Just exercise and NFL on Sunday. Please call or e-mail for San Diego IPT late registration info–just three slots left. Click here for San Diego and complete IPT info.
Apologies for the intermittent server problems we have been having; Peter Kes is still on it. These are the first such problems we have had in many years and we are doing our best to rectify them. Please bear with us.
Used Gear Business
If you contacted me in December about selling a used 1D X please get in touch again via e-mail. I have been searching for your e-mail for more than an hour without success 🙁 I do not like to leave folks hanging.
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: 416!
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, 416 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
This image was also created at The Neck on Saunders Island, The Falklands. Again I used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) with my very favorite bird photography camera, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering – 1 stop: 1/2000 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. Note: 1/2000 at f/8 in the shade at ISO 400 does not make a whole lot of sense but the image was only about 1/2 stop under …
One AF point to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was just below the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Black-browed Albatross gathering mud for its nest, maybe …
Thirty Great Minutes in the Fourth Albatross Gulley … Part II
As I mentioned in Part I yesterday here, I was sitting near a tiny stream, the rivulet dripping down the hill from and unseen spring. As there has been a several-year drought in The Falklands, I am guessing that these small streams are more important than ever as each of the many thousands of Black-browed Albatross nests is constructed almost entirely of mud.
I have seen this behavior many times in the past. The bird collecting the mud grabs a beakful and tosses it backwards a foot or two towards the nest. The nest is usually six feet or so away. The funniest thing is that I have never seen the mud collecting bird ever move the mud any closer to the nest … I guess that they must at some point.
I was excited by this situation as the behavior is so interesting and the mud was relatively clean and so dark brown as to look almost black. Be sure to see the multiple choice quiz below after checking out the DPP 4 Screen Capture below and reading my comments there for a big clue …
The DPP 4 RAW Conversion Screen Capture for today’s featured image
The DPP 4 RAW Conversion Screen Capture and the Image Optimization
Note that despite a pretty good but not perfect exposure, I added 1/6 stop of light before converting the RAW file in DPP 4. After brightening the image a bit, the RGB values on the top of the bird’s head read 238, 238, 239. I moved the Shadow slider to -1 to darken the mud a bit. In a perfect world I would have moved the active AF point up one so that it fell squarely on the bird’s eye.
Mud clean-up was minimal as the mud — as mentioned above — was pretty good looking mud. I used the Spot Healing Brush for that clean-up. I applied my 25/25 NIK Color Efex Pro recipe to the whole image and then painted it in where needed on the bird using an Inverse (Hide-all or Black) Layer Mask. Once that was done I went back to the Layer and pulled the curve up a bit to further brighten the WHITEs. The I lightened the dark brow that gives the bird its name with a Tim Grey Dodge and Burn layer and did a bit of Eye Doctor work. Lastly I selected the bill and the mouth lining, applied a Contrast Mask, and boosted the Vibrance to 100%.
Everything above plus tons more is of course detailed in my 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 apply Neat Image noise reduction.
Multiple Choice Quiz
Which of these was most important to the success of this image:
a- the perfect head angle
b- the perfect exposure
c- the perfect head rotation
d-the inclusion of a portion of the bird’s wing and the side of the bird’s breast in the upper left corner.
e- all are correct
Please let us know why you made your choice.
Still More 100-400 II Versatility
As we have seen here very often over the last two years, the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens is incredibly versatile. In addition to its great focal length range, the amazing four-stop IS system, and its excellence as a flight lens, its incredible close focusing ability is a huge plus. How quickly we have forgotten that the 400 f/5.6L and the original 100-400 focused only to about 11 or 12 feet … Today’s featured image would have been impossible with the older gear.
On more than a few outings in The Falklands I headed out with just the new 1-4.
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 April 22, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of April 22, 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 was so cold here for the past two days that the pool dropped from 85 to 76 degrees in less than 48 hours. Thus, I skipped my swim and my walk while concentrating on my core, shoulder and hip flexor exercises and stretching.
Please call or e-mail for San Diego IPT late registration info–just three slots left. Click here for San Diego and complete IPT info.
Apologies for the intermittent server problems we have been having; Peter Kes is on it. These are the first such problems we have had in many years so please bear with us.
Jim and Jen and I wish each and every one of you a happy, healthy 2017 filled with wondrous trips and wonderful images.
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: 415!
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, 415 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new 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. I used the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 271mm) with my very favorite bird photography camera, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops: 1/4000 sec. at f/6.3.
Center AF point/Manual selection/Shutter Button as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was on the right side of the bird’s face (pat on the back for me). Click on the image to see a larger version.
Black-browed Albatross coming over hill with feet down
(The Start of) Thirty Great Minutes in the Fourth Albatross Gulley … Part I
One of the nicest things about my final 8 days in The Falklands was that it was a pure busman’s holiday; I was free to come and go as I wanted. When it was sunny with blue skies during midday, I stayed in, worked on images, and rested. When it was cloudy, I was off to the races, even after 9 plus weeks of virtually non-stop bird photography. On December 18, it clouded over after lunch so I grabbed only my 100-400 and took a hike up the hill, past the first rockhopper colony, past the first two albatross gullies, and past the rockhopper/shag colony. I noticed lots of black-broweds coming over the hill on the far side of the fourth gully with their feet hanging down as if they were going to land. They didn’t.
I climbed carefully down the hill toward the ocean to the bottom of the gulley. I found a comfortable seat in some soft earth and went to work. I had lots of good chances. Today’s featured image was my favorite. It is more difficult to get to the nesting albatrosses at The Neck than it is at Rookery. Either way, however, you need to be careful with every step. There were lots of black-browed nests in the gulley and more than a few at the bottom, near a rivulet. These big birds are 100% copacetic as far as visiting photographers go, as long as they stay low and move slowly.
DPP 4 RAW Conversion screen capture
Lessons from the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Screen Capture
Most importantly, note the lying histogram. At first glance, it look as if the image is well under-exposed. But, the RGB values for the brightest whites on the top of the bird’s head are 240, 241, 243. Note how well the 5D IV image stood up to a decent crop. After converting the RAW file in DPP 4 I used a flopped Quick Mask to cover the extra albatross that was left after the crop. I think that what looks like a huge dust spot in the lower right portion of the frame was actually a distant out-of-focus albatross. I eliminated it using the Patch Tool. I ran a layer of my 25/25 NIK Color Efex Pro recipe and then applied a separate layer of White Neutralizer to juice up the blues of the skies.
Still More 100-400 II Versatility
As we have seen here very often over the last two years, the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens is incredibly versatile. In addition to its great focal length range, the amazing four-stop IS system, and its excellence as a flight lens, its incredible close focusing ability, it is a great flight lens. Being able to zoom out as the birds get closer is a huge plus.
On more than a few outings in The Falklands I headed out with just the new 1-4 on my person.
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: 8). 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.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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 was cold and windy here on Friday morning. I put on my warmest sweatshirt and a wool hat. It was pretty much colder than most days in the Falklands … I walked for half and hour and then got back to work. I will skip my swim today but continue with the core, shoulder and hip flexor exercises and stretching.
Please call or e-mail for San Diego IPT late registration info–see the listing below. Click here for complete IPT info.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 414!
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, 414 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new 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 rear deck of the Sea Spirit by David Policansky somewhere in the Southern Ocean with the with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) and the amazing Canon EOS 7D Mark II. ISO 400: 1/5000 sec. at f/6.3.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Adult Wandering Albatross in flight
Image courtesy of and copyright 2016: David Policansky
Patience Rewards Dr. Fish With a Great 7D Mark II Image …
In the Photographing from the Stern of an Expedition Ship blog post here, I wrote:
Seabirds often follow ships at sea. I find that the stern is usually the best place to work from though on occasion the bow or the sides of the ship can be productive as well. Keep your eyes open and note the sky conditions, the light angle, and the way the birds are flying. Photographing seabirds in flight from the stern (or from anywhere else) on an expedition ship is always a huge challenge. The ship is almost always rocking and rolling. The action is usually not constant. It can be cold and even wet. If it is sunny and clear, it is almost impossible to avoid harsh shadows on the birds. Hand held intermediate telephotos or telephoto lenses are best. One thing is for sure: the more time you spend trying the more chance you will have of producing a special image …
During briefing sessions for the BAA group, I stressed that later point over and over. Multiple IPT veteran, good friend, and blog regular David Policansky was part of the BAA group and took my advice to heart. My recollection is that he created this image late in the trip as we sailed toward Ushuaia. I saw him headed out as I headed back into the lounge after two hours with little action. And do it goes.
With David’s image I love the sharpness, the angled flight, and especially the lovely light on the underwings. Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans) is classed as Vulnerable on the ICUN Red List of endangered species. The pinkish feathers on the neck indicate a long-lived individual. Most albatross species can live to forty or even fifty.
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 3)
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Please e-mail for late registration discount info.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. 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. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
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 🙂
Thursday began with another hour-long walk with Jim down to the lake and back. I continued with about five hours all told of my core, shoulder and hip flexor exercises and stretching and enjoyed another 1/2 mile swim. I have come to realize that if I do not use it I will lose it …
Please call or e-mail for San Diego IPT late registration info. Click here for complete IPT info.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 413!
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, 413 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Four AF points to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point fell squarely on the chick’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Rockhopper Penguin adult grooming chick
Whaddya Do With a Softbox Sky?
There is never ever a daily shooting schedule on a BAA IPT. I always have a plan, but I am always willing and eager to switch tracks as conditions change. Conditions were ideal as we headed out early: completely cloudy but a bit dark. We started out with the Rock Shags but there was not much gong on. Since it was cloudy dark we headed back for a quick breakfast. As we climbed back into our vehicle things had brightened considerably; the wind had dropped to nothing and the sky was a huge softbox. Without hesitation I said, “Conditions are perfect for the rockhopper chicks.”We enjoyed several hours of incredible photography.
Lesson: you do not want to photograph penguins (or any black and white birds for that matter) when it is sunny. Even with early morning light it is very difficult to create pleasing images. On the other hand, cloudy bright is magic: no shadows.
On IPTs, I share all of my decision making thinking with you so that when you get back to your home turf you will better be able to decide when to get out, when to stay in bed, and where to go …
My Favorite Penguin Chick Rig/Why a 12mm Extension Tube?
Whenever we headed out to do penguin chicks I went with the 500 II, the 1.4X III, the 5D IV, and added the Canon Extension Tube EF 12 II behind the teleconverter. There are two advantages when using the 12mm tube as described:
1-You gain almost two feet of close focus.
2-Even when you are working outside of the minimum focusing distance of your lens you enjoy about a 4% increase in subject size.
Note that when you add a 12mm extension tube it will cost you about 1/3 to 1/2 stop of light depending on the lens. Note also that you will lose distant focus, again, the distance will depend on the lens. If a peregrine flies by carrying prey it is likely that you will not be able to achieve focus. Lastly, I use a 12mm tube between my 1.4X and 2X TCs so that I can stack them for travel and in the field.
The DPP 4 Screen Capture
Why Expose So Far to the Right?
Note that before the RAW conversion in DPP 4 that the RGB values for the brightest whites came in at 249, 250, 251. Why did I push the whites so far to the right?
Note the perfect placement of the selected AF point. Image clean-up was minimal.
Your Call
All are invited to leave a comment and let us know what they like and/or don’t like about today’s featured image.
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: 8). 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.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check of running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance be sure to read the fine print careful even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
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 🙂
On Wednesday I started the day with an hour long walk with Jim down to the lake and back. I continued with about five hours all told of my core, shoulder and hip flexor exercises and stretching and enjoyed another 1/2 mile swim. I have come to realize that if I do not use it I will lose it …
Please call or e-mail for San Diego IPT late registration info.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 412!
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, 412 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Two AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected Af point was just below the base of the bill; it is likely that the upper assist point saved the day. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Inca Tern head and shoulders portrait
Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures Part I
Ever since I saw some excellent Inca Tern head portraits on BirdPhotographers.Net several years ago I dreamed of getting to Lima … My “tour organizer” (more on him at some point …) assured me that getting close to this species would be easy to do at Pucusana. We made the 1 1/2 hour drive but when we exited the vehicles there were no terns on the cliffs. After a phone call our guide arranged for us to rent a small fishing boat to visit the terns on the rocks. The first problem was that the vehicle would not start. After an hour delay with got to the small boat. After a short ride we found lots of terns but none of them were anywhere near close enough for head shots. Though we were in a relatively small harbor and it was mercifully cloudy, it was also choppy and the photography was quite difficult.
Out of desperation I set up the 400 DO II with the 2X III TC and had the boat driver get us as close to the rocks as he dared. Most of the backgrounds–whitewash-covered rocks were horrific–but at one point we got relatively close and a nice brown background popped into the viewfinder for a few seconds. But making a sharp image at 800mm hand held from a rocking skiff required some skill and lots of luck. I fired off a very few frames during a lull in the wave action. And got very lucky. Desperate times do often call for desperate measures. During my 10 1/2 week trip, I did not use the 400 DO II a lot, but it did–often in combination with the 2X III TC–help me get through some desperate times …
The Image Optimization
After lightening this image considerably during the RAW conversion in DPP 4 (see the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide) I brought the image into Photoshop. Aside from the minimal bill clean-up, I did not do much additional clean-up work on this image. After completing the Eye Doctor work, I selected the bird and then feathered (2 pixels) and saved the selection. I put the selection on its own layer and applied my NIK Color Efex Pro 25/25 recipe. The big deal in the before and after animated GIF is the incredible NeatImage noise reduction. Check out both the eye and the background. Then note how beautifully the fine feather detail has been preserved. You can learn to apply Neat Image noise reduction in The Professional Photographers Guide to Post Processing.
Everything above plus tons more is of course detailed in my 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 apply Neat Image noise reduction.
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 April 22, 2017: $99
Join me on the morning of April 22, 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 🙂
On Tuesday I visited my Active Release Technology chiropractor and did some shopping at Publix. I continued my core and hip flexor exercises and enjoyed another 1/2 mile swim. All in all I was feeling a lot better on Tuesday evening than I had been on Monday night. Thanks to all who commented on the Marvelous Spatuletail images in yesterday’s blog post.
Please call or e-mail for San Diego IPT late registration info.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 411!
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, 411 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
This image represents the converted RAW file. It was created on Bleaker Island with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 278mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1250. Evaluative metering +2 stops off the sky in low light: 1/1250 sec. at f/5.
Two AF points up from the center AF point/(Manual selection)/AI Servo Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best for flight photography). Click on the image to see a larger version. The active AF point was on the bird’s upper breast.
King Shag landing at colony in sweet, late light.
Photo-bombed by a King Shag and Two Young Frenchmen; What to Do?
On all three of my visits to Bleaker Island on the big trip we enjoyed fabulous flight photography at the King Shag colony whenever we visited in the late afternoon. I created this image when we headed back out after dinner. The ironic part of getting photo-bombed by the two young Frenchmen is that it is exceedingly rare to see anyone not with your group in the field on a land-based Falklands trip.
The light was too sweet and the shaded, out of focus colony background too interesting to delete this one so I after converting the image in DPP 4 I brought it into Photoshop and went to work. I gotta say that it cleaned up very nicely. Learn more below.
AF Tip
With landing birds coming right at you, especially those braking to land, try using the AF point that is two or even three up from the center AF point and do your best to get the selected AF point on the bird’s face. That is easier said than done. Doing so will result in more balanced compositions.
This is the cropped, optimized version of today’s featured image
The Image Clean-Up
I used a combination of my usual clean-up tools to create something pleasing out of the photo-bombed original. (Sometimes life ain’t fair.) Those included a series of Quick Masks, the Clone Stamp Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, the Patch Tool, and a Gaussian blur on the sky after the clean-up. In all cases I worked on a separate clean-up layer so that I could refine things with a Regular Layer Mask.
Everything above plus tons more is of course detailed in my 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.
Learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
Your Call
Would you be comfortable cleaning up a photo-bombed image? Why or why not?
Like Urbex Photography? Want to learn Photoshop?
With a relatively small group and the long days, there will be lots of time for image sharing and Photoshop sessions on the Palouse IPT. I hope to see you there.
Palouse 2016 Horizontals Card
Why Different?
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 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.
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 🙂
Monday was day one of post-travel recovery 🙂 Though I did my core and hip flexor exercises and enjoyed a 1/2 mile swim–my first in a long time, I spent much of the day feeling like a zombie. I started catching up on a slew of NFL and UFC stuff on Tivo. All that I can say about Conor McGregor is that he backs up what he says. He is the first to hold two UFC championship belts at the same time.
The Tale of the Scale
After eating pretty much everything in sight for 10 1/2 weeks I got on the scale this morning with much trepidation. I started the scale at 190. It wound up at 185 1/4 pounds. I was thrilled as this represented a weight gain of less then 3 pounds. I ate well today and will continue to do so.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 410!
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, 410 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Your Favorite?
Which of these three images would you enter in the Nature’s Best Contest? They love ICUN endangered species.
This image was created at Pomacochas, Peru with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 3200. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/100 sec. at f/7.1. Three rows up from the center AF point (Manual selection)/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was squarely on the bird’s eye. Click image to see a larger version.
“It eez here,” said my guide Alex in a whisper. I looked at the perch that he said the bird would land on, but did not see any bird. I did see what looked to be two large bumblebees fighting just below the perch. I swung my lens to view the bees and was stunned. The two “bees” were actually the rackets on the bird’s two very long modified feathers. As the bird moved them about as if by magic they looked just like two fighting bumblebees. The male hummingbird’s body was impossibly tiny. When the bird flashed the feathers of its purple crown and aqua gorget it revealed its improbable beauty.
Over a two hour period on my first morning with this tiny bird, I had more than a few chances to photograph the male marvelous Spatuletail as it sat on its lek perch. The photos were all sharp, well exposed, and nicely designed but from my standing position on the steep hillside the light-toned branch that cut right through the hummer’s neck was far less than ideal. It is funny how you can fail to notice the background when confronted with a stunning bird …
ISO 3200. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/6.3. Two rows up and two to the right of the center AF point (Manual selection)/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the side of the gorget well below the bird’s eye. Click image to see a larger version.
After spending some time at the hummingbird feeders, Alex and I headed back up the hill to the spatuletail lek. This time I sat. Getting lower helped a lot with the still somewhat cluttered background. As soon as I had leveled my tripod platform by adjusting the leg lengths the bird landed in the same spot. It flew from its perch every few minutes only to land again almost immediately. Over the next 17 minutes and 26 seconds I created 838 images; it’s no wonder the that flash did not fire for many of them! Amazingly, I never once buried the buffer on the 1DX II. (Note: a month later on Bleaker Island in the Falklands I did bury the buffer on my 5D Mark IV for the first and so far only time on a braying/displaying Magellanic Penguin; photos here soon.)
Sated, I left the lek and headed back down the hill with Alex carrying my gear.
ISO 2500. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/60 sec. at f/5.6. Three rows up and on to the right of the center AF point (Manual selection)/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the edge of the gorget below the bird’s eye. Click image to see a larger version.
Marvelous Spatuletail
Marvelous Spatuletail, a Peruvian endemic, is a very rare bird indeed. It can be found only in a single valley in Pomacochas, Peru. Other than the fact that this species is ICUN endangered, there is not much definitive information on this species on the web. It does however, seem that there are less than 1,000 individuals. Conservation efforts include protecting habitat and planting vegetation that supply the tiny hummers with their preferred nectar.
I had thought that the Hummingbird Queen, Linda Robbins, had traveled to Peru to photograph this species, but I learned recently via e-mail that she never did. Folks interested in learning to photograph hummers at multi-flash set-ups should check out Linda’s Hummingbird Guide: How to Photograph Hummingbirds Using High Speed Multiple Flash.
Alex Durand
Many thanks to my guide Alex Durand for his expertise in checking out several lekking areas before hitting paydirt. If you’d like to photograph this rare species or plan a bird photography trip to Peru, do know that Alex is superb. You can learn about his offerings or contact him here. Thanks also to Santos Monte Negro, a young man who lives in a tiny lodge in the center of the valley. Several years ago he purchased a small tract of spatuletail-rich land adjacent to the major highway that runs through the valley. The two leks that Alex checked out — including the magical one — were on Santos’ property.
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 did not sleep much at all on the flights from Santiago, Chile to Miami but on the short flight to Orlando I slept like a rock from before take-off until the nice lady sitting next to me shook me gently to wake me up at the gate. It was the first time I ever slept through touchdown … I did not sleep at all in the car and after the 1 1/2 ride Jim and I arrived at ILE at 1:15am.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 409!
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, 409 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
I used my still flower sharpness technique: Live View (for mirror lock-up) with the 2-second timer. Flexi-zone single AF. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Rock-scape Art Vivid HDR
La Jolla Shores Beach Stuff
We visit La Jolla Shores Beach on nearly all San Diego IPTs as long as the tide is right. There are usually lots of birds including the handsome Marbled Godwits and a variety of other shorebirds including Black-bellied Plover, Sanderling, Willet, and if you are lucky, Spotted Sandpiper. The usual gull species include Western and the gorgeous Heerman’s Gulls. The backgrounds range from perfect pure grey wet sand to wet sand with the golden buff reflections of the cliffs at Torrey Pines. It is an excellent sunset silhouette spot. On the rare occasion when there are few birds there is still lots to photograph: the waves in the blue water with the golden reflections, and a variety of rock-scapes. I found this beautiful rock formation about half way down the beach and spent an hour with it creating many different compositions. Today’s featured image was my favorite of the afternoon.
The trick with La Jolla Shores Beach is being there with the right sky conditions, on the right tide, at the right time of days. Learn all that plu tons more in the San Diego Site Guide–the details are immediately below.
The San Diego Site Guide
If you would like to learn all the great spots in and around San Diego and La Jolla, get yourself a copy of the BAA San Diego Site guide here. It is the next best thing to being on an IPT.
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 5 )
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. 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. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
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 🙂
On Friday, 23 DEC I flew from Bleaker Island to Mount Pleasant in Stanley, the capital city of The Falklands. On Saturday, 24 DEC I flew from Stanley to Santiago, Chile on the once a week flight that stops over in Punta Arenas, Chile. That flight began with a dash across the tarmac through icy cold wind-driven rain. When I finally got to Santiago after 9pm, the bus ride from the plane to the terminal took nearly 30 minutes …
My trip home begins with a 7-hour flight to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for a 1 1/2 hour layover (please take your carry-ons with you when deplaning) before the 2 hour flight to Miami. ETA into MIA is 7:05pm. After clearing customs, my flight to Orlando departs at 9:45pm and is scheduled to arrive at one minute before eleven pm. My right hand man Jim Litzenberg has kindly agreed to pick me up at about 11:30pm or so. I am guessing that I will be home in ILE sometime between 1:00 and 1:30am.
I walked from the airport hotel to check in for today’s flights just after 6:00am hoping to be back in my room in about 15 minutes. I went to the Latam counter and asked, “Where is first class check-in?” The agent told me to go down to the second floor. I walked the length of the terminal back to the elevator with my three checked bags and went down to two. I walked the entire length of the terminal and back again without seeing a sign of Latam international check-in so I headed back to the elevator and then back to the Latam counter and asked again, “Where is first class check-in?” “Fourth Floor,” the agent replied. I walked back to the other end of the terminal once again, found the tiny elevator to the fourth floor, and checked in successfully.
I am hoping that the rest of the day goes a bit smoother.
The trip was amazing and exhausting. I will be sharing many of the highlights here with you over the next few months at least. I made a few great images and lots of good ones. As always, there are many lessons to go with each image. Coming soon: The Marvelous Tale of the Surreal Fighting Bees …
One of the participants did some simple physio-therapy tests and learned that while most of the muscle groups in my upper legs are very strong that my hip flexors are incredibly weak. So I will have lots of work to do to regain strength there, improve my balance and stability, and reduce the pain that I have been having on both sides. I am looking forward to the challenge and looking forward to start eating a lot better than I have been …
Merry Christmas
To all who celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very happy holiday filled with family and great gifts for all.
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 408!
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, 408 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new 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 while photographing on the stern of the Sea Spirit with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens and the fast, rugged Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.) ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +3 2/3 stops off the light grey sky: 1/1250 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode. AWB.
Center AF point/Manual Selection/AI Servo Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point just caught the bird’s undertail coverts. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #1: Southern Giant Petrel dark morph
Photographing from the Stern of an Expedition Ship
Seabirds often follow ships at sea. I find that the stern is usually the best place to work from though on occasion the bow or the sides of the ship can be productive as well. Keep your eyes open and note the sky conditions, the light angle, and the way the birds are flying. Photographing seabirds in flight from the stern (or from anywhere else) on an expedition ship is always a huge challenge. The ship is almost always rocking and rolling. The action is usually not constant. It can be cold and even wet. If it is sunny and clear, it is almost impossible to avoid harsh shadows on the birds. Hand held intermediate telephotos or telephoto lenses are best. One thing is for sure: the more time you spend trying the more chance you will have of producing a special image …
On the Sea Spirit, many folks used the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens successfully. I brought the 400 DO II specifically to use while photographing from the ship for two reasons:
1-The extra stop of speed allowed me to save one stop of ISO.
2-As the birds rarely fly very close to the ship, I knew that adding the 1.4X III TC would give me extra reach.
Tips
During navigations from one location to another, keep your flight lens handy with fresh batteries and a clean card in the camera. I kept mine on the floor in the library of the Sea Spirit along with my heavy coat, a woolen watch cap, and my gloves. If action developed I could be on deck in less than two minutes without having to run back to my cabin.
The more time that you spend on deck, the more chance you have of creating a single good image. That should come as no surprise, but I will say that the number of folks out photographing decreased steadily over the 2 1/2 week trip … Photographing from the deck of an expedition ship that is underway can be hard work.
Plus Four Stops off the Light Grey Sky? No way!
You are correct. I actually used plus 3 2/3 stops off the light gray sky to create both of today’s featured images (on different days). But plus four stops off the light grey sky makes a much better title. When photographing birds in flight against grey sky backgrounds most folks will underexpose their images by two to three or more stops. With the black seabirds I went as much as 3 2/3 stops over the meter reading off the sky to ensure lovely underwing detail and reduce the noise in the dark areas. For birds with lots of WHITE feathers like Black-browed Albatross or the whitest of white seabirds, the Snow Petrels, I’d go with about + 2 or plus 2 1/2 stops off the light sky, and about plus three stops for the intermediate phase (grey) giant petrels.
Center AF point/Expand/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The upper assist point was on the bird’s face. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #2: White-chinned Petrel
The White-chinned Petrels
Being smaller and longer-winged, the White-chinned Petrels fly faster than either species of giant petrel. They generally stay farther from the ship. And they often fly off the bow where photography is more difficult than it is from the stern. On our navigation from South Georgia to the Falklands roommate Kevin Watson and I found ourselves alone on the stern. There was only one bird, a White-chinned Petrel. But for whatever reasons, it flew close to the ship and stayed with us for about half an hour. I was thrilled to create my best ever image of this challenging seabird.
DPP 4 Southern Giant Petrel dark morph Screen Capture
DPP 4 Southern Giant Petrel dark morph Screen Capture
It is pretty obvious that I did not do a very good job of getting the AF point on the bird’s eye, face, neck, or upper breast. If I had, I might have cut off the end of the bird’s far wing 🙂 IAC, I used techniques from APTATS II to easily reposition the bird in the frame. You can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
Note the almost perfectly neutral RGB values for the sky: R: 247; G: 248; B: 249. Note that despite working at an exposure that was 3 2/3 stops above that above the light grey sky that I still needed to add 1/6 stop of exposure (+0.17) during the RAW conversion in DPP 4. Mostly importantly, note that there is almost no data on the RGB histogram in the first box, the one on the left that shows the dark tones. This indicates that I have maximized detail in the dark areas of the image, i.e., the bird. The worst case scenario would be that the dark tones are pegged against the left-hand axis of the histogram. As always, expose to the right. With this image I needed to take extreme measures–+3 2/3 stops off the grey sky–to ensure that I exposed well to the right with lots of detail in the dark tones, even those that look BLACK.
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 am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 407!
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, 407 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
What the heck is it?
What the Heck is It?
Before you scroll down to the next very revealing image, see if you can figure out what you are seeing in the photograph above.
Why did I photograph such a mess? I found the colors and patterns, which on the surface appear chaotic, to be rather interesting, even a bit pleasing. Go figure. In addition, I knew that a pure pattern shot would make a good “what is it image? “
This image was also and obviously created at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 227mm) and the EOS-1D X (now replaced by the fast, rugged Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.) ISO 800. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/60 sec. at f/14. AWB.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Brand’t Cormorant skull
What the Heck it Was
The feathers of this long dead Brandt’s Cormorant were well disguised by the whitewash and the guano and as noted above, the patterns and colors caught my eye. I created many images some showing only pure patterns and some showing the bird’s head and bill. More than a few were lost to unsharpness due to the slow shutter speed of 1/60 sec. as I was leaning over a fence rather awkwardly in an attempt to parallel the subject. The two images featured here today were the only two that I kept.
Shutter Speed and Aperture Question
Why was it necessary to work at f/14 and thus run the risk of lots of unsharp images while working only at 1/60 sec.?
Your Favorite?
Please take a moment to leave a comment and let us know which of today’s two featured images you like best and let us know why you made your choice. Neither is a fine answer. If the latter, please let us know why as well.
The San Diego Site Guide
If you would like to learn all the great spots in and around San Diego and La Jolla, get yourself a copy of the BAA San Diego Site guide here. It is the next best thing to being on an IPT.
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 5 )
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. 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. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
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 am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 406!
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, 406 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created on the 2016 Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 312mm) with the EOS-1D X (now replaced by the fast, rugged Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.) ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop off the light blue sky: 1/1600 sec. at f/5.6. Shade WB.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was squarely on the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #1: White-tailed Sea-eagle in flat flight
The Other Eagle
The glamour raptor species in Japan in winter is Steller’s Sea-Eagle. But its smaller cousin, White-tailed Sea-eagle, provides numerous opportunities for creating spectacular flight images both on the sea-eagle boat trips and at the Akan Crane center. In both situations, the new 100-400 II with either a full frame body or a 7D Mark II makes for an ideal rig. At the crane center last year however, I went against tradition and made lots of great flight images with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the Canon EOS 5DS R. In bird photography there is often more than one way to skin a cat.
Accidental JPEGs
Both of these images were accidentally created as JPEGs. Image #1 actually presented more problems as the light feathers on the bird’s face were very close to being toasted. With a RAW capture saving the WHITEs would have been easy, but with the JPEG capture I needed to use the Patch Tool to repair the too-bright feather tracts. That is just one of the many reasons that we strongly suggest that serious photographers use RAW capture.
This image was created on the 2016 Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 300mm) with the EOS-1D X (now replaced by the fast, rugged Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop off the light blue sky: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6. Shade WB.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Though the selected AF point was on the secondary feathers of the bird’s left (upper) wing, the image is sharp on the eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #2: White-tailed Sea-eagle beginning dive
Moving the Birds in the Frame
With Image #1 I moved the bird back just a bit in the frame. With Image #2 I moved the bird up and back in the frame quite a bit to achieve the desired composition. In both cases I used techniques detailed in APTATS I and II. You can learn the advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques that I used to move the birds about in the frame in APTATS I & II and you can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
Consider joining me in Japan in February, 2017, for the world’s best Japan in Winter workshop. Click on the card to enjoy the spectacular larger version.
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy. Limit 8/Openings: 3.
Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!
All lodging including the Tokyo hotel on 9 FEB, all breakfasts & dinners, ground transport and transfers including bus to the monkey park hotel, and all entrance fees and in-country flights are included. Not included: international flights, all lunches–most are on the run, and alcoholic beverages.
Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.
This trip is one day longer than the great 2014 trip to allow for more flexibility, more time with the cranes, and most importantly, more time for landscape photography. Hokkaido is gorgeous. You will enjoy tons of pre-trip planning and gear advice, in-the-field instruction and guidance, at-the-lodge Photoshop and image review sessions in addition to short introductory slide programs for each of the amazing locations. Skilled photographer Paul McKenzie handles the logistics and we enjoy the services of Japan’s best wildlife photography guide whom I affectionately call “Hokkaido Bear.” His network of local contacts and his knowledge of the weather, the area, and the birds is unparalleled and enables him to have us in the best location every day.
Arrive Tokyo: 9 FEB 2017 the latest. 8 FEB is safer and gives you a day to get acclimated to the time change. Your hotel room for the night of the 9th is covered.
Bus Travel to Monkey Park Hotel: 10 FEB: A 1/2 DAY of monkey photography is likely depending on our travel time… This traditional hotel is first class all the way. Our stay includes three ten course Japanese dinners; these sumptuous meals will astound you and delight your taste buds. There are many traditional hot springs mineral baths (onsens) on site in this 150 year old hotel.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 11.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 12.
13 FEB: Full travel day to Hokkaido/arrive at our lodge in the late afternoon. The lodge is wonderful. All the rooms at the lodge have beds. Bring your warm pajamas. A local onsen (hot springs bath and tubs) is available for $5 each day before dinner–when you are cold, it is the best thing since sliced bread. The home-cooked Japanese styles meals at the lodge are to die for. What’s the best news? Only a small stand of woods separates us from the very best crane sanctuary. During one big snowstorm we were the only photo group to be able to get to Tsurui Ito; we had the whole place to ourselves in perfect conditions for crane photography!
FEB 14-23: Red-crowned Crane, raptors in flight, Whooper Swans, and scenic photography. Ural Owl possible. An overnight trip to Rausu for Steller’s Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle photography on the tourists boats is 100% dependent on the weather, road, and sea ice conditions. Only our trip offers complete flexibility in this area. It has saved us on more than once occasion. The cost of 2 eagle-boat trips is included. If the group would like to do more than two boat trips and we all agree, there will be an additional charge for the extra trip or trips. No matter the sea ice conditions, we will do two eagle boat trips (as long as we can make the drive to Rausu; it snows a lot up there). We have never been shut out.In 2016 there was no sea ice but our guide arranged for two amazingly productive boat trips.
Lodging notes: bring your long johns for sleeping in the lodge. At the Snow Monkey Park, and in Rausu, the hotel the rooms are Japanese-style. You sleep on comfortable mats on the floor. Wi-fi is available every day of the trip.
FEB 24. Fly back to Tokyo for transfer to your airport if you are flying home that night, or, to your hotel if you are overnighting. If you need to overnight, the cost of that room is on you.
Life is short. Hop on the merry-go-round.
To Sign Up
To save your spot, please send your $5,000 non-refundable deposit check made out to “Birds as Art” to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. I do hope that you can join me for this trip of a lifetime. Do e-mail with any questions or give me a buzz at 863-692-0906.
Purchasing travel insurance within 2 weeks of our cashing your deposit check is strongly recommended. On two fairly recent Galapagos cruises a total of 5 folks were forced to cancel less than one week prior to the trip. My family and I use Travel Insurance Services and strongly recommend that you do the same.
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 we are 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 we, 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 am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 405!
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, 405 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
AI Servo Upper Zone/Rear Focus AF on the penguin’s face and release. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.
King Penguin preening upper breast/best if the three
Why Image #2?
While all three images in the December 19, 2016 King Penguin Editing Triptych/You Pick the Best One blog post here were sharp with a perfect exposure and an open and visible eye–the latter rare with King Penguins, Image #2 for me was the clear pick of the litter. Why? The tension that came with the position of the head best indicated the preening action. Why not Image #3? Because the bill tip merged with the upper breast. Why not Image #1? While it is a nice portrait it is severely lacking in perceived action and tension, the bird is pretty much just standing there not doing much.
Mazel Tov!
Good job by the ten folks who like Image #2 the best. Two folks who commented liked #1 best.
DPP 4 AF Point Screen Capture Adapted …
DPP 4 AF Point Screen Capture Adapted …
To further explain the love for my newfound best friend, Upper Large Zone AF: It is best used with vertical subjects that fill about 2/3 of the frame, a relatively common situation in bird photography. As mentioned in the previous blog post mentioned above, I most often use Upper Large Zone AF in conjunction with shutter button AF. But for the three images in the editing quiz I used the rear focus and release technique as the bird was standing completely still. In the actual DPP 4 AF point screen capture none of the AF points were illuminated in red. This indicates that no AF point was active at the moment of exposure. With the bird standing still and the lens on a tripod I trusted rear focus completely after tapping the star button.
In the adapted DPP 4 screen capture above, the blue dots that I added show the AF points that are available in Upper Large Zone (ULZ) AF. And the squares that I illuminated in red in Photoshop with the rarely used Pen Tool show the ones that the system likely chose. If my memory is correct, the system activated three of the four AF points outlined in red with only the one in the upper right not active. In any case, Upper Large Zone really rocks when you know how to use it. Notice that when I re-framed right that the AF system selected only AF points on or near the bird’s head. This is a huge advantage of using ULZ AF rather than Surround. With the latter you often need to move the eight active points to the left or the right or up or down depending …
Image #2: Black-browed Albatross on nest with small chick.
Falklands Cheap Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019: Limit 7 photographers/Openings 5 or fewer: $7499
Just so you know, I will be leading an innovative land-based Falklands IPT leaving from Stanley, The Falklands on SAT 22 DEC 2018 and flying back to Santiago, Chile on SAT JAN 5, 2019. Why innovative? We will be spending six nights at The Neck on Saunders Island, one of the premier wildlife photography destinations on the planet. We will be ending up on the amazing Bleaker Island. I will let you know in January when the trip will be formally announced as to we will be spending seven nights on Bleaker or 3 nights on Sea Lion Island and 4 on Bleaker. I will make that decision after visiting Sea Lion on the DEC 2016 land-based Falklands IPT that I am leading.
What else is innovative? Most two-week land-based photo trips have you visiting four or five islands hopping on a FIGAS plane every two days or so. As you are at the mercy of the flight operations you may miss several mornings or afternoons of photography. Why not stay in two or three of the best locations, locations that offer the best photo opps without any long walks. Saunders and Bleaker will get you close-up to the great species with ease. At The Neck we will be staying in rustic cabins right in the heart of the action. On Bleaker we will be enjoying near-luxury accommodations and great home-cooked meals. We will have two vehicles at our disposal.
What else? The first Black-browed Albatross chicks hatch every year on or about 12 DEC. If you visit in early January you will miss most of the tiny chicks. And worse yet, the Rockhopper Penguin chicks are leaving by the second week of January. This trip if timed to get you tons of chances on tiny fluffy white albatross chicks, some of the larger fluffy white chicks, and the rockhopper chicks as well.
With several years of experience on the Falklands, more than six in fact, nobody knows how to read the sky conditions, the wind, and the light better than me and have the group in the best possible spot at all times. With lots of strong west winds, you will need someone who knows how to put you in position to make good images on near-impossible wind against sun mornings.
If you are seriously interested, please shoot me an e-mail and I will get back to you during the second week of November. Though this trip is more than two years away, two folks have already committed and two more are seriously interested. I am betting that it will sell out far in advance. See more chick images here.
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 several too-sunny days on Saunders (with lots of amazing photography none-the-less) I enjoyed a great morning with Rockhopper Penguin chicks of all sizes here on Bleaker Island–Wednesday, 21 DEC. After two more nights here I fly to Stanley on Friday, fly to Santiago, Chile on Saturday, and fly home on Christmas Day. Right-hand man Jim Litzenberg is picking me up just before midnight on Sunday.
It is hard to believe that I will be home on Monday, at least for a while. I am exhausted. The photographic opportunities have been world class for most of the trip. I have many, many images to share with you here in the coming months.
Enjoy the holiday season and have a great, healthy, prosperous, and rewarding 2017.
Rising Sun Info
It looks as if there will be several openings on the Japan trip, one due to a medical cancellation. If you’ve dreamed of photographing Japan in Winter, please shoot me an e-mail asap for IPT discount info. No reasonable offer will be refused. I need to have the group finalized no later than the end of the year.
Apologies …
For the first time in ages both the BAA website and the Blog were down briefly the other day. So sorry.
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 am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 404!
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, 404 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created on Saunders Island by multiple IPT veteran George Golumbeski (say Go-lum-BESS-kee) with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/5.6. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +12.
Fire of Love/backlit copulating Black-browed Albatrosses, Saunders Island, The Falklands
Image courtesy of and copyright 2016: George Golumbeski
Fire of Love
When we first saw this image on George’s laptop, we all gasped. As George explains in the MP4 video interview below, the orange light outlining the female’s head is from the setting sun just getting through the space between the two birds. Though the image stands quite well on its merit the fact that the winds were gusting to 35 knots that afternoon makes it even more remarkable. Do you think that this image has contest potential? Please let us know why or why not. Thanks a stack to George for allowing me to share his glorious image with you here on the blog.
An MP4 Video Interview with the Photographer
In the video George shares the experience of creating Fire of Love and his thoughts on the various IPTs that he has attended.
Image #1: Black-browed Albatross chick flapping
Falklands Cheap Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019: Limit 7 photographers/Openings 5 or fewer: $7499
Just so you know, I will be leading an innovative land-based Falklands IPT leaving from Stanley, The Falklands on SAT 22 DEC 2018 and flying back to Santiago, Chile on SAT JAN 5, 2019. Why innovative? We will be spending six nights at The Neck on Saunders Island, one of the premier wildlife photography destinations on the planet. We will be ending up on the amazing Bleaker Island. I will let you know in January when the trip will be formally announced as to we will be spending seven nights on Bleaker or 3 nights on Sea Lion Island and 4 on Bleaker. I will make that decision after visiting Sea Lion on the DEC 2016 land-based Falklands IPT that I am leading.
What else is innovative? Most two-week land-based photo trips have you visiting four or five islands hopping on a FIGAS plane every two days or so. As you are at the mercy of the flight operations you may miss several mornings or afternoons of photography. Why not stay in two or three of the best locations, locations that offer the best photo opps without any long walks. Saunders and Bleaker will get you close-up to the great species with ease. At The Neck we will be staying in rustic cabins right in the heart of the action. On Bleaker we will be enjoying near-luxury accommodations and great home-cooked meals. We will have two vehicles at our disposal.
What else? The first Black-browed Albatross chicks hatch every year on or about 12 DEC. If you visit in early January you will miss most of the tiny chicks. And worse yet, the Rockhopper Penguin chicks are leaving by the second week of January. This trip if timed to get you tons of chances on tiny fluffy white albatross chicks, some of the larger fluffy white chicks, and the rockhopper chicks as well.
With several years of experience on the Falklands, more than six in fact, nobody knows how to read the sky conditions, the wind, and the light better than me and have the group in the best possible spot at all times. With lots of strong west winds, you will need someone who knows how to put you in position to make good images on near-impossible wind against sun mornings.
If you are seriously interested, please shoot me an e-mail and I will get back to you during the second week of November. Though this trip is more than two years away, two folks have already committed and two more are seriously interested. I am betting that it will sell out far in advance. See more chick images here.
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 am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 403!
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, 403 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
AI Servo/Large Right Zone/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The system correctly selected the AF point that was four to the right of the center AF point. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #1: Western Gull pre-dawn silhouette
On Getting Up Early …
Most folks do not realize that the best pre-dawn sky colors generally occur from 45 minutes to one hour before the time of sunrise. If you get to your location 30 minutes before sunrise you will have missed the best color 19 out of 20 times. On nearly all IPTs we will be in position roughly one hour before sunrise except in situations where creating pre-dawn silhouettes is simply not possible.
The Western Gull in today’s featured image was sitting on a fence above the pelican cliffs and required a low, careful, uphill/sidehill approach so that I could get close enough to eliminate the railing. In addition to the pre-dawn color, arriving early at La Jolla on clear days gives you a chance to work with the pink/purple/blue sky colors to the west. Showing up at a great photo location at 9am is simply not in the cards for me.
The San Diego Site Guide
If you would love to learn all the great spots in and around San Diego and La Jolla, get yourself a copy of the BAA San Diego Site guide here. It is the next best thing to being on an IPT.
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 6)
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. 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. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
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 am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 402!
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, 402 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
AI Servo Upper Zone/Rear Focus AF on the penguin’s face and release. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.
King Penguin preening upper breast triptych
King Penguin Editing Triptych
These are three of the 140 keepers (after the first edit) that I made on our best morning: six inches of fresh snow at Right Whale Bay on our last South Georgia landing. Assuming that that the eye is open and visible in all three images—it is, and that each image is tack sharp—they are, which of the three images do you think is best? Please let us know why you made your choice and why you ruled out the other two.
From where I sit, one is clearly the best.
Upper Zone AF for Verticals
I began using Upper Zone AF for verticals with my all-time favorite Canon camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and had such great success with it that I started using it with my Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.
Upper Zone AF is better than 61-point Automatic Selection because the system will not focus on the breast which at times may be the closest thing to you. And though the system is always supposed to focus on the closest part of the subject 61-point will often switch to the breast even when the head is closest to the camera. I suspect that that is because the head is often too small to register with the AF system as compared to the bird’s body/breast. Secondly, Upper Zone AF is better than Surround because you can easily move the subject to either side of the frame without having to move the selected sensor to the left or to the right. Try it. You will love it.
Note: though I used rear focus and release I most often use Shutter Button AF in conjunction with Upper Zone AF.
Image Editing on IPTs
On each IPT, we do at least one session where folks are actively engaged in helping me pick my keepers from a day folder. Everyone always loves these sessions as they learn what I see that makes one image stand out as best in a long series. On the Bear Boat IPTs with the small group and cozy quarters, there are many opportunities to do editing sessions with both my and your images.
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 two top professionals; we will constantly let you know what we are thinking, what we are doing, and why we are 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. We 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 🙂
I am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 401!
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, 401 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/7.1 in Manual mode. Daylight WB.
Two AF points up and two to the right of the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point just caught the top of the dog’s right eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #1: Beagle on a leash out for a walk
La Jolla Has Gone to the Dogs, But Oh How I Love Photography!
When I was 13, my Grandma Selma–my Dad’s mom—the only grandparent that I ever knew, got me a beagle for my birthday. The first time I played with it, it bit me. Since then, I never liked dogs much. Before long, my grandma had a new pet of her own. But dogs are cute and many of them have interesting faces. At La Jolla, lots of folks walk their dogs along the sidewalks and often stop to ask about the birds. This was especially true in the late winter of 2016, when the Brandt’s Cormorants were nesting above the swimming cove.
As you see here, there are times when it is impossible to resist photographing them. Do understand that whenever you photograph a subject that is out of the ordinary for you, that you should take the same care that you would had you been photographing your favorite subject. Be sure to get the exposure right, to create a sharp image, and to strive for a pleasing image design. To do otherwise is, in my book, is to disrespect photography. I guess that that is my way of saying that there are no grab shots.
This image was created at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 286mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/1000 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB.
Two AF points to the left and two rows up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was on the dog’s left eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Image #2: Is this a Pekingese?
Your Favorite?
Which of today’s featured images do you like best? Why?
Which of these two dogs would you like to own? Why? (Neither is a fine answer.)
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 6)
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. 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. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
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 am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
Mazel tovs are in order on 400 days in a row with a new educational blog post 🙂 I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 400!
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, 400 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
This image was created at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop in cloudy dark conditions: 1/500 sec. at f/4. Daylight WB.
One AF point to the left and four rows up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point just missed the bird’s eye.
Double-crested Cormorant in daisies
It Took Me Months to Figure This One Out …
The BLACKS in this image gave me fits. I tried and tried to eliminate a strong greenish color cast but failed every time. Until sitting in the library on the Sea Spirit after dinner on Friday November 4th. I selected the BLACKs via Select > Color Range and then tried de-saturating the GREENs and the YELLOWs. No luck. But when I tried de-saturating the CYAN channel, it was bingo time. Actually, before you try de-saturating the various color channels you should move the Saturation slider all the way to the right to 100%. With the GREENs and YELLOWs there was no change. But when I did the same thing with the CYAN channel the BLACKS turned a bright CYAN and I knew that I had solved the problem.
I did lots of vegetation and daisy painting using a variety of small Quick Masks that were refined with Regular Layer Masks, refined by warping, or both.
Everything above plus tons more is of course detailed in my 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.
Learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
Does Anything About This Image Bug You?
Though I love almost everything about today’s featured image one thing bugs the heck out of me. If you think that you know what it is please leave a comment.
The San Diego Site Guide
If you would love to learn all the great spots in and around San Diego and La Jolla, get yourself a copy of the BAA San Diego Site guide here. It is the next best thing to being on an IPT.
San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 6)
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. 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. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
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 am somewhere in South America. I hope that you are well. Jim and Jen are at the office most days to help you with your mail order needs and Instructional Photo-Tour sign-ups. I still need folks for San Diego, Japan, Galapagos, the Palouse, and the Bear Boat (Grizzly Cubs) trips. Among others 🙂 Please e-mail for couples and discount info for all of the above. Click here for complete IPT info.
I will have intermittent internet access for the rest of my South American adventure. I get back home late on December 25, 2016. Best and great picture making, artie
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the 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: 399!
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, 399 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
Center AF point (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). See the screen capture below to learn more. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Sally Lightfoot Crab on lava rock
The Exposure Question
In the Exposure Quiz… Sally Who? And the Canon 100-400mm L IS II with the EF Extender 1.4X III blog post here, I asked, Did I add or subtract light to the metered exposure. Either way, by how much?
The Exposure Answer
Most of my images are created in Manual mode for a variety of reasons detailed here on the blog almost ad infinitum. Those include several posts that include the words “working in Manual mode” in the title. You can find those by using the little white search box on the upper right corner of each blog post page. Or by studying the material in The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images on CD only).
When I work in Av (or Tv) mode, I can always learn the exact Exposure Compensation (EC) from the EXIF data. But this info is not included in the EXIF when you are working in Manual mode (even though the camera knows exactly what it is at the moment of exposure. I have suggested for years to Canon that a simple software update could provide this valuable information to users but my suggestion has always fallen on deaf ears.
So, the 100% honest and correct answer to both of my questions above are “I do not know for sure.” If you held a gun to my head, I would state that I likely underexposed by 1/3 to one full stop. Why? Though the crab is in the middle of the frame the meter would surely be affected by the black lava rock. Many folks gave good answers and backed their answers up with good reasoning. Kieth Swindell (-1), Warren (-2/3), and Richard Lethbridge (-1/3) were right in my ballpark. Frank Sheets made the following insightful comment: So in direct sunlight might be – 2 or more. In overcast situations, less.
Note: I did take Frank to task on other portions of his response. You can check out what I had to say in the comments section of the original blog post here.
The RGB Histogram Lesson
If you take a close look at the RGB histogram in the original post you will see that the red channel is close to the edge so the image is not underexposed. Be careful not to be fooled by the lying histograms. The two big lessons are to pay attention to the RGB histogram and in addition, to rely on blinkies when you suspect a lying histogram. Note however that in most instances when you blow the RED channel that you will rarely if ever see blinkies …
Tame birds and wildlife. Incredible diversity. You only live once…
GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. August 8-22, 2017 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $12,499. Limit: 13 photographers plus the leader: yours truly. Openings: 4.
Same great trip; no price increase!
My two-week Galapagos Photo-Cruises are without equal. The world’s best guide, a killer itinerary, a great boat (the Samba), and two great leaders with ten Galapagos cruises under their belts. Pre-trip and pre-landing location-specific gear advice. In-the-field photo instruction and guidance. Jeez, I almost forgot: fine dining at sea!
The great spots that we will visit include Tower Island (including Prince Phillips Steps and Darwin Bay), Hood Island (including Punta Suarez, the world’s only nesting site of Waved Albatross, and Gardner Bay)—each of the preceding are world class wildlife photography designations that rank right up there with Antarctica, Africa, and Midway. We will also visit Fernandina, Puerto Ayora for the tortoises, Puerto Egas—James Bay, and North Seymour for nesting Blue-footed Boobies in most years, South Plaza for Land Iguanas, Floreana for Greater Flamingoes, and Urbina Bay, all spectacular in their own right. We visit every great spot on a single trip. Plus tons more. And there will be lots of opportunities to snorkel on sunny mid-days for those like me who wish to partake.
It is extremely likely that we will visit the incredible Darwin Bay and the equally incredible Hood Island, world home of Waved Albatross twice on our voyage. The National Park Service takes its sweet time in approving such schedule changes.
We will be the first boat on each island in the morning and the last boat to leave each island every afternoon. If we are blessed with overcast skies, we will often spend 5-6 hours at the best sites. And as noted above, mid-day snorkeling is an option on most sunny days depending on location and conditions. On the 2015 trip most snorkeled with a mega-pod of dolphins. I eased off the zodiac to find hundreds of dolphins swimming just below me. Note: some of the walks are a bit difficult but can be made by anyone if half way decent shape. Great images are possible on all landings with either a hand held 70-200mm lens and a 1.4X teleconverter or an 80- or 100-400. I sometimes bring a longer lens ashore depending on the landing. In 2017 I will be bring the Canon 400mm IS DO II lens. In the past I have brought either the 300mm f/2.8L IS II or the 200-400mm f/4 L IS with Internal Extender.
Do consider joining me for this once in a lifetime trip to the Galapagos archipelago. There simply is no finer Galapagos photography trip. Learn why above.
An Amazing Value…
Do know that there are one week Galapagos trips for $8500! Thus, our trip represents a tremendous value; why go all that way and miss half of the great photographic locations?
The Logistics
August 6, 2017: We arrive in Guayaquil, Ecuador a day early to ensure that we do not miss the boat in case of a travel delay.
August 7, 2017: There will be an introductory Galapagos Photography session and a hands on exposure session at our hotel.
August 8, 2017: We fly to the archipelago and board the Samba. Heck, on the 2015 trip some people made great images at the dock in Baltra while our luggage was being loaded!
August 22, 2017: We disembark late morning and fly back to Guayaquil midday; most will overnight there.
Most will fly home on the early morning of July 23 unless they are staying on or going elsewhere (or catching a red-eye flight on the evening of the 22nd).
$12,499 includes just about everything: all transfers, guide and park fees, all food on the boat, transfers and ground transportation, your flights to the archipelago, and three nights (double occupancy) in a top notch hotel in Guayaquil. If you are good to go, a non-refundable deposit of $5,000 per person is due immediately. The second payment of $4,000 is not due until 11/1/16. The final payment of $3449 per person will be due on 2/1/17. A $200 discount will be applied to each of the balances for couples or friends who register at the same time.
Purchasing travel insurance within 2 weeks of our cashing your deposit check is strongly recommended. On two fairly recent cruises a total of 5 folks were forced to cancel less than one week prior to the trip. My family and I use Travel Insurance Services and strongly recommend that you do the same.
Not included: your round trip airfare from your home to and from Guayaquil, beverages on the boat, phone calls, your meals in Guayaquil, personal items, and a $600/person cash tip for the crew and the guide—this works out to roughly $40/day to be shared by the 7 folks who will be waiting on us hand and foot every day for two weeks. The service is so wonderful that many folks choose to tip extra.
Please e-mail for the tentative itinerary or with questions. Please cut and paste “Galapagos 2017 Tentative Itinerary Please” into the Subject line.
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 we are 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 we, 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 🙂
