We had a great morning at DeSoto on Sunday with flying and diving Brown Pelicans. In addition, our friendly oystercatcher was chowing down in the same spot on the same stuff. After a few hours we were headed back to the hotel when I spotted two handsome Wood Storks. We got really close, talked about exposure, and in the bright sun practiced working right on sun angle. We made lots of head portraits both vertical and horizontal. We saw what happened to the BKGRs when you zoomed out. Eventually the birds flew from the seawall to a nearby beach because a fisherman was throwing his cast net and catching plenty of bait. We made our way down to the beach and created images of the storks walking and preening. I was just about to call the morning and head back to the hotel and lunch when a thin cloud covered the sun. We wound up staying another one and one-half hours. And the fisherman gave us a ton of live bait for our bucket … Whoa, did we have fun.
Great IPT News
An amazing nine folks have already committed to the new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT with the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip. And all have signed up for the pre-trip. There is just one slot left so if you are interested in joining us, please do not tarry. You can learn more about this great trip here.
The Streak
Today marks sixty-one 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 (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.
Booking.Com
I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.
Upper Large Zone/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The AF system activated three AF points that grabbed the back of the bird’s lower neck.
Great Egret, young of the year — aka: hatch-year bird.
It Does Not Get Any Easier …
Sun in the west, dark storm clouds in the east that reflect off the water providing an almost black backgournd. Get on sun angle and make an exposure check. Pick upper large zone AF, acquire focus, frame, check the in-viewfinder level, and fire. With images like this one where I want to darken the background during the RAW conversion, I experiment by moving the Shadow slider one or two to the left. Next I took a bit off the bottom where the reflections petered out and added the same amount to the top using the Crop Tool love handles to expand the canvas and John Haedo Content Aware Fill to fill it in. As I said, this image was a piece of cake.
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 🙂
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.
Amazon.com
Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.
Amazon Canada
Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.
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 :).
With a tame oystercatcher feeding in an atypical food-rich setting, we had a great morning on the DeSoto Fall IPT; we followed that with a long — 2 1/2 hours — and great image review/Photoshop working lunch session, Instructor Nap Time, and a lousy afternoon. The latter was caused by very strong southeast winds that left the birds facing directly away from us. As one participant, Muhammed Arif, is leaving a day early, we enjoyed our thanks for coming dinner at Good Times Continental Restaurant on Tierra Verde on Saturday evening.
Great IPT News
An amazing nine folks have already committed to the new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT with the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip. And all have signed up for the pre-trip. There is just one slot left so if you are interested in joining us, please do not tarry. You can learn more about this great trip here.
The Streak
Today marks sixty days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took close to 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 (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.
Everybody’s Doing It…
Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.
Latest Used Gear Kudos
Via e-mail from Robert Blanke
Hey Artie. Thank you again–the 5D s sale makes four cameras sold at fair prices and commissions, with the first three going in one day! Cheers Robert
Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender with a ton of extras!
Stephen November is offering a Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender in near-mint condition with a slew of extras for the great price of $8399. The extras include a LensCoat in digital camo (installed since day 1), a LensCoat digital camo Hoodie, the Kirk replacement lens foot with KES Sure Grip for Canon 200-400mm lens — part #LP-55SG (a $118 value), a Woodland camo rain sleeve — a British product from Wildlife Watching Supplies (a $66 value), and a Canon drop-in polarizer filter (a $229 value). Also included in the sale are the original product box, E-145C lens cover, the rear lens cap, the wide lens strap, the lens trunk with keys, the original tripod and monopod feet, 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. Photos are available upon request.
This is the world’s best lens for a trip to Africa. It kills also in the Galapagos and in South Georgia, the Falklands, and Antarctica. And I use mine a lot at Bosque and other dusty places where the built-in TC helps to keep your sensor clean. And I love it in the Palouse for its versatility. Most recently, I often found myself wishing that I had taken the 200-400 rather than my 500 II on the Bear Boat Cubs IPT. Many nature photographers use it as their workhorse telephoto lens as it offers 884mm at f/8 with an external 1.4X TC added. As you can see below, it is pretty good whenever you are working around relatively tame birds. The lens sells new at B&H right now for $10,999. You can save a slew of dollars by grabbing Stephen’s lens along with all the extras right now. artie
Booking.Com
I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.
Left Large Zone/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system worked to perfection selecting an L-shaped array of three sensors with one AF point right on the bird’s eye and the other two below and in front of the eye.
Snowy Egret and sun — this JPEG represents the converted TIF.
My Very Favorite Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender Fort Desoto Image
In the Which is your favorite Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender Fort Desoto image?here, I asked:
Which of the images is your favorite? Why?
Which one of the images is my favorite? Why?
My very favorite image was and is Snowy Egret Sunset. Why? I love the out-of-focus sun. I love the fact that I went for the image in exceedingly difficult circumstances. And succeeded. Up until about 7:26pm I had managed to stay clean and dry. In order to get low enough to get the snowy’s head and the sun in the same frame, I had chosen to lie down flat in the very wet sand. Yuck. But Yeah! (Note: the difficulty we had in capturing an image should not matter; it is best only to judge the image itself without considering the circumstances …)
Kudos to Anthony who commented I’d like to see what you can do with the lower right image. Processed, I bet it’d look great! and to Jake who wrote, My favourites are the first and last images. Hazarding a guess … Is your favourite the last image? Stunning images.
My second favorite was the first image, Great Egret Squawking, so kudos again to Jake (above) and to David Policansky who wrote, My favorite is the first image, the great egret squawking.
Great analysis of the mystery bird by IPT veteran Scott Borowy who left this comment:
My first instinct for the silhouetted image was to call it a gull species, however, the large, webbed feet made me instantly question that. I think it is a Double-crested Cormorant, though it’s tough to tell in the shadows what specific cormorant it may be. The overall shape of the head, hooked tip of the bill, shape of the throat, (both which threw me as it is facing slightly toward the setting sun) the webbed feet, and rough, yet rounded ends to the feathers are what I’m basing this on.
My Favorite DeSoto Sunset Spot
To learn the location of my favorite Fort DeSoto sunset spot, you need to do one of two things:
Left Large Zone/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system worked to perfection selecting an L-shaped array of three sensors with one AF point right on the bird’s eye and the other two below and in front of the eye.
Snowy Egret and sun — the optimized version
The Image Optimization
I converted the image pretty much straight up in DPP 4. Once I took it into Photoshop, the first thing that I did was to level the image using the Ruler Tool on the horizon. My next thought was to make the bird black with a Levels adjustment to create a dramatic silhouette. That attempt failed miserably as the image became terribly posterized and incredibly noisy. So then I went to a lighter look which is actually how things looked in life — everything was very soft. But when I lightened the bird to white, the sun became completely washed out. To fix that problem I went to Tim Grey Dodge and Burn, reduced the brush size to just smaller than the sun, and reduced the opacity of the darkening brush to 20% by hitting “2” using Denise Ippolito’s Brush Opacity Magic technique. Two slightly swirling clicks left me as a Happy Camper with a dramatic sun.
The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac/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)
Everything mentioned above 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. The new e-Guide reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. 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 MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):
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. 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.
BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT.
Fort DeSoto Site Guide
Can’t make a DeSoto IPT? Get yourself a copy of the Fort DeSoto Site Guide. Learn the best spots, where to be when in what season in what weather. Learn the best wind directions for the various locations. BAA Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. You can see all of them here.
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 🙂
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.
Amazon.com
Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.
Amazon Canada
Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.
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 :).
I got to DeSoto early on Friday morning for my second pre-IPT scouting session. I found a nice flock of spoonbills and wound up getting so close that I ditched the 500 II and went with the 100-400 II hand held. On the way out of the park I found a nice low Osprey that I photographed with the 600 II and the 2X III-i TC. I met my group of four at 3pm sharp for the introductory session.
We had a great afternoon session with the shorebirds and wading birds, especially when we had some Great Egrets set against the reflections of the black storm clouds in the distance. I am already in love with the group and the group is in love with me. We head back out in twenty minutes — 5:40am. So I gotta go.
Great IPT News
An amazing eight folks have already committed to the new, expanded UK Puffins and Gannets 2018 IPT with the Bempton Cliffs pre-trip. And all have signed up for the pre-trip. There are just two slots left so if you are interested in joining us, please do not tarry. You can learn more about this great trip here.
The Streak
Today marks fifty-nine days in a row with a new educational blog post — Irma be damned! 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 (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.
Everybody’s Doing It…
Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin 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 recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.
Booking.Com
I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And 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.
This image was created on my scouting visit to Fort Desoto Park on the morning of Friday, September 22. I used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 504mm), and my favorite spoonbill photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/800 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB.
LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -1.
A single AF point that was two rows up and one to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the bird’s neck where it meets the back just in front of and below the bend of the wing. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.
I was standing in about six inches of water. I had lots of spoonbills right in front of me. Pink. And blue. I had the 500 II on a tripod with the 1.4X III and my 100-400 II on my shoulder via Black Rapid Curve Breath strap. Both of course with a 5D Mark IV. I was working at 700mm off the tripod. I knew from the first frame that I needed to get lower because the water was not a pure blue mirror. There was lots of floating junk on the surface. Jeez, I thought. Lowering the tripod and sitting in the water would require time and in addition, I would need to walk back to shore to ditch the 100-400 II … In the meantime, the flock kept getting closer and closer.
Left Large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system selected four AF points that painted the bird’s body; with the relatively distant, small-in-the-frame subject there was more than enough depth of field to cover the bird’s eye. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.
Finally it came to me. Mount my 1.4X III-ii TC on the 100-400 II, leave the tripod standing safely where it was, get right on sun angle, and then sit in the water hand holding the 100-400 II. It worked like a charm. I was able to zoom in to create tight portraits like Image #1, or to zoom out a bit to include a strip of the distant marsh as in Image #2. And by zooming out I was far better able to include as much of the pink reflections as I wanted. I wound up creating 99 images at 700mm and had no great desire to keep any of them … All in all, these are lot more reasons to love the 100-400 II.
Your Favorite?
Which of today’s two featured images is your favorite? Be sure to let us know why. What do you like or dislike about each?
Fort DeSoto in fall is rich with tame birds. All of the images in this card were created at Fort DeSoto in either late September or early October. I hope that you can join me there this October. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.
BIRDS AS ART In-the-Field/Meet-up Workshop Session (ITF/MWS): $99.
Join me on the morning of Tuesday September 26, 2017 for 3-hours of photographic instruction at Fort DeSoto Park. Beginners are welcome. Lenses of 300mm or longer are recommended but even those with 70-200s should get to make some nice images. Teleconverters are always a plus.
You will learn the basics of digital exposure and image design, autofocus basics, and how to get close to free and wild birds. We should get to photograph a variety of wading birds, shorebirds, terns, and gulls. This inexpensive afternoon workshop is designed to give folks a taste of the level and the quality of instruction that is provided on a BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-tour. I hope to meet you there.
Please register by sending me an e-mail and/or by calling me on my cell at 863-221-2372.
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 🙂
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.
Amazon.com
Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.
Amazon Canada
Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.
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 :).
