to subject distance. In other words, the closer you are to the subject, the smaller the d-o-f (at a given aperture).
It looks as if the BKGR were far enough away that doubling the ISO and stopping down one full stop to f/14 might have sharpened the bill nicely without bringing up any problematic background detail … This might have been the perfect solution because the ISO 800 image had zero noise.
Large Center Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system selected a cluster of four AF points that fell on the top right of the stork’s head.
Image #2: Wood Stork abstract top of head portrait
Zoom Out to Increase Depth of Field
Comparing the depth of field in the two images featured here is a revelation. Assuming that distance to the subject in each of today’s featured images is about 6 feet, the total depth of field for Image #1 works out to about 1/4 inch (at 560mm). But when you zoom out to about half of that (264mm) the total depth of field jumps up to 1 1/4 inches, well more than enough to cover the top of the head and the top of the bill. (Note: I realize that the sensor-plane to subject distance estimates here might be off a bit, but the principle remains valid.)
Your Fave?
Which of today’s featured images do you like best? Be sure to let us know why.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
Patrick Sparkman and I celebrated the 2nd day after St. Patrick’s Day by photographing all morning at La Jolla. When we moved down to the low cliffs I grabbed the 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro lens and did some flowers while Patrick worked some Least Sandpipers with his 600 II. As I made this trip with only my 100-400 II and the TC, I am looking forward to borrowing Patrick’s 600 II on Monday and Tuesday. Along with both TCs, a 12mm tube, and the tripod/Mongoose M3.6 setup that he rarely uses :). Gonna try to get that hummingbird …
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: 4!
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, 4 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.
This image was created at the Monkey Park at Jigokudani, Japan with the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400m) and my very favorite camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/800 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode was about 2/3 stop under. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +3.
One AF point up and one to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The active AF point fell on a spot just to our left and below the monkey’s right eye.
Image #1: Young Snow Monkey whistling
The Monkey Park Follow-Up
Thanks to the many who commented; by the time this is published, I will have responded to most of the comments on the original blog post here. Yes, photographing at the Monkey Park is a bit like photographing in a zoo or a game farm. The only difference is that the Monkey Park does not have fences around it to enclose the animals. (I might be wrong about that …) I believe that the Monkey Park was created to protect the Snow Monkeys from being killed en masse for eating cultivated fruits in the area. In the mornings the monkeys are whistled down from the surrounding hillsides to be fed. They always come down, usually quite quickly. And yes, as you saw in the original post, it can get crowded around the main monkey onsen. But as a few folks mentioned, by getting there early and staying late, you can enjoy less crowded conditions.
Option I
And while the main monkey onsen can get quite crowded at times, the level of crowding often fluctuates as the tour busses come and go with folks having to make a fairly strenuous 30+ minute hike up the hill. When it is very crowded, the easiest thing to do is to photograph the monkeys on the hillside just behind the main onsen. As you can see in today’s first featured image immediately above, these animals are often quite close and are often at your eye level. And I have never seen this area so crowded as to prevent comfortable shooting. Solitude? Not by any means.
While there are surely some sites in present-day Japan where you might be able to get an image or two of this species by spending a ton of time and/or by making a huge physical investment, photography at the Monkey Park is relatively easy after you make the hike up. And the subjects are endearing. I have always enjoyed photographing there.
This image was created at the Monkey Park at Jigokudani, Japan with the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 176mm) and my very favorite camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/200 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +3.
One AF point down and two to the right of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The active AF point fell right on the bridge of the nose of the main subject monkey.
Image #2: A Pile of Snow Monkeys
Option II is More Fun Than a Pile of Monkeys
The second option is simply to take a walk away from the main onsen. There is almost always lots of room along the pathways and down by the river. And though many areas have been placed off limits to visitors, patient folks who are willing to explore just a tiny bit will encounter dozens of great photographic opportunities. My 2016 co-leader Paul McKenzie took a walk down to the river, discovered this pile of monkeys, and kindly notified the group. Rather than heading all the way down to the river I first opted to photograph the pile from the ramp that was about 15 feet above them. What fun.
Folks who opt never to photograph in crowded conditions are free of course to make that choice. I on the other hand have always enjoyed being around lots of people. It is possible that I might be the only living nature photographer who would prefer to be on a wild beach with six other photographers than to be there alone. And that would be true whether or not they are paying clients.
In Addition …
Folks go to Japan in winter for four main reasons: to photograph the Snow Monkeys, to photograph the sea-eagles, to photograph the Red-crowned Cranes, and to photograph the Whooper Swans. As with the monkeys, the other three situations are anything but natural. The sea eagles are attracted for viewing and photography with tossed frozen fish. The cranes are fed corn at two primary photo locations. And at Lake Kussharo, the swans also gather in numbers to be fed by humans.
Again, I have always enjoyed photographing the aforementioned birds just as I have enjoyed photographing the monkeys. Do not forget that images of the monkeys, the sea eagles, the cranes, and the swans are consistently honored in the major photographic competitions … If you would like to go, I believe that Denise Ippolito is going next year (with Paul McKenzie as co-leader) and probably beyond that. Check out her blog for details. She remains the most creative photographer that I know and is an extremely hard working and skilled leader as well.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10/Openings 4. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
Patrick Sparkman and I celebrated the day after St. Patrick’s Day by photographing all morning at La Jolla. The main pelican cliffs are presently closed. Again, we had a great time working with the nesting Brandt’s Cormorants for several hours and Patrick shared a reliable and gorgeous male Anna’s Hummingbird that he had found the week before with me.
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: 3!
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, 3 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.
This image was created at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa with the hand held Canon 24-105mm f/4L zoom lens (at 70mm) now replaced by the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM zoom lens and my very favorite camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/11 in Av mode was still about 2/3 stop under. AWB.
Center AF point (Manual selection/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the tip of the letter Y.
Image #1: Ojai Valley Inn and Spa Entrance
Gifts from the Universe on My Last Morning Walk …
Each morning while I was at Ojai I took a walk. As the days went by, I found myself walking slower and slower …
This image was created at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400m) and my very favorite camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops: 1/80 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode was about a stop under. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +3.
Lower Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system activated three AF points that fell on the stem.
Image #2: Vine on plaster wall
Seeing the Vine for the First Time
This vine called to me the first time I walked by it. It grew on the wall of the cafe that was between the hotel lobby building and the building where our group sessions were held. It said, “See my simple but beautiful pattern; please photograph me.” Photography was not permitted until the last morning of the nine-day school. As most of you know, I turned off my computer for eight days, never once getting online. I never turned on the TV. Meals and the morning walks were all in silence. I did not read a book to fall asleep. None of that is like me at all.
I shared the beauty of this elegant plant with many others in the group, usually by pointing to it.
One of the issues that I worked hard on at The School for the Work was my seeing myself as too judgmental. The vine wound up helping me there.
This image was created at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 116mm) and my very favorite camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/60 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode was about a stop under. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +3.
CenterLarge Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system activated four AF points dead center as framed.
Image #3: Dead vine on plaster wall
The Dead Vine
Though the dead vine was on the wall of the hotel lobby building and I walked by it several times each day, I did not notice the lovely patterns it made at first. I photographed it in the early morning shade.
One AF point to the right and one up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell near the top of the skinny, vertical orange triangle.
Image #4: Backlit Bird of Paradise blossom
Change of Plans
After I shot the Spa writing on the wall and the two vines, alive and dead, I hustled up the hill to my room in the historic Wallace Neff building. Just as I opened the door I looked behind me and saw that many of the Bird of Paradise blossoms were beautifully backlit. I vacillated: if I stopped to photograph the backlit flowers I would miss my last morning walk … I did not vacillate for long. I had to lean forward over the railing in order to fill the frame. I took only a few tight verticals and even fewer horizontals that included the entire flower. This frame was my favorite by far.
These images were created at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens and my very favorite camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/250 sec. at f/5.6 in Av mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the spot where the hood meets the back of the neck. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Oregon Junco, singing adult gently backlit
The Gift from the Universe
I had seen a few juncos on my various walks and had no hope of getting a good image of this small, flighty species. As I was photographing the backlit blossoms, I noticed the bird in the Image #4 in a small willow tree just above me. As it was directly backlit by the already bright sun, there was no chance to make a good image. And the same was true when it landed on the lawn. The next thing I know the bird had disappeared. I looked around and was surprised to see that it had landed on the nose of one of the two horse statues in front of the Wallace Neff building. The very best news was that the statue was in the shade of a building to just to the east. I raised the ISO, set the exposure, and approached slowly. Amazingly, the bird continue to sing as I got closer and closer. I would imagine that I was well within six feet when I created this image (presented full frame above).
You do not often have a chance to photograph such a small songbird at close range. And it was great that the statue perch looked like a colorful rock. To me the whole thing was a complete miracle. Thank you universe.
Even Better?
There were lots of House and White-crowned Sparrows on the lawns of the campus. Along with a very few juncos. Most days there was a House Sparrow or two flitting around the seminar room. When I saw a small songbird in the room during our last session, I assumed it was just a House Sparrow. But when it flew by me it flashed its white outer tail feathers. It was clearly a junco. I was left wondering if it was my junco.
At that last session I learned that that morning’s walk had been switched to a personal “walk.” I had really enjoyed mine.
Your Favorites?
Which of the two vine images do you like best? Be sure to let us know why.
Which of today’s five featured images do you like best? Be sure to let us know why.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10/Openings 4. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
Patrick Sparkman and I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by photographing all morning at La Jolla. The main pelican cliffs are presently closed. We had a great time working with the nesting Brandt’s Cormorants for several hours. Before we left, we checked out our favorite double-crested spot and found a gorgeous adult in full breeding plumage. We spent the afternoon with Dr. Cliff Oliver playing ukulele and watching music videos. Photos and video links soon. It is Friday dinner time and I need to nap 🙂
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: 2!
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, 2 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.
These images were created at the Monkey Park at Jigokudani, Japan with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 100 and 263mm respectively) with my very favorite camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800: 1/400 and 1/320 sec. respectively) at f/11 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Photographers around the main Snow Monkey onsen at the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park
Photographing Nature in a Natural Setting in Solitude …
Or not. Comments are welcome. Feel free to share your opinion or to share facts about the Monkey Park as you understand them. Would you enjoy photographing at this location? Why or why not? I will chime in after the y’all have had a chance to chime in.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
The School for the Work was beyond anything I could have dreamed of. Byron Katie claims to be nothing special, but by me, she is both a healing saint and a compassionate angel. Lots more soon.
Who would you be without your story? The Work is a way to identify and question the thoughts that cause all your suffering and pain. Everything you need in order to do The Work is available free on Katie’s website here. If you visit and get stuck on doing the work, I would be glad to facilitate for you. Please get in touch via e-mail.
The plan is to get into San Diego after dinner on Thursday. I will start catching up on e-mails on Friday.
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: 1!
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, 1 day 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.
Thanks to Krishna Prasad Kotti for asking me so many questions about the Nikon histograms. Together, we figured out that with the Nikon histograms the right-most data needs to be a lot closer to the highlight axis than with Canon camera bodies in order to produce WHITEs with RGB values in the mid-230s to the low 240s. When his histograms looked exactly like mine his WHITEs were too dark. We discovered this during the image review session at our working lunch.
When he asked me about the histogram for this image on our wonderful Saturday afternoon session, he opened my eyes to the sultry reflections and inspired me to create today’s featured image. Sometimes when the student asks lots of questions it is the instructor who learns something. It didn’t hurt that the colors on the Nikon LCD are really funked up, at least on Krishna’s body.
Image #2: A tight crop of the reflection cleaned up a bit
I’m Just Sayin’ Im Just Playin’
Here I executed a tight crop of the reflection, flopped it, and cleaned up the smear by the bill. First I tried the Patch Tool but that made somewhat of a mess so I finished the repair up with a small Quick Masked and the Transform command and then refined by a regular layer mask. Then I used the Clone Stamp Tools to clean up the bill tip (as I did on the bill of the bird with Image #1).
Image #3: With the Buzz Sim II filter
More Playin’ With Topaz Buzz Sim II
To create the image above I applied the Topaz Simplify Buzz Sim II filter on a layer and then revealed the eyes using a Regular Layer Mask. I figured that it might do really nice things to the lovely water. How’d I do?
Topaz Buzz Sim II Filter Question
Would you have painted back in the eye on the reflection?
Topaz Simplify
I’ve been thrilled with the results whenever I’ve used Topaz Simplify. You can help support my efforts here on the BAA Blog by clicking on the logo link above if you would like to join in the fun. After you click, be sure to watch the great instructional video. You can see my favorite Buz Sim pelican here.
Topaz Simplify:Turn your photos into works of art. Create paintings, sketches, watercolors, cartoons, and more. Make your art uniquely personal instead of using cookie-cutter filters. Get better results faster with specialized digital art technology
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
The streak is dead. Please know and understand that as part of my commitment to immersing myself totally in the School for the Work, I have committed to being offline through midday on March 16. (I actually shut my laptop down and turned off my cell phone on the first evening of the program, Tuesday March 7, 2017. Make some great images between now and then. I will start a new streak when I get back to civilization.
During my week+ long sabbatical, please feel free to re-visit old blog posts of interest, to check out the IPT schedule and the Used Gear page, or to visit the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. If you purchase any new photo gear, please of course start your shopping by clicking on my B&H affiliate link
on the top right side of each blog post page. As always, B&H provides great service to go with their lowest anywhere prices. Using the link will not cost you a penny and is the best way to thank me for the time I spend on the blog and answering photo- and gear-related questions via e-mail.
To find a particular topic, try using the little white search box on the very top right side of each page here.
later and much love, artie
ps: no need to check your calendar: this is not an April Fool’s joke.
I woke early to finish packing for my Tuesday morning flight to LAX to attend The School for the Work in Ojai, CA. My plan at present is to be back on the morning of 17 MAR but I may stop by San Diego on the way home for a short visit. We — Jim and I –left at exactly 6:30am. Eleven minutes later I realized that I had left my wallet on the counter so back we went.
Then horrible traffic on 27 North and I-4. Made the flight easily. It was delayed 24 minutes anyway.
I am at LAX now waiting for the shuttle to the School for the Work venue.
Update
I have decided to stop by San Diego on my way home to visit Patrick and Robin Sparkman and Dr. Cliff Oliver. Be sure to check out tomorrow’s short blog post for a truly unbelievable announcement.
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: 480!
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, 480 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.
Michael Dobes selfie with yours truly
Japan Selfie …
If I told you that it is not fun to be asked to do a selfie with photographers I meet while traveling I’d be lying. Michael Dobes, a very nice young photographer from the Czech Republic, approached me and asked if he could take a selfie with me. I smiled and agreed. Michael as traveling around Hokkaido with four friends, Ondra Prosickým, Vladimir Soltys and Vladimir Jurek. We had chatted briefly with them at two of the great crane sanctuaries. I asked Michael to send me the selfie and he kindly did so.
Eurasian Bullfinch. Image courtesy of and copyright 2017: Michael Dobes
Michael Dobes’ Photography
I visited Michael’s website here and enjoyed seeing some really good photography. Of the birds in his portfolio, the one above was my favorite. I saw this species in Japan but did not have a chance to photograph it. BTW, you can hit the Translate button to read the website in (somewhat) broken English.
I surfed around a bit and found some really neat stuff on his News tab. First was a video of a joint photography exhibit featuring the work of several Czech photographers. Mazel tov to all. You can see that feature here. Next was a collection of some of the best fox in the snow images that you have ever seen. You can access them here.
For the eagle-eyed …
Eagle-eyed readers might note the large tripod and the even heavier tripod head atop it in the background between Michael and me. Many Japanese photographers use these huge video type heads for their telephoto lenses. They look like they weigh at least 7 pounds and are totally inefficient. Score another one for the Mongoose M3.6. Note: we are currently out of stock but are expecting more soon. The best way to assure that you will get one from our next shipment is to call Jim at 863-692-0906 asap and order one. We will not bill your credit card until we ship your unit.
I will share my observations of the many Japanese photographers whom I encountered on the trip in a future blog post.
The Last Digital Basics Update
I began working on a Digital Basics Update in 2015 but never got around to finishing or publishing it. Working from that, I added a few more new Photoshop tips and just last week finished what will be the very last update. Future Photoshop discoveries will be shared in the new BAA Current Workflow Guide that will be coming out this spring. To receive your free March 2017 Digital Basics Update, please contact Jim via email. To receive your update you must click on the preceding link and you must cut and paste some sort of proof of purchase. The latter might be a cut and paste of any of the text in your current copy of Digital Basics or your receipt of purchase. E-mails that ware received without proof of purchase will be deleted.
Palouse 2016 Horizontals Card
Why Different?
Announcing the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
In what ways will the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour be different from the most other Palouse workshops?
There are so many great locations that a seven-day IPT (as opposed to the typical three- or five-day workshops) will give the group time to visit (and revisit) many of the best spots while allowing you to maximize your air travel dollars. In addition, it will allow us to enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace.
You will be assured of being in the right location for the given weather and sky conditions.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills.
You will learn to design powerful, graphic images.
You will visit all of the iconic locations and a few spectacular ones that are much less frequently visited.
You will learn long lens landscape techniques.
You will learn to master any exposure situation in one minute or less.
You will learn the fine points of Canon in-camera (5D Mark III, 5DS R, and 7D II) HDR techniques.
You will learn to create this look in Photoshop from a single image while winding up with a higher quality image file.
You will learn to use your longest focal lengths to create rolling field and Urbex abstracts.
You will learn when and how to use a variety of neutral density filters to create pleasing blurs of the Palouse’s gorgeous rolling farmlands.
As always, you will learn to see like a pro. You will learn what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time.
You will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images.
You will learn to use super-wide lenses both for big skies and building interiors.
You will learn when, why, and how to use infrared capture; if you do not own an infrared body, you will get to borrow mine.
You will learn to use both backlight and side-light to create powerful and dramatic landscape images.
You will learn to create the very popular detailed, slightly grungy, slightly over-saturated look in Photoshop.
Palouse 2016 Verticals Card
The 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
June 8-14, 2017. Seven full days of photography. Meet and greet at 7:30pm on Wednesday, June 7: $2,499. Limit 10/Openings: 7.
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will enjoy spectacular sunrises and at least one nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. I will bring you to more than a few really neat old abandoned barns and farmhouses in idyllic settings. There is no better way to improve your compositional and image design skills and to develop your creativity than to join me for this trip. Photoshop and image sharing sessions when we have the time and energy…. We get up early and stay out late and the days are long.
Over the past three years, with the help of a friend, we found all the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and vistas. What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, my extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions. As above, there will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before the workshop begins.
To Sign Up
Your non-refundable deposit of $500 is required to hold your spot. Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining this IPT. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours to arrange for the payment of your deposit; if by check, please make out to “BIRDS AS ART” and mail it to: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail: artie.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
I spent a good five hours on Monday morning preparing this important blog post. I will be packing on Monday afternoon getting ready to my flight to LAX to attend The School for the Work in Ojai, CA. I will be back on the morning of 17 MAR. Be sure to see tomorrow’s blog post for news on the long overdue and very last Digital Basics update.
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: 479!
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, 479 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.
A 200% crop of upper left corner of 1D X Mark II f/22 sensor test image/January 23, 2017
Canon EOS-1D X Mark II Oil-Spatter on the Sensor Problems …
Almost from the start, I noticed some really nasty sensor problems with my then brand-new EOS 1D X Mark II. I thought that it was sensor dust. The problems were so bad, that I tried cleaning the sensor as I have been doing successfully for more than a decade with the Lens Pen. That only made things worse.
A 1200% crop of upper left corner of 1D X Mark II f/22 sensor test image/January 23, 2017
The Oil Spatter Spots
I believe without a doubt that the spots you see above are caused by oil spatter from the shutter mechanism when it fires. Viewed at lower magnification, they are all consistently round. But it is the sheen around each spot seen in the enlarged iamges that indicate oil or some sort of lubricant to me. I have never seen anything like them before or since on anything but a 1D X II body. And I have been doing digital photography since 2001.
As noted elsewhere here, one of the participants on the Japan IPT had a 1D X II that exhibited the exact same problem, similar to but worse than mine when I first noticed the problem. Unfortunately, she sent her camera to Canon Canada to be cleaned without first making an f/22 dust spot test image …
Creating an f/22 Dust Spot Test Image
Grab any telephoto lens. Make sure that the drop-in filter is perfectly clean. A small bottle of LensClens and an old tee shirt will do the job perfectly. Now mount the camera. Always be sure to turn the camera body off before removing the front cap or when changing lenses. To reduce sensor dust 🙂
Set the body to Av mode and set the aperture to f/22. Move the AF switch to M (manual focus) and defocus to close focus. An underexposed image here is fine so add only one stop of light on a cloudy day or shoot the meter on a blue sky day. Point the lens at the sky and make an image. Save the test image and view it at first at 100%. Do understand that at f/22 you will be seeing every microscopic dust spot. Most but not all of those can be cleaned with a good Rocket blowing followed by the a LensPen cleaning if needed for stubborn spots. (Note: we send complete sensor cleaning instructions with each LensPen purchase. Once cleaned well, no dust spots should be visible from wide open to stopped down a stop or two.
200% crop of upper 1D X Mark II f/22 sensor test image/February 6, 2017
Immediately after the sensor was cleaned by Canon
I went to using my two 5D Mark IV bodies almost exclusively, at least for a while. But tempted by that blazing frame rate, I used my 1D X II a bit in January. Fairly soon I noticed more sensor dust than expected and worse yet, some additional oil spatter. So I sent the camera back to Canon for another cleaning–not sure if that was cleaning #2 or #3 but I think that it was #3. When I got the camera back I clicked off a few frames and then did an f/22 sensor dust test and saved the results (seen above at 200%). “A,” circled above in red, is good old fashioned sensor dust, albeit a good-sized chunk. One might think that a sensor should be perfect after a cleaning but small chunks of whatever are often dislodged when the shutter fires. What really worries me is the stuff circled in blue. They are to my mind surely oil spatter.
200% crop of upper left corner of 1D X Mark II f/22 sensor test image/March 6, 2017
The Latest …
After using my 1D X II a good bit in Japan and sparingly at Gatorland I created yet another f/22 sensor test image on the morning of 6 MAR. To me, they prove conclusively that my 1D X II has serious oil spatter on the sensor problems. My plan is to try to get Canon to replace my body with a brand new 1D X Mark II body. In the meantime, I could use your help. If not, I will try to do the same with the seller, B&H.
Canon EOS-1D X Mark II Help Needed
If you own a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II body, please leave a comment and let me know whether you have had sensor dust and/or sensor oil spatter problems with your copy. I am hoping that the problems I have experienced are not universal. I have been corresponding with at least one other 1D X II user who has had oil spatter problems, plus the one on the Japan IPT. Her 1D X II showed more than 20 large oil spots at f/5.6.
I am hoping that only a very few others at most have had problems.
What To Do?
Before you run off to purchase your very own 1DX Mark II, consider that while the frame rate is great for pure flight and action situations, you can purchase two 5D Mark IV bodies for the price of a single 1DX II. More importantly, consider the fact that the 1DX II is the worst Canon camera in several generations of camera bodies as far as sensor dust is concerned. And, potentially even worse, at least a few individual EOS-1D X Mark II bodies (including mine) spray tiny oil drops on the sensor.
Interested folks should stay tuned. As I have had so many camera body questions, I will be doing a 4-camera comparison blog post within the next two weeks: 1D X Mark II, 5D IV, 5DS R, and 7D Mark II. Folks who are in a hurry are urged to do a search for each camera body using the little white search box on the upper right corner of each blog post page.
If You Have an Oil Spatter Problem
After two cleanings the oil spotting seemed to have diminished somewhat but my latest test image shows clearly that it is still a serious problem. This is a totally unacceptable situation and folks need to be really good consumers to get any satisfaction: make images of the sky at f/22 as above, send the image with your camera body when you send it in to have the sensor cleaned, complain firmly, keep a record of each cleaning, and finally, go up the food chain at Canon until you get some satisfaction. To date, Canon has not — as far as I know –acknowledged in any way that there is an oil spatter problem with the 1D X II.
If you have an oil spatter problem with your 1D X Mark II be a good consumer. Create f/22 dust spotting test images before and after you send your camera body to Canon to be cleaned. Keep copies of all of your letters and notes and do the same for Canon’s responses. Then work your way up the food chain at Canon. If that fails, try letting the seller know about your problems.
200% crop of upper left corner of 5D Mark IV f/22 sensor test image/January 23, 2017
Despite much heavier usage, my two 5D Mark IV bodies have had close to zero sensor dust. In the test image above, there is only one visible dust spot, that in the lower left corner. Such a faint spot would not show at large apertures.
To sum up, the 5D Mark IV — where sensor dust is only very rarely present — is still my favorite bird photography camera body but I must acknowledge that the 1DX II is pretty darned good for flight and action despite the smaller file size. That is why I am hoping to get my oil spatter problems rectified.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
I started working on this post on Sunday afternoon, just getting ready for a nap. The two folks on the Gatorland mini-IPT had a ball and learned a ton. This was Jake Levin’s fifth IPT. He came down from Montreal. He was joined by first-timer Krishna Prasad Kotti from Salt Lake City, Utah. My plan was to head home after the Sunday morning session but we had so much fun, and Saturday afternoon was so good, that I decided to get in one last session by joining them for Sunday afternoon despite the fact that I have a ton of work to do and despite the fact that I fly to LAX on Tuesday morning to attend the School for the Work (of Byron Katie) for 7 days in Ojai, CA. Heck, you only live once …
I had dinner two nights at El Tapatio Restaurant. For me, it was the best, tastiest Mexican food I have eaten, and on Friday night I had the biggest and bestest house margarita ever. 🙁 Well, maybe the ones at The Brigantine Restaurants in San Diego are just a bit better … All of the staff was great. Jose, the waiter on my first visit, was so helpful and sweet that I asked for him again on my second visit.
El Tapatio was right across the street from my hotel, the Super 8 Kissimmee. Here, under the title “I Would Never Stay In This Hotel Even If It Was The Last Room in Orlando!” is the review I posted on Trip Advisor:
I came in a night early on March 3rd after having a Hotels.com reservation for the night of 4 March. Hotels.com had arranged my March 3 reservation in advance. It took me 40 minutes to check in despite the fact that only one of the two clerks at the desk was busy helping another customer. At first they could not find my Hotels.com reservation but they finally did and confirmed that I would be able to stay in the same room for both nights.
I finally got my two room keys, drove to my room, took my big bag and my laptop bag out of my SUV, and tried to get into my room. The first key did not work. The 2nd key did not work either. I called the hotel on my cell and asked that they bring me two keys that worked. They said, “We cannot. We are too busy. There are many people in the lobby.” I put the stuff back into the car, drove one minute to the office, and found the two clerks standing there doing nothing. There was nobody in the lobby.
When I finally got into the room I found it OK once I got used to the cheap hotel room odor.
I was napping on the afternoon of the 4th when the room phone rang. “Mr. Morris, we have you checking out today; please get out of the room.” I explained that my second night was a paid Hotel.com reservation. “Oh, OK.” I could not get back to napping.
Just after midnight there was a loud knock on my door. I had been sleeping peacefully for more than 3 hours. “Open the door and tell me your name. This room is supposed to be empty.” All in an angry voice. I refused to open the door but finally told him my name. It took me well more than an hour to get back to sleep. Never consider staying in this hotel.
Room Tip: Don’t ever book a room here.
ps: I forgot to mention that 3 of the lamps in my room did not work. Man, you gotta love it.
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: 479!
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, 479 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.
Selling Your Used Gear Through BIRDS AS ART
Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar above.
Recent Successful Used Gear Sales
With two big lenses sold yesterday, activity continues to be burning hot!
Mike Pace sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS lens in very good condition for $4699 CAD to a Canadian only days after it was listed in early March.
Kenton Gomez sold his Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II lens in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $7349 in early March, 2017.
Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin sold his Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens in very good-plus condition for the very sporting price of $2199 USD to a Canadian buyer less than a week after it was listed.
Owen Peller sold his Canon EF 400m f/4 IS DO telephoto lens — the “old 400 DO,– in like-new condition for $2,299 in early MAR, 2017.
Brian Patteson sold his Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM super telephoto lens in near-mint condition for $4099 in early February.
IPT veteran Dick Evans sold his NIKKOR AF-S 70-200 f2.8G ED VRII Lens in like-new condition to a local camera store and kindly sent me a check for the 2 1/2% of the original listed price.
Steve Traudt is sold a Canon 500mm f4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens in excellent condition for $3550 in mid-February, 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM zoom lens in excellent condition for $899 i early February 2017.
Dow Morris sold his Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM lens in like-new condition for $579 a few days after it was listed in early February 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 100-400 zoom 1:4.5 – 5.6 L IS telephoto lens in excellent plus condition for a very low $549 in early February.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II body in like-new condition for $949.00 in early February 2017 just two days after it was listed
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS-1D X body with the Canon GPS receiver in like-new condition for $2499.00 within hours of it being listed.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 500 f/4L IS USM Super telephoto lens with lots of extras in like-new condition for $4,499 in mid-January 2017.
Gene Scarborough sold a Canon accessory package for $250 in late January.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in like-new condition with only 4258 shutter actuations for $1449.00 in late-January before it was even listed!.
Wayne Roth sold his Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/2.8G EDII VR lens in like-new condition for $3,500.00 in late January, 2017, two weeks after it was listed.
WMD: Weapon of Mass Destruction
Canon 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens
Colin Haase is offering a Canon EF 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for a the BAA record-low price of $9,497. The sale includes the original box, the front lens cover, the lens strap, the rear lens cover, the lens trunk, the manual, the virgin warranty card, a RRS LCF53 lens foot, and insured ground shipping by major courier to US addresses only.
Please contact Colin via e-mail or by phone at 1-630-269-2242 (Central time).
As y’all know, the 600 II has been my go-to long lens since its introduction several years ago. It is relatively lightweight and super-sharp. I used it almost every day in Japan and I used it every day at Gatorland. It goes great with the 1.4X III TC and with a bit of practice and good sharpness techniques, you should be able to make sharp images with the 2X III TC down to 1/60 sec. In short, it is every wildlife photographer’s dream super-telephoto lens. As a new one goes for $11,499 you can save a boatload of money by grabbing Colin’s lens right now. artie
Canon Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Mike Kaplan is offering a Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition for $999.The sale includes the rear lens cap, the never-used lens strap, the manuals, one Canon battery, the charger, the CD, the cables, the original product box, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Also included is a Kirk BL-7D2 L Bracket. Your items will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Mike via e-mail or by phone 941-408-4247 in the Eastern time zone.
Both Patrick Sparkman and I used and loved the 7D Mark II until about two years ago when we both committed to using full frame Canon bodies. We both made some truly great images with it. Two of my three 2016 Nature’s Best honored entries were created with the 7D II, one still, and one video. artie
Canon Canon EOS 6D Mark
Mike Kaplan is offering a Canon EOS 6D in excellent condition for $899. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens strap, the user manuals, one Canon battery, the charger, CD, the cables, the original product box, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Also included is a Kirk BL-6D L Bracket. Your items will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Mike via e-mail or by phone 941-408-4247 in the Eastern time zone.
I own and use the the “full frame” 20.2 MP Canon 6D DSLR. I love the camera for its fine image quality and outstanding low-light performance, which make it terrific for landscapes and portraits. While it was not designed to be and isn’t my first choice as a wildlife camera, its good image quality makes it fine for bird and mammal portraits. And if you can be satisfied with using mainly the center AF point, the autofocus is decently fast and accurate, so especially for large birds like cranes, it is more than adequate for birds in flight. Multiple IPT veteran and blog regular, David Policansky
Three AF points to the right and one row up from the center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell just below the bird’s eye are originally framed.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.
Great Egret/black water
Blog Lesson #1 Reinforced
AKA, you snooze, you lose …
In the Bird Photography Tip #1 … blog post here, I wrote:
When you are photographing a bird that is posing for you, be patient. Lots of folks have an “I’ve got this picture already so let’s get on to another subject” attitude. By waiting, you will often be rewarded with an open bill, a wing flap or stretch, or by the bird shaking out its feathers. Or with something unexpected and even better. Most any behavior will an image more interesting than one of the bird just sitting there. Be sure, however to create lots of “just portraits” as in the long run, one or two will stand head and shoulders above the rest in a series of similar images due to a variety of factors that might include minute changes in head angle, eye position and/or focus, attitude, light, and many other possible factors.
The three of us were working quite close together when I created this image, talking about exposure with the almost black background and talking about head angle. As fate would have it I was able to maintain concentration throughout and when the bird yawned, I was right on it. Both students missed it. I was so excited that I actually called out “Blog post image!” after creating three frames. That shows you where my priorities are …
I used the situation to reinforce the importance of working in Manual mode with Prasad who had earlier asked, “Why not Av mode?”
Hard as it might be for some to believe, I ain’t perfect and I ain’t infallible. Twice yesterday afternoon I missed the same back shot of a bathing Great Egret and twice this morning I missed a point blank Wood Stork yawning. The latter by being too tight while working in vertical format rather than by having been inattentive.
DPP 4 Lesson Reinforced
I recently wrote about moving the Shadow slider <em>to the left to darken the blacks in a properly exposed Red-crowned Crane image created in Japan in soft light. I am not sure that is has been published yet. If it has, please post the link by leaving a comment below. With today’s image, one that we processed at lunch on Saturday during our image review/Photoshop session, I came up with the idea of moving the Shadow slider to the left to darken the background during the RAW conversion in DPP 4. It worked perfectly. If you try this in ACR, please let us know if it worked well or not.
Images and card copyright Arthur Morris/BEARS AS ART 🙂
2017 Bear Boat Coastal Brown Bear Cubs IPTs: July 18-24, 2017 from Kodiak, AK: 5 FULL & 2 Half DAYS: $6699. Happy campers only! Maximum 8/Openings 3.
Join me in spectacular Katmai National Park, AK for six days of photographing Coastal Brown Bears. Mid-July is prime time for making images of small, football-sized cubs. The cubs, and these dates, are so popular that I had to reserve them three years in advance to secure them. There are lots of bears each year in June, but the mothers only rarely risk bringing their tiny cubs out in the open in fear of predation by rival bears. In addition to making portraits of both adults and cubs, we hope to photograph frolicking and squabbling youngsters and tender nursing scenes. At this time of year, the bears are either grazing in luxuriant grass or clamming. There will also be some two- and three-year old cubs to add to the fun. And we will get to photograph it all.
We will live on our tour operator’s luxurious new boat. At 78 feet long its 24 foot beam makes it quite spacious as well. And the food is great. We will likely spend most of our time at famed Geographic Harbor as that is where the bears are generally concentrated in summer. On the odd chance that we do need to relocate to another location we can do so quickly and easily without having to venture into any potentially rough seas. We land via a 25 foot skiff that has lots of room for as much gear as we can carry.
Aside from the bears we should get to photograph Horned and Tufted Puffin and should get nice stuff on Mew Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Harbor Seal, and Steller’s Sea Lion as well. A variety of tundra-nesting shorebirds including Western Sandpiper and both yellowlegs are also possible. Halibut fishing (license required/not included) is optional.
It is mandatory that you be in Kodiak no later than the late afternoon of July 17 to avoid missing the float planes to the boat on the morning of July 18. Again, with air travel in Alaska (or anywhere else for that matter) subject to possible delays, being on Kodiak on July 16 is a much better plan.
Barring any delays, we will get to photograph bears on our first afternoon and then again every day for the next five days after that, all weather permitting of course. On our last morning on the boat, July 24, those who would like to enjoy one last photo session will have the opportunity to do so. The group will return to Kodiak via float plane from late morning through midday. Most folks will then fly to Anchorage and to continue on red-eye flights to their home cities.
What’s included? 7 DAYS/6 NIGHTS on the boat as above. All meals on the boat. National Park and guide fees. In-the-field photo tips, instruction, and guidance. An insight into the mind of a top professional nature photographer; I will constantly let you know what I am thinking, what I am doing, and why I am doing it. Small group image review, image sharing, and informal Photoshop instruction on the boat.
What’s not included: Your round trip airfare to and from Kodiak, AK (almost surely through Anchorage). Your lodging and meals on Kodiak. The cost of the round-trip float plane to the boat and then back to Kodiak as above. The cost of a round trip last year was $550. The suggested crew tip of $200.
Have you ever walked with the bears?
Is this an expensive trip? Yes, of course. But with 5 full and two half days, a wealth of great subjects, and the fact that you will be walking with the bears just yards away (or less….), it will be one of the great natural history experiences of your life. Most folks who take part in a Bear Boat IPT wind up coming back for more.
A $2,000 per person non-refundable deposit by check only made out to “BIRDS AS ART” is required to hold your spot. Please click here to read our cancellation policies. Then please print, read, and sign the necessary paperwork here and send it to us by mail to PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855.
Your deposit is due when you sign up. That leaves a balance of $4699. The next payment of $2699 will be due on September 15, 2016. The final payment of $2000 is due on February 15, 2017. I hope that you can join me for what will be a wondrously exciting trip.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
Jet lag is improving. I took a 15 minute nap on the way up to Gatorland on Friday afternoon. With the light still too harsh at 3:30pm, I walked around for an hour without unpacking any gear to check things out. Then I grabbed my 100-400 II, the 1.4X III TC, a 5D Mark IV, and the flash and made a few good images. There is one promising morning light Great Egret pair with a nest 15 just feet from the boardwalk. And some really nice small chicks in an even closer nest. I meet the two folks in less than an hour. I forgot to mention that I slept well last night.
Be sure to check out the AF Area Selection mode and the selected AF point for each image in this and every blog post 🙂 Cheap learning of the highest form …
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: 478!
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, 478 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.
One AF point below the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell on the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment = +4.
Dunlin–adult breeding plumage feeding
On Paying Attention …
In following up on the San Diego IPT one participant who was really paying close attention mentioned that it would have been helpful had I talked more about choosing an AF Area Selection Mode and choosing the active AF point in the field. I strive to mention which AF Area Selection Mode I am using in each new situation (and why). Letting the group know during the heat of the action is much more difficult because I am moving the AF point around in response to the bird’s movement, orientation, and behavior. In addition, as the distance to the subject changes I often need to move the AF point as well.
So where exactly is the best place to learn about AF Area Selection Modes and choosing an AF point? For those who pay close attention, the best place to do that is right here on the blog. Every one of our legendary educational captions includes the AF Area Selection Mode, the selected AF point, the location of the selected AF point, and often, what I was thinking at the time of capture.
Study each posted image with care and note the AF Area Selection mode as well as the AF point that I selected. In time, you will gain a better understanding of your camera’s AF system and a good idea of what I am thinking and doing as far as AF is concerned. As I’ve said here before and often, if you are using the center AF point all the time you are not even close to utilizing your camera’s AF system to its full potential …
We should have lots of good chances on breeding plumage shorebirds on the DeSoto IPT. Not to mention terns and Laughing Gulls and herons and egrets, among others. There are only four slots left. See immediately below for the complete details.
Positives and Negatives
Please leave a comment and let us know what you think are the positives and negatives of this image. How is the subject to film plane orientation? How is the head angle? The sharpness? The image design? The exposure? My choice of perspective?
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (Meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10/Openings 4. To save your spot, please call and put down your non-refundable deposit: $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
It is 5:30am on Friday morning. I was in bed by 8:30pm on Thursday night but jet lag struck early; I woke often to read for 15 minutes and was wide awake by 4:30am. I decided to drive up to Kissimmee this afternoon to scout for the Gatorland Mini IPT. If you would like to join us for the Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning session, please shoot me an e-mail asap.
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: 477!
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, 477 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.
Though AI Servo/Center Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure, the active AF points did not show up on the RAW file. That is only the second time that I have seen this. In any case, the image is quite sharp on the bird’s eyes. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: 0.
Image #1: Steller’s Sea-eagle, incoming adult
My 2017 Japan Gear Bag
I knew all along and once again that the big decision for this trip would be whether to bring the lighter, smaller 500mm f/4L IS II or the bulkier, heavier, and longer 600 II. By the narrowest of margins I opted for the 600 II (while dreaming of Red-crowned Cranes in flight).
Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens. There is not a lot of walking on the Japan IPT. I will need the extra reach at the two crane sanctuaries, primarily Tsurui-Itoh where the extra reach really helps in the morning when the Red-crowned Cranes are flying in. And I will also use it for the Whooper Swans for flight and with either TC for tight head portraits.
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens. This lens will be on my shoulder for most of the trip either with a 5D Mark IV or a 1D X II via a Black Rapid strap. The 100-400 focal length fits beautifully with the 600 II. I will be using it as I always do for just about everything. That will include catch-as-catch-can flight and action, portraits, and as my main lens on a tripod for the Snow Monkeys. The close-focus there will be amazingly valuable… It was a pretty easy decision to leave the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens at home as I can cover the missing 70-100 with the 24-105.
I am also bringing the Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens. Many would think that it counterfeits the 100-400 II to some degree and it obviously does, but there are lots of advantages that come along with its lighter weight (as compared to the 600 II) and its wider f/4 aperture (as compared to the 100-400II). I will use it for hand held flight for the two species of sea-eagles that we will likely get to photograph, for the Whooper Swans in flight, and for the Red-Crowned Cranes when they are landing close to us. Lastly, the 400 DO II offers a good measure of insurance should fate claim my 600 II.
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. This all-purpose B-roll lens will be in my Vested Interest Xtrahand vest where it can be grabbed whenever it is needed or used on a tripod for scenic photography.
I am making this trip with two Canon 1.4X III TCs and two 2X III TCs. With my style of bird photography–tight, clean, and graphic–I cannot afford to be without both TCs in the event of an accident or malfunction–or loss. 🙂 Most common in the malfunction category would be that the locking pin sticks; when that happens, there is a risk of having your camera body hit the ground.
Think Tank Rolling Bags
I will be using the larger of my two Think Tank rolling bags, the Airport Security™ V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag. Everything above fit easily into my Airport Security™ V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag on Saturday afternoon. It tipped the scales at 45 1/2 pounds for this trip; the legal limit for US flights is 40 pounds. Nearly all countries in the world give you slack as far as the 40 pounds goes on the way back to the US. As far as the extra 5 1/2 pounds, I have only been hassled for weight once in more than three decades of flying around the world. And never in Japan. I hope that I do not give myself a kine-ahora.
Please click on my Think Tank affiliate link here or on the Think Tank logo-link in the right column of each blog post page to earn a free gift when you purchase any Think Tank product.
Think Tank Urban Disguise Laptop Shoulder Bag
I love this amazing bag as it has tons of room and enables me to bring tons of extra stuff. If you are forced to gate check your roller you can get more than a few items in this bag, especially if you are not a diabetic.
Please click on my Think Tank affiliate link here or on the Think Tank logo-link in the right column of each blog post page to earn a free gift when you purchase any Think Tank product.
Delkin Flash Cards
As always, I will have a 128gb Delkin e-Film Pro Flash Card in each camera body so that I never have to change cards in the field thus reducing the risk of losing a card…. Please note the new lower prices here. I do have a few extra 32 and 64gb cards in a Delkin CF Memory Card Tote, mostly to protect against operator error.
Vested Interest Xtrahand Vest
I use a custom-designed Vested Interest Xtrahand Magnum vest that John Storrie knows as the BIRDS AS ART Big Lens Vest. It is based on their Magnum vest and then customized to fit my needs. In addition to carrying a ton of stuff comfortably in the field, it gives you a measure of protection should your roll aboard be gate-checked on a puddle jumper or on other flights.
If you do a search for “vest’ or “vested interest” on the blog it will take you to many mentions in both the blog and the Bulletins with lots of additional information. See especially here and here.
Click here to learn more about Xtrahand Vests. You can always call John at 940 484 2222 to discuss customizing your vest. If you think that you might order, be sure to have a tape measure in hand. Please let him know that we sent you.
Gear Bag Retrospective
In retrospect I would not have changed a thing. On most field sessions in Hokkaido I had the 600 II on the Induro tripod, often with a TC, most often with the 1.4X III, and the 100-400 II on my shoulder via the new Black Rapid Curves strap. I probably made more than 90% of my images with those two lenses. I used the 24-105 or the wide angle-zoom only rarely.
It turned out that I used the 400 DO II only on the sea eagle boat trips; that turned out to be a great decision. I used it almost always with the 1.4X except in the pre-dawn when I worked at f/4 to save a stop of ISO (or gain a stop of speed). The extra reach at 560mm at f/5.6 as compared to being at 560mm at f/8 with the 100-400 II and the 1.4X TC always saved me one stop of ISO. On the sea-eagle trips I kept the 100-400 II on my shoulder via the Black Rapid Curve strap and the 400 DO at my feet. I must admit to using the 400 DO II about 80% of the time on for the sea-eagles. When we got close to some sea-eagles perched on the ice on our last Rausu trip, I used the 400 DO II with the 2X III TC to create some tight body-parts portraits.
At the Monkey Park I relied 100% on the hand held 100-400II and did quite well. The four-stop IS and its close focusing ability were a big plus.
AI Servo/Center Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system activated a rectangular array of six AF points that fell nicely on the right side of the bird’s neck, precisely on the same plane as its eye.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: -5.
Image #2: White-tailed Sea-eagle perch on ice floe
The Huge Surprise
The biggest surprise for me was that once I tried the 1D X Mark II for flight I became so enamored with the frame rate (and the AF accuracy) that I used it quite often – heck, almost exclusively — for flight photography with both the 600 II/1.4X III and the 400 DO II/1.4X II TC combinations. See the upcoming blog posts for lots more images; the proof — as they say — is in the pudding.
Before you run off to purchase your 1DX Mark II do consider that while the frame rate is great for pure flight and action situations, you can purchase two 5D Mark IV bodies for the price of a single 1DX II. More importantly, consider the fact that the 1DX II is the worst Canon camera in several generations of camera bodies as far as sensor dust is concerned. And even worse, more than a few individual 1D X II bodies (including mine) spray tiny oil drops on the sensor.
Enlarge Image #1 to note the two large dust spots, one below the primaries on the bird’s left wing, the other well above the middle of the bird’s right wing. Worse yet, note the large oil spot just below the right wing, about 2/3 of the way out. All of those when working wide open at f/5.6 when sensor dust is generally not a problem. See the upcoming Canon EOS-1DX II Sensor Oil Spotting Problems blog post for additional information.
To sum up, the 5D Mark IV — where sensor dust is only very rarely present — is still my favorite bird photography camera body but I must acknowledge that the 1DX II is pretty darned good for flight and action despite the smaller file size.
Your Favorite?
Which of today’s featured images is your favorite? Please be sure to let us know why you made your choice.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
It is Thursday morning and I am still feeling quite excellent. I spent two hours in a jet-lag induced zombie-like state on Wednesday afternoon but slept pretty well last night.
Gatorland Mini IPT
If you would like to join me for all or part of the Gatorland Mini IPT this coming weekend (all day SAT and SUN morning) please call or shoot me an e-mail immediately.
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: 476!
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, 476 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.
Selling Your Used Gear Through BIRDS AS ART
Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar above.
Recent Successful Used Gear Sales
Activity continues to be hot!
Brian Patteson sold his Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM super telephoto lens in near-mint condition for $4099 in early February.
IPT veteran Dick Evans sold his NIKKOR AF-S 70-200 f2.8G ED VRII Lens in like-new condition to a local camera store and kindly sent me a check for the 2 1/2% of the original listed price.
Steve Traudt is sold a Canon 500mm f4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens in excellent condition for $3550 in mid-February, 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM zoom lens in excellent condition for $899 i early February 2017.
Dow Morris sold his Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM lens in like-new condition for $579 a few days after it was listed in early February 2017.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 100-400 zoom 1:4.5 – 5.6 L IS telephoto lens in excellent plus condition for a very low $549 in early February.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II body in like-new condition for $949.00 in early February 2017 just two days after it was listed
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS-1D X body with the Canon GPS receiver in like-new condition for $2499.00 within hours of it being listed.
James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 500 f/4L IS USM Super telephoto lens with lots of extras in like-new condition for $4,499 in mid-January 2017.
Gene Scarborough sold a Canon accessory package for $250 in late January.
Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in like-new condition with only 4258 shutter actuations for $1449.00 in late-January before it was even listed!.
Wayne Roth sold his Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/2.8G EDII VR lens in like-new condition for $3,500.00 in Late January, 2017, two weeks after it was listed.
New Listings
Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens
Mike Pace is offering a Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS lens in very good condition for $4699 CAD ($3,513.91 USD). Canadian sale only. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the lens hood, the lens strap, the front lens cover, a LensCoat digital camo front cover, and a digital camo LensCoat. The lens under went a Canon clean and check in mid-February. The rear lens mount was replaced. The sale includes insured ground shipping via major courier to Canadian addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
The old five is a fairly lightweight super-telephoto lens that work well with both TCs. It is fast and sharp. I used mine as my workhorse lens (along with the old 600mm f/4) for almost ten years to photograph birds all over the world. Both have been replaced by their version II counterparts. The 500 f/4s have long been the world’s most popular super-telephotos for wildlife and sports. artie
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Zoom Lens
Mike Pace is offering a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II in excellent plus condition for $1,949 CAD ($1456.68 USD). Canadian sale only. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the tough fabric lens case, the lens hood, the lens strap, the front lens cap, the original product box, a winter LensCoat, and insured ground shipping via major courier to Canadian addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
The 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens is amazingly versatile. I still own one and have made zillions of great images with it. It works well with both the 1.4X III and the 2X III TCs, even with the 7D II! It is easily hand holdable. It is great for tame birds, landscapes, urbex, indoor stuff likes concerts and recitals, and just about anything you want to photograph. artie
Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the side of the bird’s neck right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: +7.
Image #1: Young Belcher’s Gull
Rock or Beach?
After photographing lots of adult and young Belcher’s Gulls on the beach and in the gentle surf I was glad to see the bird in Image #1 perched on a decent rock. This is often an ideal situation as rather than having the background proximal to the subject it is a long way off and will be pleasingly blurred even if you stop down a bit. I like the image and I like the calling pose.
But take a close look at Image #2 and let us know which of today’s two featured images you like best. And most importantly, why you made your choice …
Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the back of the bird’s neck where it meets the upper back, again right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: -1.
Image #2: Young Belcher’s Gull
Age?
I have been peering at these two images for quite sometime trying to age each bird more specifically. My first thought was that the bird in Image #2 was younger by some margin than the bird in Image #1. But there are what looks like a few grey feathers coming in on the back of the bird in Image #2 that would indicate that it is the older of the two …
If anyone can shed some light on this issue please do so. Only extremely knowledgeable gull experts need apply. Both were photographed near Lima, Peru on 29 NOV.
Palouse 2016 Horizontals Card
Why Different?
Announcing the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
In what ways will the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour be different from the most other Palouse workshops?
There are so many great locations that a seven-day IPT (as opposed to the typical three- or five-day workshops) will give the group time to visit (and revisit) many of the best spots while allowing you to maximize your air travel dollars. In addition, it will allow us to enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace.
You will be assured of being in the right location for the given weather and sky conditions.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills.
You will learn to design powerful, graphic images.
You will visit all of the iconic locations and a few spectacular ones that are much less frequently visited.
You will learn long lens landscape techniques.
You will learn to master any exposure situation in one minute or less.
You will learn the fine points of Canon in-camera (5D Mark III, 5DS R, and 7D II) HDR techniques.
You will learn to create this look in Photoshop from a single image while winding up with a higher quality image file.
You will learn to use your longest focal lengths to create rolling field and Urbex abstracts.
You will learn when and how to use a variety of neutral density filters to create pleasing blurs of the Palouse’s gorgeous rolling farmlands.
As always, you will learn to see like a pro. You will learn what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time.
You will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images.
You will learn to use super-wide lenses both for big skies and building interiors.
You will learn when, why, and how to use infrared capture; if you do not own an infrared body, you will get to borrow mine.
You will learn to use both backlight and side-light to create powerful and dramatic landscape images.
You will learn to create the very popular detailed, slightly grungy, slightly over-saturated look in Photoshop.
Palouse 2016 Verticals Card
The 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
June 8-14, 2017. Seven full days of photography. Meet and greet at 7:30pm on Wednesday, June 7: $2,499. Limit 10/Openings: 7.
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will enjoy spectacular sunrises and at least one nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. I will bring you to more than a few really neat old abandoned barns and farmhouses in idyllic settings. There is no better way to improve your compositional and image design skills and to develop your creativity than to join me for this trip. Photoshop and image sharing sessions when we have the time and energy…. We get up early and stay out late and the days are long.
Over the past three years, with the help of a friend, we found all the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and vistas. What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, my extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions. As above, there will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before the workshop begins.
To Sign Up
Your non-refundable deposit of $500 is required to hold your spot. Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining this IPT. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours to arrange for the payment of your deposit; if by check, please make out to “BIRDS AS ART” and mail it to: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail: artie.
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. 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. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
After taking a single 1mg melatonin, I got into bed just after 12:30pm and fell asleep quickly on the very early morning of WED 1 MAR and slept right on schedule until 7:30am with only one pit stop. Amazing. On my flights I did several rounds of Emotional Freedom Technique tapping (on various meridian points): Even though I am traveling west to east over many time zones, I’m willing to love and accept myself and reset my body clock. Scoff if you like, or learn about EFT here. My laptop was set to Eastern time zone for the whole trip home and I slept about 5 hours early on the flight from Narita to LAX. That was my “night.” After that, just a few short snoozes.
Jet lag may be coming soon, but I was feeling great on Wednesday morning 🙂
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: 475!
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, 475 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.
All of the images here were created with a Canon 300mm lens. Clockwise from the upper left: Acacia tree at sunset, Tanzania; Black Tern, Kamloops, British Columbia; Cosmos, vertical pan blur, White, GA; Great Blue Heron with ballyhoo (?), Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; Great Blue Heron landing; Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; and Blue-eyed Shag landing, New Island, The Falklands.
300mm: The Under-appreciated Focal Length …
The 300mm focal length has long been under-appreciated by most bird, wildlife, and nature photographers. As I have said here often, the 300mm f/2.8 lenses have long been favored by the world’s best hawks in flight photographers and by folks working with tame birds in spots like Florida, many parts of California, and those traveling to international hotspots like the Galapagos and The Falkland Islands.
All of the images above were made with the hand held 300mm f/2.8L IS II lens but for the Black Tern image that was created with the hand held 300mm f/4L IS lens with a 1.4X teleconverter. Not only do all of the 300 lenses perform beautifully with the 1.4X TCs, but the 300 f/2.8 lenses — at least the Canon ones — can produce superbly sharp images when coupled with a Canon doubler like the EF 2X III Teleconverter. While the Nikon 1.4X and 1.7X TCEs produce sharp images, you have to look far and wide to find a Nikon shooter who is enamored with the TCE 20 …
All of the images here were also created with a Canon 300mm lens. Clockwise from the upper left: Great Egret striking, Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; Red-billed Tropicbird, Espanola, Galapagos, Ecuador; Reddish Egret in mega-breeding plumage, hunting, Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; Roseate Tern, wing raised display, Great Gull Island, NY; Snowy Egret landing, Little Estero Lagoon, Fort Myers Beach, FL; and Roseate Spoonbill landing, Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL.
300mm f/2.8 Advantages
The 300mm f/2.8 lenses are small enough and light enough to be hand held for birds in flight and in action. A quick glance at the images featured in today’s blog post will confirm that in spades. Add a TC and the 300s can serve as a workhorse super-telephoto while maintaining fast, accurate autofocus.
All of the images here were created with the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS lens and the 2X III TC. Clockwise from the upper left: Adelie Penguin with wings raised, Hope Bay Antarctica; Atlantic Puffin on rock, Inner Farnes Island, UK; Black-bellied Plover, Fort Desoto Park, Pinellas, FL; Macaroni Penguin preening mate, Hercules Bay, South Georgia (tripod mounted); King Penguin neck pattern; St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia; Blue-eyed Shag with feather, Jougla Point, Antarctica (tripod mounted).
With the 2X TC …
With the addition of a 2X TC to a Canon 300mm f/2.8 lens you will have fast, accurate AF with all AF points active with any camera body to go with your 600mm full frame focal length.
Used 300mm Lenses for You
Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens
Sue Sanborn is offering a Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near mint condition for $4399. The sale includes the lens trunk with keys, the front cover & an additional soft lens cap, the rear lens cap, a LensCoat, a Wimberley Arca-Swiss compatible plate, the original product box, and insured ground shipping via UPS to US addresses only.
Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Sue via e-mail by phone at 1-941-748-0327 (Eastern time.)
The 300 f/2.8 lenses have long been the first choice of the world’s best hawks in flight photographers and have become increasingly popular with bird photographers working either with crop factor cameras or those who live in areas with relatively tame birds. This lens, the latest version of Canon’s 300 f/2.8L IS, is incredibly sharp with either TC. It is easily hand holdable by most folks. You can add the 1.4X III or the 2X III teleconverter for even greater versatility. artie
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens
Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin is offering a Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens in very good-plus condition for a very sporting $2199. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the front lens cover, the lens trunk, and insured UPS ground shipping to either United States or Canadian addresses. US buyers are responsible for any customs fees or duties. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Jake via e-mail or by phone at 514-601-9544 (Eastern time).
The older version of the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS is a super sharp lens that is great for hand held flight and action photography and great with both teleconverters. It has long been the favorite focal length of the world’s best hawk photographers. For folks working around tame birds or those with a 7D Mark II this lens makes a great workhorse telephoto. At more than $700 below most used copies of the “old” 300 f/2.8s, Jake’s lens is priced to sell quickly to buyers in either country. artie
Canon 300mm f/2.8 L IS Lens
Annthy Nguyen is offering a Canon 300mm f/2.8 L IS lens (the original version) in excellent plus condition for $2,950.00. The sale includes the original lens trunk (with 2 keys), the front cover, the rear lens cap, the original product box, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Ann via e-mail or by phone at 1-714-386-8083 (Pacific time zone)
The older version of the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS is a super sharp lens that is great for hand held flight and action photography and great with both teleconverters. It has long been the favorite focal length of the world’s best hawk photographers. artie
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L USM Lens
Bud Friesen is offering an oldie but goodie, plus extras: a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L USM lens (the non-IS version) plus a set of the older 1.4X and 2X TCs (with the pouches for each extender) for $1799. The lens is easily in excellent plus condition, probably closer to near mint. The sale includes the Canon drop-in polarizer, the leather lens cap, the rear cap, the lens trunk, the original box, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses. The glass is perfect. This lens is not longer serviced by Canon USA but if you did run into a problem (unlikely as that is), you would likely be able to have it fixed in a non-Canon repair shop. These items were all purchased in July 1994 for a trip to Alaska. They have been used very little since. Photos are available. Your items will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Bud via e-mail or by phone at 1-269-468-5583 evenings (Central time).
This package represents an exceptional value for a photographer with a low budget as the original 300mm f/2.8L is an exceptionally sharp lens that does well with the older TCs. artie
Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S ED IF Lens
Karl Zuzarte is also offering Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S ED IF lens in excellent condition for $699. The sale includes the original box and lens bag, the front and rear caps, and insured shipping via UPS Ground. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Karl by e-mail or by phone at 508-873-6081 (Eastern time)
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10/Openings: 4. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
By the time that you read this, I should be home in my own bed. Likely in a jet-lag coma for a few days.
The Travel Story — Almost Complete
Left the lodge in Hokkaido, Japan at 8:45am on Tuesday 28 FEB which was 6:45pm on Monday 27 FEB in Florida. 45 minute van ride. 90 minute flight to Tokyo Haneda. 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Tokyo Narita. 10 1/2 hour flight to LAX. Clear customs. Flight to Phoenix delayed. They reroute me to Dallas: 2 1/2 hour flight. I lose my first class seat for the LAX to DFW leg. Then I fly to Orlando. The DFW/MCO leg was 3 hours. My two checked bags did not make my flight to Orlando. Jim picks me up at MCO right on time at 10:30pm. I actually got to Orlando 1 1/2 hours earlier with the re-routed flights as I did not need to make an extra stop in Phoenix. I went to the American Airlines office to file a delayed baggage report. They are supposed to be delivered to my home at Indian Lake Estates on WED 1 MAR. Assuming that that happens, I actually came out a bit ahead by getting back earlier.
We got back to ILE at 12:30pm, 29 3/4 hours door-to-door if my math is correct. And because of the dateline all of the travel was done on Tuesday 28 FEB!
Thanks a stack as always to my right hand man Jim Litzenberg for picking me up so late. He is a great blessing. More on the flights and the rest of the travel experience in a bit.
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: 474!
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, 474 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.
This image was created on the Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 286mm) and my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400: 1/30 second at f/5.6 in Manual mode was a big underexposure. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +1.
Center AF point AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point and the four assist points all totally missed the subject as seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below.
Red-crowned Crane flight blur
Why the Big Underexposure?
It was cloudy-dark and snowing lightly. The time of sunset had past about 20 minutes ago so it was getting darker by the moment. But there were lots of birds still taking off and most were passing right in front of a stand of trees to our left. You are much better doing blurs against darker backgrounds than against the relatively light sky as the resulting images will be much more dramatic. I was at +2 1/3 stops off the snow one minute and then one and one-half stops under the next. It was difficult to keep up with the gathering darkness.
Panning Speed …
When trying to create pleasing blurs it is important to try to match the speed of the bird in flight with your panning rate. At 1/30 sec., if you pan perfectly with the bird as I did when creating today’s featured image, you can often render the bird’s head and neck relatively sharply. With shutter speeds slower than 1/30 sec. it is much more difficult to do.
When I am reviewing a series of pleasing blurs the first thing that I do is look at the head. Many times there is just too much blur for the image to succeed. But there are some instances where a well-blurred head can be successful. But at least trying for a sharp head is — as far as I am concerned — the best way to go.
The DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image
The DPP 4 Screen Capture for Today’s Featured Image
First, note that the selected AF point was nowhere near the bird. In spite of that, the AF system continued to track the flying bird perfectly. That due in part to my Custom AF Case settings as detailed in the various Camera User’s and the 1D X AF Guides. I plan on doing at least a 5D Mark IV guide as soon as I finish up two other big publication projects.
Next note the Brightness adjustment of +1.50 stops. Though you cannot see it on the screen capture, I used Arash’s noise reduction values for ISO 800 rather than for ISO 400 to help with the noise resulting from the underexposure (as detailed in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly).
Now note the nearly perfect RGB values for the brightest WHITEs: R = 224, G = 226, B = 226. As you can see in the screen capture, I used click White Balance; I put the eyedropper on the brightest WHITEs and then left-clicked. Still the WHITEs were a bit too BLUE so I went to the Fine Tune control and pulled the dot a bit away from BLUE. I was quite happy with the results.
Something New and Astounding!
I love experimenting in Photoshop and DPP 4. Here I came up with something totally new, at least for me. To increase the contrast and to darken the BLACKs I move the Shadow slider to -4! It worked to perfection. I tried -5 but it was a bit too much. I plan on trying that with properly exposed images of the cranes in good light; it may save me lots of work in Photoshop.
This image was created on the Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 286mm) and my very favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400: 1/30 second at f/5.6 in Manual mode was an almost two stop underexposure. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +1.
Center AF point AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point and the four assist points all totally missed the subject as seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below.
Red-crowned Crane flight blur: this is the optimized image file
The Image Optimization and the Optimized Image
After converting the image in DPP 4 (Command +D) and brining it into Photoshop (Control + Command + P) I did not do very much as far as image optimization goes. After selecting the tiny, very black region right around the eye with a Quick Mask of the area and then putting it on its own layer (Command +J), I used my NIK Color Efex Pro 50/50 filter to brighten it just a bit. That and a tiny crop from the upper and lower left was about it.
I was thrilled with the color, contrast, and look of the optimized image, with the rich BLACKs and REDs, and with the lack of noise in the image. I did not run any NeatImage on this photo.
Learn the secrets of creating contest winning images in our “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs.”
A Guide to Pleasing Blurs
In A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly, we discuss just about every technique ever used by mankind to create pleasingly blurred images. Ninety-nine point nine percent of pleasing blurs are not happy accidents. You can learn pretty much everything that there is to know about creating them in this instructive, well written, easy to follow guide. Pleasing blurs are consistently honored in the major natural history photographic competitions …
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: breeding plumage Dunlin, dark morph breeding plumage Reddish Egret displaying, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/front end vertical portrait, breeding plumage Laughing Gull with prey item, Laughing Gull on head of Brown Pelican, screaming Royal Tern in breeding plumage, Royal Terns/pre-copulatory stand, Laughing Gulls copulating, breeding plumage Laughing Gull/tight horizontal portrait, Sandwich Tern with fish, and a really rare one, White-rumped Sandpiper in breeding plumage, photographed at DeSoto in early May.
Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/April 19-22, 2017. (meet & greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19 followed by an afternoon session) through the full day on Saturday April 22. 3 1/2 DAYs: $1599. Limit 10. To save your spot, please call and put down a non-refundable deposit of $499.00.
I will be offering small group (Limit 3) Photoshop sessions on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning if necessary. Details on that TBA.
Fort DeSoto is one of the rare locations that might offer great bird photography 365 days a year. It shines in spring. There will Lots of tame birds including breeding plumage Laughing Gull and Royal and Sandwich Terns. With luck, we will get to photograph all of these species courting and copulating. There will be American Oystercatcher and Marbled Godwit plus sandpipers and plovers, some in full breeding plumage. Black-bellied Plover and Red Knot in stunning breeding plumage are possible. There will be lots of wading birds including Great and Snowy Egrets, both color morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue, Tricolored and Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and killer breeding plumage White Ibis. Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork are possible and likely. We should have lots of good flight photography with the gulls and terns and with Brown Pelican. Nesting Least Tern and nesting Wilson’s Plover are possible.
We will, weather permitting, enjoy 7 shooting sessions. As above, our first afternoon session will follow the meet and greet at 2pm on Wednesday April 19. For the next three days we will have two daily photo sessions. We will be on the beach early and usually be at lunch (included) by 11am. We will have three indoor sessions. At one we will review my images–folks learn a ton watching me choose my keepers and deletes–why keep this one and delete that one? The second will be a review of your images so that I can quickly learn where you need help. For those who bring their laptops to lunch I’d be glad to take a peek at an image or three. Day three will be a Photoshop session during which we will review my complete workflow and process an image or two in Photoshop after converting them in DPP. Afternoon sessions will generally run from 4:30pm till sunset. We photograph until sunset on the last day, Saturday, April 22. Please note that this is a get-your-feet and get-your-butt wet and sandy IPT. And that you can actually do the whole IPT with a 300 f/2.8L IS, a 400 f/4 ID DO lens with both TCs, or the equivalent Nikon gear. I will surely be using my 500 II as my big glass and have my 100-400 II on my shoulder.
DeSoto in spring is rife with tame and attractive birds. From upper left clockwise to center: Laughing Gull in flight, adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, copulating Sandwich Terns, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Egret with reflection, Short-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage, American Oystercatcher, breeding plumage Royal Tern, white morph Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret marsh habitat shot.
What You Will Learn
You will learn to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to understand the effects of sky and wind conditions on bird photography, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you are scared of it).
The group will be staying at the Red Roof Inn, St. Petersburg: 4999 34th St. North, St Petersburg, FL 33714. The place is clean and quite inexpensive. Please e-mail for room block information. And please call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 to register. All will need to purchase an Annual Pass early on Tuesday afternoon so that we can enter the park at 6am and be in position for sunrise opportunities. The cost is $75, Seniors $55. Tight carpools will be needed and will reduce the per person Annual Pass costs. The cost of three lunches is included. Breakfasts are grab what you can on the go, and dinners are also on your own due to the fact that we will usually be getting back to the hotel at about 9pm. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $350 for the whole IPT.
BIRDS AS ART Fort DeSoto In-the-Field Meet-up Workshop (ITFW): $99
Fort DeSoto Spring In-the-Field Cheap Meet-up Workshop (ITFW) on the morning of Sunday, April 23, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of Sunday April 23, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive morning workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tours. I hope to meet you there.
To register please call Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours with a credit card in hand to pay the nominal registration fee. Your registration fee is non-refundable. You will receive a short e-mail with instructions, gear advice, and meeting place one week before the event.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
I will be flying home on what will be a very, very, very long day today crossing back over the International Dateline. I fly from Hokkaido back to Tokyo’s Haneda, take the 2 hour bus ride to Narita, and then fly to MCO via LAX and Phoenix, getting home just before midnight the same day, Monday, 28 FEB! The Narita/LAX leg alone is more than ten hours 🙂
This Just In!
I am in the Admiral’s Club at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. It is 3:41pm Japan time on Tuesday 28 February, and 1:41am in Florida on the same day. My flight from Hokkaido to Tokyo’s Haneda was a breeze as was the bus ride to Tokyo’s Narita. Next will be my flight to LAX that leaves at 5:30 Tokyo time and gets into LAX at 10:25am also on Tuesday 28 February! The it will be on to Phoenix and Orlando arriving just before midnight, still on that same Tuesday! I will talk to y’all soon. a
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: 473!
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, 473 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.
This image was created at The Neck on Saunders Island, The Falklands with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering probably at zero as originally famed: 1/1600 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB.
Two AF points below the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the male’s breast. Click on the image to see a larger version.
FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: -12.
Brown-hooded Gull pair copulating
Brown-hooded Gull
I first saw and photographed this gorgeous gull species on a 2016 visit to Bleaker Island. The pink breast blew me away. I got one OK photo, but most were not very good 🙁
On our first visit to The Neck at Saunders Island this December we walked down to the beach and quickly found about a dozen brown-hoodeds on a sunny afternoon. In retrospect I wished that I had not been lazy and had taken the 500 II on the tripod but things worked out just fine as I got some good portraits with the 400 DO II/2X III combination along with a series of very nice action images. The one featured in today’s blog post was my favorite by far.
Image Question
What do you think of the shadow of the birds?
This JPEG represents the converted TIFF
The Image Optimization
Conversion in DPP 4; see the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide (by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly). Crop. My NIK Color Efex Pro 25/25 recipe on the birds only. Extensive beach clean-up with the usual cast of characters: Patch Tool, Spot Healing Brush, Clone Stamp Tool. Most of the gulls were removed with the Divide and Conquer (with the Clone Stamp Tool) followed by Patch Tool work. The young Dolphin Gull that merged with the male’s far wing, was covered with a Quick Mask that was then refined with a Regular Layer Mask using a technique that I call Protective Quick Masking on a Layer. This technique work great when eliminating two birds that have merged. After all of the clean up I ran a 65 pixel Gaussian Blur on the water at the top of the frame. Lastly, high level NeatImage noise reduction with less on the birds than on the beach using the techniques detailed in the The Professional Post Processing Guide (by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly).
Everything above (but for Protective Quick Masking on a Layer–see the free tutorial below) plus tons more is detailed in the Digital Basics File, an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete (former PC) digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, details on using all of my image clean-up tools, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, the basics of Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Dodge and Burn, a variety of ways to make selections, how to create time-saving actions, and tons more.
I am working on an all-new Current Workflow e-guide that better reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. It will include a section on ACR conversions and a simplified method of applying Neat Image noise reduction.
Protective Quick Masking on a Layer
First create a Quick Mask of the sand beach to cover the offending gull. Be sure to make the Quick Mask large enough so that it completely covers the bird you wish to eliminate. Use the Move Tool (V) to cover the unwanted gull. Then add Regular Layer Mask. Hit BDX and begin erasing the mask where it covers the far end of the subject’s wing. Work large while toggling between revealing and hiding to fine tune the edges of the wing feathers. With a bit of practice, you will soon by getting perfect results.
Canon 5D Mark IV Image Crop-ability
This 5D Mark IV Image was (coincidentally) cropped to approximate a 7D Mark II image created from the same spot with the same gear. The image quality is superb.
Image Optimization Question
Did the optimization of today’s featured image go too far for you? Is the resulting image too perfect?
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.
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.
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.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
I woke at 1:02am Japan time on Monday, 27 FEB. We drove three hours to Rausu and did the 5:30 and 8:30am eagle boat trips. The first was expectedly excellent, the second was surprisingly excellent. It is 3:40pm and I am back at the lodge for a nap. Pack, onsen, and fly home tomorrow, leaving Hokkaido on the morning of the 28th and getting into Orlando the same day with stops at Tokyo Haneda, Tokyo Narita, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Talk about a long, long day. Jim is picking me up just before midnight. It will likely be at least 2am when I climb into my own bed …
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: 472
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, 472 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.
ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/20 sec at f/14 in AV mode. AWB. I used my still-flower technique: Live View for mirror lock and 2-second timer for sharpness.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.
Dead center Flexi-Zone Live View Rear Focus AF.
Old mill
Old Mill and New Approach
I saw this image in 2015 but but it was sunny and bright before lunch so I passed on it. On the 2016 IPT we were blessed by clouds — perfect weather for me for most Urbex photography.
I created several in-camera Art Vivid JPEGs of the old mill. I wrote here recently that I am pretty much getting away from the in-camera stuff as though it is convenient, image quality suffers somewhat no matter how careful you are. And I am in too much of a hurry to assemble HDR images in Photoshop (File > Automate > Merge to HDR Pro…), in NIK Color Efex Pro (HDR Efex Pro 2), or in the latest version of Photomatix.
As long as you set up your HDR capture menu like this: Save Source Images > All images, you can simply grab the RAW file with the best exposure and go for the detailed, slightly grungy, slightly over-saturated look in Photoshop. Much of the work –heck, it is not difficult at all — is done with various NIK Color Efex Pro programs (but not HDR Efex Pro 2). We will be working with these techniques on the 2017 Palouse IPT. See the details below.
Though I surely wrote something very similar to the above recently, I am not sure if it has been published yet … I searched for a while without success on the early morning of our second Rausu sea eagle day. If you come across it now or later, please shoot me the link via e-mail.
Palouse 2016 Horizontals Card
Why Different?
Announcing the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
In what ways will the 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour be different from the most other Palouse workshops?
There are so many great locations that a seven-day IPT (as opposed to the typical three- or five-day workshops) will give the group time to visit (and revisit) many of the best spots while allowing you to maximize your air travel dollars. In addition, it will allow us to enjoy a slightly more relaxed pace.
You will be assured of being in the right location for the given weather and sky conditions.
You will learn and hone both basic and advanced compositional and image design skills.
You will learn to design powerful, graphic images.
You will visit all of the iconic locations and a few spectacular ones that are much less frequently visited.
You will learn long lens landscape techniques.
You will learn to master any exposure situation in one minute or less.
You will learn the fine points of Canon in-camera (5D Mark III, 5DS R, and 7D II) HDR techniques.
You will learn to create this look in Photoshop from a single image while winding up with a higher quality image file.
You will learn to use your longest focal lengths to create rolling field and Urbex abstracts.
You will learn when and how to use a variety of neutral density filters to create pleasing blurs of the Palouse’s gorgeous rolling farmlands.
As always, you will learn to see like a pro. You will learn what makes one situation prime and another seemingly similar one a waste of your time.
You will learn to see the situation and to create a variety of top-notch images.
You will learn to use super-wide lenses both for big skies and building interiors.
You will learn when, why, and how to use infrared capture; if you do not own an infrared body, you will get to borrow mine.
You will learn to use both backlight and side-light to create powerful and dramatic landscape images.
You will learn to create the very popular detailed, slightly grungy, slightly over-saturated look in Photoshop.
Palouse 2016 Verticals Card
The 2017 BIRDS AS ART Palouse Instructional Photo-Tour
June 8-14, 2017. Seven full days of photography. Meet and greet at 7:30pm on Wednesday, June 7: $2,499. Limit 10/Openings: 7.
Rolling farmlands provide a magical patchwork of textures and colors, especially when viewed from the top of Steptoe Butte where we will enjoy spectacular sunrises and at least one nice sunset. We will photograph grand landscapes and mini-scenics of the rolling hills and farm fields. I will bring you to more than a few really neat old abandoned barns and farmhouses in idyllic settings. There is no better way to improve your compositional and image design skills and to develop your creativity than to join me for this trip. Photoshop and image sharing sessions when we have the time and energy…. We get up early and stay out late and the days are long.
Over the past three years, with the help of a friend, we found all the iconic locations and, in addition, lots of spectacular new old barns and breath-taking landforms and vistas. What’s included: In-the-field instruction, guidance, lessons, and inspiration, my extensive knowledge of the area, all lunches, motel lobby grab and go breakfasts, and Photoshop and image sharing sessions. As above, there will be a meet and greet at 7:30pm on the evening before the workshop begins.
To Sign Up
Your non-refundable deposit of $500 is required to hold your spot. Please let me know via e-mail that you will be joining this IPT. Then you can either call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 during business hours to arrange for the payment of your deposit; if by check, please make out to “BIRDS AS ART” and mail it to: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail: artie.
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. 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. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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.
Facebook
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 :).
I spent all day at the Akan Crane Center and made a few very good ones on a somewhat tough day. We are leaving the lodge at 1:50am on Monday morning to do two last eagle boat trips in Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan; the first one leaves the dock at 5:30am. The drive is three hours 🙂 I will continue to have good internet acces. 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: 471
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, 471 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.
This image created on the 2017 San Diego IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) and my very favorite bird photography camera, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops in low light: 1/800 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB.
Two AF points above the center AF point/AI Servo/(Manual selection; single point)/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is almost always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was on the hairline just above the top LCD. Click on the image to see a larger version.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
Image #2: Lady photographer with Nikon gear
Will the Similarities Never End?
When I saw the red-headed lady photographer with the spiffy hair-do on the cliffs at La Jolla last February I wanted to get a decent photo and knew that if I did I wanted to find a matching bird photo. I showed the woman my image and let her know that it would likely appear on the blog some day. And I gave her my card. Who knows?
One AF point to the right and three up from the center AF point/AI Servo/Manual selection; single point/Shutter Button AF as framed as is (almost) always best when hand holding. The selected AF point was squarely on the goose’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #2: Ruddy-headed Goose head and shoulders protrait
The Match
I photographed what I believe is a Ruddy-headed Goose on the cliff at the Rockhopper Penguin rookery on Bleaker Island. Each of the four times I have been on Bleaker what is likely the same bird makes its way down to the edge of the sea and hangs out for a few hours. In retrospect, I thought that it would be a pretty good match for the red-headed lady photographer’s hair-do.
Great Egrets in breeding plumage are a beautiful sight …
Gatorland Mini-IPT: 1 1/2 days: AM and PM shooting sessions on Saturday, March 4 and a morning session on Sunday, March 5: $749. Limit 6/Openings 4.
Join me in Kissimmee, FL in early March, prime time to to photograph Great Egrets in breeding plumage. We should get to make lots of head portraits with most any lens and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Eggs for sure. Tiny chicks likely. And most likely breeding Wood Storks as well. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle the WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. Includes a working lunch on me on Saturday with image review and Photoshop. We may see and photograph some early Snowy Egrets and Tricolored Herons. And of course, we will see and photograph the captive American Alligators. All of the birds are free and wild.
To pay in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass. Early entry both mornings and late stay on Saturday.
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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.
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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 :).
