July 16th, 2012

BIRDS AS ART NOTES 7/16/2012

  • On the Road Again
  • Holland IPTs: Tulips & Windmills and Texel Birds
  • The Blog is the Bomb
  • Canon EOS-5D Mark III User’s Guide Pre-Publication Version Available Now!
  • New York City Weekend Nature Photography Seminar December 8-9, 2012
  • IPT Updates

On the Road Again

I am flying to Kodiak, Alaska today for two weeks on the bear boat in Katmai National Park. I should be at the motel at about 11pm Alaska time, 3 am Florida time. Jim and Jennifer will be in the office every day to help you with IPT sign-ups and your mail order needs. I will be back in the office on August 2. I will have internet access until midday on Wednesday, July 18 and will be off line until my return. Blog posts that were prepared in advance will be posted every other day in my absence.

Holland IPTs: Tulips & Windmills and Texel Birds

Holland Tulip/Windmill IPT: 8 nights/7 1/2 days of photography. $4,499. Limit: 8 photographers/Sold Out/Wait List Only.

Included: Airport transfers. All ground transportation. All lodging double occupancy. Single supplement: $1168. If you wind up in a single room you will be billed for half of the single supplement. All meals from dinner on Day 1 through breakfast on Day 9.

Not included: sodas and other beverages, alcoholic drinks and wine, bottled water, snacks, desserts, personal items, phone calls, etc. See below for additional details.

BPN Out-of-the-Box Moderator Denise Ippolito (aka the Creative Flower Queen), BPN Photo Gear Moderator, Nikon shooter, and technical expert Peter Kes, and I have put together two great Holland trips in mid-April 2013. Day 1 of the tulip tour will be April 16, 2012 with airport pick-up that morning and an afternoon session at Keukenhof. Peter who is from Holland, will be our local guide/interpreter/driver. Happy campers only please.

The subjects: tulips at Keukenhof, the famed tulip gardens and the surrounding bulb fields (predominantly tulips); the windmills at Kinderdijk (near Alblasserdam); the windmills at at Zaanse Schans (near Zaanstad) and the surrounding bulb fields–hyacinths and daffodils, tulips; and the 16th century island-village of Marken.

If you are unfamiliar with Holland’s tulips click here to see some pretty nice images. You will come home with a lot better.

Here is the itinerary:

April 16: Day 1: Morning: Pickup from Schiphol.
Check: in at Avifauna motel, Lisse (asap).
Afternoon: tulips at Keukenhof.

April 17-18: Days 2 & 3: All Day: tulips at Keukenhof and/or the bulb fields surrounding Lisse. Choice of locations will be weather dependent.

April 19: Day 4: Morning: tulips at Keukenhof and/or the bulb fields surrounding Lisse
Checkout from Avifauna motel.
Check in at hotel TBD (asap).
Afternoon: photograph windmills at Kinderdijk

April 20: Day 5: Morning: photograph windmills at Kinderdijk in pre-dawn and early morning.
Checkout from hotel.
Check in at Hotel Akersloot (asap).
Afternoon: photograph windmills and bulb fields at Zaanse Schans.

April 21: Day 6: All Day: photograph the 16th century village at Marken.

April 22: Day 7: All Day: photograph windmills and bulb fields at Zaanse Schans.

April 23: Day 8: Morning: tulips at Keukenhof.
Afternoon: drive to historic Amsterdam for free time/walking tour.
Evening: meet for farewell dinner in Amsterdam.

April 24: Day 9: Morning: Check out of Hotel Akersloot and Transfer to Schiphol.

Holland Tulip/Windmill IPT: 8 nights/7 1/2 days of photography. $4,499. Limit: 8 photographers/Sold Out/Wait List Only.

Included: Airport transfers. All ground transportation. All lodging double occupancy. Single supplement: $1168. If you wind up in a single room you will be billed for half of the single supplement. All meals from dinner on Day 1 through breakfast on Day 9.

Not included: sodas and other beverages, alcoholic drinks and wine, bottled water, snacks, desserts, personal items, phone calls, etc.

Beware of seemingly longer tours that include travel days and days sitting in the hotel doing nothing as part of the tour.

Non-refundable deposit: $1,000 per person. Second payment of $2,000 due by NOV 30, 2012. Balance due: February 15, 2013.

For couples or friends signing up at the same time for the tulip trip, a $200 per person discount will be applied to the final payment.

If you are interested in filling one of the three remaining slots, let me know asap with an e-mail to samandmayasgrandpa@att.net and call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906. Leave a message to secure your place in line as I expect this to fill very soon now that it is being formally announced.

Holland Texel Bird Photography IPT: 6 full days: April 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 (all day) $350 per person/day. Limit: 4 photographers/Sold Out/Wait List only.

Ground transportation on April 24th is on us as are the airport transfers at both ends if needed. We will likely get to do some bird photography on the afternoon of April 24 (time permitting). No charge for that either. $350/person/day includes only ground transportation and instruction. Lodging and meals are not included–please e-mail to inquire as to our lodging and meal plans.

After the tulip IPT is over denise, Peter Kes, and I are continuing on to Texel, The Netherlands for about a week. It is 2 hours north of Amsterdam including a 30 minute ferry ride. We will be after some great birds: Black-tailed Godwit, Pied Avocet, Great-crested Grebe, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, European Spoonbill, Marsh and Hen Harriers, several species of terns including Arctic and Sandwich, Ringed Plover, Redshank and other waders, and Eurasian Oystercatcher. A long lens is required for the birds. The birds will be in smashing breeding plumage; Black-tailed Godwit will knock your socks off! Happy campers only please.

We will only be able to take four photographers on the Texel extension. If you would like to join us for either the birds or for the birds and the tulips please let me know asap with an e-mail to samandmayasgrandpa@att.net or call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906. Leave a message to secure your place in line as I expect this to fill very soon now that it is being formally announced.

The Blog is the Bomb

I continue to put in 20+ hours a week towards making the blog informative, timely, and beautiful. And it has been paying off. The blog alone had 462,178 page views and 3,839,749 hits in March 2012 alone! Most of the educational features that formerly appeared in BAA Bulletins now grace the BAA Blog. If you are not subscribed you are missing a ton of great stuff almost daily. You can subscribe to the blog posts by clicking here. If you have a problem subscribing, please contact us via e-mail. Below are some recent posts of interest.

Contest category judging, results, and voting analyses have been on-going; click here and scroll down if you have been missing out on the fun and learning.

Learn about which IS Modes to use on the new Series II lenses and follow the great depth-of-field discussion here.

Learn about Photo-birders, a new concept.

If you’ve been to Gatorland this season, it would behoove you to enter their photo contest here

Visit “Same Old Same Old…” for an image clean-up tutorial.

Learn about quasi-flash as main light techniques for songbirds here.

An interview article here.

See the under the pier NIK magic here.

Learn about dealing with contrast in Tim Grey’s guest blog post here.

Canon EOS-5D Mark III User’s Guide Pre-Publication Version Available Now!

Save $10

Regular readers here know that I have been loving my 5D Mark III ever since I got my hands on it. I love the light weight, the quality of the image files, and especially the killer new AF system. Right now, the 5D III’s AF system is the best by far on any Canon camera body and that includes the vaunted EOS-1D Mark IV. Don’t get me wrong, I love my two MIV bodies and use then every time I am in the field, but for birds in flight and in action I go with my 5D MIII.

I have been working on the 5D Mark III User’s Guide for more than three months. While the end is in sight, lots of folks have been clamoring to hear what I have to say about setting up the camera and to learn about my autofocus settings and my thoughts on the various AF Selection Area Modes. I have, therefore, decided to offer a pre-publication version of this User’s Guide. When it is complete, the guide will sell for $50. It will be our most expensive camera user’s guide yet because the 5D Mark III is pretty much all-new and the menu is the most extensive ever in a Canon camera. I have put in a ton of work already and still have lots more important stuff to work on.

The pre-publication version is available now for only $40.

Here’s the best news: You will automatically receive the final version at no additional cost when it becomes available. On the off chance that you do not, please e-mail Jim and he will rectify the situation.

Though this pre-publication copy is incomplete, it will help you set up your camera exactly as I have mine set up right now. Almost all of the stuff dealing with autofocus and the various AF Selection Area Modes is included. Even in its present form, this guide is quite extensive. You can learn everything that I know about the following important topics:

  • 5D III exposure fine points
  • Handling the WHITEs
  • The top LCD and all camera control buttons
  • 5D Mark III drive modes
  • How to manually select an AF sensor
  • Choosing an AF Area Selection Mode; how and why (includes extensive detail)
  • Menu Item Access
  • Multiple Exposure settings
  • My Menu

Coverage of almost all Menu Items and Custom Functions including the following: Image Quality, Auto Lighting Optimizer, Highlight Tone Priority, AF Configuration Tool (includes details on the custom setting that I use), Acceleration/deceleration tracking, Tracking sensitivity, Lens drive when AF impossible, Orientation linked AF point (I love this feature on the 5D III!), Highlight alert, Histogram display, Auto rotate, Custom Shooting Mode set-up, Safety shift, using the Q button, and setting up rear focus.

The guide is–of course–written in my informal, easy-to-follow style.

Important items that are not included in the current pre-publication version (but will of course be included in the final version) include:

  • HDR Mode
  • AF Microadjustment
  • Live View Shoooting

New York City Weekend Nature Photography Seminar December 8-9, 2012

Join Denise Ippolito and me for a great weekend of fun, learning, and Photoshop. Click here for details or to register.

Comments are closed.