Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Season’s Greetings

Jim and Jennifer and I send our best wishes to you and yours for a wonderful holiday season filled with love, sharing, and some quality photography. Have a great 2019 filled with the same, good health, and lots of nachas.

Nachas: a Yiddish word meaning that you are happy and proud, especially of someone’s accomplishments.

Note: season’s greetings with a possessive apostrophe after the n in seasons is correct. I had to re-do the image by adding the apostrophe after the fact.

This image was created on the last evening of the DeSoto IPT in the parking lot of our Airbnb condo. I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens and the rugged, blazingly fast Nikon D5. AUTO ISO at 4500. Matrix metering -1 stop: 1/13 sec. at f/5.6 in S Mode (Shutter Priority — Tv mode in Canon). Auto 1 WB at 9.00pm on a very dark night. 🙂 Center Group (grp) AF/Shutter button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click on the image enjoy a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: -1. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Season’s Greetings Jiggle Blur

Season’s Greetings Jiggle Blur

Thanks to Denise Ippolito for teaching me to create jiggle blurs many years ago. I taught her a few things in return over the years. We collaborated on a great guide to creating pleasing blurs. See that below.

Exposure

Why -1 stop? To keep from grossly over-exposing the colored bulbs. This is, however, another case of burning the red channel to keep everything else from going muddy. Th

Learn the secrets of creating contest winning images in our “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs.”

A Guide to Pleasing Blurs

In our A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly, we discuss just about every technique ever used mankind to create pleasingly blurred image. Ninety-nine point nine percent of pleasing blurs are not happy accidents. You can learn pretty much everything that there is to know about creating them in this instructive, well written, easy to follow guide.

Stuff

I will be away for almost a month while leading the 2018/2019 Falklands land-based IPT. I should be back in the office (and back in the pool) on the afternoon of Monday, January 14, 2019. Happy new year! I should have good internet access until Friday December 21 and then again on the weekend of January 12/13. I will surely not be online from December 23-27 and then again from January 4-7. I may or may not have limited internet access at other times.

Jim and Jen will be in the office weekdays to help you with your online orders and with IPT registrations.

I was thrilled recently to learn that first-timer Shonagh Adelman of Chattanooga, TN signed up for the 2019 Puffins and Gannets and Red Kites IPT. As he is the first registrant, we need three more for the trip to go. I am counting on it and hope for a sellout with ten plus the two leaders; there are lots of puffins and gannets. 🙂

I still need three or four folks for the Galapagos trip. If you would like to explore the possibilities, please get in touch via e-mail. No reasonable offer will be turned down.

• 2019 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) SUN JAN 20, 2019 thru and including the morning session on THURS JAN 24: 4 1/2 days: $2099. (Limit: 10/Openings: 4) Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins: THURS, 6 DEC.
• The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 2.
• The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers/Openings: 9. This trip needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
• The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The iPhone Photography e-Guide If you missed the long-awaited announcement yesterday, click here to learn about Cliff Oliver’s great new iPhone e-Guide. To order your copy of the The iPhone Photography e-Guide, please click here. The PDF is sent link by e-mail for downloading: the file is relatively huge at 216 MB.

The 2018 B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest!

Thanks to the generosity of the great folks at B&H, I am proud to announce the first-ever B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest. The rules are simple:

1-Anyone can enter one or two of their favorite avian images that were created in 2018. As below, each image must be sent in a separate e-mail.
2-Image clean-up and repair is permitted.
3-Send you JPEGs in two separate e-mails only by clicking on this link: Contest Entry e-mail.
4-Please size your properly sharpened JPEGs as follows: 1200 high or wide less than 600 kb.
5-If you do not follow the instructions above to the letter your images will not be judged and you will not receive any notification.
6-There is one judge and you can guess who it is.
7-Here are the five prizes:

1st place: a $100 B&H gift certificate
2nd through 4th place: a $50 B&H gift certificate

All prizes will be awarded.

8- Entries my be submitted from now until January 16, 2019. Happy New Year! Please remember to do your holiday shopping at B&H using a BAA affiliate link or by clicking here or on any of the B&H banners in this blog post; many offer great holiday savings.

Good luck.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog 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 went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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.

Great Bosque News

Phil Norton was the single greatest wildlife refuge manager in the system. Ever. Bar none. He managed for the birds, for the tourists, and for the serious photographers and did a bang-up job on all counts. He started the Festival of the Cranes a long time ago. Now there are several birding festivals on most every weekend of the year. Phil began an incredibly successful volunteer program that served as a model for many NWRs around the country. Many years ago I tried to get NANPA to honor Phil, but as with most thing Arthur Morris that was a no-go. Phil left Bosque too long ago and they re-assigned him somewhere up in the Northwest. When he retired, he moved back to San Antonio, New Mexico to be near the place that he loved. Today he helps proprietor Phoebe Wood run a great B& B near the refuge. You can learn more about Casa Blanca or find out about making reservations by clicking here.

I was very happy to receive an e-mail from Phil the other day that included this:

Things at the refuge look good. Lots of birds and lots of food. The refuge took over the farming program and actually did a good job. They extended the tour road at the north end into the farm unit. We have had a lot of guests that are serious photographers and nobody has complained.

This is one case where I do not mind saying that my recent comments have been in error. I will be running a Bosque IPT or two next year.

The School of Art: Learn How to Make Great Art with 40 Simple Lessons by Teal Triggs

This book is a great holiday gift

Though written for youngsters, this amazing book that is NOT just for kids; it will help you grow as a photographer by leaps and bounds. Each “lesson” is titled with a question. Just about every artistic principle is covered simply but in detail. Here are some of the questions:

• Why are ideas important in art and design?
• Lesson 6: How does ‘tone’ show us that something is 3D?
• Lesson 9: How do we show ‘direction’?
• Lesson 13: How does ‘contrast’ work to make colors brighter?
• Lesson 19: What does ‘composition’ mean in art?
• Lesson 20: How does ‘perspective’ work?
• Lesson 25: What do we mean when we talk about ‘balance’ in art?
• Lesson 29: How does ‘hierarchy’ affect what you look at?
• Lesson 32: What is ‘rhythm’ in art?
• Lesson 34: How can we think visually?
• Lesson 38: How can we communicate with an audience when we are not there?
• Lesson 39: What is ‘experimentation’ and how does it help us to make art?
• Lesson 40: What do we mean by ‘aesthetics’?

What can I say? I just love this book. What I love most is that it explained principles that I know (but have been unable to get across to others easily) in simple and understandable terms.

To order, click here or on the logo-link above.

The Edge of Innovation Podcast

Episode 76 — The Business of Birding: How to Make Money as a Bird Photographer (with Arthur Morris)

To listen, click on the logo-link above. To read the interview click here.

Apologies (yet again) for being late in publicizing Part III. I enjoyed listening to this one as much as I enjoyed the first two. Thanks again to IPT veteran Paul Parisi of Savior Labs who skillfully conducted the podcast interview; he is blessed with a great voice. The whole thing is less than 20 minutes; many of you might enjoy it. Here is what we talk about:

• Photography’s Decline as a Lucrative Business
• Switching From Film To Digital
• Selling Photography Guides: Digital Basics
• Birds as Art: E-Guides
• Birding Guides For Specific Areas
• Are you Having Fun?
• Advice From Arthur Morris For Young Photographers
• Do What You Love
• Don’t Just Take Pictures, Write Too!
• Blogs Generate Income

From left to to right clockwise back to the center: Brown Pelican, Roseate Spoonbill downstroke, Brown Pelican sunrise silhouette, Double-crested Cormorant pre-dawn blur, Roseate Spoonbill flapping after bath, Brown Pelican taking flight, Roseate Spoonbill taking flight, Reddish Egret white morph breeding plumage in flight, and Reddish Egret dark morph breeding plumage in flight. All images on this card were created by me on the Hooptie Deux at Alafia Banks on the February 2018 trip. You can click on each card to enjoy a larger version.

2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 3.

3 1/2 days on the boat including four morning photo sessions and three afternoon sessions via customized pontoon boat.

Price per day Reduced from the 2018 rates! Please e-mail for details on IPT veteran and couples’ discounts. Pro-rated options may be available …

We will be leaving the dock very early for the morning sessions (weather permitting) in hopes of photographing the pre-dawn American Crow and White Ibis blast-offs. All sessions are planned for the Alafia Banks Roseate Spoonbill Rookery. We might consider other options in the unlikely event of horrific weather. There will be lots of opportunities for flight photography of several species including and especially Roseate Spoonbill. Also likely for flight photography are nesting Brown Pelican, both morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, White and Glossy Ibises, and Double Crested Cormorant. We should have some good chances with birds carrying nesting material. This IPT includes all boat and guide fees, in the field instruction, chest waders (feel free to bring your own of course to assure a perfect fit), and three working lunches on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. For the most part we will be standing in mid-calf to knee high water behind our tripods. We help you get in and out of the boat with your gear. This is likely not the best trip for folks with mobility or balance problems. Note however that some folks opt to stay on the boat to photograph. They usually have lots of chances for flight photography of spoonbills and other species but are almost always pretty far away from the spoonbills that land.

All images on this card were created by me on the Hooptie Deux at Alafia Banks

The Timing and Tides are Perfect!

I recently saw a similar trip advertised two months too late for breeding plumage spoonbills … The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT represents an incredible opportunity to photograph Florida’s most wanted species. I do hope that you can join us. There will be a meet and greet at 7:00pm sharp on the evening of Friday February 15, 2019. All of the images on the card were made on the Hooptie Duex during the last two weeks of February, prime time for the spoonies in mega-breeding plumage. Many folks have written expressing interest so please do not tarry.

Please e-mail to hold your spot. Then you may either secure your spot by calling Jim or Jennifer at the office at 863-692-0906 and leaving the $500 deposit on credit card or sending your check for payment in full to us as follows with the check made out to:

BIRDS AS ART and sent here via US mail:

BIRDS AS ART
PO BOX 7245
Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855

If you call to leave your deposit you will be asked to mail your check for the balance no later than December 15, 2018.

Images courtesy of our guide; copyright 2017 Captain James Shadle (aka Froggie). All of the images here were created at Alafia Banks. Card creation and design by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART.

Everybody Loves Spoonbills!

Roseate Spoonbill is one of if not the most sought after avian photographic subjects in Florida. They are generally hard to find and somewhat difficult to approach. They are relatively easy to find at Alafia Banks—heck, you can’t miss seeing them, but even there they can on some days be somewhat difficult to approach. On some days we may be able to get ridiculously close to them. The huge incentive to get out to Alafia Banks in mid-February is the chance to photograph this species at the height of its spectacular breeding plumage…. with long telephoto lenses. A 500 or 600 with a 1.4X TC is perfect for this trip.

Mornings to Alafia Banks for spoonbills and Brown Pelicans (with lots of flight photography often with the birds likely carrying nesting material), Double-crested Cormorants, ibises (both Glossy and White) in breeding plumage. Some of the White Ibises may be sporting their spectacular, distended, red, naked (un-feathered) throat pouches—typically larger in the females. In addition we may get to photograph egrets including Great and Reddish, both in full breeding plumage, shorebirds, and more. There will be lots of flight photography opportunities. Afternoon trips will most likely be back to Alafia Banks for the spoonbills with an option to visit a more sheltered inland rookery location for a variety of nesting birds. In the event of horrific weather artie will either take the group to Fort DeSoto or will conduct an extensive image review/Photoshop session. This IPT includes lunches on the full days with small group image sharing and review and some over-the-shoulder Photoshop instruction.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my 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 :).

Stuff

The pool was down to a chilly 73 degrees on Wednesday afternoon. I did take a swim in the morning on what is get-away day for Steve Rentmeesters and me. Steve arrived on Monday afternoon and we enjoyed some excellent close-up Sandhill crane photography on Tuesday and Wednesday morning and on Tuesday afternoon as well. I’ve been doing my usual 50 lengths every day — a bit more than half a mile. I am in car headed to Orlando Airport as I type. Amazingly, I am all packed. We fly from MCO to MIA this afternoon to catch a red-eye flight to Santiago, Chile this evening. On Saturday, weather permitting, are planning on making it to Stanley in the Falklands and then continue on the little yellow FIGAS (Falkland Islands Government Air Service) plane to The Neck on Saunders Island. Hello penguin and albatross heaven!

I was thrilled the other day to learn that first-timer Shonagh Adelman of Chattanooga, TN signed up for the 2019 Puffins and Gannets and Red Kites IPT. As he is the first registrant, we need three more for the trip to go. I am counting on it and hope for a sellout with ten plus the two leaders; there are lots of puffins and gannets. 🙂 . Scroll down for the details if you would like to join us.

I still need three or four folks for the Galapagos trip. If you would like to explore the possibilities, please get in touch via e-mail. No reasonable offer will be turned down.

BIRDS AS ART B&H Essential Gear Bags

BIRDS AS ART B&H Essential Gear Bags

Click here or on the logo-link above to check out some great B&H year-end deals in the category that best suits you and your photography.

The iPhone Photography e-Guide If you missed the long-awaited announcement yesterday, click here to learn about Cliff Oliver’s great new iPhone e-Guide. To order your copy of the The iPhone Photography e-Guide, please click here. The PDF is sent link by e-mail for downloading: the file is relatively huge at 216 MB.

Amazingly …

BPN Avian Moderator Isaac Grant after staunchly defending Canon AF for months finally saw the light and switched to Nikon His reason: the superior image quality of D850 images files. Wait till he tries the AF for flight photography.

BAA IPTs

• Falklands Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019/Two Weeks: Sold out.
• 2019 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) SUN JAN 20, 2019 thru and including the morning session on THURS JAN 24: 4 1/2 days: $2099. (Limit: 10/Openings: 4) Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins: THURS, 6 DEC.
• The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 2.
• The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers/Openings: 9. This trip needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
• The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog 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 went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Lens (the “old five”) with extras

Judy Helderman is offering a Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM lens in very good condition for $2,799.00. The lens is in decent shape and in perfect operating condition and the glass is perfect. The lens mount shows no signs of wear. There are, however, some paint chips on the white finish. Photos are available upon request. An Arca-Swiss compatible low foot is installed. The sale includes the lens trunk, rear lens cap, the leather front cover, a Wimberley P-40 lens plate, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Judy via email e-mail or by phone at 1-623-322-9425 (Mountain Time).

The 500mm f/4 lenses have been the world’s most popular telephoto lenses for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports for many decades. I owned and used and loved my “old five” for many years. If you don’t have the cash for a 500 II and can handle the additional 1 1/2 pounds, then this is your best super-telephoto option. Most everyone can produce sharp images with this lens and a 1.4X TC. Folks with good to excellent sharpness techniques can do the same with a 2X TC. With the new 500 II selling for $8,999 you can save an incredible $6200.00 by grabbing Judy’s lens at this great low price. artie

Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM lens (the original IS version)

Judy Helderman is also offering a Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM lens (the original IS version) lens in near-mint condition for the BAA record-low price of $799.00. The sale includes the tough fabric lens case (with strap), the tripod collar, a Wimberley P-20 lens plate, the product box, the rear cap, the hood, the lens cap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Judy via email e-mail or by phone at 1-623-322-9425 (Mountain Time).

I owned and used this very lens, the original IS version of the incredibly versatile 70-200 f/2.8 for birds and wildlife and landscapes and Urbex for many years with both teleconverters. When I upgraded to version II, I did not notice any improvements … They were both great indoors for events like granddaughter Maya’s dance recitals. A new copy of the 70-200 II currently sells for $$2,099.00 so you can save a small fortune by grabbing Judy’s lens now. artie

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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 2018 B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest!

Thanks to the generosity of the great folks at B&H, I am proud to announce the first-ever B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest. The rules are simple:

1-Anyone can enter one or two of their favorite avian images that were created in 2018. As below, each image must be sent in a separate e-mail.
2-Image clean-up and repair is permitted.
3-Send you JPEGs in two separate e-mails only by clicking on this link: Contest Entry e-mail.
4-Please size your properly sharpened JPEGs as follows: 1200 high or wide less than 600 kb.
5-If you do not follow the instructions above to the letter your images will not be judged and you will not receive any notification.
6-There is one judge and you can guess who it is.
7-Here are the five prizes:

1st place: a $100 B&H gift certificate
2nd through 4th place: a $50 B&H gift certificate

All prizes will be awarded.

8- Entries my be submitted from now until January 16, 2019. Happy New Year! Please remember to do your holiday shopping at B&H using a BAA affiliate link or by clicking here or on any of the B&H banners in this blog post; many offer great holiday savings.

Good luck.

I am headed for albatross and penguin heaven.

Falkland Islands Land-based IPT Gear Bag

I thought long and hard about leaving the 600 VR at home, but eventually decided to bring it. I am fairly sure that I will not be using it a lot. The advantages of traveling with the 500 PF VR and the 80-400 VR are many …

In any case …

I am pretty sure that I will use the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens more than any of the other lenses that I am taking, perhaps more than all the others combined. That despite the fact that it is one stop slower than the 600mm f/4 VR. As the 500 PF is smaller and lighter it is — as I have been mentioning here the last week or so — easier to hand hold and it is far more transportable and manageable in the field. It is a lot easier to get close to birds when hand holding as compared to being on a big tripod … This lens will kill for flight and I will not hesitate to add either the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III or the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II. Most work with the TC-Es will be off the tripod.

As I was considering whether or not to leave the big gun at home I thought of more than a few instances where the speed and reach of the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens would be a huge plus making it worth the hassle of dragging it around during our shooting sessions. For more reach I can add either the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III or the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II.

The Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens will be quite useful on this trip for scenics, bird-scapes, close work, and lots more. In the event of a 500 PF disaster, the 80-400 could serve as a decent back-up.

The Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR lens is the rough equivalent of the don’t-leave-home-without-it/B-roll do everything lens, the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens. Fact: the Nikon version is a lot sharper. I will use the 24-120 for bird- and photographer-scapes, scenics, and some close-ups.

I will be taking two Nikon D850s, one with the vertical battery grip, one without. I love my two D-850s as much as I loved my Canon 5D Mark IV bodies. My main D-850, the one with the grip, is AF Fine-tuned with both TCs with my #1 TC-E-14 and with the TC-E17 as well.

As careful readers have probably noticed, I began using my Nikon D5 DSLR a lot more on the recently concluded DeSoto IPT. And liking it and the images it produced. I am taking it for flight and as a back-up.

Why Three Camera Bodies?

Most of the time I will be running two camera bodies on our outings. Digital cameras do fail on rare occasion and accidents do happen. There are no camera stores on the Falklands …

I am taking two Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E IIIs. One is Fine-tuned for the 600 VR, the other for the 80-400 VR and the 500 PF VR. I will try not to drop either in the ocean (as I have done before …)

I am also taking the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II. I can use it either with the 600 VR or the 500 PF when I leave the 600 back at the ranch.

In my checked bag I have the Induro GIT 204 and my Mongoose M3.6. I went with the lighter tripod primarily to lessen the load down to the beach at the Neck. As noted here previously, I have made sharp images off the GIT 204 with the 600 VR and the TC-E14. It is the perfect tripod for folks with intermediate telephotos and those using big glass who have excellent sharpness techniques.

I have been using the Mongoose for all of my super- and intermediate telephoto lens photography for forever, for everything from 70-200mm to 100-400 II to 500 to 600 to 800mm. It is simply the best. I did not bring a ballhead on this trip; everything done with the 24-105 will be hand held.

On my right foot, a nice, thick hiking sock showing the MEC bootie. My feet get warm just thinking about them. On my left foot is a Neos Navigator in XL. You can unfold the stuff at the top to get knee-highs. The Navigators are guaranteed 100% waterproof and are wonderfully insulated.

Cold Weather Footwear — Insanity for some, perfect for me.

As promised. For about six months I had had some pain on the outside edge of my right foot at the fifth metatarsal head. The pain got worse when I wore sneakers or boots. It was really bad right before the Emperor Penguin expedition. Once I got on the ship, I wore only the MEC Get Down Booties (unisex) that I wear around the house whenever my feet are cold (as they often are …) My foot got better quickly. As I had a pair of NEOS Navigators on the trip, I put them on over the booties when I headed out on deck to try some flight photography from the ship. As I normally wear them over hiking boots, they were a bit too large. But my feet were warm and the pain continued to abate. I was not at all looking forward to wearing the very warm NEC boots that I thought would be my mainstay for the nearly four miles of walking on snow and ice that we would be doing every day to get to the emperors; they simply were not wide enough.

My solution? I wore the Navigators over the MEC booties. I was comfortable and pain free and my feet were warm. Over the years I had tried just about every supposedly warm boot known to mankind. Without success, some rated down to -140 degrees F!. But on the cold mornings at Bosque, my feet always felt like blocks of ice. They had never been warm in a cold place before. For the Falklands trip I grabbed a pair of XL Neos Navigators as the XXLs that I wore were a too-large and sloppy fit over the booties.

You can order the MEC booties only from here and the Neos Navigators from the BAA Online Store here.

Think Tank Stuff

I left the house with the larger of my two Think Tank Rolling Bags, the AIRPORT SECURITY™ V3.0. With the 80-400 and one of my two D850s packed in my checked bags, the roller tipped the scales at 36 1/2 pounds — yes, wish me luck on no theft …. Also in one of my checked bags is the Think Tank GLASS LIMO™. It will let me carry the 600 VR and a camera body (un-mounted) comfortably on my back on the longer walks.

To receive a free gift when ordering Think Tank products, be sure to click here or on the logo link on the right side of each blog post page. Much appreciated. The rollers can be found under the Rolling Cases/Airport Series Rollers tab; when I am traveling light I go with the slightly smaller AIRPORT INTERNATIONAL™ V3.0. The GLASS LIMO™ is located under the Backpacks/Long Glass Backpacks tabs.

Any and all gear questions are welcome.

Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. All of the images on this card were created on the 2018 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT

The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers. Co-leader: Peter Kes.

Join me in the UK in late June and early July 2019 to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet, Red Kite, and more both in flight and at close range. We will also have great chances with Arctic and Sandwich Terns, both with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many of those chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks; plus Grey Seal. There will be tons of great flight photography. As on all IPTs, if you pay attention, you will learn a ton, especially about sky conditions and the relationship between light angle and wind direction and their effects on flight photography.

Why go all the way to Machias Seal Island off the coast of Maine, endure a two-hour boat ride, and have to photograph Atlantic Puffins from a cramped blind usually in bright sun (and well off sun angle) when you can hop a red-eye flight from Newark, NJ and be in Edinburgh, Scotland early the next morning. First we drive down to Bridlington for easy access to Bempton Cliffs where our primary targets will be Northern Gannet in flight. We will also get to photograph Razorbill, Northern Fulmar, Herring Gull, and Black-legged Kittiwake. While in Bridlington we will spend one afternoon visiting a Red Kite feeding station that should provide lots of flight photography action.

While in Bridlington we will staying at the Lobster Pot by Marston’s Inn, just fifteen minutes from Bempton Cliffs. After 3 1/2 days of photography at there, we drive down to Seahouses in Northumberland to the two lodges that will be our home base for a week. After a short boat ride each day we will have hundreds of puffins posing at close range all day, every day — usually in ideal cloudy-bright conditions. While we are in Seahouses we will do six puffin/seabird trips, all weather permitting of course; last year we did not miss a single landing. In five years we have averaged losing less than one half day per year to bad weather. We land at Staple Island in the mornings and then sail over to Inner Farnes for our afternoon sessions. In addition, we may enjoy a session or two photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level from a rocky beach in Seahouses.

In Seahouses, we stay 7 nights in gorgeous, modern, upscale lodges with Wi-fi. They are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The bedrooms are decent-sized. Each lodge has one double bedroom and two twin bedrooms. (See the single supplement info below.) At the lodges we cook our own breakfasts each morning and prepare our own lunches to be brought on the six puffin boat trips. For dinners we will alternate cooking in the lodges with fine dining at several excellent local restaurants. We stay two nights at the Marston’s Inn in Dunbar. We will enjoy a fine-dining Thank You dinner at the Dunbar Hotel on the Tuesday evening before we fly home.

On the morning of Monday, July 8, 2019, the plan is to sleep late, pack, and head up to Dunbar Harbor, Scotland for lunch and an afternoon gannet boat chumming trip: flight photography until you cannot lift your camera. The next morning, Tuesday July 9, we will enjoy our second gannet boat chumming trip (both weather permitting). On both trips we will enjoy great views of the huge gannetry at Bass Rock. Included will be two nights lodging at the Pine Martin by Marston’s Inn in Dunbar. Very early on the morning of Wednesday, July 10, we will drive up to Edinburgh Airport so that everyone can make their flights home. No moaning please. You will need a flight that leaves at 8:30am or later. Not too much later is generally best. Note: this trip needs a minimum of four photographers to run.

Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. All images were created on the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT

The Details

This IPT is all-inclusive except for your airfare and alcoholic beverages. All ground transportation, lodging costs, meals, your National Trust membership, and all boat, entry, and landing fees are included. Weather permitting, we will enjoy three and one-half days (at least six sessions in all) at Bempton Cliffs, an afternoon with the Red Kites, six full days on the puffin boats, one amazing afternoon gannet chumming trip, and one spectacular morning gannet chumming trip. The trip cannot be finalized until I have at least six deposits as we will be renting a lovely 15-passenger bus with our private professional driver who happens to be my web-master, Peter Kes, who is also a skilled photographer and my co-leader 🙂

IPT Details

If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome, heck, we actually need two couples — please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on February 28, 2019. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855.

Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.

Single Supplement Info

Single supplement rooms in Bridlington and Dunbar are available for those who register early. The cost of the single supplement for those six nights is $600.00. Single supplement rooms at the lodge may be available on a limited basis but only if the trip does not fill with ten photographers. The single supplement fee for those seven nights is $700. If you would like your own room in Bridlington and Dunbar, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement with your deposit: $2,600.00. The single supplement deposits are non-refundable as I will need to make the reservations well in advance.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check or running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance, be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.

I truly hope that you can join me on this exciting venture.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my 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 :).

Stuff

The pool was up to a balmy 79 degrees on Saturday afternoon and I am up to 50 lengths, a bit more than half a mile. I am in the early stages of thinking about the big Falklands Ground-based IPT. I fly from Orlando to MIA o Wednesday afternoon and catch a red-eye flight to Santiago, Chile that evening. On Saturday, weather permitting, are planning on making it to Stanley in the Falklands and then continue on the little yellow FIGAS (Falkland Islands Government Air Service) plane to The Neck on Saunders Island

I was thrilled the other day to learn that first-timer Shonagh Adelman of Chattanooga, TN signed up for the 2019 Puffins and Gannets and Red Kites IPT. As he is the first registrant, we need three more for the trip to go. I am counting on it and hope for a sellout with ten plus the two leaders; there are lots of puffins and gannets. 🙂 . Scroll down for the details if you would like to join us.

I still need three or four folks for the Galapagos trip. If you would like to explore the possibilities, please get in touch via e-mail or give me a call on my cell before next Wednesday (19 DEC) at 863-221-2372.

Bosque

If you have any interest past or present in Bosque del Apache NWR, you can learn a lot by reading the comments in the blog post here and the BPN post here.

I was horrified (not really) to learn that the 10-year policy of actively managing the refuge against nature photographers continues with the closing of Harry’s Crane Pool (the north one) to create more “non-wetlands” habitat. The two crane pools have been the only consistently decent spot left on the refuge. Now there is only one very crowded one 🙂

Big Mistake …

I priced my infrared Canon EOS-5D Mark II much too low at $299.00; I had six folks ready to buy it in five minutes. 🙁

BAA IPTs

• The 2018 Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT/Thursday December 7 through the morning session on Monday December 10, 2018: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 5.
• Falklands Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019/Two Weeks: Sold out.
• 2019 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) SUN JAN 20, 2019 thru and including the morning session on THURS JAN 24: 4 1/2 days: $2099. (Limit: 10/Openings: 4) Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins: THURS, 6 DEC.
• The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 2.
• The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers/Openings: 9. This trip needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
• The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The iPhone Photography e-Guide If you missed the long-awaited announcement yesterday, click here to learn about Cliff Oliver’s great new iPhone e-Guide. To order your copy of the The iPhone Photography e-Guide, please click here. The PDF is sent link by e-mail for downloading: the file is relatively huge at 216 MB.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog 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 went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Bargain Basement House-cleaning Garage Gear Sale

Custom Brackets CB Gimbal for all long telephoto lenses

Sold in two hours!

I am offering a brand new, never used Custom Brackets CB Gimbal for all long telephoto lenses at the ridiculous low price of $199.00. The sale includes the head and insured ground shipping via UPS Ground. I will throw in the Custom Brackets GFM flash brackets as well. Your item will not ship until your check clears.

Please contact me via e-mail or on my cell at 863-221-2372 (before next Wednesday, 19 DEC).

This large, heavy duty unit sells for $579.95 new. It is suitable for all large, heavy super-telephoto lenses. artie

FEISOL Elite Tripod CT-3372LV

Sold in four hours!

I am offering a brand new, never used heavy duty FEISOL Elite Tripod CT-3372LV, also for the ridiculous low price of $199.00. The sale includes the tripod with spiked feet (no tool kit) and insured ground shipping via UPS Ground. You can purchase rubber feet off the Feisol website here. You will also need to come up with the right-sized allen wrench to tighten the bolts on one of the legs (unless Jim finds the tool kit on Monday …) Your item will not ship until your check clears.

Please contact me via e-mail or on my cell at 863-221-2372 (before next Wednesday, 19 DEC).

This large, heavy duty has been replaced by a newer model that sells new for $699.95. This item too is suitable for large, heavy super-telephoto lenses. If you are looking for a heavy, super-sturdy tripod you can save some serious dollars by grabbing this on asap. artie

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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 2018 B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest!

Thanks to the generosity of the great folks at B&H, I am proud to announce the first-ever B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest. The rules are simple:

1-Anyone can enter one or two of their favorite avian images that were created in 2018. As below, each image must be sent in a separate e-mail.
2-Image clean-up and repair is permitted.
3-Send you JPEGs in two separate e-mails only by clicking on this link: Contest Entry e-mail.
4-Please size your properly sharpened JPEGs as follows: 1200 high or wide less than 600 kb.
5-If you do not follow the instructions above to the letter your images will not be judged and you will not receive any notification.
6-There is one judge and you can guess who it is.
7-Here are the five prizes:

1st place: a $100 B&H gift certificate
2nd through 4th place: a $50 B&H gift certificate

All prizes will be awarded.

8- Entries my be submitted from now until January 16, 2019. Happy New Year! Please remember to do your holiday shopping at B&H using a BAA affiliate link or by clicking here or on any of the B&H banners in this blog post; many offer great holiday savings.

Good luck.

This image was created on Day 2 of the Early Winter DeSoto IPT by first timer Narayanan Mangalath from Houston, TX. He used the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens, a Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the Canon EOS-1D X that he purchased off the BAA Used Gear Page (thank you very much). ISO 1000. Evaluative metering plus about 1/3 stop: 1/2500 sec. at f/8 in Manual Mode. AWB on a sunny morning. Center/Expand/AI Servo AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the center of the leading edge of the far wing. Click on the image to see a larger version that reveals the shiny green fly in the bird’s bill. Image #1: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher approaching wispy perch Image courtesy of and copyright 2018: Narayanan Mangalath. Image optimization by the teacher, aka yours truly.

The Situation

I was excited to locate and identify the scissor-tailed on the first morning of the IPT. We tried stalking the bird but it was quite skittish; we wound up only with distant photos. By the second day the bird was becoming more accepting of our presence. And we learned (as is sometimes the case) that we would do better overall if one person approached the bird at a time. In addition, the bird had several favored perches. To make today’s featured image, Narayanan set up on one of those perches and waited for the bird to fly to him.

This is the same image with the wispy perch completely removed in Photoshop. Image optimization by the teacher, aka yours truly. Click on the image to see a larger version that reveals the shiny green fly in the bird’s bill. Image #2: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher with wispy perch removed in Photoshop Image courtesy of and copyright 2018: Narayanan Mangalath

Removing Elements That Cover the Subject …

Removing elements that merge with or cover a subject is something that few folks try and many think is impossible to do well. When I suggested to Narayanan that I might be able to completely remove the wispy perch from the the image he jumped at the chance to watch me do the work. 🙂 So I did. I used a variety of techniques to remove the parts of the perch that were set against the sky — that was the easy part of the task. I used the Divide and Conquer techniques detailed in Digital Basics II where I first cut up the perch into manageable sections using the Clone Stamp Tool and then eliminate them with either the Patch Tool or Content Aware Fill. That left me with the in-progress version below.

Your Favorite?

Which of the two images above do you like best, Image #1 with the wispy perch, or Image #2 without the wispy perch. Please let us know why. Before I created Image #2 I was sure that I would like the cleaned up version better. Now, even though I did a pretty damned good job, I am not so sure …

This is a crop of the same image with the most of the wispy perch removed from the sky. But as you can see, there was still a lot of work to do … Note that the more you crop the more that image quality and fine feather detail (FFD) degrades. Image #2: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher with most of the wispy perch removed in Photoshop Image courtesy of and copyright 2018: Narayanan Mangalath Image optimization by the teacher, aka yours truly

The More Difficult Part

One of the keys to completely removing the twigs that overlap the subject is to work very large and very slowly with great care. To complete the repairs I used the Divide and Conquer technique often, the Clone Stamp Tool, the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, and Content Aware Fill. As I said to Narayanan, the use of all the tools and techniques that I use on images like this are detailed in Digital Basics II (aka The BAA Current Workflow e-Guide), but in order to master the techniques you need to study them, practice them often, think a bit creatively, and sometimes try or invent new stuff using the same tools and techniques. Several times with this optimization I experimented by using Content Aware Fill on a rather large area and each time I was amazed by the excellent results …

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II). You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a Paypal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand.

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

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

The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II): Note: all of the videos are now priced at an amazingly low $5.00 each.

• 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.

Though I have become more proficient converting my Nikon RAW (NEF) files in Adobe Camera Raw, I continue to optimize my old Canon images in DPP 4. You can learn how and why I converted (and still convert) nearly all of my Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide here. And, yes, I still have many Canon images to work on. 🙂 The RAW conversions for all three of today’s featured images was straightforward once I entered my camera/ISO specific recipes (as detailed in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide). 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.

Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. All of the images on this card were created on the 2018 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT

The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers. Co-leader: Peter Kes.

Join me in the UK in late June and early July 2019 to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet, Red Kite, and more both in flight and at close range. We will also have great chances with Arctic and Sandwich Terns, both with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many of those chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks; plus Grey Seal. There will be tons of great flight photography. As on all IPTs, if you pay attention, you will learn a ton, especially about sky conditions and the relationship between light angle and wind direction and their effects on flight photography.

Why go all the way to Machias Seal Island off the coast of Maine, endure a two-hour boat ride, and have to photograph Atlantic Puffins from a cramped blind usually in bright sun (and well off sun angle) when you can hop a red-eye flight from Newark, NJ and be in Edinburgh, Scotland early the next morning. First we drive down to Bridlington for easy access to Bempton Cliffs where our primary targets will be Northern Gannet in flight. We will also get to photograph Razorbill, Northern Fulmar, Herring Gull, and Black-legged Kittiwake. While in Bridlington we will spend one afternoon visiting a Red Kite feeding station that should provide lots of flight photography action.

While in Bridlington we will staying at the Lobster Pot by Marston’s Inn, just fifteen minutes from Bempton Cliffs. After 3 1/2 days of photography at there, we drive down to Seahouses in Northumberland to the two lodges that will be our home base for a week. After a short boat ride each day we will have hundreds of puffins posing at close range all day, every day — usually in ideal cloudy-bright conditions. While we are in Seahouses we will do six puffin/seabird trips, all weather permitting of course; last year we did not miss a single landing. In five years we have averaged losing less than one half day per year to bad weather. We land at Staple Island in the mornings and then sail over to Inner Farnes for our afternoon sessions. In addition, we may enjoy a session or two photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level from a rocky beach in Seahouses.

In Seahouses, we stay 7 nights in gorgeous, modern, upscale lodges with Wi-fi. They are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The bedrooms are decent-sized. Each lodge has one double bedroom and two twin bedrooms. (See the single supplement info below.) At the lodges we cook our own breakfasts each morning and prepare our own lunches to be brought on the six puffin boat trips. For dinners we will alternate cooking in the lodges with fine dining at several excellent local restaurants. We stay two nights at the Marston’s Inn in Dunbar. We will enjoy a fine-dining Thank You dinner at the Dunbar Hotel on the Tuesday evening before we fly home.

On the morning of Monday, July 8, 2019, the plan is to sleep late, pack, and head up to Dunbar Harbor, Scotland for lunch and an afternoon gannet boat chumming trip: flight photography until you cannot lift your camera. The next morning, Tuesday July 9, we will enjoy our second gannet boat chumming trip (both weather permitting). On both trips we will enjoy great views of the huge gannetry at Bass Rock. Included will be two nights lodging at the Pine Martin by Marston’s Inn in Dunbar. Very early on the morning of Wednesday, July 10, we will drive up to Edinburgh Airport so that everyone can make their flights home. No moaning please. You will need a flight that leaves at 8:30am or later. Not too much later is generally best. Note: this trip needs a minimum of four photographers to run.

Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. All images were created on the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT

The Details

This IPT is all-inclusive except for your airfare and alcoholic beverages. All ground transportation, lodging costs, meals, your National Trust membership, and all boat, entry, and landing fees are included. Weather permitting, we will enjoy three and one-half days (at least six sessions in all) at Bempton Cliffs, an afternoon with the Red Kites, six full days on the puffin boats, one amazing afternoon gannet chumming trip, and one spectacular morning gannet chumming trip. The trip cannot be finalized until I have at least six deposits as we will be renting a lovely 15-passenger bus with our private professional driver who happens to be my web-master, Peter Kes, who is also a skilled photographer and my co-leader 🙂

IPT Details

If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome, heck, we actually need two couples — please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on February 28, 2019. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855.

Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.

Single Supplement Info

Single supplement rooms in Bridlington and Dunbar are available for those who register early. The cost of the single supplement for those six nights is $600.00. Single supplement rooms at the lodge may be available on a limited basis but only if the trip does not fill with ten photographers. The single supplement fee for those seven nights is $700. If you would like your own room in Bridlington and Dunbar, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement with your deposit: $2,600.00. The single supplement deposits are non-refundable as I will need to make the reservations well in advance.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check or running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance, be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.

I truly hope that you can join me on this exciting venture.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my 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 :).

Stuff

The pool was down to 75 for my Tuesday afternoon swim. By Wednesday morning it was down to 70 degrees. It warmed up a bit for my Wednesday and Thursday afternoon swims.

I was thrilled the other day to learn that first-timer Shonagh Adelman of Chattanooga, TN signed up for the 2019 Puffins and Gannets and Red Kites IPT. As he is the first registrant, we need three more for the trip to go. I am counting on it and hope for a sellout of ten plus the two leaders; there are lots of puffins and gannets. 🙂 . Scroll down for the details if you would like to join us.

I still need 3 or four folks for the Galapagos trip. If you would like to explore the possibilities, please get in touch via e-mail or give me a call on my cell before next Wednesday (19 DEC) at 863-221-2372.

My Favorite

In the A Miraculous Color Temperature Save of the Sickly Yellow Original here, my favorite was Image B, the Shorebird Pastel flock blur taller pano. I liked it more because of the inclusion of the darker green at the bottom. It is one of my very favorite ever images in part because I love shorebirds, in part because I love blurs, and in part because it shows what can be in seemingly impossible situations.

BAA IPTs

• The 2018 Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT/Thursday December 7 through the morning session on Monday December 10, 2018: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 5.
• Falklands Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019/Two Weeks: Sold out.
• 2019 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) SUN JAN 20, 2019 thru and including the morning session on THURS JAN 24: 4 1/2 days: $2099. (Limit: 10/Openings: 4) Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins: THURS, 6 DEC.
• The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 2.
• The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers/Openings: 9. This trip needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
• The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The iPhone Photography e-Guide If you missed the long-awaited announcement yesterday, click here to learn about Cliff Oliver’s great new iPhone e-Guide. To order your copy of the The iPhone Photography e-Guide, please click here. The PDF is sent link by e-mail for downloading: the file is relatively huge at 216 MB.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog 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 went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

New Listings

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens/with Extras!

BAA Record-low Price

Multiple IPT veteran and good friend Paul Reinstein is offering a Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM in excellent plus condition — it would be near-mint but for a few faint chips on the bottom of the lens foot — for the BAA record-low price of $7099.00. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original tough front lens cover, the lens strap, the instruction manual, the original product box, a LensCoat,a LensCoat Hoodie that has been modified to make it easier to install over the LensCoat, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Photos are available upon request. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Paul e-mail or by phone or text message at 1-946-9031 (Pacific time zone).

The 500 f/4 super telephoto lenses have long been the world’s most popular for birds,nature, wildlife, and sports for many decades. Canon’s Series II version is light, fast, super-sharp, and produces amazing images with both the 1.4X and 2X III TCs. The 500 II is relatively small, easily hand holdable for some folks, and is much easier travel with, focuses closer than, and costs a lot less than the 600 II. Lastly, and you might find this amazing, the magnification for the 500 II is the same as it is for the 600 II: .15X. How is that possible? Magnification is calculated at the minimum focusing distance of the lens — 12.14 feet (3.7 meters) for the 500 II and 14.77 feet (4.5 meters) for the 600 II. Simply put, the 500 II focuses more than two feet closer than the 600 II. The seller for the last one that sold here had five calls the first day; the first four folks quibbled on price. The fifth one jumped right on it … Please do not tarry if you are seriously interested in Paul’s lens as it should sell almost instantly. Or not 🙂 As the 500 II goes for $8999 new you will be getting an almost new lens while saving $1900.00. I loved my 500 II 🙂 artie

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Lens (with a great and necessary extra)

Having quickly and completely fallen in love with my much more expensive Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens, I am offering my Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 lens in pretty close to near-mint condition for only 1299.00. The sale includes the original product box and everything that came in it, the crappy original tripod collar, the RRS Collar Foot Package for Nikon AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Lens (a $250 plus the shipping) value, and insured ground shipping via UPS.

Please contact me via e-mail or on my cell at 863-221-2372 (before next Wednesday, 19 DEC).

This is the lens that hooked me on Nikon and its great AF system. It is sharp and versatile and though AF is a bit sluggish away from the center AF point with a teleconverter, I made some great images with the TC-E14. As the lens sells new right now for $1,396.95 you can save you a cool $346.95 by grabbing my almost like-new lens today. artie

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Infrared

Sale pending

Arthur Morris — that’s me — is offering a Canon EOS 5D Mark II Infrared camera body in excellent plus condition for the giving-it-away-price of $299.00. The conversion to 720nm infrared was done by Kolari Vision, the best in the business. The conversion alone costs $250.00. The sale includes the front cap, two Canon batteries, one Canon battery charger, and insured ground shipping via UPS. Your camera body will not ship until your check clears.

Please contact me via e-mail or on my cell at 863-221-2372 (before next Wednesday, 19 DEC).

This infrared body works very well with both versions of the Canon 24-105mm and with several of the super-wide angle lenses as well. You can see some of the images that I made with this body here, here, and here. artie

Canon EF 100-400mm L IS II Lens

Price Reduced $153 on December 13, 2018.

Canon EF 100-400mm L IS II lens in like-new condition for a very low $1445.00 (was $1,598.00). The sale includes the front and rear caps, the lens hood, lens pouch/case, a low foot, the original foot, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Charlie via e-mail or by phone at 1-407-448-7797 Eastern time.

Y’all know how much I loved and now miss the sharpness and close focusing of this amazingly versatile lens. artie

Price Reduction

Canon EF 100-400mm L IS II Lens

BAA Record Low Price!
Price Reduced $153 on December 13, 2018.

Charlie Curry is offering a Canon EF 100-400mm L IS II lens in like-new condition for a BAA record low $1445.00 (was $1,598.00). The sale includes the front and rear caps, the lens hood, lens pouch/case, a low foot, the original foot, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Charlie via e-mail or by phone at 1-407-448-7797 Eastern time.

Y’all know how much I loved and now miss the sharpness and close focusing of this amazingly versatile lens. artie

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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 2018 B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest!

Thanks to the generosity of the great folks at B&H, I am proud to announce the first-ever B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest. The rules are simple:

1-Anyone can enter one or two of their favorite avian images that were created in 2018. As below, each image must be sent in a separate e-mail.
2-Image clean-up and repair is permitted.
3-Send you JPEGs in two separate e-mails only by clicking on this link: Contest Entry e-mail.
4-Please size your properly sharpened JPEGs as follows: 1200 high or wide less than 600 kb.
5-If you do not follow the instructions above to the letter your images will not be judged and you will not receive any notification.
6-There is one judge and you can guess who it is.
7-Here are the five prizes:

1st place: a $100 B&H gift certificate
2nd through 4th place: a $50 B&H gift certificate

All prizes will be awarded.

8- Entries my be submitted from now until January 16, 2019. Happy New Year! Please remember to do your holiday shopping at B&H using a BAA affiliate link or by clicking here or on the banner just below.

Good luck.

This image was created on Day 2 of the Early Winter DeSoto IPT with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III, and the rugged, blazingly fast Nikon D5 with Dual XQD Slots.ISO 400. Matrix metering +1/3 stop: 1/1600 sec. at f/9 in Manual Mode. Auto 1 WB at 10:14am on a sunny day. One to the left of center Group (grp) AF/Shutter button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. I kept the 500 PF/D5 on my shoulder via an RS-7 Curve Breathe Strap. If I am not wearing my vest, the TCE-14 travels in a cheap fanny pack until needed. Click on the image to see a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +6. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Image #1: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

A Rare DeSoto Visitor

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is common in Oklahoma and parts of Texas. A few wind up in Florida each winter. One is usually seen most winters at Fort Desoto. The one that I found on the first day of the IPT was a new DeSoto bird for me. It was present in the same area every day of the IPT. It grew more accepting of our approaches as time went by. If you own the DeSoto Site Guide and would like to know the exact location of this individual, please cut and paste the first page of the site guide into an e-mail and shoot it to me here.

This image was created on the afternoon of Day 3 of the Early Winter DeSoto IPT with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III, and the rugged, blazingly fast Nikon D5 with Dual XQD Slots.ISO 800. Matrix metering +1/3 stop: 1/1000 sec. at f/9 in Manual Mode. Auto 1 WB at 4:38pm on a mostly cloudy afternoon — yes, the western skies were mostly cloudy. One to the left of center Group (grp) AF/Shutter button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. I kept the 500 PF/D5 on my shoulder via an RS-7 Curve Breathe Strap. If I am not wearing my vest, the TCE-14 travels in a cheap fanny pack until needed. Click on the image to see a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +6. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Image #2: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher silhouette

The Situation

We were working a flock of very tame shorebirds when I looked behind me and saw the scissor-tailed perched on the edge of the marsh. BY stooping down a bit I was able to silhouette the rare visitor against a small patch of light sky.

Perhaps the Dawn of a Whole New World …

I took my Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR AF lens on the IPT. Several times, I put it into my Wheeleeze Beach cart — see that item under the Stuff tab above — and pulled it up and down the beach. I never used it once. I never even put it onto the tripod. I worked almost exclusively with the virtually impossible to get Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens. I used that often with the TC-14E III. I even made a pretty sharp flight image of some White Pelicans in flight at 700mm.

Folks should understand that whenever you add a teleconverter to the mix, initial focus acquisition will always be slowed down a bit. AF needs light to see. When you add a 1.4X TC, you lose one stop of light. AF is slower. When you add a 2X TC, you lose two stops of light. AF is even slower, so slow that flight and action photography with a doubler is close to impossible, even with f/4 lenses. A 300 f/2.8 lens with a 2X is another story. And some folks had success with the 400 DO II and the 2X III.

As I have said here often, the big difference between Canon and Nikon is that when you add a TC to a Nikon telephoto lens and move the AF point away from the center, AF performance suffers. AF performance with Canon gear while not always perfect was much better. Pre-focusing manually, as I did when creating both of today’s featured images, helps tremendously. I have come up with a few additional tips for autofocusing with the TC in place at f/8 (or f/9 as I am wont to do) that I will share with you here soon. That said, adding the TC-E14 to the 500 PF gets me to 700 mm full frame at f/8 as compared to 840mm at f/5.6 with the 600mm. But the differences in size and especially in weight — 3.21 pounds as compared to 8.4 pounds for the 600 — are huge. So huge that I am easily able to get into position without having to position a tripod. With my superb stalking skills (he said modestly), I found it easy to get close enough without the encumbrance of a tripod to make the images that I wanted either with the 500 PF alone or with the 1.4X added. As for hand holding the 500 PF versus the 600 all that I can say is are you kidding me? There are many huge advantages when forsaking the 600 f/4 and using the 500 PF primarily.

I am thinking of leaving the 600 home for the big Falklands trip but will probably bring it. And rarely use it … I am pretty sure that I will want it on the beach at The Neck.

I can see a not-too-distant future when I sell the 600 f/4, head into the field with the 500 PF on one shoulder, the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm VR on the other, and a TC-E14 in my pocket. Both of the smaller lenses will be on a RS-7 Curve Breathe Strap. As I said, it is looking like a whole new world …

Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. All of the images on this card were created on the 2018 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT

The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers. Co-leader: Peter Kes.

Join me in the UK in late June and early July 2019 to photograph Atlantic Puffin, Common Murre, Razorbill, Shag, and Northern Gannet, Red Kite, and more both in flight and at close range. We will also have great chances with Arctic and Sandwich Terns, both with chicks of all sizes; Black-headed, Lesser-Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, many of those chasing puffins with fish; Black-legged Kittiwake with chicks; plus Grey Seal. There will be tons of great flight photography. As on all IPTs, if you pay attention, you will learn a ton, especially about sky conditions and the relationship between light angle and wind direction and their effects on flight photography.

Why go all the way to Machias Seal Island off the coast of Maine, endure a two-hour boat ride, and have to photograph Atlantic Puffins from a cramped blind usually in bright sun (and well off sun angle) when you can hop a red-eye flight from Newark, NJ and be in Edinburgh, Scotland early the next morning. First we drive down to Bridlington for easy access to Bempton Cliffs where our primary targets will be Northern Gannet in flight. We will also get to photograph Razorbill, Northern Fulmar, Herring Gull, and Black-legged Kittiwake. While in Bridlington we will spend one afternoon visiting a Red Kite feeding station that should provide lots of flight photography action.

While in Bridlington we will staying at the Lobster Pot by Marston’s Inn, just fifteen minutes from Bempton Cliffs. After 3 1/2 days of photography at there, we drive down to Seahouses in Northumberland to the two lodges that will be our home base for a week. After a short boat ride each day we will have hundreds of puffins posing at close range all day, every day — usually in ideal cloudy-bright conditions. While we are in Seahouses we will do six puffin/seabird trips, all weather permitting of course; last year we did not miss a single landing. In five years we have averaged losing less than one half day per year to bad weather. We land at Staple Island in the mornings and then sail over to Inner Farnes for our afternoon sessions. In addition, we may enjoy a session or two photographing nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes at eye level from a rocky beach in Seahouses.

In Seahouses, we stay 7 nights in gorgeous, modern, upscale lodges with Wi-fi. They are beyond lovely with large living areas and lots of open space for the informal image sharing and Photoshop sessions. The bedrooms are decent-sized. Each lodge has one double bedroom and two twin bedrooms. (See the single supplement info below.) At the lodges we cook our own breakfasts each morning and prepare our own lunches to be brought on the six puffin boat trips. For dinners we will alternate cooking in the lodges with fine dining at several excellent local restaurants. We stay two nights at the Marston’s Inn in Dunbar. We will enjoy a fine-dining Thank You dinner at the Dunbar Hotel on the Tuesday evening before we fly home.

On the morning of Monday, July 8, 2019, the plan is to sleep late, pack, and head up to Dunbar Harbor, Scotland for lunch and an afternoon gannet boat chumming trip: flight photography until you cannot lift your camera. The next morning, Tuesday July 9, we will enjoy our second gannet boat chumming trip (both weather permitting). On both trips we will enjoy great views of the huge gannetry at Bass Rock. Included will be two nights lodging at the Pine Martin by Marston’s Inn in Dunbar. Very early on the morning of Wednesday, July 10, we will drive up to Edinburgh Airport so that everyone can make their flights home. No moaning please. You will need a flight that leaves at 8:30am or later. Not too much later is generally best. Note: this trip needs a minimum of four photographers to run.

Images and card design copyright: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. All images were created on the 2017 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT

The Details

This IPT is all-inclusive except for your airfare and alcoholic beverages. All ground transportation, lodging costs, meals, your National Trust membership, and all boat, entry, and landing fees are included. Weather permitting, we will enjoy three and one-half days (at least six sessions in all) at Bempton Cliffs, an afternoon with the Red Kites, six full days on the puffin boats, one amazing afternoon gannet chumming trip, and one spectacular morning gannet chumming trip. The trip cannot be finalized until I have at least six deposits as we will be renting a lovely 15-passenger bus with our private professional driver who happens to be my web-master, Peter Kes, who is also a skilled photographer and my co-leader 🙂

IPT Details

If you are good to go sharing a room–couples of course are more than welcome, heck, we actually need two couples — please send your non-refundable $2,000/person deposit check now to save a spot. Please be sure to check your schedule carefully before committing to the trip and see the travel insurance info below. Your balance will be due on February 28, 2019. Please make your check out to “Arthur Morris” and send it to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855.

Please shoot me an e-mail if you are good to go or if you have any questions.

Single Supplement Info

Single supplement rooms in Bridlington and Dunbar are available for those who register early. The cost of the single supplement for those six nights is $600.00. Single supplement rooms at the lodge may be available on a limited basis but only if the trip does not fill with ten photographers. The single supplement fee for those seven nights is $700. If you would like your own room in Bridlington and Dunbar, please request it when making your deposit and include payment in full for the single supplement with your deposit: $2,600.00. The single supplement deposits are non-refundable as I will need to make the reservations well in advance.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance for big international trips is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check or running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance, be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.

I truly hope that you can join me on this exciting venture.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my 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 :).

Stuff

It was cloudy dark and very windy on Sunday morning. We started out with some neat pleasing blur opportunities and then headed to my favorite morning backup location. The birds were right where I expected them. As it had started to spit cold rain pretty good we made sure to work with our back to the wind to keep our cameras dry. We all had rain tops. In the car. After about an hour we were were all chilled to the bone so we headed back early and spent about four hours micro-adjusting. The gang ordered in pizza while I had tuna with a few bites of crust with great tomato sauce on it.

After Instructor Nap Time we drove back to DeSoto and despite the cloudy conditions had a fabulous afternoon with a flock of tame shorebirds being the highlight until we started back to the cars and encountered a mega feeding spree close to the shore with both Brown and White Pelicans and several dolphins chasing and herding the baitfish. We made it back to the condo that Narayanan and I are sharing at about 6pm and did 90 minutes of ACR and Photoshop instruction. We are planning a short early morning session for Monday as Narayanan and Dietmar needs to be headed home for their mid-afternoon flights. Deidre Bryan who will be driving back home to Tifton, Georgia, nick-named me Grumpy artie-Bob. 🙂

So on the first day we had perfect weather and few birds and on the last day in horrible conditions with tons of birds And we killed. Go figger.

The iPhone Photography e-Guide Update

Thanks to the dozens of folks who order the i-Phone e-Guide yesterday. Please understand that those who purchased the new guide after lunch on Friday will receive their download links on Monday morning. For those who have already received their guides we would love to receive your feed back via e-mail. In addition, we would be glad to answer your iPhone questions, also via e-mail.

The iPhone Photography e-Guide If you missed the long-awaited announcement yesterday, click here to learn about Cliff Oliver’s great new iPhone e-Guide. To order your copy of the The iPhone Photography e-Guide, please click here. The PDF is sent link by e-mail for downloading: the file is relatively huge at 216 MB.

The 2018 B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest!

Thanks to the generosity of the great folks at B&H, I am proud to announce the first-ever B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest. The rules are simple:

1-Anyone can enter one or two of their favorite avian images that were created in 2018. As below, each image must be sent in a separate e-mail.
2-Image clean-up and repair is permitted.
3-Send you JPEGs in two separate e-mails only by clicking on this link: Contest Entry e-mail.
4-Please size your properly sharpened JPEGs as follows: 1200 high or wide less than 600 kb.
5-If you do not follow the instructions above to the letter your images will not be judged and you will not receive any notification.
6-There is one judge and you can guess who it is.
7-Here are the five prizes:

1st place: a $100 B&H gift certificate
2nd through 4th place: a $50 B&H gift certificate

All prizes will be awarded.

8- Entries my be submitted from now until January 16, 2019. Happy New Year! Please remember to do your holiday shopping at B&H using a BAA affiliate link or by clicking here or on the banner just below.

Good luck.

BAA IPTs

• The 2018 Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT/Thursday December 7 through the morning session on Monday December 10, 2018: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 5.
• Falklands Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019/Two Weeks: Sold out.
• 2019 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) SUN JAN 20, 2019 thru and including the morning session on THURS JAN 24: 4 1/2 days: $2099. (Limit: 10/Openings: 4) Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins: THURS, 6 DEC.
• The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 2.
• The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers — needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
• The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog 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 went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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.

This image was created with on the morning of Day 3 of the Early Winter DeSoto IPT with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens and the rugged, blazingly fast Nikon D5 with Dual XQD Slots.AUTO ISO at ? Matrix metering plus 2 1/3 stops: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6 in S Mode(Shutter Priority — Tv mode in Canon). Auto 1 WB at 10:11am on a cloudy/very dark rainy morning. Center Group (grp) AF/Shutter button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The array was centered squarely on the bird’s face with the lower AF point on its neck. I kept my 500 PF/D5 on my shoulder via an RS-7 Curve Breathe Strap. Click on the image to see a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: -1. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Incoming Great Blue Heron

The Situation

We were photographing terns and gull and Snowy Egrets that were hunkered down a bit out of the wind. When it is windy, birds are usually reluctant to fly and will often allow very close approach. I had seen a Great Blue Heron near Battery Bigelow and when I noticed it flying towards us, I screamed it out to the group. Working in shutter priority mode in dark conditions is a great option as you can set a slow shutter speed for blurs or a faster shutter speed for sharp flight and action images; you do need to dial in the correct EC for a given situation and the camera will set the correspondingly correct ISO. If you choose to work in Manual mode in such situations you will have to spin a lot more dials as you will always need to change both your shutter speed and the ISO value, often significantly.

Note that most good bird photographers advise using shutter speeds of at least 1/1600 to 1/3200 second for flight photography. At times, I opt to go as low as 1/500 second in order to avoid insanely high ISOs and am often able to produce sharp images. Today’s featured image with the 500 PF/D5 combination was one of a seven image burst. The first frame was a bit soft, the next six were razor sharp on the eye. I enjoyed the fast frame rate of the D5.

Unsharpened tight crop of Incoming Great Blue Heron

What’s the ISO?

After reading the account above and considering both the enlarged full frame image and the tight crop above, please leave a comment and take a guess at the ISO that the camera set for today’s featured image.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my 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 :).

Yours truly at the opening of my FEB 2016 exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum Image copyright 2016: Dr. Cliff Oliver

My First iPhone Amazement

The first time that I ever took a second look at an iPhone image was when Cliff Oliver showed me the pano that he created at the opening of my exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum in early 2016. I was astounded that you could take a hand held panoramic images while panning. No stitching. Now work. Point and shoot panos! Though I was beyond impressed it took me a while before I began trying to make images with my iPhone 8+. The best thing about an iPhone is that you pretty much have it with you all the time. (Do remember not to keep it in your pocket if you are wading in deep water …) If you see a lovely scenic while walking with a long lens on a tripod there is no longer a need to carry, take out, and mount a short zoom lens; just grab your iPhone. The same principle is in play for me when I see something that could work well as an educational image. I just grab the iPhone, frame, and shoot. I have published several of those here in the past few months. Most recently I used my phone to create images of younger daughter Alissa and her family at Bayard Cutting Arboretum on Long Island. She was thrilled with the one that she chose for her holiday card.

Anyhoo, when I broached the idea of his doing a how-to e-Guide, he was good to go. It took us a while to get the book edited on FaceTime but I am proud to say that it is done. In the process of working through the guide I asked lots of questions and learned an absolute ton!

The iPhone Photography e-Guide To order your copy of the The iPhone Photography e-Guide please click here. The PDF is sent link by e-mail for downloading: the file is relatively huge at 216 MB.

Hard to Believe

Yes, Cliff has a great eye and wonderfully creative vision. Yet it is still hard for me to believe that he can make so many great images with “just“ an i-phone. Almost more amazingly Cliff captures with his iPhone and does all of his post-processing on the phone! In this great new e-Guide written for BIRDS AS ART you will learn to use set up you iPhone quickly and efficiently and how to to use it. In addition, there are dozens and dozens of tips on Cliff’s favorite apps and his favorite gear. Scroll down to the bottom to see the Table of Contents.

The iPhone Photography e-Guide: $20.00.

To order your copy of the The iPhone Photography e-Guide please click here.

Dr. Cliff Oliver

Dr. Cliff Oliver is an award-winning photographer, former photography instructor for the San Diego Natural History Museum, cutting-edge integrative health care professional, and international workshop leader. He created and taught the first 5-day immersion iPhone photography workshop at Hollyhock, Canada’s premier Leadership Learning Center. He teaches quarterly iPhone photography classes at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library School of the Arts (these include Art on the iPhone, iPhoneography, Portraits and Selfies, and Practicing in the Field). His images have been on the cover of WildBird magazine, on display at Scripps Oceanography Institute, and been honored with multiple first-place finishes in the International Exhibition of Photography Del Mar. The San Diego Natural History Museum’s, “Birds of the World” centennial exhibit featured several of his images. One of his iPhone images received an honorable mention in the Athenaeum 23rd annual juried exhibition. He has displayed images at Art Speaks: Expressions of Hope and Healing and has produced a series of books, called Zen I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII that feature original images that promote inner peace. The last 4 books feature only images taken on the iPhone. He teaches individuals and groups the skills of capturing iPhone/mobile photographs and then how to create personalized works of art.

Learn more about Cliff and what he does on his Center for Balance website here. And don’t forget, if I had never met Cliff I would be pushing up daisies somewhere. To request my Health Basics File that contains the whole story, please shoot me an e-mail by clicking here..

Which Image Amazed You?

After enjoying Cliff’s photography please leave a comment and let us know which of his iPhone images amazed you the most. And why.

Frenchie the bulldog Image copyright 2018: Dr. Cliff Oliver

Hula Dancer Image copyright 2018: Dr. Cliff Oliver

Hollyhock dahlia Image copyright 2018: Dr. Cliff Oliver

Prado vertical pano Image copyright 2018: Dr. Cliff Oliver

Portrait Painter surf Image copyright 2018: Dr. Cliff Oliver

Honeybee on flower Image copyright 2018: Dr. Cliff Oliver

Creative vertical panorama Image copyright 2018: Dr. Cliff Oliver

Pacific sunset pano Image copyright 2018: Dr. Cliff Oliver

The iPhone Photography e-Guide What’s in the boo? Table of contents

Stuff

Amazingly the pool has warmed up from a low of 70 degrees to a toasty 81 yesterday. I am swimming a slow half-mile every day.

Do consider using one of the B&H logo links below for your holiday photography shopping or the Amazon logo link on the right (or below) for household or clothing gifts.

DeSoto Early Winter IPT Late Registration Discount!

It is Just About the Last Second …

Please e-mail me directly if you are interested in learning about the substantial late registration discount for this IPT. I will be bringing my LensAlign unit and the complete lighting set-up and we will do some micro-adjusting and AF fine-tuning. Do consider joining us if you would like to do the same. See below for details. From Ed Dow via blog comment: For anyone contemplating the Fort Desoto trip, jump on it. I don’t think anybody knows that area like Artie. I was pretty much new to bird photography and he got me into position to create many shots that I treasure.

BAA IPTs

• The 2018 Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT/Thursday December 7 through the morning session on Monday December 10, 2018: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 5.
• Falklands Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019/Two Weeks: Sold out.
• 2019 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) SUN JAN 20, 2019 thru and including the morning session on THURS JAN 24: 4 1/2 days: $2099. (Limit: 8/Openings: 1) Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins: THURS, 6 DEC.
• The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 1.
• The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers — needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
• The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog 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 went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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.

This image was created on the morning of Saturday December 1, 2018 at Lake Morton in Lakeland, FL. I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens and my back-up (#2) Nikon D850. ISO 400. Matrix metering plus about one stop: 1/320 sec. at f/8 in Manual Mode. NATURAL AUTO WB at 9:31pm on a cloudy-bright morning. Three AF points up and three to the right of center AF point/Single/Shutter Button/Continuous (AI Servo with Canon) AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was just below and slightly behind (but right on the same plane as) the bird’s eye. Nikon Focus Peaking fine-tune: +3. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version. Limpkin: head and shoulders portrait

An Ari — artie Conundrum Explained

Ari — Arash Hazeghi — is a BPN Avian Moderator, one of the top birds in flight photographers in the world, and is much more technically knowledgeable about all things digital photography than me. Arash Hazeghi, Ph.D. is a senior electron device engineer. He received his MS.c. degree and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 2006 and 2011, respectively from Stanford University, Stanford, California. His pioneering research on carbon nanotubes and quantum capacitance have been cited many times. He is currently focused on the development of cutting edge memory technology.

In short, he ain’t no dummy.

Arash has stated often that he sees no need to micro-adjust (M-A) or fine tune (F-T) his gear. He says often, “The lenses and bodies produce sharp images without any adjustments needed.” I on the other hand will not even use a lens/camera body combination unless it has been focus fine-tuned (Nikon) or micro-adjusted (Canon).

Both of us routinely produce sharp, high quality image files. So how can you explain our seemingly contradictory and polar opposite views? Is there a possible explanation?

Yes there is. Ari concentrates on photographing birds in flight. He often uses a hand held 600mm f/4 lens often with 1.4X teleconverter. A 600 was his favorite weapon when he used Canon and remains so now that he switched to Nikon. Ari is most often photographing birds in flight at distances of from 60-80 feet.

On the other hand, I concentrate on photographing static subjects. My style is clean, tight, and graphic. I work hard to get very close to my subjects and use teleconverters extensively. With Canon I routinely used the 2X TC with my f/4 super-telephotos. With Nikon I rely more on the TC-E14 III and the TCE-17II more than on the TC-E20 III. Most commonly I am photographing birds at distances ranging from 15 to 50 feet and often work very close to the minimum focusing distance (MFD) of the lens.

As depth-of-field increases as the distance to the subject increases, Arash is rarely if ever affected by not having micro-adjusted or focus fine-tuned his gear because any errors in accurate focus are more than well-covered by depth of field. For example, when working with a full frame camera body at f/5.6 at a distance of 15 feet and a focal length of 840mm, the total depth of field in front of and behind the subject is 0.36 inches. When working with a full frame camera body at f/5.6 at a distance of 60 feet and a focal length of 840mm, the total depth of field in front of and behind the subject is 6.72 inches. Thus, when photographing relatively distant subjects the more than half a foot of depth of field will more than cover relatively small M-A or FT adjustments.

On the other hand, when I am head hunting as I am often wont to do, and as I did with today’s featured image, having the correct M-A of F-T adjustment set is absolutely necessary for sharp success. And the same goes for those using teleconverters extensively. (I use them probably 90% of the time or more.) In general, Autofocus Adjustment (AFA) and Focus Fine-tune (FFT) values will be substantially greater with TCs than when testing the prime lens alone. And that goes double for folks using 2X TCs (aka doublers).

The Lesson

The lesson is that if you are able to get close to your avian subjects, enjoy working clean, tight, and graphic, and use teleconverters often, you need to be micro-adjusting your gear. If — like Arash — you concentrate on photographing birds in flight at a distance, the need for you to spend the time, effort, and expense of correctly determining an AFA or FFT value for each of your gear combinations drops drastically.

If you are in the former group you will surely want to check out the LensAlign/FocusTune kit here, the The LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide here, and the The Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. The LensAlign/FocusTune kit is the only device that features True Parallel Alignment that will allow you to come up with precise AFA and FFT values with the help of the amazing FocusTune software. And both of my e-Guides will significantly reduce your learning curve.

An unsharpened 100% crop of today’s featured image

FFD. And Nikon 500mm PF Sharpness

FFD (fine-feather detail) is an oft-discussed topic in the hundreds of critiques done weekly in the Avian Forum at BPN. As I concentrate on getting the eye sharp when creating my clean, tight, and graphic images often at point-blank range, my images sometimes get slammed for a lack of FFD (almost always due to a lack of adequate d-o-f when working near MFD.) That is why I recommend stopping down when you are very close to the subject. The FFD in the unsharpened 100% crop immediately above looks more than adequate (stopped down one full stop here to f/8) to me. Especially the ear coverts.

It is quite evident to me that the Nikon 500mm PF is one of the sharpest lenses I have ever used. Check out the dollar bill test images in Arash’s updated review of the 500 PF here. It is no wonder that this lens is pre-order only and is virtually impossible to get right now. And with only a trickle of these lenses becoming available that situation may persist for quite some time. If you order or pre-order please use this link:

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens

or get in touch with Steve Elkins at Bedford Camera — see Money Saving Reminder above.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my 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 :).

Stuff

I was thrilled to learn that Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a Lifetime veteran Dietmar Haenchen signed up for the Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT next week. See below for details and late registration discount info.

After three cold nights in a row the pool was down to 70 degrees on Friday morning. By the time I got in the pool at 3pm it was up to a still- chilly 74 F. I wore all of my warm neoprene gear and enjoyed a nice easy half mile swim. I am heading over to Circle Bar B Ranch early on Saturday morning to meet with BPN friend Joe Przybyla and do some photography.

DeSoto Early Winter IPT Late Registration Discount!

Please e-mail me directly if you are interested in learning about the substantial late registration discount for this IPT. Because both folks who have signed up have expressed an interest in learning to micro-adjust their gear, I will be bringing my LensAlign unit and the complete lighting set-up. Do consider joining us if you would like to do the same. See below for details. From Ed Dow via blog comment: For anyone contemplating the Fort Desoto trip, jump on it. I don’t think anybody knows that area like Artie. I was pretty much new to bird photography and he got me into position to create many shots that I treasure.

BAA IPTs

• The 2018 Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT/Thursday December 7 through the morning session on Monday December 10, 2018: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 5.
• Falklands Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019/Two Weeks: Sold out.
• 2019 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) SUN JAN 20, 2019 thru and including the morning session on THURS JAN 24: 4 1/2 days: $2099. (Limit: 8/Openings: 1) Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins: THURS, 6 DEC.
• The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 2.
• The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers — needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
• The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog 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 went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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.

These are the two original captures that I used to create the vertical panorama below that is today’s featured image. Both were made s made on the morning of September 26, 2018 on the Fort DeSoto Fall IPT. I used the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR AF lens and my souped up Nikon D850. ISO 800. Matrix metering at about +1/3 stop: 1/2500 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual Mode. NATURAL AUTO WB at 7:22am on a clear morning. Two up from the center AF point/D-9/Shutter Button/Continuous (AI Servo with Canon) AF. For the image on the left the selected AF point was active at the moment of exposure and was placed on the ibis’s neck. For the image on the right I again focused on the bird’s chin. I locked focus with the AF Button (set up that way in the Menu) and then reframed upwards to create the source material for the top of the pano. Nikon Focus Peaking fine-tune was a significant +5. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. White Ibis vertical pano

Thinking Tall and Digitally in the Field …

After I created 8519, the image on the left, I knew that I would not like the fact that the o-o-f gull flock of Laughing Gulls at the top of the frame was cut off. So I focused on the bird’s chin in 8525, locked the focus, pointed the lens up to include the flock of gulls and strips of both dark mud and green marsh at the top. I am almost always a fan of o-o-f strips of color above and below as borders. Note that the poor head angle in the right hand image did not matter as I knew I would be using only the upper half or so. Note also that it is important to be in Manual exposure mode when you are creating panos so that the images match.

I first I converted both images (using the same settings). Then I cropped away about 3/8 off the bottom of 8528. Next I put the two TIFFS — the full frame of 8519 and the cropped version of 8528 — into a folder and went Image > Automate > Photomerge and hit OK. It stitched the images together perfectly. Done deal.

This vertical panorama was created from two images made on the morning of September 26, 2018 on the Fort DeSoto Fall IPT. I used the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR AF lens and my souped up Nikon D850. ISO 800. Matrix metering at about +1/3 stop: 1/2500 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual Mode. NATURAL AUTO WB at 7:22am on a clear morning. Too up from the center AF point/D-9/Shutter Button/Continuous (AI Servo with Canon) AF. See above for AF point placement and pano strategies. Nikon Focus Peaking fine-tune was a significant +5. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. White Ibis vertical pano

The Optimized Stitched Pano

Apologies for having to scroll to see the whole image. I wanted to emphasize that the point of stitched panos is to wind up with more pixels and with a lot better image quality than if you had moved back or zoomed out and then cropped to a pano.

The Lesson

When you are in the field and you can’t fit everything in the frame, think stitched pano and create and extra frame or two as needed so that you have the source material that you need. I have done a stitched pano of a sleeping Coastal Brown Bear and once I stitched six frames of a single Great Blue Heron. When creating panos remember to be work in Manual mode and remember not to refocus …

Spoonbills and DeSoto IPTs

Over the years, virtually every DeSoto IPT group has had a least one good chance on Roseate Spoonbill. Is a close encountered guaranteed? Not by any means. But oftentimes we are so, so lucky that I think my late-wife Elaine is calling the shots from above …

Fort DeSoto in early winter is rife with tame birds. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version. Clockwise from upper left to center: Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Caspian Tern, Great Egret, Sandwich Tern with fish, Willet, Black-bellied Plover threat display, Snowy Egret, 2-year old Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron, juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron.

The 2018 Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT/Thursday December 7 through the morning session on Monday December 10, 2018: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 6.

Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds and terns in early winter. There they join hundreds of egrets, herons, night-herons, and gulls that winter on the T-shaped peninsula. With luck, we may get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher almost guaranteed. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, and White Ibis are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We may very well get to see and photograph the amazing heron/egret hybrid that has been present for three year. And we should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. In addition, Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork might well be expected. And we will be on the lookout for a migrant passerine fallout in the event of a thunderstorm or two.

On the IPT you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. Most importantly you will surely learn to evaluate wind and sky conditions and understand how they affect bird photography. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).

There will be a Photoshop/image review session after lunch (included) each day. That will be followed by Instructor Nap Time.

The best airport is Tampa (TPA). Once you register, you will receive an e-mail with the hotel information. Do know that it is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel (rather than at home or at a friend’s place).

A $500 deposit is due when you sign up and is payable by credit card. Balances must be paid by check after you register. Your deposit is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight folks so please check your plans carefully before committing. You can register by calling Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand or by sending a check as follows: make the check out to: BIRDS AS ART and send it via US mail here: BIRDS AS ART, PO BOX 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions, clothing, and gear advice. Please remember that the meet and greet will take place at 7:30 on THURS, 6 DEC. Please shoot me an e-mail if you plan to register or if you have any questions.

Obviously folks attending the IPT will be out in the field early and stay late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are short in December. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version. Clockwise from upper left to center: Long-billed Curlew, juvenile Tricolored Heron, Marbled Godwits, Great Blue Heron, juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper, Wood Stork, smiling Sea Scallop, Ruddy Turnstone scavenging needlefish, Great Blue Heron sunset silhouette at my secret spot, and southbound migrant tern flock blur.

Early and Late

Getting up early and staying out late is pretty much a staple on all BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tours; on this particular trip we will get lots of sleep as the days are short. Being in the field well before the sun comes up and staying out until sunset will often present unique photographic opportunities, opportunities that will be missed by those who need their beauty rest. I really love it when I am leaving the beach on a sunny morning after a great session just as a carful or two of well-rested photographers arrive.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my 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 :).

Stuff

I finished editing Dr. Cliff Oliver’s iPhone Photograph e-Guide yesterday and got some solid work done on Andrew McLachlan’s Frog and Toad photography e-Guide.

The pool had gotten back up to 81 degrees but after a cold front last night it was down to a season low-by-far 74 degrees this morning! I wil be wearing my neoprene vest when I swim this afternoon! The air temperature at 7am was 40 degrees F.

• The 2018 Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT/Thursday December 7 through the morning session on Monday December 10, 2018: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 6.
• Falklands Land-based IPT DEC 22, 2018 thru JAN 5, 2019/Two Weeks: Sold out.
• 2019 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) SUN JAN 20, 2019 thru and including the morning session on THURS JAN 24: 4 1/2 days: $2099. (Limit: 8/Openings: 1) Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; SAT JAN 19, 2019.
• The 2019 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT — FEB 16 thru 19, 2019: $2599.00. Limit: 5 photographers/Openings: 2.
• The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers — needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
• The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4.

DeSoto Early Winter IPT News

Because both folks who have signed up for this IPT have expressed an interest in learning to micro-adjust their gear, I will be bringing my LensAlign unit and all of the lighting gear. Do consider joining us if you would like to do the same. Scroll down here for details.

Blog Comment by Ed Dow (from yesterday)

Hi Artie,

Norm Steffen? That sounds a lot like my story in the muck next to you!

That’s OK, that was an amazing morning! For anyone contemplating the Fort Desoto trip, jump on it. I don’t think anybody knows that area like Artie. I was pretty much new to bird photography and he got me in positions like the one above to get many shots that I treasure. I recall the good advice about salt water hands. Another word to the wise re: weather sealing…my 5DIV was used in a light rain for about 20 min. and failed. Anything more than a heavy mist now and I’m covering it. Fortunately Artie brought it back to life with a pillow case and hair dryer! Thanks Artie!

I wrote back:

Howdy Ed, I had the wrong year so yes, that was you. I have amended the text. And YAW. Most times the 5D IV will do just fine in a drizzle …

with love, artie

ps: YAW and thanks for your kind words.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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.

This image was created on September 23, 2018 on the Fall Fort DeSoto IPT. I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 400mm) and the blazingly fast professional digital camera body, the Nikon D5 DSLR camera body with dual XQD slots). (Auto) ISO 720. Matrix metering +1 stop: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 in S (Shutter Priority) mode (TV in Canon) was somewhat of an over-exposure. AUTO1 WB at 7:43am in full sun. Center Group (grp)/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. AFA Fine-Tune Value: zero. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here. Royal Tern starting dive

How This Began along with Some Interesting Comments

In the How’s Your Eagle Eye? Do you see any evidence of Photoshop Foul Play? blog post here, I posted the image above and wrote, Do you see any evidence of Photoshop Foul Play? If you do, please leave a detailed comment that clearly states your proof. I will post the original frame in few days.

Joel Eade posted this comment:

It’s a gorgeous bird and even enlarging it I can’t find any sloppy tell-tale signs of Photoshop trickery but I know you are extremely skilled. If anything, my suspicion is with the wing tips. The primary feather tips look identical on both wings (even down to patterns in the veins)
I wonder if you maybe clipped a wing tip and repaired it by using a copy from the other wing.

(I asked Joel which wing tip had been repaired but he never responded.)

Then Pierre Williot posted this:

I am pretty sure that the top wing tip (distal 1/4 or so) is a copy of the bottom wing tip. I can detect a very narrow darker line at that junction on the top one which can occur with the superposition. Very nicely done! I am pretty sure that you also copied a portion of the sky with it but can’t see the seam. This clue came from the fact that the original was horizontal. I am assuming that the direct sun was on top of your picture.

I am not sure what he meant by I am assuming that the direct sun was on top of your picture but the sun was pretty much right behind me. And he clearly felt that the top wing in the photo was the one that had been clipped and replaced.

Multiple IPT veteran David Policansky agreed that it was the top wing in the photo that had been replaced:

Great image, Artie. I also was struck by the similarity of the wingtips. I’d guess the right (top) wing was replaced because the shadows between the feathers on the left wing seem to match the shadows on the body. But I am looking on a phone and might be seeing things that aren’t there.

I replied:

Thanks David. The main reason that folks think that the primaries are identical is that I asked! 🙂 As always, I believe that if I had not asked the Photoshop foul play question that pretty much nobody would have seen or mentioned anything … When you say that the right wing was replaced do you mean the upper wing or the lower wing as seen in the image? a

He replied:

I meant the upper wing. Yes, you’re right; I never actually can see any Photoshop trickery on your images and never would think anything were amiss if you didn’t ask. 🙂

Next Joel Eade got in trouble by commenting:

I’m hoping you will soon reveal the secret on this because the more I look at it the more things I “think” I see ….. it now appears to me the body of the bird looks odd, as if it was superimposed on the wings and the feet look painted because they have such irregular edges and no detail. Also they are so wide apart and stick out so much rather than being tucked in for flight. I gotta quit now 🙂

He was right about quitting. 🙂

The Photo Mechanic screen capture for Royal Tern starting dive

Photoshop Foul Play Original

The screen capture above shows that after I expanded canvas it was the bottom wing that was replaced. Note that because I used too much plus EC that the RED channel was clipped. To replace the missing primaries I used a flopped Quick Mask along with Transform and Warp. That layer was of course refined by a Regular Layer Mask. All as detailed in Digital Basics II.

MK asked an interesting and relevant question when he posted this:

Fabulous image.

I have a question about the edits: while background “cleanup” may be acceptable, should one really be doing any modifications at all to the primary subject? I have been under the (possibly naive) impression that all wildlife images and flower images have the primary subject “as shot”. Am I grossly mistaken? I ask because (a) some clipping here or there is the reason I’ve deleted 95% of the BIF photos I’ve captured, and (b) this is the primary reason for many of my “beat yourself up for mistakes” sessions after I return from the field.

I responded:

Hi MK, Assumptions are always made at your own risk. I have been repairing clipped wings and wingtips and more for more than 15 years now. I always let folks (and in the old days when it was possible to sell a photograph — editors) know when I have done anything major in Photoshop. Such images are never entered in contests where such repairs are not allowed. That said, while it is easy to do a sloppy job of adding a wingtip or a toe, doing those repairs well is a skill that needs to be developed. Everything that I did to repair the image above, is detailed in Digital Basics II, but it will take most folks a while and lots of study and practice to learn to do it well.

And BTW, background clean-up is NOT allowed in most major contests. What you do with your images is 100% your business. artie

Spoonbills and DeSoto IPTs

Over the years, virtually every DeSoto IPT group has had a least one good chance on Roseate Spoonbill. Is a close encountered guaranteed? Not by any means. But oftentimes we are so, so lucky that I think my late-wife Elaine is calling the shots from above …

Fort DeSoto in early winter is rife with tame birds. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version. Clockwise from upper left to center: Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Caspian Tern, Great Egret, Sandwich Tern with fish, Willet, Black-bellied Plover threat display, Snowy Egret, 2-year old Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron, juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron.

The 2018 Fort DeSoto Early Winter IPT/Thursday December 7 through the morning session on Monday December 10, 2018: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 6.

Fort DeSoto, located just south of St. Petersburg, FL, is a mecca for migrant shorebirds and terns in early winter. There they join hundreds of egrets, herons, night-herons, and gulls that winter on the T-shaped peninsula. With luck, we may get to photograph two of Florida’s most desirable shorebird species: Marbled Godwit and the spectacular Long-billed Curlew. Black-bellied Plover and Willet are easy, American Oystercatcher almost guaranteed. Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, and White Ibis are easy as well and we will almost surely come up with a tame Yellow-crowned Night-Heron or two. We may very well get to see and photograph the amazing heron/egret hybrid that has been present for three year. And we should get to do some Brown Pelican flight photography. In addition, Royal, Sandwich, Forster’s, and Caspian Terns will likely provide us with some good flight opportunities as well. Though not guaranteed, Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork might well be expected. And we will be on the lookout for a migrant passerine fallout in the event of a thunderstorm or two.

On the IPT you will learn basics and fine points of digital exposure and to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them, to understand and predict bird behavior, to identify many species of shorebirds, to spot the good situations, to choose the best perspective, to see and understand the light, and to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system. Most importantly you will surely learn to evaluate wind and sky conditions and understand how they affect bird photography. And you will learn how and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).

There will be a Photoshop/image review session after lunch (included) each day. That will be followed by Instructor Nap Time.

As with the fall IPT, this one will run with only a single registrant. The best airport is Tampa (TPA). Once you register, you will receive an e-mail with the hotel information. Do know that it is always best if IPT folks stay in the same hotel (rather than at home or at a friend’s place).

A $500 deposit is due when you sign up and is payable by credit card. Balances must be paid by check after you register. Your deposit is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out with eight folks so please check your plans carefully before committing. You can register by calling Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand or by sending a check as follows: make the check out to: BIRDS AS ART and send it via US mail here: BIRDS AS ART, PO BOX 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions, clothing, and gear advice. Please remember that the meet and greet will take place at 7:30 on the evening of Sunday, September 23. Please shoot me an e-mail if you plan to register or if you have any questions.

Obviously folks attending the IPT will be out in the field early and stay late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors. The good news is that the days are short in December. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version. Clockwise from upper left to center: Long-billed Curlew, juvenile Tricolored Heron, Marbled Godwits, Great Blue Heron, juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper, Wood Stork, smiling Sea Scallop, Ruddy Turnstone scavenging needlefish, Great Blue Heron sunset silhouette at my secret spot, and southbound migrant tern flock blur.

Early and Late

Getting up early and staying out late is pretty much a staple on all BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tours; on this particular trip we will get lots of sleep as the days are short. Being in the field well before the sun comes up and staying out until sunset will often present unique photographic opportunities, opportunities that will be missed by those who need their beauty rest. I really love it when I am leaving the beach on a sunny morning after a great session just as a carful or two of well-rested photographers arrive.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my 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 :).