BIRDS AS ART BULLETIN #252
January 15, 2007
Visit www.birdsasart.com
BREEZEBROWSER PRO v1.7.3 RELEASED
BIRDP HOTOGRAPHERS.NET/IT AIN'T JUST BIRDS IS R OCKIN’
NEOS ADVENTURER OVERSHOES
MARK II 1Ds TIP
MARK III/MARK III 1Ds USER’S GUIDE
SELECT DELKIN e-FILM PRO COMPACT FLASH CARDS ON SALE
MORE TODD GUSTAFSON MAGIC
POSSE NEWS
IPT UPDATES
LAKE WALES LIBRARY PROGRAM
LIGHT FROM WHERE?
BLUBBS IN STOCK
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.
We gladly accept credit card orders by phone 8am till 7pm Eastern Time (8 am till 3pm Fridays).
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.
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Photographic theme: Assorted favorite images from recent Florida outings.
Important Request: if responding to this e-mail, please take the time to delete all images and all irrelevant text.
Brown Pelican, St. Petersburg, FL
Image Copyright 2008: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
Canon 400mm f/4
DO lens with the 1.4X II TC (handheld) and the EOS 1D Mark II. ISO 500.
Metered off the sky 30 degrees up from the horizon and added 2/3 stop: 1/1600
sec. at f/7.1 set manually.
.
Captain James (Froggie) Shadle and I took a busman's holiday aboard his flats boat "Hooptie" last Monday morning. I am not a huge fan of the light-toned water in the lower left corner... I tried to make it black and I tried to make it green, but neither worked, so I went with the real deal. Thanks again Froggie!
BREEZEBROWSER PRO v1.7.3 RELEASED
I am a happy man
(as always…)
BreezeBrowser Pro v1.7.3 with
full support for 1Ds Mark III raw conversion, shooting data and focus point
overlay information has just been released. I keep hearing about this or that
new program for editing and converting digital images, but each time I question
folks about the details the answers are always the same, “It does that almost as
well and almost as fast as Breezebrowser, but it costs six times more.” If you
are using a PC and you are not using Breezebrowser Pro for your editing and
Downloader Pro to get your images off your flash cards and onto your computer
quickly with the IPTC data embedded and the location added to the file name at
the end of the file number, then you are wasting valuable time, and lots of it.
Even Lightroom users will benefit from Breezebrowser’s editing speed. You can
learn more about these two great programs here:
http://www.birdsasart.com
Wood Stork, head and shoulders portrait, Fort DeSoto Park, St. Petersburg, FL
Image Copyright 2008: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1Ds Mark III. ISO
500. Evaluative Metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6 set manually after
histogram check. Gitzo 3530 LSV tripod and Mongoose M3.5 head.
In the Fort DeSoto Site Guide (http://tinyurl.com/2rx39q) I urge folks to arrive early. Wood Storks and spoonbills can often be closely approached in the pre-dawn but usually leave just as the sun is rising. When I visited last Tuesday there were three Wood Storks present early on… Here I added a bit of canvas above the bird.
BIRDPHOTOGRAPHERS. NET/IT AIN'T JUST BIRDS UPDATE
One of the many things that have amazed me about our new educational and critiquing web site, BirdPhotographers.Net/It Ain't Just Birds (www.BirdPhotographers.Net) is the number of highly skilled photographers from overseas who have joined our ranks as active participants. It is wonderful to see great images of species that I shall most likely never get to experience in this lifetime. Below are links to some of these great images from our foreign contributors.
(If you are a first time visitor, you will be prompted to register. Registration is free. Folks who will be using our image hosting services or otherwise wish to support our efforts are invited to become members by clicking here:
http://www.birdphotographers
Chris Van
Rooyen is as good as it gets:
http://birdphotographers.net
From New South
Wales, Australia, a lovely Eastern Yellow Robin by Thonnaksar: http://birdphotographers.net
Alexander
Koenders’ amazing Firecrest, an obvious relative of our kinglets:
http://birdphotographers.net
And Rich
Steele’s wonderful singing Whitethroat:
http://birdphotographers.net
Lastly,
Moderator Jasper Doest’s evocative Japanese Macaque:
http://birdphotographers.net
It is wonderful to see so many great images being posted by IPT veterans. Check out some of the great images below.
From Ivan
Rothman: Moose at Daybreak:
http://birdphotographers.net
Doug West’s
Right at You White Ibis:
http://birdphotographers.net
And Diane
Chenault’s copulating Bald Eagles:
http://birdphotographers.net
As you will see when you visit, activity in the "Avian, Wild and Free" forum (and in many of the other Forums as well) continues at a frenetic pace. Our lead-by-example philosophy has been paying off in spades as many members are now posting honest, substantive critiques done gently. I look forward to seeing you on-line.
Ring-billed Gulls and Forster's Terns on railing, Indian Lake Estates, FL
Image Copyright 2008: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS zoom lens (handheld) with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 400. Metered the blue sky 30 degrees above the horizon +1/3 stop: 1/2500 sec. at f/6.3 set manually.
The key to the success of this image is that the first gull leaned forward allowing me to see the head of the second bird. The tern just behind the 2nd gull is, however, a bit distracting...
NEOS ADVENTURER OVERSHOES
I have been using a pair of Neos Adventurer Overshoes for years in a variety of situations. These lightweight overshoes are 1000 times more elegant than galoshes (which still does not make them very elegant…) They are, however, completely waterproof and fit comfortably over whatever you are wearing. Sneakers, hiking boots, even your best Sunday-go-to meeting shoes; slip on your NEOS and your inner footwear will be as dry when you take off the NEOS as they were when you put them on. I have used them in Florida on dewy mornings, in snowy conditions in the northeast, at the East Pond at Jamaica Bay, on wet sub-arctic tundra in Nome and Barrow, and many more spots in between. I have used them in mud and muck and to cross shallow frigid streams. Tuck your pants legs into the tall flaps and seal them with the upper Velcro-ed strap. The ankle strap has Velcro fastening and a strong plastic buckle. If you are tired of having wet feet after an early morning photo session, then a pair of NEOS should be in your future.
We are selling them for the cheapest price on the web (more than $10 cheaper in many cases): $64.99 plus shipping via UPS ground. And unlike most vendors, we actually have all sizes in stock. See the sizing chart below.
| XS | S | M | L | XL | XXL | |
| US Men | 3.5-5 | 5.5-7 | 7.5-9 | 9.5-11 | 11.5-13 | 13.5-15 |
| US Women | 5-6.5 | 7-8.5 | 9-10.5 | 11-12.5 | 13-14.5 | 15-16.5 |
| Euro | 35-37 | 38-40 | 41-42 | 43-45 | 46-48 | 49-50 |
| Insole | 10.25 x 4in | 11 x 4.25in | 11.75 x 4.375in | 12.375 x 4.5in | 12.75 x 4.75in | 13.5 x 4.875in |
If you plan on wearing your NEOS over hiking boots, it would be best to skip to the next larger size.
MARK III 1Ds TIP
I noticed with my brand new EOS 1Ds Mark III that I was only able to make two images before I hit the buffer. A quick e-mail to Chuck Westfall, Canon’s top Technical Representative, turned up the answer. Whenever you use in-camera noise reduction, the camera takes much longer to write the image to the card. Best in most cases to turn off the in-camera noise reduction and do your NR either during or after the conversion. I use the noise reduction in Breezebrowser that is applied during the RAW conversions.