BIRDS AS ART BULLETIN 247

NOVEMBER 1, 2007

 

Visit www.birdsasart.com

 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN…

A FAVOR TO ASK

BOSQUE #2 IPT OPENING: LATE REGISTRATION DISCOUNT

ANDY ROUSE CALENDAR

BRUTUS ÖSTLING’S NEWSLETTER

DIGITAL BASICS UPDATE FREEBIE/THE CONTRAST MASK

LENS COATS FOR NIKON VR TELEPHOTO LENSES NOW AVAILABLE

THANKSGIVING LUNCH

IPT UPDATES

 

Contact us by phone at 863-692-0906 (Eastern Time Zone) or by e-mail at birdsasart@att.net or @verizon.net.  The att e-mail address is best from overseas.

 

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You can use the PayPal links on the web site to order anything.  Just type in the item(s) and the amount.  If using your own PayPal account, please send to either of the e-mail addresses above.

 

Note:  maximize this e-mail for best formatting. 

 

Photographic theme:  More favorite images from my recent trip to Ecuador.  

 

Important Request: if responding to this e-mail, please take the time to delete all images and all irrelevant text.

 

 

 

 

Purple-bibbed White-tip at flowers, Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with a 25 mm extension tube and the EOS-1D MII.  ISO 400. Manual mode: 1/300 sec. at f/22. Five flash set-up.  

 

This near-vertical was created from a horizontal original.  This species was seen only occasionally at Tandayapa.  

 

 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN…

 

On Friday I fly to Seattle, WA to meet the Corbis sales staff and my agent Dave Ross.  (Corbis has been doing really well for me the past year or so.)  I will be showing them some of my new work.  From there it is down to Vancouver, WA where I speak on Saturday at the Semiannual Meeting of the Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest.  For details visit: www.nppnw.org.  (Thanks to Canon USA for their generous sponsorship of this appearance.  From there it is on to Juneau, AK via big jets and then on to Haines where I will be the featured speaker/instructor at the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival: http://baldeaglefestival.org/  There is still some room in the photo sessions… 

 

The following Saturday I fly to Juneau and continue on to Albuquerque and then Socorro for the three Bosque IPTs.  Each year I visit at Thanksgiving time in part as a pilgrimage to the memory of my late wife Elaine.  She died of breast cancer on November 20, 1994; it is hard to believe that 13 years have past.  Sometimes it seems that she was here just last week and at other times it seems several lifetimes ago… 

 

Jim Litzenberg will be here to help fill your mail order needs and Jennifer will be taking care of IPT registrations (not that there are many open slots…)

 

If you would like to send a fresh, new photography question please hold off until I get back in the office on November 29.  Great picture-making till then.   And oh, by the way, we will have a stunning announcement to make sometime after December 1, 2007. 

 

 

 

Andean Emerald, Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with a 25mm and a 12mm extension tube and the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 400. Manual mode: 1/300 sec. at f/25.  Five flash set-up.  

 

I was at minimum focusing distance, i.e., quite close to the set-up when this bird came in.  Common sense would seem to have indicated that I should not have tried to fit the bird in the frame as it seemed too huge since I was so close.  But, I was using Digital Capture after all so I made a few images and was thrilled to see that with the wings forward position (which I love) I did manage to get the whole bird in the frame… I like also that the bird is angled ever-so-slightly towards me.

 

A FAVOR TO ASK

 

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle).   It will not cost you a cent and actually takes about 15 seconds (unless you have dial-up).  Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visitors to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising. Here is the web site: http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/   You can click once a day if you remember and pass it along to friends as well. Thanks.
      

 

 

 

Green-crowned Brilliant, Los Bancos, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with a 25mm extension tube and the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 400. Manual mode: 1/300 sec. at f/16.  Five flash set-up.  

 

With an all dark-green subject I knew that I could use lots more light so I opened up a stop (from f/22) to f/16.  The histogram was perfect.  Here I wish that the bird were angled a bit more towards me…

 

 BOSQUE #2 IPT OPENING: LATE REGISTRATION DISCOUNT

 

 Due to two cancellations, we have room for two folks on Bosque #2.  Please call if you would like to join us or to learn about our Late Registration Discount. 

 

Bosque #2:  "The Pre-Thanksgiving IPT"   NOV 18-20, 2007.  Slide Program on the evening of NOV 17.  3-DAY: $999.  (Limit 14: Openings: 2). Co-leaders:  Robert O'Toole, Robert Amoruso, Alfred Forns, and Fabiola Del Alcazar.  Guest leader: Andy Rouse.  This IPT will feature increasing numbers of geese and cranes with lots of great opportunities.  

 

 

 

 

Pale-mandibled Aricari, Los Bancos, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/7.1.  Fill flash at -1 2/3 stops with Better Beamer.   

 

This bird sat for a while on a clean perch with a nice grey sky background for quite some time.  Only problem was that he was chowing down on chunks of banana.  He was, however, a neat diner so my patience was rewarded.  

 

ANDY ROUSE CALENDAR

 

Speaking of Andy Rouse, Andy, an award winning UK photographer who will be joining us at Bosque this year, was kind enough to send me a copy of his 2008 calendar.  It is spectacular.   From January’s stunningly backlit cheetah to December’s Golden Eagle in a snowstorm, each image is breathtaking.   You can learn more or order a copy here: http://tinyurl.com/39z55y  Amateur Photographer magazine reviewed Andy’s calendar, gave it four stars, and commented:  The pictures are stunning; it is one gem that you should not miss.  This collection of Rouse’s classics is worth the price tag."  A donation from each sale goes to Andy’s conservation fund which this year supported a children’s orphanage in Rwanda and a grouse research project in Scotland. 

  

 

 

White-whiskered Hermit, Los Bancos, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with a 25mm extension tube and the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 320.  Manual mode: 1/300 sec. at f/18. Four flash set-up.  

 

This species is large and spectacular.  I wish that I had caught him with his wings fully extended and tail fully spread.

 

BRUTUS ÖSTLING’S NEWSLETTER

 

My friend and student Brutus Östling, a Swedish book publisher by trade, is an outstanding photographer with a slew of fairly recent books (all featuring his images ) to his credit. He recently began distributing a newsletter entitled “Images of Wildlife.” I found his second newsletter quite interesting, especially his comments on the Canon EOS-1D Mark III camera body.  If you would like to receive a PDF of Brutus’ Newsletter #2 (which is of course filled with great images), please send an e-mail to us at birdsasart@att.net with the following cut and pasted into the subject line:  Brutus Östling Newsletter #2 please. 

 

 

Purple-throated Wood-star females at flowers, Emerald, Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 400. Manual mode: 1/300 sec. at f/22. Five flash set-up.  

 

When working with birds at the flowers I would take off the extenstion tube and back up to make framing easier.  Our High Speed Flash Hummingbird Guide will feature tips on both focusing and working with flowers.

 

A DIGITAL BASICS UPDATE FREEBIE/THE CONTRAST MASK

Below is an e-mail exchange between myself and a subscriber, Don.

D: Dear Artie, I searched through my Digital Basics and cannot seem to find the reference to sharpening using the Contrast Mask technique (that you mentioned in Bulletin 246). . Could you provide me with a page number or some way to get to this section? 

AM: Ah, as I typed my mind was telling me that there was a good chance that that was NOT in the book (and it is not). I have taught it so many times that I simply assumed that it was covered in the last update…  Here’s the scoop: When you have an image or an area of an image that is not quite as sharp as you would like, try this:  Select the subject alone (if possible) or the area that needs to be sharpened.   (Creating and using a Quick Mask   and putting it on its own layer is at this point the best way to proceed.)   Then do Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask: then enter Amount: 15, Radius: 65 (yes, 65!), and threshold: 0. Click preview on and off to see the difference.  You can try any setting between 10-50-0 and 25-120-0 and see which works best.  I use settings like the last ones only very rarely.  In most cases the image or the sharpened portion of the image will look a bit darker after using the contrast mask. You can lighten the area in several ways (Curves, Levels, or Burn Tool).  Lastly, I often use this technique to sharpen and darken a bird’s eye.  

Congrats, you have made a contrast mask and increased the apparent sharpening, and you have made an honest man out of me. Thanks and later and love, artie

I plan on completing the next update in late December.  The information above will be added.  In addition, I will share the basics of Robert O’Toole’s Quick Masking techniques and my comments on Photoshop CS-3.  It will not be an extensive update.  To learn more about Digital Basics, click here:  http://www.birdsasart.com/digitalbasics.htm

 

 

 

Sparkling Violet-ear at flowers, Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with 25mm extension tube and the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 400. Manual mode: 1/300 sec. at f/295.  Five flash set-up.  

 

Here I used a Quick Mask to select the head and neck of the bird and then used a contrast mask of 20-65-0 to sharpen the layer only.  Can you figure out why I went down to f/29 here?

Yes, to keep from burning the very white whites in the flower.

 

LENS COATS FOR NIKON VR TELEPHOTO LENSES NOW AVAILABLE

We now have the LensCoats for the new Nikon VR telephoto lenses.  You can check for details and pricing here: http://www.birdsasart.com/accs.html#LensCoat.  (Then scroll down please.)

 

 

 

Crimson-rumped Toucanet, Los Bancos, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with the 1.4x II TC and the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/6.3. Fill flash at -1 2/3 stops with Better Beamer.   

 

This large, lovely bird also came in for a banana handout.  I chose to leave the branch in the upper left corner as a partial frame for the bird. 

THANKSGIVING LUNCH

 

On Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22, 2007, I will once again be hosting a lunch for visiting photographers and birders.  We can accommodate 50 folks; forty-seven slots have already been spoken for; this event will be sold out very soon so do not hesitate to register.   For the third consecutive year, the lunch will be held at the Luna Mansion, an historic building in Las Lunas, New Mexico that is about an hour up the pike from Socorro on I-25.  And oh, the food is superb.   You can learn more about Luna Mansion here:  http://thelunamansion.com/.  The cost of the complete lunch will be $35.  This will include several courses including your main course, a dessert, a non-alcoholic beverage, and the tip.  If you have wine or a cocktail with your meal you will need to pick up the tab for that.  All reservations must be paid for in advance by check only—no Paypal or credit cards.  If you would like to join us please let us know by e-mail that you will be sending a check (made out to “Arthur Morris”) ASAP to us here: PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. 

 

If you will be joining us, please plan on being at the Luna Mansion no later than 11am sharp. I do hope that you can make it.

 

 

 

Western Emerald, Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with a 25 mm extension tube and the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 400. Manual mode: 1/300 sec. at f/22. Five flash set-up.  

 

I need to remove the feeder from many of the images in this and in (BAA Bulletin 246.  Here I also needed to create a wingtip for the bird.  I used the techniques described in detail in Robert O’Toole’s APTATS PDF.                                                                       You can learn more about Robert’s APTATS PDF here: http://www.birdsasart.com/aptats.htm

 

The original is below:   

 

 

 

IPT UPDATES

 

Bosque #1:  "The Fall Color IPT"   NOV 13-15, 2007.  Slide Program on the evening of NOV 12.   3-DAY: $999.  (Limit 14; Sold Out). Co-leader: Robert O'Toole.  Guest leader (DAY 3 only): Andy Rouse.  This IPT should feature a better chance for a day or two of the rare south winds that dramatically improve flight photography and will definitely feature the brightest fall-color cottonwoods. 

 

Bosque #2:  "The Pre-Thanksgiving IPT"   NOV 18-20, 2007.  Slide Program on the evening of NOV 17.  3-DAY: $999.  (Limit 14; 2 openings)  Co-leader:  Robert O'Tooles, Robert Amoruso, & Alfred Forns. Guest leader: Andy Rouse.  This IPT will feature increasing numbers of geese and cranes with lots of great opportunities.  

 

Bosque #3:  "The Post-Thanksgiving IPT"   NOV 24-26, 2007.  Slide Program on the evening of NOV 23.  3-DAY: $999.   (Limit 14: Sold Out).  Co-leaders: Robert O'Toole, Robert Amoruso, and Alfred Forns.  This IPT is scheduled on dates that I consider peak for Bosque. (There may be a Full Moon Add-on NOV 23; details TBA.)  If you register for this one, hold off on buying your plane ticket if you might be interested in the add-on.)   

 

SW FLA Post X-mas IPT:   DEC 27-29, 2007.  Slide program on the of evening Wednesday, DEC 26, 2006.  3-DAY: $1029.  (Limit 12; Sold Out). Co-leaders: Alfred Forns, Robert O'Toole, & Robert AmorusoJoining us as guest co-leader will be full time professional photographer John Moran, Florida's unofficial Photographer Laureate.  You can learn about John’s amazing work here:  www.johnmoranphoto.com.   John will be doing his program, “Journal of Light: A Photographer's Search for the Soul of Florida" for the group on Wednesday, DEC 26 at 3:30 pm.  John’s work is so different from mine and from everyone else’s that he has been a huge inspiration to me over the past two years.  We will be visiting Sanibel Island, Venice Rookery, Cape Coral, and possibly Little Estero Lagoon (depending on the tides).  Herons, egrets, gulls, terns, skimmers, shorebirds, both pelicans, Osprey, Burrowing Owl, and lots more.  Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Stork possible.  

 

San Diego IPT: Jan 20-23, 2008.  Slide program on the Saturday early evening of JAN 19. 4-DAYS: $1399.  (Limit 12: Sold Out)  LaJolla, LaJolla Shores Beach, Coronado, and Santee Lakes.   Brown Pelicans in spectacular breeding plumage, Heerman’s & Western Gulls, Marbled Godwits & lots more shorebirds, Wood & Ring-necked Ducks & Lesser Scaup. Great flight photography.  And lots more. 

 

SW FLA President's Holiday IPT:  MAR 17-21, 2008  5-DAY: $1669. (Limit 14; 6 openings).  Slide program on the evening Sunday, MAR 16, 2007.  Co-leaders: Robert O’Toole, Alfred Forns, Fabiola Del Alcazar, & Robert Amoruso.  Sanibel Island, Little Estero Lagoon, Venice Rookery, Cape Coral.  Herons, egrets, gulls, terns, skimmers, shorebirds, both pelicans, Osprey, Burrowing Owl, and lots more. 

 

 

 

 

Buff-tailed Coronet, flash blur, Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador

Image Copyright 2007:  Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 

Canon 500mm IS lens with a 25 mm extension tube and the EOS-1D MIII.  ISO 400. Manual mode: 1/300 sec. at f/22. Five flash set-up.  

 

Here again I used Robert O’Toole’s Quick Mask techniques to remove the feeder and the second bird from the image (as I had planned to do as I depressed the shutter button).  This image shows the flash ghosting that I mentioned in the previous Bulletin.  In many cases the images were ruined, but I like the effect here.

 

The original is below:   

 

 

 

 

 Best and love and great picture-making to all,

artie

Note: Arthur Morris has been a Canon contract photographer since 1996 and continues in that role today.  Hunt's Photo of Boston, MA is a BAA sponsor as is Delkin Devices.  Back issues of all BAA Bulletins can be found in the Bulletin Archives which may be accessed from the home page at www.birdsasart.com