What’s Up?
I will be without internet access from 8 AUG through late in the day on 22 AUG. There will be a brand new educational blog post every day in my absence. I toiled long and hard on August 6th and 7th to make that happen 🙂
Please call the office at 863-692-0906 on weekdays and speak to Jim and Jennifer about all things BAA Online Store- and IPT-related. And anything else that you might need help with or would like to chat about.
Please continue to patronize the BAA Online Store and to use my B&H affiliate links. Both are hugely appreciated.
with much love, artie
The Streak
Today marks twenty-four days in a row with a new educational blog post. This blog post took about two hours to create.
Booking.Com
I could not secure the lodging that I needed for the 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.
Revamped
I finally updated the IPT page to properly reflect the recently completed trips. If you doubt that I am really slowing down do click here to see the meager IPT schedule. Right now there are only two US-based IPTs on the schedule. Best news is that I turned up the missing registrant for the Fort DeSoto IPT so that will run. Do consider joining us if you would like to learn from the best.
Photographers Wanted
If you would like to learn to be a better bird photographer, consider joining me on either the Fort DeSoto IPT in late September or the San Diego IPT in January, 2018. With just one person signed up, DeSoto will offer practically private instruction. And you can tack on the In-the-Field/Meet-up Workshop Session on the morning of Tuesday September 26, 2017 for free. Click here for IPT info and the current but abbreviated schedule.
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.
Please Don’t Forget …
As always–and folks have been doing a really great job for a long time now–please remember to use the BAA B&H links for your major and minor gear purchases. For best results, use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
|
|
This in-camera Art Vivid HDR image (Dynamic range: +/- 2 stops) was created on the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 312m) and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop around a base exposure of 1/400 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. WB = K 4,500. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: +1. Center AF Point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click on the image to see a larger version Black-legged Kittiwakes nesting on wall of the ruins of historic Fort Dunbar (at the harbor entrance) |
The Problems with in-camera Art Vivid JPEGs
As stated here previously, when viewed large, the image quality of in-camera HDR JPEGs will always be poorer than the image quality of a sharp RAW file. That as a result of how the image is put together in-camera. There will always be some color fringing and if anything is moving, there will be signs of mis-alignment. So why do I continue to create in-camera HDR images? When using Art Vivid, especially with the WB lowered to tone down the colors a bit, the impact of HDR Art Vivid captures can be quite dramatic. Why? Because of the vivid colors (even when toned down).
If you enlarge the full sized JPEG for today’s featured image to 100%, you will see lots of color fringing and lots of mis-alignment with both the birds and the bricks.
Mistakes Times Two!
I made lots of images of this wall this year. Many of them were made on the tripod with the Mongoose. Mistake #1 was made during the creation of this image: the Auto Align feature was turned off. When hand holding, this is a big mistake.
Mistakes #s 2and 3 were made during the final edit. After the first two edits I had saved about 8 similar images. At least a few of those were RAW files. (I set up my in-camera HDRs to Save all files not just the final JPEGs). During the final edit I deleted all of the images in this series but for the one you see above. I did not enlarge the JPEG that looked best. As it was obviously one that was made hand held, saving that one was a mistake. And not saving at least one RAW file was another big mistake. I could have juiced up the color a bit and added some grunge and wound up with a much higher quality image.
The Good News
It is likely that I have the eight or so images that I saved on a back-up disk that is not back in ILE.
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. 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.
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 :).
