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BIRDS AS ART BULLETIN #15
FLORIDA BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY REPORT
I have just returned from 25 days of teaching and photography
in South Florida, mostly around Fort Myers. If anything, this year was
different yet spectacular. After three plus years of being
consistently lousy, photography conditions at Ding Darling were somewhat erratic
but mainly fantastic, with many still mornings featuring huge feeding sprees
and/or good numbers of Roseate Spoonbills at 60 feet, the latter often posing
with their seamless reflections in mercury-quality powder blue
water....... It was as good as it gets.
Unfortunately, the water level in the Tower Pool was
(purposely) raised in early March and immediately thereafter there were
virtually no wading birds utilizing this area for feeding. Similarly,
visiting Ding for the photography after the water level was raised was and
remains a total waste of time. As dozens of photographers were glorying in
the wonderful opportunities afforded on an almost daily basis, one does wonder
why. (As I have said before, I truly believe that the refuge is managed in
a strongly anti-photographer manner.)
A white morph Great Blue (Great White) Heron returned to Blind
Pass for the second year, this time in breeding plumage with fine
ultramarine/blue lores. Estero Lagoon was consistently pathetic for
unknown reasons. (I visited only once, that by myself.) Venice was superb,
with Great Egret nesting in full swing as we speak. There are many perfect
birds with brilliant lime green lores, and generally, lots of action. The
fishing pier was excellent; one group enjoyed 3 straight afternoons with strong
west winds and blue skies; you could practically reach up and grab the Snowy
Egrets and pelicans as they hovered a foot or two from your face..... The
biggest surprise was that Shark Valley, usually a good but not great
spot, was just fantastic; one participant described it as a bird
photography supermarket. Each of my four groups made the two hour
drive from Fort Myers to Shark Valley (after awakening at 4:30 AM) and all were
thrilled. (The number of birds has been diminishing each week, but
photography at Shark was still very good on my last visit on 5 March.
Many first timers joined me this year, but repeat business has
been part of the key to the success of my tour business. It was great
seeing IPT old-timers Darrell Miller, Nick Chronis, Joe Peschi-look alike John
DiGigorgio, Norman and Cindy Batemen, Cyril Mazansky and Robert Sabin, among
others. Most amazingly, I met Glen and Dora Bianchini of Oxford, MS.
Glen and Dora have been photographing birds for less than 9
months. They bought and devoured "The Art of Bird Photography."
They use Canon equipment, Glen shooting with the old 600mm f/4 and Dora with the
500mm IS. So what's the big deal?? During the critiquing session, I
was amazed by the quality of their work. Of the ten images that each
shared with the group, I would have been thrilled to add at least five from each
group to the BIRDS AS ART files!!! In many cases, I thought that I was
looking at my own work. When I asked them how they got so good so fast,
they said, "Your book is our bible. We simply read it over and over
again and did what you said."
I was both stunned and gratified.
For those of you who have never attended a BIRDS AS
ART/IPT, here are two unsolicited thank yous that I received
recently:
From Cyril Mazansky:
Hi Art,
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. What
a great trip. I have just completed
going thru my 91 rolls and am
extremely satisfied. I set out on this trip with
a specific
photographic agenda and more than fulfilled my goals. For my first
such
trip, I am extremely pleased with my results. In no small measure
this was
due to you. Your zeal and energy are truly infectious.
Getting us to the right
places at the right time, efficiently utilizing every
available moment of the
day, constant hammering into our thick skulls the
technical and artistic
lessons, all paid handsome dividends. More
importantly I feel a good foundation
has been set for my next, whenever my
schedule will permit. I loved this type
of bird photography.
Harriet also loved the images and has selected a number to
make cards, which
she uses for correspondence and gifts. These are always a
big
hit.
Despite that second rate (!!) Nikon equipment, I feel that I
got some good
images. 96-98% of the images were taken at std. matrix
metering and only on
rare occasions did I bracket. I will leave it to
your critical eye to judge the
quality of the exposures, but overall I
was v. satisfied. I also good a few
reasonable flight shots with my
300mm F4 non-IS slow focusing lens. (Nikon's
80-400 4.5 IS is due out
this summer and I have already put my name down for one
of the first
delivered ones).
Darrell is such a nice person and it was an absolute joy
sharing the trip with
him. i can certainly understand why you like him
so much. I saw a big
improvement on his new Fl. images compared with
his first trip. He and I have
been corresponding quite a bit. I
have also corresponded with Matt. It was v.
nice of him to put together
the list
Please let me know when it is convenient for you to receive my
20 slides for
your critique. If you don't mind, I will send this
priority registered mail
with enclosures for similar return. They will
be originals and I fear
potential loss in the mail.
Once again thanks
a million for your dedication, commitment and a great trip.
Kindest
regards,
Cyril.
Another from Gail Bunt:
Hi Everyone,
I'm about 50 of 70 boxes of slides in, and awfully
happy. Lots of
keepers. That was a terrific trip. Artie's a great
photographer and
teacher and the group was full of interesting and generous
people. In
spite of having sworn off workshops and birds, I'm now
scheming after the
next Artie workshop and one of those big
lenses.
Two days after returning from Florida we headed for Vancouver to
visit our
daughter. I spent a morning at Lost Lagoon in Stanley
Park. It was full
of ducks--Coots, Canvasbacks, Goldeneyes, Mallards,
Wigeons, and more, as
well as swans. The birds are feeder-trained and
every time they oozed
away, all it took to bring them back was to rattle the
plastic bag of film
canisters. In my mind's ear Artie was bellowing,
"Point your shadow at
the bird." If you're ever in B.C. ...
I am home for six days and then headed to Nebraska to do
several programs for Audubon Magazine's and Nebraska Audubon's Millenium
Migration Festival. See my web site for details.
Best and great picture making,
Arthur Morris
P.S. Clean your reading glasses, we will be
sending several additional Bulletins during the next few
days.
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