- The Blog is the Bomb
- New York City Weekend Nature Photography Seminar
- Bear Boat IPT Report
- Africa Photo Safari: August 2013
- B&H Sigma Lens Specials
- B&H Event Space Event of Note
- IPT Updates
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Coastal Brown (Grizzly) Bear backlit in fog. This image was created at Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park, AK with the tripod-mounted Canon 500mm f/4L IS II lens, 1.4X III TC, and the Canon EOS-5D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/8 in Av mode. Central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF and recompose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image for a larger version. We nicknamed the bear above “Little Mr. Huffer.” To learn what happened when we first met this feisty little bear, click here. You will see several more really good images and learn a ton while you are at it. Do see the before and after images in the animated GIF below; strange how you can lift the fog with digital. |
The Blog is the Bomb
I continue to put in 20+ hours a week towards making the blog informative, timely, and beautiful. Most of the educational features that formerly appeared in BAA Bulletins now grace the BAA Blog. If you have a problem subscribing, please contact us via e-mail. 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.
Here are some links to recent posts of interest:
Learn why BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tours (BAA IPTs) are head and shoulders above most other photography tours by clicking here.
Learn why I prefer CF cards to SD cards in “Why I Hate SD Cards.”
Read about the Adventures of Little Mr. Huffer (see the opening image above) here.
Do you know what a central sensor crop is? If not, click here”Standard Operating Procedure.”
Check out the Multiple Exposure feature of the Canon EOS-5D Mark III here.
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“The Birds and the B’s and the Flowers and the Trees” |
NYC Weekend Nature Photography Seminar
Presented by Denise Ippolito/A Creative Adventure and Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
Hilton Garden Inn, Staten Island, New York. December 8-9, 2012 from 9am-4:30pm.
Weekend: $169. SAT or SUN: $99. Lodging available for out of town guests.
Registration Incentives
A Free copy of Digital Basics and a discount on a choice of Educational Materials
All weekend Seminar Registrants will receive a copy of Digital Basics (a $20 value) that will include the free updates. In addition, all weekend Seminar Registrants are invited to apply a $20 discount on one of the following items:
The Art of Bird Photography. The original soft-cover How-to classic.
The Art of Bird Photography II. The all-new follow-up: 916 pages on CD only.
The Two-Book Bundle. One of each of the above.
A Guide to Pleasing Blurs. By Arthur Morris & Denise Ippolito. Learn everything that you need to know about creating the eye-catching pleasingly blurred images that are doing so well in all major photography contests.
A Guide to Creative Filters and Effects. By Denise Ippolito. Denise shares dozens of her best creative techniques.
Any of our Camera User’s Guides. Learn to set up and use your Canon or Nikon camera like a pro.
Phone orders only. Folks who have already registered qualify for the benefits above and will hear from us via e-mail.
For Small Groups
Get together with a group of four (or more) friends–five (or more) folks in all and apply a $40 discount to each registration fee. Here’s how: put five checks in an envelope and be sure to include an e-mail address for each registrant. Then mail the envelope to us. Or, send an e-mail to Jim with a list of the names and e-mail addresses for each registrant. Then call Jim at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand and then collect from each of your friends.
To Register
To register for the seminar you can call Jim or Jennifer between 9am and 5pm weekdays (2:30 pm on Fridays) or call artie on weekends or evenings at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand. You can send a PayPal to us at birdsasart@verizon.net or to birdsasart@att.net. Or you can send a check made out to “Arthur Morris” for the full amount in US dollars to us here: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855; be sure to include a note with your clearly written e-mail address and phone number on it and print the words “NYC Seminar” on your check. You will receive a confirmation letter approximately 3 weeks before the seminar. Please e-mail for lodging options.
Camera Club Discounts
We are offering a $20/person discount to members of camera clubs or natural history organizations that promote the seminar on their websites or via an e-mail blast to their membership list. Have your club president or webmaster e-mail us for details.
What You Will Learn at the NYC Seminar:
- 1-How to become a better nature photographer.
- 2-How to create technically perfect, artistically designed images in the field.
- 3-How to make your images look better during the image optimization process: RAW conversions, image clean-up, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, saving the WHITEs, and lots more.
- 4-New ways to photograph flowers and trees.
- 5-How to get the right exposure every time in ten seconds or less.
- 6-How to create the truly pleasing blurs that are so popular today in many prestigious contests.
- 7-Why the longest lens in your bag is often not the best lens for bird photography.
- 8-How to use NIK Color Efex Pro to revamp your digital workflow and dramatically improve the look of your images.
- 9-How to evaluate your images; each registrant will be asked to submit two 1400 X 1050 jpegs via e-mail before November 25; a selection of the submitted images will be chosen for critiquing at the seminar.
- 10-flight photography tips.
Seminar Schedule
Saturday: Image Capture–Doors open: 8am
9:00am: denise/slides: Blooming Ideas/Creating new and different images of flowers and trees
10:00am: artie/slides: Tools of the Trade/Choosing and using lenses for bird and wildlife photography
11:00am: Break
11:15am: artie/slides: Beautiful Image Basics/Learning to create pleasing image designs
12:00noon: Lunch break
1:30pm: artie and denise: Refining your photographic vision. Learning to extract the image from the larger scene
2:15pm: denise & artie: Pro Gear Handling Tips: Live demos/tripod and lens handling in the field. Includes flight photography tips.
2:45pm: artie: It’s easier than you think: How to clean your sensor without fear or trepidation/Live Demo
3:00: Break
3:30: denise & artie/slides: Creating Pleasing Blurs/Using slow shutter speeds, panning, camera movement, and more. More and more prestigious contests are awarding prizes to creatively blurred images. Learn how at the seminar and follow up by getting a copy of “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs.”
4:00: artie/slides or chalkboard? Getting the Right Exposure with Digital: It’s as easy as pie. If you have ten seconds with the subject there is no excuse for not getting the right exposure every time with digital.
4:30: The End
Sunday: Image Processing & Evaluation–Doors open: 8am
9:00am: artie’s Digital Workflow: RAW conversion in ACR, recovering and saving the WHITEs, NIK Color Efex Pro basics.
9:45am: artie: Image clean-up with the Clone Stamp Tool, leveling images, the Spot Healing Brush, and Quick Masks.
10:20am: break
10:40am: denise’s Digital Workflow: RAW conversion in Lightroom, Working with Layers and Masks.
11:30am: denise’s Personal NIK favorites: She discusses the less commonly used Color Efex Pro filters and shares tips on creating her modern vintage look. (Yeah, it’s a bit oxymoronic.) Also: an amazing Photoshop Brush Size tip. (Sorry for the pun.)
12:00 noon: Lunch break
1:30pm: denise/slides: Creative Filters and Effects/Working with Photoshop plug-ins and filters
2:30pm: break
2:45: Image Critiques: artie & denise: Only 1400 X 1050 jpegs submitted via e-mail before November 25 will be considered. A selection of the submitted images will be chosen for critiquing.
3:45: Door prizes
4:30: The End
The Sunday portion of the seminar will teach you to realize the potential of and and get the most of from your digital files. Here, a simple Levels adjustment got most of the work done. Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast from NIK’s Color Efex Pro each painted in on a Hide-All Layer Mask added the finishing touches. Levels adjustments and Hide-All Layer Masks are just two of the dozens of topics covered in detail in our Digital Basics File. |
NIK
As regular readers know NIK’s Color Efex Pro 4 is now an integral part of my workflow. You can save 15% on all NIK products by clicking here and entering BAA in the Promo Code box at check-out. Then hit Apply to see your savings. You can download a trial copy that will work for 15 days and allow you to create full sized images.
Click here for a cool NIK tutorial.
In-the-Field Seminar Follow-up Workshop
Put your newly-learned skills to use by joining denise and artie in the field at a nearby Queens, NY location on the Monday following the seminar. The subjects will—for the most part—be routine: gulls and Canada Geese. But we will be close to the birds and should have some flight photography opportunities. And we just might have some good chances with Brant and who knows what as well. Most important, the opportunities for learning will be pretty much unlimited.
In-the-Field Seminar Follow-up Workshop: Queens, NY. Monday, December 10th, 2012. Includes two sessions: 5:45-10:30am and 2:30-4:30pm. Two great leaders: Limit: 16 photographers/Openings: $350 per person.
We will consider an overflow session on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 if the first day sells out and/or for folks who wish to do two full days. Payment in full is due at sign-up. To register, please call Jim or Jennifer between 9am and 5pm weekdays or artie on weekends and evenings at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand. Or send a PayPal to us at birdsasart@verizon.net or to birdsasart@att.net. Or send a check made out to “Arthur Morris” for the full amount in US dollars to us here: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. Be sure to include a note with your clearly written e-mail address and phone number on it and print the words “In-the-Field Follow-up Workshop” on your check. You will receive a confirmation letter approximately 4 weeks before the workshop.
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Squabbling Coastal Brown (Grizzly) Bears. This image was created at Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park, AK with the tripod-mounted Canon 500mm f/4L IS II lens, 1.4X III TC, and the Canon EOS-5D Mark III. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop as framed: 1/500 sec. at f/7.1 in Manual mode. Left of center sensor/AI Servo Surround Rear Focus AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image for a larger version. Learn everything that I know about this great camera along with my favorite AF Area Selection Modes in the 5D Mark III User’s Guide and save $10 by clicking here. As you will see, the list of unfinished items has dwindled considerably. The guide is nearly complete. When I am finished, the price will go to $50. |
Bear Boat IPT Report
I spent 13 days on the bear boat in Katmai National Park in late July. Half of that time with an IPT group. Though everyone left with dozens of great images and having learned a ton, the overall experience was a bit disappointing. Why? During this same two week time period over the past several years there were always football-sized bear cubs at Hallo Bay playing and nursing. Though that was the plan for this year, there were none. The likely causes were a long, cold, especially harsh winter and a poor fish run last fall.
SW Florida IPT veteran Val Sneberg was along for his first bear boat IPT. Val is a very interesting man always quick with a good story and a smile. He brought along his good friend David Powell. David was a total photography beginner but turned out to be a quick study with a good eye for composition. He showed up not knowing a histogram from an angiogram but by the morning of Day 2 he was nailing all his exposures. After that he kept on learning and improving. Paul Wollam had been on several IPTs over the years. He called me about 18 months ago and told me that he was dying of pancreatic cancer. After treatment he is doing great and smiling a lot. This was his first bear trip. Good friend and multiple IPT veteran Jim Heupel, retired chief judge of the US Air Force, was on at least his second bear boat trip. He kindly downloaded all of David’s images to an external hard drive and backed them up. Top student Clemens van der Werf was with me for most of the trip. In addition to being a skilled photographer Clemens was a huge help in and around the skiff. And as always, Clemens was quick to help others with their photography both in the field and during breaks.
Overall the weather was pretty darned good and we had lots of bears. On a drizzly morning Jim and David and I left Paul and Val behind with the bears and headed outside of Geographic Harbor to do some halibut fishing. We caught a ton of fish including lots of eating-sized halibut (15-20 pounds) and a slew of 3 and 4 pound sole. Despite my having lost a 50 pounder, a 25 pounder, and a 30 pounder at the boat I had a blast and smiled through it all.
I have scheduled a Katmai bear boat trip for the first week of September, 2013, prime time for photographing bears catching salmon. If you are a Happy Camper and would like to join us or receive additional details, please e-mail.
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Tufted Puffin in flight low above the water. This image was created in Katmai National Park, AK with the hand held Canon 500mm f/4L IS II lens, 1.4X III TC, and the Canon EOS-5D Mark III. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops off the light sky: 1/1250 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image for a larger version. Photographing puffins in flight from a small skiff is about as challenging as it gets in bird photography; have you ever tried to photograph a flying potato? We spent several hours doing puffin flight photography and I kept very few images. The Horned Puffins are smaller, faster, and flew more erratically than the tufteds. The new 500 is light enough for me to handhold for short periods of time especially for flight or action. I will be doing a complete review of the 500II on the blog in a few weeks. |
Africa Photo Safari: August 2013
Serengeti Summer Migration Safari: 12 full and two half-days of photography: $12,999/person double occupancy. Limit: 12/Openings: 10.
Leaders: Todd Gustafson, Denise Ippolito, and Arthur Morris.
Leave the US AUG 3, 2013. Fly home from Arusha, Tanzania on the evening of August 18. Day 1 of the safari is August 5. Our last morning of photography is August 18. We will be visiting Taranagire National Park, Seronera Lodge–aka Leopard City!–twice, an exclusive mobile tented camp in the Serengeti, and at the end, the spectacular wildlife spectacle that is Ngorongoro Crater.
A deposit of $4,000 is due now. We will not cash your check until we have 7 deposits in hand. If the trip does not run, we will return or tear up your check. As there has been great interest already, we fully expect that the trip will run.
Happy Campers only please.
Once we cash your check you will be strongly advised to purchase travel insurance. While we all assume that we will be fine, health and family emergencies do arrive unexpectedly. You may wish to consider using Travel Insurance Services. Do understand that most policies must be purchased within two weeks of our cashing your deposit check.
The 2nd payment of $4000 is due NOV 30, 2012. The final payment/balance is due MAR 30, 2013.
Sign up with a friend or a spouse and apply a $300 per person discount.
Minimum to run as noted above: 7 photographers. Guaranteed maximum no more than 12 photographers plus the three great leaders. 3 persons/van. You get a row of seats for yourself and your gear. In addition to rotating in-the-field instruction with each of the co-leaders, artie, Todd, and denise will be available for image sharing and review and informal Photoshop instruction during breaks and after meals. And–with apologies to Miss Manners–even during meals!
The lodging is all first class. Please e-mail for a PDF with additional details, the complete itinerary, and a description of the unparalleled photographic opportunities that we will enjoy.
Please write or call with any questions. As always, we will work with the first 12 deposits that we receive. I hope that you can join us.
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I am looking forward to returning to Africa after a somewhat protracted absence due to a health problem, a severe gliaden allergy reaction that messed up my gut. This African Elephant with young was photographed in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania in January, 2002 with the Canon 500mm f/4L IS and my first digital camera, the Canon EOS-1D. This image was a recent Ranger Rick cover. |
B&H Sigma Lens Specials
I have, on many occasions, seen the incredible images made by Robert O’Toole with the Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO autofocus lens. It is lightweight, relatively inexpensive, sharp as a tack at f/8, and it features an almost ridiculous minimum focusing distance. The OS refers to the optical stabilizer in the lens. Best of all, B&H is now offering some very nice rebates on both the Canon and Nikon versions of this lens as well as on a wide variety of other Sigma lenses.
Click here to learn more about the Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO autofocus lens with Canon mount.
Click here to learn more about the Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO autofocus lens with Nikon mount.
Click here to learn more about the rebate offers for all Sigma Canon mount lenses.
And click here to learn more about the rebate offers for all Sigma Nikon mount lenses.
Your purchase will help us be able to continue providing free information on the blog and in the BAA Bulletins.
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Coastal Brown (Grizzly) Bear fishing blur. This image was created at Geographic Harbor, Katmai National Park, AK with the tripod-mounted Canon 500mm f/4L IS II lens, 1.4X III TC, and the Canon EOS-5D Mark III. ISO 50. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/15 sec. at f/20 in Tv mode. One left of central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image for a larger version. With my 5D MIII I set C2 as my Custom Shooting Mode blur pre-set. To learn to create and set your Custom Shooting Modes and save $10 for just a bit longer get yourself a copy of our 5D Mark II User’s Guide by clicking here. Learn all there is to know about creating pleasing blurs with a copy of A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly. |
B&H Event Space Event of Note
Denise Ippolito and I will be doing a program on Creating Pleasing Blurs at the B&H super-store in Manhattan on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 from 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM. Best news: it’s free. Worst news: it has long been sold out. Hopeful news: if and when folks cancel, registration will be re-opened. You can check here. If you will be in the neighborhood, you can wait in line before the program begins in hopes of getting an open seat. Good luck!
Shopper’s Guide
Below is a list of the gear used to create the images in today’s post. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.
Canon 500mm f/4L IS II lensI decided to leave the 800 at home for the bear boat trip and quickly fell in love with the 500 II for its light weight, great versatility, and four-stop IS. A complete review will be coming soon.
1.4X III TC The latest version of the 1.4X TC is designed to work best with the Series II Super-telephoto lenses.
Canon EOS-5D Mark III. Man, I am in love with this camera body. Both the files and the AF system are superb.
And from the BAA On-line Store:
LensCoats. I have a LensCoat on each of my big lenses to protect them from nicks and thus increase their re-sales value. All my big lens LensCoat stuff is in Hardwood Snow pattern.
LegCoat Tripod Leg Covers. I have four tripods active and each has a Hardwood Snow LegCoat on it to help prevent further damage to my tender shoulders 🙂 And you will love them in mega-cold weather….
Gizo GT3532 LS CF Tripod. This one replaces the GT3530LS Tripod and will last you a lifetime. I’ll be commenting on this new model soon. In short, I like it.
Mongoose M3.6 Tripod Head. Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head.
Double Bubble Level. You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
The Lens Align Mark II. I use the Lens Align Mark II pretty much religiously to micro-adjust all of my gear an average of once a month and always before a major trip. Enjoy our free comprehensive tutorial here.
BreezeBrowser. I do not see how any digital photographer can exist without this program.
Delkin 700X CompactFlash Pro UDMA Enabled Cards
All of the images above (but for the elephant image) were catpured on Delkin’s new 64gb 700X CompactFlash Pro UDMA Enabled Card. Learn more about these great cards by clicking here and learn why the more expensive 1000X cards are overkill for still photographers.
