Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Stuff

We flew from Helsinki to Edinburgh, Scotland on Sunday evening past for 2 more full days of R&R. Though I walked 6.2 miles on Monday and 7.4 miles on Tuesday, I did lots of resting up to be ready for the upcoming UK Puffins and Gannets IPT; the knee continues to feel better each day. I meet the complete group on the early morning of Wednesday, June 27 –some arrived early. I am quite looking forward to a great 12 days! (Galapagos IPT veteran Paul Reinstein arrived several days early to tour Scotland with his wife.)

In the recent blog post here, several folks surmised that I needed extra depth-of-field for the Bullfinch image because the bird was so large in the frame. Steve Wampler was the first to answer correctly. But nobody explained why the Bullfinch image was by far the more difficult to create …

PHOTOEXPO 2018

If you missed the PHOTOEXPO 2018 announcement and live anywhere within driving or flying distance of Memphis, TN, click here for the info. I am still looking for a ride to Beale Street!

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Recent Sales

Pierre Williot sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II in like-new condition for a very fair $848.00 in late June, 2018.
Top BAA used gear seller Jim Keener sold his Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L IS III USM Lens in like-new condition for the BAA record low price of $1349.00 the first day it was listed in late June.
Jim Keener sold a Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in excellent condition for the BAA record-low price of $999.00 (was $1149.00) in mid-June.
Jim Keener sold a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for the BAA record low price of $1099.00 in Early June.
Steve Traudt sold an Xtrahand Vest, the Khumbu model, size XL, in very good condition for the BAA record-low price of $179.
Jim Brennan sold a used Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens in good condition for $249.00 in late May.
Larry Padgett sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in excellent condition for $1160 soon after it was listed in late May.
Charlie Curry sold his Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens in mint condition for a BAA record-low price of $750.00 on the first day of listing in late May, 2018.

One Nikon D850 Available Right Now!

Contact Steve below to get yours tomorrow.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Patrick Sparkman saved $350 on a recent purchase!

Booking.Com

Several folks on the DeSoto IPT used the Booking.Com link below, got great rates, and saved a handsome $25.00 in the process. If you too would like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and to earn a $25 reward on your first booking. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

What to Learn Here

From where I sit, folks who study the exposure information and the AF point selection and placement will get the most from the blog. As far as AF point selection, do understand that with Nikon the location of the selected AF point is only approximate. Nikon View NX-i does not show the entire AF grid with the selected point illuminated (as Canon does). That means that two AF points up and four the right of the center AF point is either perfectly correct or an

This image was created on June 23 at the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden in Helsinki, Finland by Amy Novotny. Image #1: artie and Barnacle Geese at the botanic garden Image courtesy of and copyright 2018: Amy Novotny

Amy Runs

Amy discovered this location on her first long Helsinki run, about eight miles. Well done Amy!

This image was created on June 23 at the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden. I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens (at 195mm) and my back-up Nikon D850. ISO 400. Matrix metering +1/3 stop as framed: 1/1000 sec. at f/8. NATURAL AUTO WB at 5:20pm on a sunny afternoon. One up and four to the left of the center AF point/d-9/Continuous (AI Servo in Canon)/Shutter button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed on the base of the goose’s neck pretty much on the same plane as its visible eye. Click on the image to see a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +5. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Image #2: Barnacle Goose grazing

Full Body Portrait

Not so great …

Even though I got low and even though I was working right on sun angle I knew that full body portraits would not work too well even if they were technically perfect. I was right. The grass is somewhat over-powering and is too much in focus. Even if I had worked wider at f/5.6 or my standard f/6.3 the detail in the grass would have still been brought up too, too much.

This image was also created on June 23 at the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden. I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens (at 400mm) and my back-up Nikon D850. ISO 400. Matrix metering +2/3 stop as framed: 1/1000 sec. at f/8. NATURAL AUTO WB at 5:28pm on a sunny afternoon. Four up from the center AF point/d-25/Continuous (AI Servo in Canon)/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed on the goose’s chin just behind the base of the bill, again pretty much on the same plane as its visible eye. Click on the image to see a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +5. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Image #3: Barnacle Goose, front-end vertical portrait

Front-end Vertical Portrait

By inching forward on my butt I was able to get close enough to create a front-end vertical portrait. This softened the grass up a bit but I wanted more …

Lens Choice

This excursion was part photo walk and part health walk. It is much easier for me to walk with the lighter, smaller, 80-400 VR than it is to walk with the larger, heavier Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm. The Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III was in my pocket just in case. When it is likely that I will need to extra focal length at f/5.6, I will always bite the bullet and take the 2-5.

This image was also created on June 23 at the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden. I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens (at 400mm) and my back-up Nikon D850. ISO 400. Matrix metering +1 stop as framed: 1/640 sec. at f/8. NATURAL AUTO WB at 5:29pm on a sunny afternoon. Three to the right and two up from the center AF point/d-9/Continuous (AI Servo in Canon)/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed squarely on the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +5. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Image #4: Barnacle Goose, head portrait, grass background

Getting Closer

As I continued to inch closer the backgrounds became cleaner and cleaner even at f/8. There were a few passing clouds so I lowered my shutter speeds at times. The sun peeked out at full force as I pressed the shutter button to create this image so the WHITEs were very bright but easily tame-able during the RAW conversion and then with some NIK Detail Extractor as I worked on the image in Photoshop.

This image was also created on June 23 at the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden. I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens (at 400mm) and my back-up Nikon D850. ISO 400. Matrix metering +1 stop as framed: 1/1000 sec. at f/8. NATURAL AUTO WB at 5:49pm on a sunny afternoon. Two up and three to the left of the center AF point/d-9/Continuous (AI Servo in Canon)/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed on the lower front corner of the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +5. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Image #5: Barnacle Goose, head portrait, gravel and grass background

A Different Take

I decided to work a different goose so that I could get a pinkish gravel background. That involved more scuttling around on my butt. While I did not quite achieve that with Image #5, the gravel background and the green strip worked out nicely.

Your Favorite?

Which of today’s featured images is your favorite? My personal choice is clear.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

If In Doubt …

If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.

Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

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 New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

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

Facebook

Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).

Stuff

When I dropped Anita off at the loon nest by Gednje, we noted that their was no loon on the nest and no loons on the small lake. The pair had lost its egg. She opted to stay and see what she could find. I drove a short distance and found the dirt road depicted on the map below. Read on to see how I fared in my search for a Dotterel.

As I type on Friday, June 22, we are well into Finland, about an hour from the Ivalo Airport. We fly to Helsinki tonight for 2 days of R&R.

My rehab is going well and Amy has me walking a lot. From Tuesday through Thursday I walked 12.9 miles, a good deal of that over rough terrain and/or uphill. The best news? My knee is feeling pretty darned good.

To see some of the spectacular scenery on the way to Batsfjord and Berlevag (in northern Norway), check out Amy’s blog here.

PHOTOEXPO 2018

If you missed yesterday’s announcement and live anywhere within driving or flying distance of Memphis, TN, click here.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

New Listing

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L IS III USM Lens

Top BAA used gear seller Jim Keener is offering a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L IS III USM Lens in like-new condition for the BAA record low price of $1349.00. The sale includes the soft lens case, the front and rear lens caps, the hood, the original box, and insured ground shipping via to continental US addresses only. The package will not ship until your check clears.

Please contact Jim via e-mail or by phone at 310-741-7435 (9am-9pm Mountain time).

Characterized by a revamped optical design, the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM from Canon is a workhorse wide-angle zoom and member of the well-regarded L-series of lenses. Featuring a series of specialized elements, this lens utilizes a trio of aspherical elements and two ultra-low dispersion glass elements to control a variety of aberrations for high sharpness and clarity. Both SWC and ASC coatings have also been applied to the elements in order to reduce lens flare and ghosting for increased contrast and color accuracy.

Complementing its optical prowess, a ring-type Ultrasonic Motor offers fast, smooth, and near-silent autofocus performance, which is further benefitted by full-time manual focus operation and an internal focusing design. The lens is both water and dust-resistant, and fluorine coatings have also been applied to the front and rear elements to protect against fingerprints and smudges from affecting image quality.

This wide-angle 16-35mm zoom lens is compatible with full-frame Canon EF-mount DSLRs, as well as APS-C-sized models where it will provide a 25.6-56mm equivalent focal length range. The constant f/2.8 maximum aperture offers consistent performance and excellent light transmission throughout the zoom range. Two large-diameter glass-molded dual-surface aspherical elements and one ground aspherical element help to minimize distortions and spherical aberrations throughout the zoom range in order to maintain edge-to-edge sharpness and illumination. Two ultra-low dispersion elements are used to minimize chromatic aberrations as well as eliminate color blurring around the edges of subjects. Both a Subwavelength Coating (SWC) and an Air Sphere Coating (ASC) have been applied to lens elements to reduce backlit flaring and ghosting for maintained light transmission and high contrast in strong lighting conditions. A ring-type Ultrasonic Motor (USM), along with an internal focusing system, high-speed CPU, and optimized AF algorithms, are employed to deliver fast, precise, and near-silent autofocus performance as well as full-time manual focus override.

As a member of the esteemed L-series, this lens is sealed against dust and moisture for working in inclement environmental conditions. Protective fluorine coating has been applied to the front bulbous element to resist fingerprints and smudges and to make cleaning significantly easier. Rounded nine-blade diaphragm contributes to a pleasing out of focus quality that benefits the use of shallow depth of field and selective focus techniques. B&H

In short, the 16-35 III is Canon’s premier wide angle landscape zoom lens. artie

One Nikon D850 Available Right Now!

Contact Steve below to get yours tomorrow.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Patrick Sparkman saved $350 on a recent purchase!

Booking.Com

Several folks on the DeSoto IPT used the Booking.Com link below, got great rates, and saved a handsome $25.00 in the process. If you too would like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and to earn a $25 reward on your first booking. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

Rich Steel map

Thanks to Rich Steel!

Thanks to blog regular and UK friend Rich Steel who provided us with a ton of information that served as the basis for our Veranger/Ruff adventure. I very much wanted to see Dotterel, a plover that nests in rocky areas on the high tundra. When I mentioned that Dotterel was still on my most wanted list — a potential life bird for me — he kindly sent me the well-marked map of the Gednje junction that you see above.

Image #1: Rock pile and rocky and landscape Hand held i-Phone 8+ image.

Arriving

When I found the dirt road, I noted that there was a steep downhill portion of loose dirt and rocks before it headed uphill. As it turned out, if I had taken the vehicle, there was plenty of room to turn around. But as we rented a very large VW van, I opted to park along the side of the main road and hike up giving myself more chances of seeing a Dotterel. Heck, other birders had mentioned that they had seen nesting pairs on the exact same hill along the exact same dirt road. I was hopeful. I thought that if I took the van down the slope that I could probably get back up to the road, but in such a wilderness without cell phone coverage “probably” just does not cut it.

I set out on foot traveling light with the hand held 200-500 and the D850 and the 1.4X TC-E in my pocket. Once I crossed the stream it was almost all uphill. As seen in the image above, the terrain was very rocky.

Image #2: Rocks and landscape with pretty lichen rock in the corner Hand held i-Phone 8+ image.

Landscape Tip

Though I am not much of a landscape photographer, I do know that placing something nifty in a foreground corner of the image can often be a nice plus. So that is what I did with the distinctive salmon-colored rock in Image #2. As I made my way up the hill through the rock habitat I took lots of detours by meandering through the rock-studded landscape, searching all the while for a nesting pair of Dotterel.

Image #3: Tundra landscape Hand held i-Phone 8+ image.

One-half Mile From the Road

Once I made it about 1/2 mile up the hill, the landscape became much more gentle with fewer rocks. I continued to walk the habitat in search of the distinctive little plovers …

Green and black lichens Image #4: Green and black lichens Hand held i-Phone 8+ image.

Lichen City

Once I started heading back downhill I continued criss-crossing the likely rocky habitat. Without success. And as I did, I began taking more and more notice of the really cool patterns formed by lichens of various colors. So I got out my cell phone and went to work. There is something very freeing about working with such a small, light rig that is quite capable of creating some very nice images. The green and black motif as seen in Image #5 was both very common and — with its infinitely differing patterns, very striking.

Image #5: Large yellow lichen Hand held i-Phone 8+ image.

i-Phone for Macro

Even without and additional apps, the i-Phones have pretty decent macro capabilities; the are able to focus within inches of the subject. And going from 1X to 2X gives you even more magnification.

The Face?

Do you see one face in the image above? Which way is it facing? What or who does it remind you of?

Image #6: Lichen watercolor Hand held i-Phone 8+ image.

Lichen Watercolor

Image #6, the lichen watercolor, turned out to be my favorite lichen image by far. Do you agree or disagree? Either way, please let us know why.

By the Way

By the way, I never did turn up a Dotterel. But the lichens were beautiful, I enjoyed a great two mile walk, and had a ton of fun with my i-phone.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

If In Doubt …

If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.

Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

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 New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

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

Facebook

Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).