What’s Up?

I began working on this possibly very short blog post in the air on my flight from Orlando’s MCO to JFK. If all goes well we (Denise Ippolito and I) will land at Upington, South Africa at about 12:30pm on Wednesday local time, which is 6:30am in NY and Florida. Then we have about a six hour van ride. It should all work out to a 26 hour + travel day 🙂 As mentioned previously, we are doing a short pre-trip to photograph at a desert urbex location. We may get to do some birds as well.

I may or may not have sporadic internet coverage at various points during the trip. Do know that Jim Litzenberg will be in the office weekdays, Monday through midday on Fridays, and that older daughter Jennifer Morris will usually be there during banker’s hours. Both can help you with everything BAA-related included BAA Online Store and ordering matters (especially Jim) and IPT registrations and info.

Till whenever–later and love and great picture-making, artie

This Just In

Arrival Update

A mere 36 hours after leaving the Orlando Courtyard Marriott at 3:15am on Monday, We arrived at the hotel in Luderwitz, Namibia. The worst of is was the final leg, and 8-hour van ride. The great news it that my surgery-related discomfort is down about 75% 🙂 We will have decent internet for the next two days so as of now, the streak is intact. Who knows?

Very Important Personal Note

When I am away on long trips, blog readership numbers plummet. By the time I board my flight to Johannesburg, I will have prepared a brand new educational blog post for every other day till I get back. I may even get to keep the streak going for longer than anticipated. I may recycle some older blog posts, ones with super-important lessons. I ask, therefore, that you visit every day as you usually would. Though I might not be there online to comment on your comments or answer your questions, I will be here in spirit. And as always when I get back, I will make my way through all the relevant comments and questions and respond as I always do.

I ask in return that you guys keep up the great work of using the BAA B&H affiliate links. March was a record month for me and your efforts to thank me for the work that I put into the blog are greatly appreciated. And they sure keep me motivated.

birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100 The companion e-book to the solo exhibit at TheNat, San Diego, California The new e-book on CD is available here.

birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100

My latest e-book, created on a wing and a prayer in less than two weeks–see Harebrained Scheme here–includes the 67 spectacular images that will hang in the Ordover Gallery at the San Diego Natural History Museum in a career-retrospective solo exhibition. In addition, there are an additional 33 images in the spectacular e-book that barely missed making the show.

This exhibition companion e-book makes it possible for everyone to “visit” TheNAT gallery and, in addition, to enjoy seeing my top one hundred bird photographs under one roof. Each image includes a title, the species name, the location, relevant EXIF data, and an anecdotal caption.

birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100: $23 for the professionally produced CD (includes shipping to US addresses only)

Please click here to purchase the physical CD. As above, your purchase price includes shipping to all US addresses. If you would like your CD signed on the inside cover with a black Sharpie, you will need to place your order by phone and request a signed copy: 863-692-0906. For our Canadian friends we are offering the CD for $28 with shipping to Canada via phone orders only: 863-692-0906.

Those who purchase the CD are advised to copy the file to their computers and then archive the CD.

The new e-book via is also available via convenient download for $20 by clicking here.

birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100: $20 via convenient download.

Overseas folks, and anyone else as well, can purchase the e-book via convenient download for $20 by clicking here.

Notate Bene

Please share this e-book only with your spouse or significant other. If a friend asks you to share a copy with them, please direct them either to this blog post or to the appropriate link in the BAA Online Store as above. All of the images and text are protected by international copyright law and may not be copied or printed without written permission from the photographer/author. Many thanks for honoring these requests.

You will–of course–need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF.

Sample page from birds as art: The Avian Photography of Arthur Morris/The Top 100.

Adobe Acrobat Reader Tip

To maximize your viewing pleasure, click Command + L on a Mac, or Control + L on a PC to view the e-book full screen. And then press Esc to exit full screen.

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up?

Sunday night. All packed and in the limo on the way to the airport hotel. Y’all have fun. I should be online sporadically. The new guide will be announced on Tuesday.

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 157 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will likely come to an end soon. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

This image was created on the rainy afternoon of Friday, March 11, 2016 at La Jolla, CA 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 mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops: 1/60 sec. at f/5.6. Color temperature 7500K. Fill flash at -2 stops with the Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT, the Canon OC-E3 Off Camera Shoe Cord, the Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack, the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm, and a Better Beamer. I selected the AF point that was four up from the center AF point and used AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed. Should have been five up… AF was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Pacific race of Brown Pelican with strange sub-adult plumage

One Strange Bird!

I have never seen a pelican with plumage quite like this. In life, the bird was very dark brown, even close to black in spots. I made this image on the day that I created the featured image in the blog post here. Though that photo was one of the very first images that I made on what turned out to be 3 1/2+ week trip, it was my favorite San Diego photo by far. This bird is neat because of its strange plumage. The brown and black plumage does not usually go with the red bill pouch. I am sure that it is a sub-adult bird that is simply outside the lines of what is typically normal.

Before and After Neat Image Animated GIF

I let this animated GIF run for 3 seconds rather than the usual 2 so look carefully at the before and after images to see the gentle but effective NeatImage NR on the subject. You can see the grain disappear from the eye and from the feathers while retaining the detail as the GIF switches from Before to After. I used Arash’s 1D X ISO 1600 noise reduction settings during the RAW conversion in DPP 4. If you look hard at the Before version you will note that the ISO 1600 noise is pretty well controlled, but that what little noise is present is eliminated without destroying the fine detail. See more below.

This is a NeatImage screen capture

A NeatImage Screen Capture

5DS R ISO 1600 Neat Image Noise Reduction on the Subject

The area inside the blue box has been noise reduced. The area outside the box has not been noise reduced. After beginning with Arash’s recommended settings for each slider we teach you to visually inspect the image as you tweak the sliders. The NR here is applied only to the subject which is masked above the background layer. Next, we teach you to apply stronger NR only to the BKGR. The technique and the results are magical. During the process of making the guide more readable and understandable I taught the techniques to Patrick Sparkman. There is no better way to cement and reinforce new knowledge than by teaching it to a friend. His reaction: NeatImage and Arash’s techniques are amazing!

The New Guide and NeatImage

The work on on Arash’s new Post Processing Guide is finished and we will be announcing its publication here very soon. The guide will sell for $48. As above, the guide will teach you–as you can see in today’s featured image, to apply a small but effective amount of NR to the bird (while maintaining fine feather detail) and to apply greater amounts of NR to noisy backgrounds to smooth them out. The key to the success of these methods is a combination of Arash’s cleverly developed and innovative techniques and the great NeatImage plug-in. Arash recommends and uses only the NeatImage plug-in for advanced noise reduction. Both artie and Arash recommend only the Proversion as the Homeversion does not work on 16-bit images. Folks who are good with Layer Masking may wish to get a copy of NeatImage and get a head start on using this great program. If not, the new guide will make it simple for you. Learn more on the effectiveness of NeatImage in the blog post here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The IPT Logistics

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

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

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

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up?

Did lots of work on Friday on blog posts to be published while I am in Namibia. Lots more to do. The Post-processing Guide is finished. It will be announced in the Sunday blog post.

I was glad to learn that the first two folks signed up for the Nickerson Beach IPT. See below for details. If you would like to save a few bucks on lodging for this IPT I have a male looking for a male roommate. Please get in touch via e-mail. There is only a single opening on the Fort DeSoto IPT. Click here for all IPT info.

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 155 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will likely come to an end soon. As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

This image was created at Nickerson Beach with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my now forgotten Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/8 in Av Mode. Should have been at least +1 1/3 stops. AWB. Center AF point (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Common Tern fledgling in fresh juvenal plumage

Simplicity, a Single Blade of Beach Grass, and Lots of Room in the Frame

When many beginning photographers get their first long lens, they often wind up stuffing the bird in the frame, barely giving it any room to see or to be. And nowhere to go should the need arise. It is much better to stay back a bit or to resist the urge to do a bill to tail tip “man-crop.” I love the large amount of negative space in today’s featured image. And simple as it is, the single blade of beach grass adds a touch of elegance and helps to establish the setting. My new technique of watching the RGB histogram shift as I adjust the Color Temperature slider during the RAW conversion in DPP 4, worked like a charm. Beach clean-up was minimal. But for that, some added brightness (again during the RAW conversion in DPP 4), and a reduced opacity layer of my NIK Color Efex Pro 25-25 recipe, this un-cropped image looks pretty much as it did when it came out of the camera.

If you want to improve as a nature photographer, learn to keep things simple.

Sun Angle Question

Which shoulder was the sun coming over?

The BIRDS AS ART Style

I am proud to say that this image epitomizes the BIRDS AS ART style, a style that I popularized with the publication of the original The Art of Bird Photography, a style that has been successfully emulated by many of the world’s top bird photographers. Please do not forget, however, that I was inspired early on by John Shaw’s wildflower images and the bird photographs of both Rod Planck and Tim Fitzharris. Best of all, it is wonderful to know that I now count all three of those nature photography legends as friends.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The IPT Logistics

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

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

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

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up?

I worked all day getting ready for the Namibia trip. With four folks signed up for Japan 2017, there are only five slots left so the trip is a definite go. Scroll down for details.

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 153 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

Price Reduced $2500

Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy.

Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!

Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.

As I really, really want to make it back to Japan in winter one more time, I decided to lower the price of the world’s best Japan in Winter trip by $2,500. Yes my trip has three great leaders including the best bird photography instructor on the planet. That’s the guy who knows where to be when and why. And yes, it is now a bit more expensive than most. And yes, we stay at a fine hotel in Tokyo. And yes, we stay in a marvelous traditional hotel for our three nights at the Snow Monkey Park. And yes, we are perfectly located on Hokkaido, minutes from the premier Red-crowned Crane sanctuary and an easy drive to most of the other wondrous avian attractions. And yes, we enjoy home cooked breakfasts and dinners prepared by Shinobu, the wife of our local Japanese guide. She is an incredible chef. After three visits her meals are now traditional Japanese fine-tuned for the American palate. And yes, my tour is longer than the others, giving us many days with the cranes. I saw one trip with only two days of crane photography; what a bummer. End each day with a traditional onsen (hot springs mineral bath) to complete your immersion in Japanese culture.

Life is short. I hope that you can join me. Scroll down for details.

This image was created on the 2015 Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 117mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 2/3 stops off the snow: 1/250 sec. at f/7.1. AWB. Two AF points up and one row to the left of the center AF Point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). This was a small crop from above, left, and below. The selected AF point was on the side of the upper breast of the male. Click on the image to see a larger version. Snow Monkeys copulating

AF Point Question

Why would it have been better in this case to have selected the AF point that was four AF points up and two rows to the left of the center AF Point?

Up the Hill at the Snow Monkey Park

The walk up the hill to the Snow Monkey Park takes about 30 minutes uphill for fast walkers. I take 40 minutes. The good news is that all you need lens wise is an 80- or 100-400 f/5.6 lens or a 70- or 80-200f/2.8 lens. And there is a heated shelter for those who wish to warm up. But it is rarely really cold at this location. The photography is about as easy at it gets as long as you do not monkey around…

Animated GIF Screw-Up

Please note that I reversed the Original and Optimized text layers in the animated GIF above. It is too much work to re-do it so you will need to adjust your thinking 🙂 Thanks to Ryan Sanderson for catching that one. 🙂

The Difficult Pipe Removal

Check out the elimination of the white plastic pipe in the lower right. I used the Clone Stamp Tool, the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, and even the Blur Tool. In addition fairly large, warped quick mask of the water on the right was used to create the water needed to cover the bottom of the pipe. Keys to the relative success of the repairs were to work very large and to eliminate repetitive patterns as soon as they were spotted. I use the Patch Tool and the Spot Healing Brush to do that.

Noise reduction via Arash’s Neat Image techniques was very successful. The new guide is finally done. It will be for sale here soon for $48. A huge amount of work went into its creation.

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.

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.

Amazing subjects. Beautiful settings. Nonstop action and unlimited opportunities. Join me.

The Logistics

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 our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up?

I had my best night’s sleep since the surgery with 1 1/2 to 2 hours between pit stops; with the laser surgery it takes from 2 weeks to 2 months to see real improvement. I did lots to get ready for the Namibia trip including ordering some needed diabetic supplies and getting the right electrical outlet adapter (Type M) thanks to good friend Bill Lloyd who will be on the trip.

The Streak

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 152 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

This image was created at La Jolla, CA on the afternoon of Saturday, April with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 312mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. sunny ISO 400 bright white exposure of 1/2500 sec. at f/7.1 (the equivalent of 1/2000 sec. at f/8.) Daylight WB. I selected one AF point that was two up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the gull’s neck 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 the spectacular larger version. adult Western Gull calling

Serendipitously On Sun Angle

Patrick Sparkman and I had made our way down to the low cliffs on a clear afternoon. We were working mostly on Brant’s Cormorants when I noticed this gull land behind us on a pretty nice rock. (Yes, good photographers have eyes in the back of their heads…) To get into position, I moved slowly to avoid pissing off a female Sea Lion. I worked my way to sun angle, selected the AF point that would work for the image design that I wanted, and did an exposure check. Then I got a bit lower by bending and squatting a bit to move the already distant background even farther effectively from the bird.

Just as I got into the perfect position the gull called. I made two images and backed away thinking “It’s just not gonna get any better than that.” In a Birder’s World article entitled “Go For the Gulls” I wrote, “When you point your lens at a gull they will usually do something pretty neat.” This gull made my life too easy!

NeatImage background NR screen capture

NeatImage Background NR Screen Capture

The NeatImage background Noise Reduction screen capture above gives you a sneak preview of our great new post-processing guide. Written by Arash Hazeghi and edited for readability and clarity by yours truly, this e-book will teach you to apply professional noise reduction and sharpening to your images. First, a mild NR is done on the bird, and then a stronger round or two of NR is applied to the background. Arash’s ingenious technique allows you to do this quickly and easily in most cases. You will learn to make an accurate selection of the subject to put this all in motion. Notice the smooth as a baby’s tush background in the screen capture of today’s featured image above.

The area in the blue square has been filtered by NeatImage Noise Reduction. The area outside of the blue box is unfiltered, exactly as it appears on the converted TIFF. While I will assume that everyone will be impressed by the virtually complete absence of noise in the original file, I need to point out that the mid- to dark-toned water is actually one stop to 1 1/3 stops under-exposed. Why? WHITES need one stop less light to be properly exposed than mid-tones in a given lighting condition; thus the mid-to dark middle toned water is one to 1 1/3 stops under it should be, and therefore, more noisy. I am rather amazed that all of the internet experts including some very good photographers and good friends are all proclaiming that high ISO noise with the 5DS R is a problem. But heck, that’s why they are internet experts: they rarely if ever use the gear that they complain about.

The New Guide and NeatImage

The work on on Arash’s new Post Processing Guide is finished and we will be announcing its publication here very soon. The guide will sell for $48. As above, the guide will teach you–as you can see in today’s featured image, to apply a small but effective amount of NR to the bird (while maintaining fine feather detail) and to apply greater amounts of NR to noisy backgrounds to smooth them out. The key to the success of these methods is a combination of Arash’s cleverly developed and innovative techniques and the great NeatImage plug-in. Arash recommends and uses only the NeatImage plug-in for advanced noise reduction. Both artie and Arash recommend only the Proversion as the Homeversion does not work on 16-bit images. Folks who are good with Layer Masking may wish to get a copy of NeatImage and get a head start on using this great program. If not, the new guide will make it simple for you. Learn more on the effectiveness of NeatImage in the blog post here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The IPT Logistics

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

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

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

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up?

I spent my last photo morning in San Diego where I spent most of my mornings, on the cliffs at La Jolla. The quality of the photographic opportunities on this trip has been amazingly good and my hard work has paid off handsomely. With thick fog I spent most of my time photographing Brandt’s Cormorant nesting behaviors. I ran down four 5DS R batteries. Patrick concentrated on flight photography, another area in which he is extremely skilled.

I kiss Robin and Patrick Sparkman goodbye tonight as I fly to Orlando on the Southwest 8AM nonstop to Orlando. They are hosting a Good-bye Artie Party” tonight. 🙂 It is hard to express how wonderfully they have treated and put up with me for so long. I arrived in San Diego on March 11. Patrick calls my visit, “March Madness/artie Style!”

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 150 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

This image was created at Coronado, CA by Patrick Sparkman with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and the Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800: 1/2000 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB. Center AF point (by necessity)/AI Servo Expand/Rear Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The center AF point was just on the front of the bird’s chest right at the waterline. This was a decent crop from the front and below. Check out the tight crop below to see the incredible fine feather 5DS R detail. Drake Surf Scoter swimming. Image courtesy of and copyright 2016 Patrick Sparkman.

The Proof is in the Pudding…

Below is a recent e-mail conversation that I had with Al Ahner. The office relayed his original e-mail to me. It began, “Hi Arnie.”

AM: Hi Abe, This is artie. 🙂

AA: I had dropped a comment about hand-holding this camera body. Your images are indeed sharp but I had heard from a friend that he had dismal results with his.

AM: Dismal photographers get dismal results.

AA: We had an event here in St. Louis called “Shutterfest”. Two full days of vendors, classes, workshops, etc. The Canon team was here and to a person they said: “This is a tripod only camera body.”

AM: You should have sent them to my blog 🙂

AA: Not your word against theirs, but just FYI.

AM: I understand. The proof as they say, is in the pudding. See Patrick’s pudding above and below. Some Canon employees routinely give wrong or misleading answers to simple questions both in person and on the help lines…

Yes Patrick is amazingly skilled. And yes, you need to hold this lens still. And yes, you need to focus each image accurately. And yes, having it properly Lens Aligned can be a great help. I will do a blog post soon based on this e-mail using one of Patrick Sparkman’s 600II/2XIII/5DSR hand held images of a relatively distant sea duck. You can show it to all the naysayers and to the folks at Canon the next time that you cross paths.

LMK if I may use your name in the blog post. No sweat either way.

AA: Hope all is well and you continue to recover from your surgery.

AM: I am, thanks, and thanks for your good wishes.

later and love, artie

The Follow-up

Al was a good sport; he wrote back saying that it would be OK to use his name. Thank you kind sir.

This is a 100% crop of today’s featured image.

100% Crop

This 100% crop of today’s featured image is a testament both to Patrick’s photographic skills and the amazing resolution of the 5DS R. I am hoping that this post will quiet the experts, internet and otherwise, who proclaim out of ignorance that you must use a tripod with a 5DS R… I realize, however, that that is not likely.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The IPT Logistics

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

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

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

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up?

On my post-op visit I was told, “You are well ahead of the curve.” I am feeling good and having fun and enjoyed a short session at La Jolla with Patrick Sparkman. At 8:30 he headed for work and I headed for the UCSD Medical Center for my appointment.

I snagged more than a few folks and all but one unhappy camper took the April Fool’s blog post as a good joke. I did answer every response personally. Till next year 🙂

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 148 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

This image was created at Hokkaido, Japan on the last Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 142mm) and the amazing mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/200 sec. at f/16 in late afternoon light. Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the center of the closest footprint and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Red-crowned Crane footprints in snow

Triangular Simplicity…

Please feel free to share your thoughts on today’s featured image. Does it bring anything to mind? How does it make you feel?

A DPP 4 Screen Capture of today’s featured image

Amazing Revelation Made Out of Ignorance?

There are lots of ways to get away from too BLUE snow. Play with the color temperature slider during the RAW conversion. With the 5DS R in DPP 4 there is a great Auto: White Priority WB setting that works well in certain situations. The same can be said about Click White Balance. I was not happy with either of those last two with today’s image so I opened the Color Temperature slider. As I moved the color temperature slider I noticed that the peaks for each color on the RGB histogram shifted and that when the snow looked totally neutral, I was amazed to see that the centers of the peaks for all three colors were perfectly aligned.

At this point I realize that some folks might be thinking, big deal, I’ve known that for years. For me it was a revelation. Perhaps I have just been plain ignorant for the past 14 years of doing digital. Does anyone use this in their workflow when attempting to balance the color?

On second thought: I am not sure that it is even possible to line up the centers of the peaks for each color with all images. And I am not sure that the results would be 100% desirable. But I do know that it worked for this image. Future experimentation and study to follow. Please feel free to share your experiences here.

Note: if an image is too BLUE after the RAW conversion you can always go to Hue Saturation, select the BLUE channel, and decrease the Saturation to taste.

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up

Still feeling good. Got out on Wednesday morning for a few hours. Met a nice guy from CT; we are hooked up for a morning of private instruction and image review tomorrow. Friday am I have my post-op visit at 9am. On the plane home on Monday. But not for long. I leave for Namibia five days after I get home :).

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 145 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

This image was created on a partly cloudy morning at Gatorland with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and the Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 800: 1/125 sec. at f/11. AWB. Sublime Great Egret sleeping

Long and Sublime

On my second visit to Gatorland on March 10, just before I headed for San Diego, things were quite slow with mixed clouds and sun. There were no gorgeous Great Egrets in good positions or settings. Then I came across the bird featured in today’s blog post. It screamed out to me, “Photograph me. I am sublimely beautiful. So I did. I shot verticals and horizontals, all at 1200mm. I even created a few with mixed light on the subject violating one of my never press the shutter button edicts. I did not hate even those.

The Funniest Thing…

The funniest thing is that I pointed the bird out to several other photographers as being particularly beautiful. None bit. I suggested to one guy with a 7D II and a 100-400II that by adding his 1.4X TC that he could make some really nice images. “I don’t use any teleconverters. They ruin the image quality.” Good to know…

Your Call?

Do you share my enthusiasm for this image or do you think that it’s pretty boring because of the soft light and the sparsity of detail? Do you love it or hate it? Either way, be sure to let us know why?

AF Question

If you want the eye sharp, what is the best way to focus this image? One-shot AF? AI Servo AF? Rear focus? Shutter button? A combination of the preceding? Or something else?

Honest, I’ve Never Done This Before…

Working enlarged to about 250% with a tiny, hard (opacity 85%) brush, I sculpted the edges of several sections of the pupil for two reasons: to eliminate chromatic aberration along with edges of the filamentous feathers, and to increase the overall sharpness of the pupil.

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up

I have neglected to mention that both of my knees are doing great and that the scratch on my nose has healed up perfectly. I headed out early to La Jolla on Monday morning in heavy overcast with an occasional light drizzle. I concentrated mostly on some nice Double-crested Cormorants. The absence of light was a big challenge.

On Monday afternoon I began work on my 2015 income taxes.

Yikes, I almost forgot: I am feeling a bit stronger each day after the surgery and seeing several signs of improvement. Time will tell.

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 143 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end soon. As always–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

This image was created at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 164mm) and the amazing mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 1250. Evaluative metering probably about zero: 1/320 sec. at f/8. Daylight WB. Two AF points to the left and two rows above the center AF point/AI Servo/Surround/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. Western Gulls/pre-copulatory stand in early morning light

Back in Action…

Do appreciate the double entendre… This was one of the very first images that I made after getting back in action on Sunday morning past after a 3-day vacation from bird photography.

The Look of Love

Once I saw these two Western Gulls involved with each other I moved as quickly as possible to get into position. I created only two frames before he stepped off of her. I was thrilled to see that one of the images caught her looking up lovingly at her guy. For gulls and terns the pre-copulatory stand is actually a bit of balance practice for the male; it often does not wind up with a copulation.

Whitewash

Do you hate the image because of all the whitewash? Would you have removed some or most or all of it? Why do you think that I left all the whitewash as is?

Interactivity on the Blog

Before you click out without leaving a comment please consider that the more folks who participate, the greater the learning experience for all, including me.

NeatImage Noise Reduction

5DS R ISO 1250 and NeatImage Noise Reduction

The area in the blue square has been filtered by NeatImage Noise Reduction. The area outside of the blue box is unfiltered, exactly as it appears on the converted TIFF. While I will assume that everyone will be impressed by the virtually complete elimination of background noise by NeatImage, I need to point out the fine high ISO 5DS R control of the background noise at ISO 1250. Especially since the mid-toned sandstone is actually one stop under-exposed. Why one stop under-exposed? WHITES need one stop less light to be properly exposed than mid-tones in a given lighting condition; thus the mid-tones are one stop under what they should be, and therefore, more noisy. I am rather amazed that all of the internet experts including some very good photographers and good friends are all proclaiming that high ISO noise with the 5DS R is a problem. But heck, that’s why they are internet experts: they rarely if ever use the gear that they complain about.

The New Guide and NeatImage

The work on on Arash’s new Post Processing Guide continues to progress slowly as we attempt to iron out the kinks via e-mail and phone. The guide will teach you–as you can see in today’s featured image, to apply a small but effective amount of NR to the bird (while maintaining fine feather detail) and to apply greater amounts of NR to noisy backgrounds to smooth them out. The key to the success of these methods is a combination of Arash’s cleverly developed and innovative techniques and the great NeatImage plug-in. Arash recommends and uses only the NeatImage plug-in for advanced noise reduction. Both artie and Arash recommend only the Proversion as the Homeversion does not work on 16-bit images. Folks who are good with Layer Masking may wish to get a copy of NeatImage and get a head start on using this great program. If not, the new guide will make it simple for you. Learn more on the effectiveness of NeatImage in the blog post here.

DPP 4 Screen Capture

DPP 4 Screen Capture Lessons

Most importantly, note the RGB values with the (unseen in this screen capture) cursor on the brightest WHITEs on the male’s head: R=242, G=236, B=229. These values indicate a definite RED cast. I chose, however, not to color correct either by using Click WB or by adjusting the Color temperature. Why? I like the rich early morning light. In my opinion, it is not always the right move to color balance every image by coming up wWHITEs like this: R=235, G=235, B=235. Had I done so with this image it would have lost a lot of its glamor for me.

The illuminated in red AF point indicates that that point was both the selected AF point and that it was active at the moment of exposure. The more you practice moving the AF points and the closer you get the selected AF point to the bird’s eye, face, bill, or neck, the more accurately focused your images will be.

Note also that as I preach here on an almost daily basis that the there is data well into the fifth, rightmost, highlight box of the histogram. The red channel extending past the other two also indicates the RED cast.

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂

What’s Up?

I felt great and strong all day Saturday. My discomfort level is down 80% from Friday. Folks should know that with green light laser prostate surgery that the success of the surgery is generally not known until from 2 weeks to 2 months after the procedure. That said, there are lots of positive signs already. And I am thrilled that I am doing so well. Again, huge thanks to the many who sent prayers and good wishes.

The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 142 days in a row with a new educational blog post. Assuming that I will be making the trip to Namibia on April 11, this streak will come to an end fairly soon. As always–and folks have been doing an incredibly great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. Please remember that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) that we would appreciate your business

This image was created on the Japan IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 321mm) and the amazing mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/320 sec. at f/16 in Av mode. AWB. One AF point up from the 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. Image #1: trunk of birch tree in snow

The Backstory

On our trips to Lake Kussharo to photograph the Whooper Swans I noticed many lovely birch trees in the snow. But we were always in hurry to get to the lake or to get to the ramen noodle shop or to get back to our lodge. But a few seeds were planted as I loved the look of the patterns on the white bark of the birches set off by a fresh snowfall.

On the morning of February 21 we headed out early for a landscape photography session and then headed back to the lodge for breakfast. I did find some birches but they were lacking character… As I had already eaten (as part of my diabetes regimen) I grabbed my 1-4II and took a walk in the woods surrounding the lodge. Bingo! Fifteen minutes after finding this lovely birch tree we were all photographing Red-crowned Cranes at the sanctuary that is just down the hill from our Hokkaido country home.

Image Thoughts

I like the tilt of the trunk; introducing diagonal lines whenever possible adds interest to your compositions. And I like the little snow pile to our right of the trunk. And I love the patterns on the bark. My first thought was to do all verticals but this, the lone horizontal design, was my favorite by far.

This version was created from the original that opened this blog post. Image #2: trunk of birch tree in snow/BuzSim III version

Topaz Simplify

I brought the image into Topaz Simplify and experimented with several of the BuzSim options. I liked BuzSim III the best.

Topaz Simplify

If you missed my first effort with Simplify, you can see it here. I was thrilled with what Topaz Simplify did with my pelican image so I decided to see how it might work with this birch tree image. You can help support my efforts here on the BAA Blog by clicking on the logo link above if you would like to join in the fun. After you click, be sure to watch the great instructional video.

Topaz Simplify: Turn your photos into works of art. Create paintings, sketches, watercolors, cartoons, and more. Make your art uniquely personal instead of using cookie-cutter filters. Get better results faster with specialized digital art technology

To use Topaz Simplify open your image in Photoshop, hit Filter > Topaz Labs > Topaz Simplify 4. Under COLLECTIONS, click on BuzSim and then click though the various presets. Here I chose the seventh preset, BuzSim III. And then hit OK.

This version was also created from the original that opened this blog post. Image #3: trunk of birch tree in snow/NIK Silver Efex Pro Wet Rocks preset

NIK Silver Efex Pro 2

I use NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 (now free to all/click here) for all of my B&W conversions. Here I went with one of my favorite presets: Wet Rocks. The others that I am partial to are High Structure (usually smooth) and Full Dynamic (again, usually smooth).

Your Fave?

All are invited to leave a comment and let everyone know which is their favorite of the three images, and why. I have a clear favorite.

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-limited single supplements available. Limit: 9.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 supplies large does of inspiration. In addition, 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.

Amazing subjects. Beautiful settings. Nonstop action and unlimited opportunities. Join me.

The Logistics

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 our Affiliate Links 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.

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 🙂