Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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October 29th, 2017

Exposing 3000 Miles to the Right ... Upper Large Zone AF kills again for verticals!

Stuff

On Saturday morning I met my group of four at DeSoto in the dark. Once we were all set up the group enjoyed and introductory slide show with my Macbook Pro on the front hood of my Sequoia. Things were not looking too great as there was not much bait around and there were lots of pleasure boats in the backgrounds of our landing pelican images. But things improved rapidly both before and after the sun made it over a really large cloud above the eastern horizon. We did well with young pelicans and Sandwich Terns in flight, some Double-Crested Cormorants, and the first of the season Marbled Godwit that was shy at first but quickly grew to love us. The cherry on top was the the mystery egret flew in and landed right in from of us with a perfect distant blue water background.

In addition to pointing out the need to expose to the right with all of your digital captures, the title for today’s blog post, Exposing 3000 Miles to the Right, reflects the fact that Brandt’s Cormorants are a western species, found only along the Pacific coast. 🙂

The Streak

Today makes ninety-four 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 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.

Brandt's-Cormorants----three-chicks-begging-_P3A0339-La-Jolla,-CA--

This image was created in San Diego in March, 2016 with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 338mm) and my favorite cormorant photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops: 1/800 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB in totally overcast conditions.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.

As seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below, Upper Large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure and again, performed to perfection. The system activated a single AF point right on the adult cormorant’s eye.

Brandt’s Cormorant family/three begging chicks

Nesting Brandt’s Cormorants

While you will almost surely not get to photograph chicks of this species on either San Diego IPT, we will enjoy even better photographic opportunities with courting adults in full breeding plumage with their silver head plumes and richly colored turquoise gular sacks with purple flecking. The color is surreal. And so are the heads back/wings down displays.

Untitled-1

A DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image

Upper Large Zone AF kills again for verticals!

Notice that the system activated a single AF point that fell squarely on the bird’s eye. The trick is to watch the AF point or points as they dance around the array and to press the shutter button when they are on or near the right spot, i.e., somewhere that is on the same plane as the bird’s eye.

Exposing 3000 Miles to the Right …

Note that the histogram is pushed all the way to the right. Note how light the RAW file looks as it came out of the camera. I often say,”If your RAW files look good on the back of your camera and on your laptop, they are under-exposed. Your properly exposed RAW files should look washed out, especially those made in low light and those that average to lighter than a middle tone.”

Properly exposing to the right reduces noise in the dark tones and produces larger, higher quality image files. But only 100% of the time.

The Image Optimization

Knowing that a simple Levels adjustment would bring this image to life, I did not do much in DPP 4 after loading my EOS 5D Mark IV/ISO 400 recipe. The first thing that that I did in Photoshop was the simple Levels adjustment that I mentioned above, being sure to hold down the Alt key as I set both the white and the black points — back off a bit once you see the first speckles. That alone greatly improved the image. Next I ran the RGB Curves Color Balancing Trick on its own layer but still the background dirt and the sand on the beach below needed a lot more color and punch. To that end, I opened a new layer for the whole image and then went Image > Adjustments > Selective Color. I picked the WHIITe channel, added 90 points of black and five points of yellow. Voila.

Then I saved the master TIF file, cropped the image to 900 pixels high, sharpened it with Unsharp Mask at 80/.3/0 and save the JPEG, making sure to hit “D” for Don’t Save when asked if I wanted to save the changes made to _W5A7642. (If you hit save, you replace your master TIF file with a tiny JPEG …)

DBII-cover

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 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. 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.

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.

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 :).

October 29th, 2017 | Category: 2017 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
October 28th, 2017

How Low Can You Get? Upper Large Zone AF Rocks Verticals!

Stuff

I drove over to Fort DeSoto on Friday afternoon and met up with two good friends, many multiple IPT veteran John Dupps and multiple IPT veteran Lee Sommie. I was glad to see that though the wind was from the east southeast it was not very strong. We did great on my favorite afternoon beach with the usual cast of shorebirds, Willet, Black-bellied, Semipalmated, and Wilson’s Plovers, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, and Least Sandpiper. We wiggled over to my new favorite DeSoto location and had great fun with the Snowy Egrets photographing at first with the sun behind us and then, at K7500, shooting into the sun and the blasting highlights.

Dinner at Goodtimes on Tiera Verde as excellent as usual. Conditions for Saturday morning are looking perfect 🙂

The Streak

Today makes ninety-three 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 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.

Brown-Pelcian-juvenile-on-rock-low-perstpective-_W5A7642-Fort-DeSoto-Park,-FL

This image was created at Fort DeSoto with Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my favorite pelican photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB. Early morning light.

Though my big lens was not mounted on the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod and the Mongoose M3.6, both were involved in the creation of the image. See below for details.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5.

Upper large Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure and performed to perfection. See the DPP 4 screen capture below to learn the location of the activated AF points.

Brown Pelican juvenile, low perspective

How Low Can You Get?

The young pelican above was perched on a rock that protruded just above the water at high tide. I noted the bird even before the sun came over the dunes behind us. I knew from the get-go that the best images would be there for the taking if I got flat down on the ground. But the sand was wet, the beach sloped downhill towards the Gulf, and I was feeling a bit lazy and was enjoying being dry … I tried sitting behind my lowered tripod; the horizon cut through the top of the bird’s head. So I bit the bullet by splaying the legs of my Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod — they do great around saltwater and sand — and got down flat on the beach. Still no good as now the horizon cut the bird neatly in half.

So, even though I was working at 1000mm, I unclamped the lens from the Mongoose and rotated the whole tripod so that one of the legs pointed squarely my left. Then I rested the barrel of the lens on that single splayed tripod leg; the bottom of the lens barrel was about an inch above the sand. I was effectively hand holding with a bit of support.

I faced several problems. My rig was so low that it was very difficult to get my eye to the viewfinder while working vertically. But it was imperative that I do just that so I could get a good look at the in-viewfinder electronic level. When you are lying on the ground your head is naturally skewed while looking through the viewfinder so the in-viewfinder level is a must. As I strained to get my eye to the viewfinder I felt at times as if my left eyeball was gonna pop right out of its socket. And I received the gift of an instant headache every time that I got to make a few frames. I could not take the pain for long so I quit as soon as I felt that I had made a few good ones.

I had thought of using Live View but concluded that without the lens securely mounted on the tripod that that would be a losing effort.

Was it worth it for me? Yes, I absolutely love going super low even when it involves great effort and some pain.

Note that the FocusTune micro-adjustment of -5 fits into the fairly significant category.

DPP4-LOW

A DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image

A DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image

Upper Large Zone AF Rocks Verticals!

Check out the three AF points that were activated and note the perfect job done by Upper Large Zone AF. If you own a camera that offers Manual Selection Large Zone AF and are not using it for verticals, you are making your life more difficult than it needs to be. Upper Large Zone offers almost unlimited compositional freedom.

The RAW Conversion

After bringing the image into DPP 4, I entered my 5D Mark IV/ISO 400 basic recipe and then checked the RGB values for the WHITEs for this early morning light image. Since the RGB values noted lots of RED I moved the Color fine tune point toward BLUE. This lined up the R, G, and B histograms quite a bit but still left the image looking like rich early morning light. With less RED than I had started with the RGB values read 244, 234, 217. Note as pointed out in the Understanding the Color of Light/Part II blog post here, it is not necessary to work towards images with a perfect neutral white balances (unless that is what you want). For this image, the warm light was a big plus for me. As was the low perspective 🙂 (Next time I might dig a big hole so that I can get even lower …) Adjusting the Color fine tune dot was the only thing that I did in DPP 4 (other than entering my basic recipe). So then I hit Command + D to convert the CR2 file to a TIF.

The Image Optimization

The image optimization in Photoshop was about as simple as the RAW conversion had been. I used the 2X3 crop preset and cropped a bit from above and from the left to tighten up the composition. Then I selected the bird using the Quick Selection Tool (my keyboard shortcut W), placed the selection on its own layer, and applied my NIK Color Efex Pro 30-30 recipe mainly to bring up some of the detail in the bird’s white breast. Then I saved the master TIF file, cropped the image to 900 pixels high, sharpened it with Unsharp Mask at 80/.3/0 and save the JPEG, making sure to hit “D” for Don’t Save when asked if I wanted to save the changes made to _W5A7642. (If you hit save, you replace your master TIF file with a tiny JPEG …)

DBII-cover

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 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. 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.

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.

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 :).

October 28th, 2017 | Category: 2017 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
October 27th, 2017

The Daily Work ... And Bucking the Trend with my choice of a favorite Great Egret sunset silhouette.

Stuff

On Thursday morning I got some serious work done on the 5D Mark IV User’s Guide. Then it was off to TJ McKeon’s office in Lake Wales for some Active Release Technique Chiropractic work on my shoulders, hips, and back. Next was a routine visit to Dr. Holmes; my blood work last week came in with my lowest-ever A1C, a three month measure of blood sugar levels: a very excellent 5.0. For the past few days I have been enjoying an overwhelming feeling of mental and physical peace and well-being.

Be sure to read the whole e-mail exchange below as Swamp Thing posed several commonly asked questions and my informative responses contain some good solid advice (and lots of subliminal advertising) based on my thirty-four years behind telephoto lenses. And to think that I started late!

I head over to Fort DeSoto this afternoon to meet a not-so-small group for a weekend of in-the-field instruction BIRDS AS ART style.

Thanks to the many who left comments on yesterday’s Major or Minor Screw-Up by Yours Truly? blog post while answering the question, What do you do with your images??? Click here to chime in if you like.

The Streak

Today makes ninety-two days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took about 90 minutes to prepare over two days. 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 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.

The Daily Work …

I write often that I spend lot of time answering e-mails. Do know that I enjoy doing so. Here is a typical conversation with Mark Malina whose e-mails show up in my Inbox as being from Swamp Thing:

am: Hey Mark, How are things in the swamp??? Thanks for getting in touch; where do you live?
re:

MM: First, I want to say thanks.

am: You are most welcome.

MM: I only discovered your blog a few months ago by chance as I was undertaking an effort to get more serious about wildlife photography (and frankly
had thought little about bird photography specifically). In the last month, I have become increasingly hooked on your incredibly informative and fun posts.

am; Thank you for appreciating the blog 🙂 Like bird photography, the blog is one of the great passions in my life. I put a lot of effort into and get a lot out of it in terms of joy and happiness (not to mention appreciable income).

MM: Of course, seeing the beauty of your bird shots also made me want to take some myself.

am: Thank you kindly. That’s how it happens. Then you are hooked. I did not start photographing till I was 37 and it quickly became the overwhelming passion in my life.

MM: I also recently bought your and Arash’s DPP4 RAW Conversion Guide and will inevitably be purchasing others, which leads to the following question.

am: Thank you and good plan.

MM: Regarding the Art of Bird Photography II, it says on the site somewhere that it comes only as a CD. My current laptop doe not have a CD ROM drive and I don’t have a separate plug-in one. Do you also offer it simply as a downloadable pdf? If so, how do I indicate that when purchasing on-line?

am: Excellent questions. 🙂 You can get a downloadable version by clicking here.

MM: Third, virtually every time I open the blog page, I notice your ever-present statement about folks out of ignorance using the wrong tripod and head.

am: Yes sir. I try to make sure that that invitation is there every day. And yet zillions of folks are still out there using the wrong tripods and the wrong tripod heads with their expensive gear …

MM: I have been wanting to take you up on your offer in that post to answer questions on the topic for a long while but didn’t want to trouble you.

am: No trouble at all; it’s my job.

MM: Now that I am writing you for other reasons, I can ask about those two items. I have a nice older Gitzo carbon fiber tripod and a Gitzo ball head.

am: If I may be frank, ballheads are for landscape photography not for telephoto lenses. And while I have only seen a few of the Gitzo ballheads, they all had two things in common: they are poorly designed and difficult to work with.

MM: I love the tripod, not so much the head. Also, the tripod is a medium-weight model and I suspect you may tell me it’s not solid enough.

am: That plus all Gitzo tripods are all over-priced and under-performing. The leg locks anodize whenever they come within 100 yards of saltwater. Using a Gitzo tripod outside of your living room pretty much voids the lifetime guarantee … And when (not if) your tripod needs repair, you are screwed. Things were bad enough when the distributor handled the service but about three years ago the repair department got farmed out …

MM: I know you always reference the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod and the Mongoose M3.6. Are those pretty much a universal recommendation or is it more situation specific?

am: As for the tripod, it depends on your height. For most folks six foot or under the GIT 304L is pretty much one-size-fits-all; if it is right for you, please use only this link: Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod.

If you are about 6 foot tall and like a tall tripod or if you are taller than 6 foot or really tall, the slightly heavier GIT 404XL is best for you. Again, please use this link: Induro GIT404XL Grand Series 4 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod. In addition to being taller the 404XL is quite a bit sturdier (and heavier). That is why I use it with a Wimberley head for all of my LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjusting.

As for the Mongoose M3.6 I have been using mine for more than 12 years with all of my super-telephoto lenses, from both 400 DO lenses, to both 500 lenses, to both 600 lens (all of those often with both the 1.4X and 2X TCs) and even to the 800mm f/5.6L IS. And making consistently sharp images at shutter speeds down to 1/60 second (as long as the bird is still). In addition, it is great for my 100-400 II when I need to be on a tripod. I do still recommend the Wimberley for folks who want just a bit more stiffness in their heads and are using 600mm lenses.

We will are getting one perfect Mongoose m3.6 on Monday. Best to call Jim at 863-692-0906 to ensure getting that one. However, do consider this, we are also going to get a few heads with insignificant blemishes on the frame; they will work perfectly. You can save $50 by specifying that you would like a blemished model one (on phone orders only). I am copying Jim here to make him aware.

MM: Do you use or recommend the Mongoose with the side mount or do you add the Low Mount Arm?

am: I do NOT use or recommend the Low Mount Arm except for folks who cannot hold up their big lens with their left hand and arm for ten seconds while mounting it. And even in those cases I do not like the low mount as it screws up the balance with big glass. But it is is better to use the Low Mount Arm than dropping your lens while mounting it … That said, Denise Ippolito loves the Low Mount Arm with her 600mm f/4L IS II.

MM: I currently use nothing bigger than the original 100-400 but am working up to a purchase of a longer lens (probably the 400 DO II because I really want something I can walk around with easily as I spend a lot of time in the woods and on canoes and such). Any thoughts would be appreciated.

am: The 400 DO II is an amazing and wonderful lens; it is the world’s best super-telephoto for folks who do not like carrying around lenses that weigh more than 5 pounds. My beloved 500 II weighs just over 7 pounds, and the 600 II weighs 8.65 pounds. The great news is that most folks using the 400 DO II can easily learn to make sharp images with both teleconverters, even the 2X III. Many folks have problems when using the 2X III with either the 500mm or the 600mm f/4 lenses.

If you do go for the 400 DO II, please use my B&H affiliate link: it is the best way to thank me for the blog and for the time spent answering e-mails like yours. Web orders only and it will not cost you one penny more.

Here you go: Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM Lens.

Please shoot me your B&H receipt(s) via e-mail after you purchase.

thanks and later and love, artie

Great-Egret-sunset-SILH-A-_P3A3479-Fort-DeSoto-Park,-FL

Image #1: Great Egret sunset silhouette

As seen in the A Loverly Sunset and Making Hue/Saturation/Luminance Adjustments in DPP 4 and ACR (in Photoshop or Lightroom) blog post here, the images above and below were created at Fort DeSoto on the late afternoon of Friday, October 20 with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. There, I posted, Which of today’s two featured images is the strongest? Please let us know why you made your choice. I feel that one of the images is far stronger than the other … Stay tuned.

Great-Egret-sunset-SILH-B-_P3A3471-Fort-DeSoto-Park,-FL

Image #2: Great Egret sunset silhouette, looking back

Your Favorites

The first six folks who commented, Elinor Osborne, Jerry Fenwick, David Policansky, Barrett Pierce, Adam, and Jake Levin, were unanimous in choosing Image #1 as the stronger of the two images. Then Anthony Ardito posted this:

The first image is “classically” the better image, however I like #2, the the “looking back” image, as my favorite. Who knows why, it just appeals to me. Maybe I’ll try to explain … It’s more off center visually than the first because of the turned-back head, and the neck is very straight and parallel to the sides of the photograph. It’s just better for me. I don’t care about the crud in the water, in fact it kind of adds to the picture’s realism. Time out: after a few minutes I got my daughter to look to see which one she liked better, and she said the first. I asked why, and she said because the bird was in the path of the sun. Wow! am I an idiot? Why didn’t I see that first off!

My Clear Favorite

Don’t get me wrong, both of the featured images are very strong photographs, and I said in the original post, I did a much better job of cleaning up the foreground crud in the water in Image #1 than I did in Image #2. For me, the first is much too much of a clichĂ©. The second image, with the head turned back and looking out of the frame is my clear favorite mainly because it is different. But as I have said here before, different is not enough. So why else do I prefer Image #2? With apologies to Anthony’s daughter, I like that the bird is slightly offset from the swath of sunlit water. And I love the tension created by the bird looking back out of the frame. For me it brings in an aura of mystery, why is that bird looking over there?

So, am I right and the six folks in the Image #1 fan club wrong? Not at all. As I said both are strong images and artistic preferences are strictly personal. Here, I am just sharing my thoughts.

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.

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 :).

October 27th, 2017 | Category: 2017 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
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