Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Stuff

We had a superb morning of flight photography on the spoonbill boat on Tuesday February 20, 2018. Again not a zillion spoonbills, but skies full of Brown Pelicans hovering over the mangroves, some with huge mouthfuls of nesting materials. Along with both species of vultures, hundreds of Fish Crows, some Great and Snowy Egrets, we had fly-by mega-breeding plumage Reddish Egrets including a killer white morph. And again, we did have some decent chances with the spoonbills along with lots of nice clouds that kept everyone on their toes exposure-wise.

The Streak

Today makes two hundred five days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.

This image was created on February 10, 2018 on Cayman Brac with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 290mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). ISO 400. Matrix metering probably +1/3 stop: 1/1600 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:29am on a clear sunny day. Group/Shutter Button AF. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version. Brown Booby jumping off cliff

Do You See the Picture Within the Picture?

Take a close look at the somewhat underexposed image above Can you come up with a crop that would reveal the picture within the picture? Scroll down to near the end to see my optimized version.

Booking.Com

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

Mongoose Warning

Right now the BAA Online Store has several Mongoose M3.6.heads in stock. A price increase is coming. You can figure out the rest.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my (stupendous) 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.

The optimized version of today’s featured image

Camera Body Quandary …

I worked this image about ten days ago on Cayman Brac. Three days ago I had made my mind up pretty firmly that I would go with two D850 bodies and return the loaner D5. But revisiting this image has left me in a quandary. So on Monday, I used the D5 all day on the spoonbill boat and did great. On Tuesday morning I went only with the D850. Once I see those images I might have a better idea. Or not …

See tomorrow’s blog post for details on what I call D850 small pixel noise (SPN) … SPN is totally lacking in D5 images, even underexposed ones. More tomorrow 🙂

The Image Optimization

Until I came up with the decisive crop and a plan, I was leaning toward deleting this image. First I brightened things up during the ACR conversion. Once in Photoshop I executed the crop and then it was a simple matter of covering the limestone lower left with a flopped Quick Mask of the lower right corner (as detailed in APTATs). I used the Patch Tool to eliminate the left-over part of the wing from the top bird. A bit more lower wave clean-up was followed by a 60-pixel Gaussian Blur that was covered with a Hide-All (Black or Inverse) Layer Mask. Then I painted in the effect with a large soft brush making sure to stay well away from the bird. Digital is amazing.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac or PC/Photo Mechanic/Photoshop workflow that will make it easy for you to make your images better in Photoshop (rather than worse). That true whether you convert your images in DPP 4 or ACR. See the blog post here to learn lots more and to read a free excerpt. You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a Paypal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

Your guessed it, everything mentioned above and tons more is covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Learn more and check out the free excerpt in the blog post here. While the new e-Guide reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow, folks using a PC and/or BreezeBrowser will also benefit greatly by studying the material on DB II. Do note that you will find the RGB Curves Adjustment Color Balancing tutorial only in the new e-guide. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.

The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):

• The Wingtip Repairs MP4 Video here.
• The MP4 Crow Cleanup Video here.

Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here.

You can learn how and why I and other discerning Canon shooters convert nearly all of their Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 using Canon Digital Photo Professional in the DPP 4 RAW conversion Guide here. Yes, I still have many Canon images to work on. 🙂 And you can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair. Folks can learn sophisticated sharpening and (NeatImage) Noise Reduction techniques in the The Professional Post Processing Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly.

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

In the morning I was down at the lake with my new 600mm f/4 and the D5. I had a few good opportunities on flying Great Egrets so I hand held it out the window with some success. Then it was my postural restoration exercises followed by my fourth half mile plus swim in a row. Then I packed up and headed over to Brandon to meet friend//client Jake Levin. We micro-adjusted his Canon 500mm lens with the 1.4X TC and his 5D IV. Then dinner and early to bed. The first spoonbill IPT will be me and three others. Good luck to us.

The Streak

Today makes two hundred three days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about two hours to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.

Booking.Com

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

New Listings

Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens

BAA Record-Low, Shock-the-world priced

Greg Morris is offering a barely used EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in mint to like-new condition with extras for the BAA record low price of $9394.00. The sale includes the LensCoat that has protected this lens since day one, a RRS stuff foot (installed), the original foot, the lens trunk, the original box and everything that came in it: front cover, rear cap, manuals, & the rest, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your personal of certified check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Greg via e-mail or by phone at 1-580-678-5929 (Central time).

WMD: Weapon of Mass Destruction!

The 600 II is the state of the art super-telephoto for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports. When I could get it to my location, it was my go-to weapon. It is fast and sharp and deadly alone or with either TC. With a new one going for $11,499, you can save a cool $2,005.00 by grabbing Walt’s might-as-well-be-new lens right now. artie

Canon EOS-1DX Professional Digital Camera Body

Greg Morris is also offering a Canon EOS-1DX in near-mint condition for the BAA record-low price of $2499.00. The sale includes the front cap, the strap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Greg via e-mail or by phone at 1-580-678-5929 (Central time).

Two 1DX bodies served admirably as my workhorse digital camera bodies for several years. The original 1DX has a superb AF system and produces high quality image files. It is fabulous for photographing birds in flight and in action. Some folks wish that they had kept there 1DX bodies and not upgraded to the 1DX Mark II … artie

This image was created on the foggy morning of Sunday February 18 with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 380mm) and the Nikon D850. ISO 800: Matrix metering about +2 1/3 stops off the foggy sky: 1/1000 sec. at f/6.3 in M (Manual) mode. AWB at 8:22am in the fog. Center Group (grp) Shutter Button AF as originally framed. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #1: Great Egret turning left in flight

Moving About

Unless I have a fabulous situation in front of me I am always moving along looking for a great situation. Even when doing flight photography. This bird flew in from the west over the small moat in front of the railroad tracks.

This image was created on the foggy morning of Sunday February 18 with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the Nikon D850. ISO 800: Matrix metering about 2 1/3 stops off the foggy sky: 1/1000 sec. at f/6.3 in M (Manual) mode. AWB at 8:40am. Center Group (grp) Shutter Button AF as originally framed. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #2: Snowy Egret top shot

Top Shots

Top shots show the dorsal surface of a bird’s spread wings. If you know Gatorland it should not take you too long to figure out the best location from which to make these types of images.

This image was created on the foggy morning of Sunday February 18 with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the Nikon D850. ISO 800: Matrix metering at about +2 stops off the somewhat brightening sky: 1/2500 sec. at f/6.3 in M (Manual) mode. AWB at 9:09am. Center Group (grp) Shutter Button AF as originally framed. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #3: Great Egret landing top shot

Head and Neck Replacement

The first and third images in a three-frame sequence were sharp on the face. The middle one with the very best wing position was a bit off so I decided to do a head and neck-ectomy. I painted a Quick Mask of the head and neck from frame three and placed it on top of the slightly soft head and neck from frame two. Then I refined it with a Regular Layer Mask. All in all the operation was both quite successful and pretty much un-detectable.

This image was created on the foggy morning of Sunday February 18 with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the Nikon D850. ISO 800. Matrix metering at about +2 stops off the somewhat brightening sky: 1/2000 sec. at f/6.3 in M (Manual) mode. AWB at 9:17am. Center Group (grp) Shutter Button AF as originally framed. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #4: Snowy Egret flight

Breeding Plumage Snowy Egrets

None of the Snowies perched near the boardwalk had the beautiful red lores but surprisingly, most of the birds that I photographed in flight did. You usually do not see them in full breeding plumage for at least another six weeks or so.

This image was created on the foggy morning of Sunday February 18 with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the Nikon D850. ISO 800. Matrix metering about +1 1/3 stops off the brightening sky: 1/3200 sec. at f/6.3 in M (Manual) mode. AWB at 9:23am. Center Group (grp) Shutter Button AF as originally framed. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #5: Great Egret jumping off shelter roof

What the Heck

I had just finished mentioning to someone that with my new gear I will often stay at 500mm rather than zoom out when a bird gets too big in the frame. So when this handsome bird jumped off the roof of a rain shelter to its nest I fired away and made two sharp on the eye images.

This image was created on the foggy morning of Sunday February 18 with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the Nikon D850. ISO 800: Matrix metering about +1 1/3 stops off the brightening sky: 1/3200 sec. at f/6.3 in M (Manual) mode. AWB at 9:26am. Center Group (grp) Shutter Button AF as originally framed. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #6: Great Egret in flight from below

The End

I ended the morning the way I began, with a Great Egret flying almost directly overhead. By studying the shutter speeds with each image you can see how I handled the brightening skies.

Got a Favorite?

Leave a comment and let us know which one and why.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my (stupendous) 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 :).