January 8th, 2018 Stuff
Sunday was a wonderful day. I met multiple IPT veteran Muriel McClellan who introduced me to my new physical therapist, Amy Novotny, Amy, Bryan Holliday, and his lovely girlfriend Kim, all photographers. We did the Black-crowned Night-Herons at sunrise and then switched to my favorite mudflat where we had some great action with several species of ducks and some Long-billed Dowitchers. Muriel very generously treated the whole gang to lunch at a pita place. After lunch we went to Freestone Park; the three pairs of Canvasbacks were a lot more cooperative than they had been on Saturday.
My Postural Restoration physical therapy is going very well and my very well be life-altering. More on that over time. I did get to answer quite a few e-mails early this morning but I still have tons more today including another dozen or so that arrived today while I was out having fun.
Click on the logo-link above for great holiday savings!
$300 off on the Canon 100-400 II!
The Streak
Today makes one hundred sixty-one days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. 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
Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. 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.
ACR Screen Capture
Note the perfect histogram. Note that the RGB values for the brightest whites were from the ring around the base of the bill not from the ring around the bill. Note that the RGB values of 245, 245, 244 indicate almost perfectly neutral WHITEs. Note that I did not max out the WHITEs to 254, 254, 254 but opted to leave them about ten points short of that. Moving the Highlight slider to -53 darkened the water to a nice rich blue.
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This image was created at the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch, in Phoenix, AZ on the morning of Sunday, January 7. I used the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my the blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering about +2/3 stop: 1/250 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:34am on a sunny morning with a light cloud in front of the sun.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.
Two AF points above the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed squarely on the duck’s cheek directly below and right on the same plane as the duck’s eye. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.
Ring-necked Duck drake partial body shot
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Image Question
Do you like this image? Why or why not?
The Image Design
Please leave a comment and let us know what you think of the image design here.
More on Coming Soon
February 2018 Spoonbill Boat IPT: FEB 23-25, 2018/2 1/2 days with three morning spoonbill sessions on the boat (definite!)
Two Fort DeSoto IPTs (April and May, 2018)
Three Gatorland IPTs (March, April, and May, 2018 — including early entry and late stay — tentative)
Three Sandhill Crane chicks and colts Master Classes at Indian Lake Estates (March)
The Master Classes will be small groups — strictly limited to four photographers — with the first folks who register staying at my home and the others staying at a chain motel in Lake Wales. Live, think, and breathe photography from Friday afternoon through lunch on Monday morning; all meals included. We will enjoy three morning photography sessions with the main subjects being tame Sandhill Cranes almost surely with chicks or colts. Also vultures and Cattle Egrets and more. Limpkins possible. There will be three afternoon photo sessions with hopefully glorious sunsets like the ones you have been seeing on the blog recently. I will micro-adjust one of your lenses during a group instructional session and all will be welcome to practice what they have learned during the breaks using my lightingbgear. We will sit together around my dining room table and pick everyone’s keepers, enjoy guided Photoshop sessions, and, on Monday before lunch, folks can make a single large print of their favorite image.
Folks who would like advance notice on any of the above are welcome to shoot me an e-mail. Right now there are two folks signed up for the spoonbill IPT with just four openings left. If you would like to join us, please do not tarry.
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 :).
January 7th, 2018 Stuff
Bryan Holliday and I had a great day starting with a wicked sunrise and some great duck photography at the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch where the ducks were so cooperative on the still water with gorgeous reflections that we thought that a hunter had put out a raft of decoys. After lunch we continued to enjoy the bright overcast conditions at Freestone Park where I made today’s featured images of a handsome duck that has long eluded me. Thanks to the several folks who suggested Freestone for Canvasbacks!
I am still far behind on e-mails. Please bear with me; you should hear from me by late Monday at the worst.
Click on the logo-link above for great holiday savings!
$300 off on the Canon 100-400 II!
The Streak
Today makes one hundred sixty-one days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. 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
Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. 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.
The DPP 4 Screen Capture for Today’s Featured Image
Note that the original was a bit under-exposed; I added 1/3 stop of light during the RAW conversion in DPP 4 by moving the Brightness slider to +0.33. And even though the flash brightened the canny’s brick red head nicely moving the Shadow slider to +4 really brought it to life without bringing up the noise. That is a huge plus to DPP 4 conversions. All that I did with the TIFF in Photoshop was some Digital Eye Doctor work on the pupil.
I will be sharing lots more info on the Godox flash for Canon in the near future; briefly it costs only a fraction of the Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT but is every bit as good with a great rechargeable battery. And, I will teach you how to set fill simply in ETTL mode.
1200mm + Fill Flash = Just Ducky Perfection!
Bryan Holliday took on on the chin for the team by driving my rental car back to Gilbert to grab a box of duck bait in the form of oat cereal; bread is not an allowed food but the oat cereal is. While he was one of the three drake Canvasbacks swam by me … I made hay with the one perfect frame out of a series of about twenty. As this was one of my target species for Phoenix I was a very happy man.
So What is Perfect?
There are several elements that make this photograph pretty close to perfect. What are they? On the other hand, does anything about this image bug you? Either way, please leave a comment.
More on Coming Soon
February 2018 Spoonbill Boat IPT: FEB 23-25, 2018/2 1/2 days with three morning spoonbill sessions on the boat (definite!)
Two Fort DeSoto IPTs (April and May, 2018)
Three Gatorland IPTs (March, April, and May, 2018 — including early entry and late stay — tentative)
Three Sandhill Crane chicks and colts Master Classes at Indian Lake Estates (March)
The Master Classes will be small groups — strictly limited to four photographers — with the first folks who register staying at my home and the others staying at a chain motel in Lake Wales. Live, think, and breathe photography from Friday afternoon through lunch on Monday morning; all meals included. We will enjoy three morning photography sessions with the main subjects being tame Sandhill Cranes almost surely with chicks or colts. Also vultures and Cattle Egrets and more. Limpkins possible. There will be three afternoon photo sessions with hopefully glorious sunsets like the ones you have been seeing on the blog recently. I will micro-adjust one of your lenses during a group instructional session and all will be welcome to practice what they have learned during the breaks using my lightingbgear. We will sit together around my dining room table and pick everyone’s keepers, enjoy guided Photoshop sessions, and, on Monday before lunch, folks can make a single large print of their favorite image.
Folks who would like advance notice on any of the above are welcome to shoot me an e-mail. Right now there are two folks signed up for the spoonbill IPT with just four openings left. If you would like to join us, please do not tarry.
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 :).
January 6th, 2018 Stuff
Apologies to those who are patiently waiting to hear from me via e-mail. I have been very busy with physical therapy sessions and tons of exercising when I am not photographing; almost all of that involves blowing up balloons. Yes, blowing up balloons … I did get back to Gilbert Water Ranch this morning to find that the lake that was attracting lots of shorebirds had been filled to overflowing in less than a day. Goodbye mud, goodbye birds! There are plenty of other spots in the various lakes for the dowitchers and stilts and avocets to feed, but none are any good for photography.
Click on the logo-link above for great holiday savings!
$300 off on the Canon 100-400 II!
The Streak
Today makes one hundred sixty days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about an hour to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. 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
Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. 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.
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This image was created at the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch in Phoenix, AZ on my first morning out. With my tripod lowered, I was seated behind the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and my favorite shorebird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 2/3 stops: 1/200 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB: K7500 at 4:28pm on a cloudy afternoon.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
One AF point above the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand shutter button focus was active at the moment of exposure. It is obvious from looking at the DPP 4 screen capture above that the left assist point caught and held focus on the bill. Too bad that Canon does not show us not the selected point and the active assist point or points.
Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.
DPP 4 Screen Capture
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The DPP 4 Screen Capture for Today’s Featured Image
Note the perfect histogram with the light tones all the way to the right. Note that even though the RGB values, 240, 244, 250 showed a bit of a BLUE cast that I had moved the Color fine-tune dot toward BLUE. If I had moved the Color fine-tune dot away from BLUE and toward RED then the reflection would have been way too warm. As presented, the bird is a nice neutral gray.
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This image was created at the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch in Phoenix, AZ on my first morning out. With my tripod lowered, I was seated behind the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and my favorite shorebird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops: 1/200 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. AWB: K7500 at 4:28pm on a cloudy afternoon.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
One AF point above the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand shutter button focus was active at the moment of exposure. It is obvious from looking at the DPP 4 screen capture above that the left assist point caught and held focus on the bill. Too bad that Canon does not show us not the selected point and the active assist point or points.
Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.
DPP 4 Screen Capture Long-billed Dowitcher, first winter foraging
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Sandpiper Photography Tips Part II
Once a foraging bird is square to the back of the camera (or angled slightly toward you) and fills about half the frame, acquire focus and push and hold the shutter speed until the situation changes. When working at an intermediate shutter speed as I was with today’s image (1/200 sec.) some of the photos will be lost to motion blur and some will be sharp. Dowitchers and other species feed like sewing machines. Firing long bursts will usually yield a variety of sharp images, some with the head nearly underwater and the bill completely submerged, some with the bill completely out of the water, and many in between those two extremes. The only option in cloudy conditions is to go with two or three or more stops of ISO; the drawback there is an increase in noise and a decrease in image quality. I prefer to gamble a bit, blast away, and wind up with a few representative sharp images.
Image Questions
- 1-Why is there a reddish cast to the bird’s reflection? (Note: if you look closely there is a clue …
- 2-Why did I move the selected AF point up from the center?
More on Coming Soon
February 2018 Spoonbill Boat IPT (definite!)
Two Fort DeSoto IPTs (April and May, 2018)
Three Gatorland IPTs (March, April, and May, 2018 — including early entry and late stay — tentative)
Three Sandhill Crane chicks and colts Master Classes at Indian Lake Estates (March)
The Master Classes will be small groups — strictly limited to four photographers — with the first folks who register staying at my home and the others staying at a chain motel in Lake Wales. Live, think, and breathe photography from Friday afternoon through lunch on Monday morning; all meals included. We will enjoy three morning photography sessions with the main subjects being tame Sandhill Cranes almost surely with chicks or colts. Also vultures and Cattle Egrets and more. Limpkins possible. There will be three afternoon photo sessions with hopefully glorious sunsets like the ones you have been seeing on the blog recently. I will micro-adjust one of your lenses during a group instructional session and all will be welcome to practice what they have learned during the breaks using my lighting gear. We will sit together around my dining room table and pick everyone’s keepers, enjoy guided Photoshop sessions, and, on Monday before lunch, folks can make a single large print of their favorite image.
Folks who would like advance notice on any of the above are welcome to shoot me an e-mail. Right now there is lots of interest in all of the above offerings. Folks who have already e-mailed me will be receiving the first invites soon, starting with the Spoonbill IPT.
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 :).
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