I have a 100% reliable buyer interested in a Canon EF 200mm f/2 IS USM lens and possibly a Canon EF 400mm f/4 IS DO II lens as well. Along with a Sony A7r III or IV, a Sony 100-400mm or 70-200mm f/2.8, and a Sony wide angle or two, such as the 16-35mm or the 24-70mm. Please shoot me an e-mail if you would like to turn your old, unused gear into cash money.
What’s Up?
I did well with the crane family on a cloudy Saturday morning and headed back down to the lake at 11am as the skies darkened and wound up making some nice crane-int-the-rain images. BAA-friend Peter Dominowski drove up from Fort Myers and arrived at 3:15pm for an afternoon and a morning of In-the-Field Instruction and a pool-deck dinner. We worked the cranes and did really well right at the end of the day as a crane posed for us with the blue waters of the South Canal as background.
Today is Sunday 13 March 2022. The forecast is for clear and a cold-for-Central Florida 41° with partly sunny to sunny skies and a 14mph wind from the north. We will head down to the lake early and do our best. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too had a great day. This blog post took about 90 minutes to prepare and makes four days in a row with a new one.
Please remember to use the B&H and Amazon links on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords. And please consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn …
Your Dream Home!
Oy, Have I Got a Home For You!
In 1993, my late-wife Elaine and I decided to retire off our sabbatical — that thanks to a deal made with NYC in the mid-1970s by the United Federation of Teachers’ notorious Al Shanker. He loaned the city nine billion dollars from the teacher’s pension fund. One of the givebacks that he got was this: folks who were granted sabbatical leaves between 1990 and 1995 were allowed to take the leave, get rested, re-educated, and re-energized, would be allowed to retire without having to return to work! So, we called her parents, the late Dave and Dora Goldstein, and said, “We are moving to Florida this summer. We are going to set up residence in your living room.” Without hesitation, and without consulting Dave, Dora said, “Come on down!”
The very next day, she called us and said, in Dora Goldstein style, “Oy, have I got a house for you!” God bless Dora. While she had many of the qualities of a typical Jewish grandma, she truly was one of a kind. She was the life of the party, and of Brighton Beach when Elaine was growing up: gregarious, enthusiastic, loud, funny, loving, and supportive. In her mid-eighties, she started a video dating club at Temple Shalom and had three marriages in the first year! And when she was 85, she taught a defensive driver’s education course for seniors. You get the idea!
Anyhoo, with generous help from Dave and Dora, we purchased that small home at 1455 Whitewood Drive, Deltona. Elaine died in that house in November 1994. I remained there until 2001 when I relocated to Indian Lake Estates.
Today, I can honestly say, “Oy, have I got a house for you.” My very dear, longtime friend, bird photographer Jim Neiger, is selling his wonderful home in Kissimmee, Florida. If you are looking for your dream home, have money, own or want to buy a boat, are looking to re-locate to Central Florida (like so many others today), and would like a gorgeous home hard on the shore of (West) Lake Tohopekaliga Blvd, then you need to check out Jim’s Zillow listing here.
Inside, the home is drop-dead gorgeous as Jim recently invested more than $200,000 refurbishing the interior and updating the appliances and bathrooms. Don’t believe me? Check to the 38 photos at the listing linked to above. Lake Toho is filled with big bass and lots of birds and other wildlife. It has produced a documented 17.1-pound bass. And this is the lake that produced Dean Rojas’ record-setting string of five bass that weighed 45 pounds, 2 ounces in a Bassmaster classic in January 2001. There is a boat dock in backyard from which you can access both the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico via the Kissimmee Waterway. Interested folks can get in touch with Jim at (407) 247-5200.
Join the gang at the 2022 GNPA EXPO
The 2022 Georgia Nature Photographers Association (GNPA) EXPO
I am proud of having been invited as the keynote speaker for this event and am super-excited about photographing on Jekyll Island. I will be leading several workshops as well, and a short (2 1/2-DAY) IPT will follow the event.
GNPA is excited to host this year’s EXPO at what has become one of their favorite locations: Villas by The Sea Resort & Conference Center, Jekyll Island, GA! This will be our third visit to this venue on the Georgia coast and all of the wildlife, nature, and landscape photography opportunities it offers!
GNPA’s passion is capturing images of the natural world. We support members at every skill level by shooting, learning, and inspiring each other to grow. Along those lines, there will be plenty of Workshops and Field Trips to help you learn new and to hone existing skills!
The Basics
EVENT Dates: Thursday, April 7 – Sunday, April 10.
Place: Villas by The Sea Resort & Conference Center, Jekyll Island, GA
Keynote Speaker: Arthur Morris
Conservation Speakers: Kim Bednarek – Okefenokee Swamp Park, Emily Ellison – St. Simons Land Trust, Charles McMillan – Georgia Conservancy. In addition, there are more than a dozen fabulous Workshops and Field Trips led by professional photographers!
You must be a GNPA member to register, but the cost of membership is nominal: $25/year for students and seniors, and $35 for “regular” folks. (Does that make me irregular?) Click here to join. Once you join, you can follow the link on the EXPO home page here to register. I you need help, you can get in touch with the always-very-helpful Eric Bowles via e-mail.
A Bird Photographer’s Story
I will be doing the Friday keynote, “A Bird Photographer’s Story,” at 10am on Friday April 7.
This slide-illustrated lecture will feature hundreds of artie’s spectacular images as he shares the story of his life’s journey from his childhood in Brooklyn through his 23-year teaching career in New York City to the realization of his dream of becoming a full-time professional nature photographer specializing in birds. As we travel with him to his favorite locations from “down by the lake near my home” to the greatest nature photography locations on the planet, he will be sharing tales of his travels and the birds and other creatures that he has photographed over the decades. Do the pictures make the man, or does the man make the pictures?
Lessons from the Field
The second keynote, “Lessons from the Field,” will be at 10am the following day.
This slide-illustrated lecture will feature hundreds of artie’s spectacular photographs. As he shares images from his favorite locations from around the globe — including his backyard, he will be telling us about the birds and other subjects that he photographs and about the gear and techniques that he has used. Topics will include seeing the shot, getting close to free and wild birds, flight photography, getting the right exposure, image design, and lots more.
On Thursday, there is still room in this program on April 7 from 1:00 – 4:00 PM. Workshop $75
Streamlining Your Wildlife Photography Workflow
You just finished a day photographing birds and now have several thousand images. What are the things to look for when selecting your best images setting the rest up as rejects? How can you avoid creating images that will be rejects later? Or should you? What settings during your RAW conversion are best? Included will be a discussion of three popular RAW converters – Adobe Camera Raw, Canon DPP4, and Capture One.
The BAA Jekyll Island Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT)
Join Arthur Morris on this 2 1/2-day IPT and bring your photography to a new level. We will be visiting a wide range of locations on and around Jekyll Island for photography and in-the-field instruction. You need to be prepared to get your feet and your butt wet. On this and all IPTs, everyone will learn the basics and fine points of digital exposure. Nikon and Canon folks will learn to get the right exposure every time after making a single test image, and SONY folks will learn to use Zebras so that they can be sure of making excellent exposures before pressing the shutter button. Everyone will learn how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, terns, and gulls, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. Artie is familiar with Canon, Nikon, and Sony. Most importantly, you will surely learn to evaluate wind and sky conditions and understand how they affect bird photography. Lastly, you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it). The best news is that you will take everything you learn home with you so that you will be a better photographer wherever and whenever you photograph.
If you would like to attend the IPT without attending the EXPO, please get in touch with artie via e-mail.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Which is the stronger of today’s two featured images? All are invited to leave a comment and explain why they made their choice. If you would like to create images like this, do consider joining me in Homer in early 2023.
What’s Up?
Conditions for photography were pretty good on Friday morning but I was less than inspired and did not do much … That evening was another busted sunset. I just got back from a pretty successful ride-around the lakeshore. With a brisk southwest wind and cloudy-very-bright conditions, I worked the crane family at eye level from the edge of the canal with the hand held Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens, the 2X TC and the a1. I am pretty sure that I got some decent stuff.
Today is Saturday 12 March 2022. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too had a great day. This blog post took about 90 minutes to prepare and makes three days in a row with a new one.
Please remember to use the B&H and Amazon links on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords. And please consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn …
This image was created on 26 February 2022, day one of the second 2022 Homer/Kachemak Bay IPT. I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 600mm), and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 640: 1/1000 second at f/10 (stopped down 1 1/3 stops). AWB at 10:05:49am on a sunny morning.
Tracking: Spot S with Bird/Face-Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #1: Bald Eagle head portrait with distant blue water background
Pure BIRDS AS ART
Image #1 is created in the pure BIRDS AS ART style: clean, tight, and graphic, with a soft, soft, dreamy background. Note that though I stopped down 1 1/3 stops for a bit of extra depth of field on the subject, the background is completely de-focused, i.e., smooth and creamy. Why? See #3 below.
Background Softness (Bokeh?) Simplified
The simplification of my thoughts on the principles that determine the quality of out-of-focus backgrounds in a photograph — bokeh, by some definitions — came to me early this morning while I was in a dream-like state sometime between 3:30 and 5:30am. Note: I slept 10 hours!
1-To produce soft, buttery backgrounds, telephoto lenses are better than wide angle lenses because they effectively place you “closer” to the subject and offer narrower angles of view.
2-The closer you are to the subject, the more the background detail is reduced.
3-The greater the distance from the subject to the background, the more the background detail is reduced.
4-With everything above being equal, the wider the aperture, the softer the background detail. Note that #2 & #3 supersede #4. For example, if you are working relatively close to a subject with a telephoto lens at f/16, and the background is literally one-half mile away — a distant forest, for example, the background will be soft and creamy despite the small aperture. Conversely, if a bird is perched on a leafy branch, the leaves will be well-defined even if you are working at f/2.8.
5-When you are close to a subject with a telephoto lens and the distance-to-the-subject is not too great, say in the range of ten to twenty feet, stopping down will often bring up unwanted background detail.
This image was created on 19 February 2022, the scouting day for the 2022 Homer/Kachemak Bay IPTs. I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 600mm), and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 800: 1/2000 second at f/6.3 (wide open). AWB at 9:51:06am on a sunny morning.
Tracking: Spot S with Bird/Face-Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #2: Bald Eagle head portrait with background grasses
A Big Sony 200-600 Misconception
Many folks assume that the Sony 200-600 f/6.3 G lens (and the Canon RF 100-500 f/7.1 lens as well), are not capable of producing soft, smooth, dreamy, creamy, defocused backgrounds as they are relatively “slow” at f/6.3 and f/7.1 respectively. As you can see in image #2, this is a big misconception. Why? As stated in #2 above, the closer you are to the subject, the more the background detail is reduced. The trick here was to get ACAP (as close as possible) to the subject and to work at the wide open aperture, in this case, f/6.3. The result: the potentially distracting yellow grasses were rendered almost completely out of focus. Note: I was about eight feet from the bird, and the grasses were about eight feet beyond the eagle.
On Bokeh
There are almost as many different definitions of bokeh (as it pertains to photography) as there are pronunciations. This one, from Wikipedia, works well for me:
Bokeh (from the Japanese: [boke]), is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image.
Some tighter definitions, like the one below from Adobe, do not work for me (in this instance), as they refer only to the qualities of out-of-focus points of light (AKA specular highlights).
Bokeh is a word with Japanese origins, defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”
How to Pronounce Bokeh
This short (2:48) video is a bit humorous. You can skip the funny stuff and get to the “right answer” at the 1:37 mark, but be sure to watch to the end for the very fine points.
From BPN-friend Kevin Hice via unsolicited e-mail
Again artie, that was a great trip. I was more than pleased. For me, I could see right away that you knew how to get us and the boat in great position for the best eagle photography. You took into consideration all the factors including the sky conditions, and wind and sun angles. It was a real pleasure to meet the captain. His knowledge of the wind and the currents helped to put us in great position all the time and he did his very best to help on all fronts.
One of the most important factors for me is timeliness. We never had to wait on the captain or on you, artie, and that made the trip a huge success. We got after it every day and had countless great photography opportunities. The other eagle photography tours never got out as early as we did, nor did they pursue the birds as relentlessly as we did.
One can never say that Arthur Morris doesn’t have the passion to get after the Bald Eagles. I have never shot as many photos as I did on this trip even with my poor hand eye coordination. I got plenty of keepers and enjoyed meeting the others in the group and learned a few things from them as well.
Thanks again, Kevin
Homer 2022 Bald Eagle Highlights and Handholding Compositional Tips by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
Enjoy and be inspired by just a few Homer Bald Eagle highlight images. Hand holding intermediate telephoto lens will always yield slightly different compositions. Learn more about that topic in this short (3:14) video.
All images from Homer or Kachemak Bay, AK
2023 Homer/Kachemak Bay Bald Eagle IPTs
IPT #1: MON 20 FEB 2023 through the full day on FRI 24 FEB 2023. Five full days/20 hours on the boat: $5500.00. Limit 5 photographers
IPT #2: SAT 25 FEB 2023 through the full day on THURS 2 MAR 2023. Six full days/24 hours on the boat: $6600.00. Limit 5 photographers
IPT #3: FRI 3 MAR 2023 through the full day on TUES 7 MAR 2023. Five full days/20 hours on the boat: $5500.00. Limit 5 photographers.
Save $1,000.00 by doing back-to-back trips. Save $1500.00 by doing all three.
This trip features non-stop flight photography as well as many opportunities to create both environmental and point-blank portraits of one of North America’s most sought-after avian subjects: Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Other reliable subjects will include Sea Otter, Glaucous-winged and Short-billed (formerly Mew) Gulls.
In addition, we should see Common Murre, Black Guillemot, Pelagic Cormorant, two or three species of loons, and a smattering of ducks including two species of merganser, all three scoters, Common and Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Bufflehead, Harlequin, and Long-tailed Ducks. Close-range photographic chances for these species will require a ton of good luck. Some of these species, especially when in flocks, can, however, often be used effectively when pleasing creating bird-scapes.
If we need to be out early, we will be the first boat out. If conditions are great, we will stay out. And when there is a chance for sunset silhouettes, we will be in the right spot.
We will be traveling through gorgeous wilderness country; landscape and scenic opportunities abound.
Also featured is a professional leader, often referred to as the world’s most knowledgeable bird photography trip leader, who is conversant in Canon, Nikon, and Sony. You will learn practical and creative solutions to everyday photographic problems. You will learn to see the shot, to create dynamic images by fine-tuning your compositions, to best utilize your camera’s AF system, and how to analyze the wind, the sky conditions, and the direction and quality of the light. This is one of the very few Homer trips available where you will not be simply put on the birds and told to have fun. You will learn to be a better photographer. But only if that is what you want.
You will learn to get the right exposure when it is sunny, when it cloudy-bright, when it is cloudy, when it is cloudy-dark, or when it is foggy. Not to mention getting the right exposure when creating silhouettes.
You will learn to make pleasing blurs working in manual mode and to create silhouettes working in Shutter Priority mode.
Most importantly you will learn to pick your best flight images from tens of thousands of images.
You will enjoy working with the two best and most creative boat captains on their sturdy, photography-spacious, seaworthy, open-deck crafts.
The second and third IPTs are the only Bald Eagle workshops that feature an incredibly helpful first mate.
Only five photographers (not the usual six), plus the leader.
Small group Photoshop, Image Review, and Image Critiquing sessions.
All images from Homer or Kachemak Bay, AK
What’s Included
One four hour or two two-hour boat trips every day (weather permitting), all boat fees and boat-related expenses (excluding tips), ground transportation to and from the dock and back to the hotel each day, in-the-field instruction and guidance, pre-trip gear advice, small group post-processing and image review sessions, and a thank you dinner for all well-behaved participants.
What’s Not Included
Your airfare to and from Homer, AK (via Anchorage), the cost of your room at Land’s End Resort, all personal items, all meals and beverages, and tips for the boat captain and/or the first mate.
Please Note
On great days, the group may wish to photograph for more than four hours. If the total time on the boat exceeds 20 hours for the five-day trips, or 24 hours for the second trip, the group will share the additional expense at a rate of $225/hour.
Some folks may wish to rent their own vehicle to take advantage of local photographic opportunities around Homer.
Deposit Information
A $3000 non-refundable deposit/trip is required. You may pay your deposit with credit card or by personal check (made out to BIRDS AS ART) and sent via US mail only to Arthur Morris. PO Box 7245. Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. Your balance, due 90 days before the date of departure, is payable only by check as above.
In Closing
I have been going to Homer off and on for close to two decades. Every trip has been nothing short of fantastic. Many folks go in mid-March. The earlier you go, the better the chances for snow. The only way to assure that you are on the best of the three trips is to sign up for all of them. Can you keep up with me? If you have any questions, or are good to go for one, two, or all three trips, please let me know via e-mail or give me a call on my cell phone at 863-221-2372.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Thursday morning dawned cloudy-dark, but I went down to the lake anyway. And was glad that I did. It was so dark, that all 600+ images I created were made with the Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens, hand held while working wide open at f/2.8. As you will see near the end of the YouTube video below, that choice proved to be quite fortuitous. I photographed the crane nest with two eggs — I am hoping that they hatch soon, and then spent some quality time in the rain with the crane family. With the young eagle in the nest, lots of nesting Osprey, and the crane family of four, the last four mornings of photography at ILE have been quite productive.
I am continuing to immerse myself in the story and music of John Prine and have been swimming every day. I have begun to work on two keynote programs for the Georgia Nature Photographers Association (GNPA) Expo, April 7-10, 2022, at Jekyll Island, GA. I will be sharing details here soon. Very soon. I am quite thankful that I was able to recover the three years’ worth of temporarily lost images … I have spent the last few days picking optimized images to be re-sized for slide shows via a Photoshop Action. Last night I was working on the July 2021 folder and was completely amazed at how many great flight and Royal Tern chick images I had from the Jacksonville tern and gull rookery. I will surely be running an IPT or two there this summer.
Today is Friday 11 March 2022. The forecast for this morning is for mostly to partly cloudy with a breeze from the south. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too had a great day. This blog post took about 90 minutes to prepare (including the time spent creating the video) and makes two days in a row with a new one.
Please remember to use the B&H and Amazon links on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords. And please consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn …
Four Excellent Bird Photography Mornings at ILE with Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
Bird photography in late winter and early spring can be quite excellent down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Enjoy four recent mornings with me. This short (4:15) video includes lots of photo tips. Which is your favorite image from the video? Why did you make your choice?
March Indian Lake Estates In-the-Field Sessions
Two hours of intensive instruction: $200.00 (Add $100.00 if we are blessed with very small chicks). Add a working brunch with image review: $100.00. Sunny mornings with east winds are best. Likely subjects include ridiculously tame Sandhill Cranes and colts, a young Bald Eagle in the nest, Black and Turkey Vultures, Crested Caracara, Limpkin, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, and more. Small crane chicks hopefully coming soon.
If you’d like to join me, please get in touch via e-mail or try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.
The BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide
You can purchase your copy here in the BAA Online Store.
The BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide
126 pages, 87 photographs by Joe Przybyla and Arthur Morris.
The PDF for this e-Guide is an electronic download sent via e-mail.
I had thought about doing a guide to some of the great but little-known photo hotspots around central Florida for about a decade, but those plans never came to fruition. I met Joe online in the Avian Forum at BirdPhotographer’s.Net about two years ago. Joe’s photography has improved tremendously over the past few years; he credits the BAA blog, my books and PDFs, and his participation on BPN. The one thing that I learned right from the get-go about Joe is that he is a hard and tenacious worker, always striving to improve his skills and to grow his knowledge base. As he knew of more than a few good spots in central Florida, I broached the idea of us doing a photographic site guide that covered many of the little-known photographic hotspots from Brandon to Lakeland to Joe Overstreet Road to Indian Lake Estates (my Florida home for the past 20 years or so). After more than many, many dozens of hours of effort, The BIRDS AS ART Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide is now a reality. Thanks to Joe’s wife Dottie for her review of our writing. We all learned once again that writing is a process, a back-and-forth process. All thanks to the white pelicans of Lakeland. Here are the locations that are detailed in this e-Guide:
Indian Lake Estates: Sandhills Cranes with chicks and colts, lots of vultures, and Ospreys up the kazoo!
Gatorland, Kissimmee: Learn to make great images of wading birds in a cluttered rookery.
The Brandon Rookery: Great for nesting Wood Storks, Great Egrets, and more.
Circle Bar B Reserve, Lakeland: Here you will find a great variety of avian subjects in a great variety of habitats.
Lake Morton, Lakeland: There are lots of silly tame birds here including and especially American White Pelican during the colder months.
Lake Mirror, Lakeland: Tame Anhingas, Limpkins, and a zillion White Ibises at times.
West Lake Parker, Lakeland: Here you will have a chance for two difficult birds, Snail Kite, and Purple Gallinule.
Joe Overstreet Road, Kenansville: Crested Caracara, meadowlarks, Loggerhead Shrike, and much more on the fenceposts and barbed wire.
Each location includes a map, a detailed description of the best spots, best season, light and time of day instructions, the expected species, and an educational and inspirational gallery that is designed to open your eyes as to the possibilities.
You can purchase a copy here in the BAA Online Store.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
