Birds As Art Bulletin

Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache, NWR, San Antonio, NW

Canon 600mm f/4L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1Ds Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/40 sec. at f/5.6.

This is a slow shutter speed subject motion blur. You can learn everything that you wanted to know about creating pleasing blurs by joining Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris for the "A Blurry Day in Bosque 1-DAY IPT on NOV 27. See below for details.

This image was created on one of the 2006 Bosque IPTs. Artie used the knowledge earned with well more than a decade of experience to put his group in position to make some great pre-dawn blast-off images. Nobody else was able to sniff out this photo opp.... If you cannot make this year's IPT, the next best thing would be to get yourself a copy of the BIRDS AS ART Bosque Site Guide. (Note: check out the subject-movement-only blur image there....)

A BLURRY DAY IN BOSQUE IPT

A BLURRY DAY in BOSQUE del APACHE 2010 IPT: NOV 27, 2010. Slide program on the evening of Friday, NOV 26. 1-FULL DAY: $399. (Payment in full due upon registration.) Limit: 15/Openings: 13. Leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris.

Join Denise and Artie for a day of learning about and creating pleasingly blurred images. They are nearly finished completing their Guide to Pleasing Blurs; it should be available before the end of September. Denise is the very creative moderator of the Out of the Box Forum on BPN (BirdPhotographers.Net) and Artie as you all know very well is Mr. Famous Bird Photographer

There will be an introductory slide program on the evening of Friday, November 26 at 7pm sharp; meet at K-Bob's. artie and denise will go over the basic principles that separate pleasing blurs from lousy, out-of-focus images and will instruct you on a wide variety of techniques that you can use to create pleasingly blurred images. You will learn to create motion blurs (including slow shutter speed blurs, extreme slow shutter speed blurs, pan blurs and subject-movement- only blurs), zoom blurs (in the field and in Photoshop), camera shake blurs, camera movement blurs, wind blurs, flash blurs and even blurs in bright sun--a polarizer or an ND filter is usually required for the latter. Heck, we may even do some Fractalius blurs!

There will be two guided in-the-field sessions on Saturday: 6am till 10:30 am & 3:00 pm till after sunset. And there will be a break after lunch. This one will likely fill very quickly.

Note: there are still three slots open on the Bosque IPT that features lots of great leaders including multiple BBC honoree Chris Van Royen of South Africa. See item last for details.

Snow Geese, flash blur, Bosque del Apache, NWR, San Antonio, NW

Canon 600mm f/4L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1Ds Mark II. ISO 320. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/30 sec. at f/5.6. Flash at -1 stop with Better Beamer.

There are 26 pages on the basics of creating pleasing blurs in Chapter IV of ABP II (916 pages on CD only). The Guide to Pleasing Blurs will cover a much wider variety of techniques in much great detail.

SW FLORIDA PRESIDENT'S WEEK IPT DATE CHANGE

Due to a mix-up with the dates of a speaking appearance at the Winter Wings Festival in Klamath Falls, OR next February, the dates for the SW Florida President's Week IPT have been changed. TAT (thanks a ton) to Geri Georg, Wayne Guerke, and Louise Burky for graciously agreeing to re-schedule. Here is the new and correct information:

SW FLA IPT: FEB 9-14, 2011. Slide program on the evening of FEB 8. 6 Full Days: $2899. (Limit 10/Openings 8). Escape winter's icy grip to enjoy a wide array of Florida's tame birds: herons, egrets, Wood Stork, shorebirds, gulls, terns, skimmers, raptors, and more. Please see item last for terms and deposit information.

above: white morph Reddish Egret, Little Estero Lagoon, Fort Myers Beach, FL

below: Great Egret, Little Estero Lagoon, Fort Myers Beach FL

Images copyright Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

above: Canon 600mm f/4L IS lens with 2X II TC/below: Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens.

On the SW FLA IPT we have a great chance of finding a variety of wading birds in mega-breeding plumage. Once again, if you cannot make the IPT, the SW FLA Site Guide will ensure that you wind up in the right place at the right time.

Painting On An Effect/A Photoshop Tutorial by Denise Ippolito

I hate making selections; in almost every case, the edges look unnatural even if you use Refine Edge. I have developed a technique that I call "Painting On An Effect" and use it to make virtually all of my targeted selections.

First bring your image into photoshop then make a duplicate layer by hitting Control J. Then make the change that you wish to apply to only part of the image to the entire image. Confused? Read it again: make whatever change you wish to apply to only a portion of the image to the entire image. You can selectively sharpen or play with the color or reduce noise or do whatever else you would like to do to a portion of your image. But you make the change to the entire image. Be sure, however, to make only one adjustment at a time. Then add a Layer Mask to the top layer and with the mask selected, hit Control I to invert the mask color to BLACK. This covers whatever adjustment you have made. Then select your soft (0 hardness) brush tool (B) and make sure that the foreground (the top color square) is set to white--if not, hit X. Now just paint away the mask over the image wherever you would like your original adjustment to show through.

Artie is learning this technique and used it with success on BPN here. Follow the link to learn of a new use for Selective Color that he came up with.

Check out Denise's A Creative Adventure; it's a great blog. And for those in the NJ area be sure to check out her Longwood Gardens and Barnegat Jetty workshops by scrolling down here.

Pectoral Sandpiper, juvenile, Jamaica Bay WR, Queens, NY

Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops: 1/80 sec. at f/8. (Should have been IS) 1600 +3 stops as the original capture was well underexposed in the dreary conditions. Fill flash with Better Beamer at -3 stops (should have been -2 stops).

The first frame in the animated GIF is the original capture. The second frame is the image after lightening the entire image a bit and image clean-up (all as per Digital Basics). To create the final image from the second frame I used Denise's Painting On An Effect technique to brighten the bird without lightening the background and without creating any selection halos.

POSSE NEWS/ROBERT O'TOOLE

Both of the Homer IPT trips that Robert and I are co-leading sold out within days--see below for details on those or to have your name added to the waiting list. By popular demand, Robert has added an earlier trip that he will be leading alone. There is only a single opening.

March 12-16, 2011 (slide program the evening of March 11) 5-FULL DAYS: $2799. ABSOLUTE LIMIT: 5/Openings: 1 (plus the leader: Robert O'Toole)

Experience the "good old days" in Homer once again. One boat trip with legal eagle feeding each day (weather permitting). Robert has extensive Canon and Nikon experience as well as 5 years experience at Homer. All natural settings. You will photograph eagles in flight until you are too tired to lift your lens. On Robert's trip in late February 2010, some group members stayed in the motel on the last day because they were too tired to photograph! Eagles in flight, perched on lichen-and moss-covered driftwood, in small spruce trees, and on rocky beaches. Diving. Fighting. Fishing. This will be one of the great photographic experiences of your lifetime. Snow possible. Possible optional subjects: Long-tailed Duck, both goldeneye ducks, Common and Red-breasted Merganser, Northwestern Crow, and a variety of gulls; Slaty -backed Gull is possible. There is just one slot left: if you snooze on this one you will lose.

Bald Eagle, Homer, AK

Image copyright Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Canon 600mm f/4L IS lens with the EOS-1Ds Mark II. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/500 sec. at 4. Flash (flash as main light) with Better Beamer at -1/ stop. From the car with a BLUBB and the Wimberley F1 Flash Bracket; it is ideal when working from the car or on a Skimmer II or a Ground Pod.

Homer eagles are silly tame. Virtually all great stock images of Bald Eagle were created in Homer. Here I used flash as main light techniques to create a blue sky from what looked like a white sky. To learn how to use flash as fill, flash as main light, and manual flash, check out Telephoto Flash Simplified in Chapter VI of ABP II (916 pages on CD only).

IPT UPDATES

BOSQUE del APACHE 2010 IPT: �The Complete Bosque Experience.�NOV 20-26, 2010. Slide program on the evening of Friday, NOV 19. 7-FULL DAYS: $3199. (Non-refundable deposit: $500; see details below.) Limit: 10/Openings: 3. Co-leaders: Robert O�Toole, Jim Heupel, and multiple BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year honoree Chris Van Rooyen of South Africa (www.wildlifephotography.co.za/). Live, eat, and breathe photography with one of (if not the) world's premier photographic educators at one of his very favorite locations on the planet. Plus great co-leaders and top-notch Photoshop instruction. Please see terms and deposit info below.

SAN DIEGO IPT: JAN 19-23, 2011. Slide program on the evening of JAN 18. 5 Full Days: $2399 (Limit 8/Opening 7) Brown Pelicans in spectacular breeding plumage with their bright red bill pouches, Wood and Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaup, Western, California, and Heerman's Gulls, Marbled Godwit, and lots, lots more. Please see terms and deposit info below.

SW FLA IPT: FEB 9-14, 2011. Slide program on the evening of FEB 8. 6 Full Days: 2899. (Limit 10/Openings 8). Escape winter's icy grip to enjoy a wide array of Florida's tame birds: herons, egrets, Wood Stork, shorebirds, gulls, terns, skimmers, raptors, and more. Please see terms and deposit info immediately below.

Terms and deposit info:

A non-refundable deposit of $500 is required to hold a spot fn the above IPTs. Deposits may be paid by check, PayPal, or credit card. Payment in full (by check or money order only) is due four months before the start of each trip and is non-refundable unless the IPT sells out. You will be required to sign a statement of understanding to this effect. Travel insurance is of course highly recommended. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options is Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to an infinite list from a sudden work or family obligation to a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: http://www.travelinsure.com/what/selecthigh.asp?3294. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check or running your credit card. Travel insurance protects you against unexpected developments, injuries, or illnesses. We regret that we must implement this new policy but we have been plagued by last minute cancellations that make it impossible for others to participate and deprive us of essential income.

Important note: please print, fill out, and sign the registration and release forms and include them with your deposit check (made out to "Arthur Morris." ) If you use a credit card to register, please fill out, sign, and mail the forms asap. Your registration will not be complete until we receive your paper work. You can find the forms here.

2010 & 2011 Galapagos Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPTs/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience: July 2010 & July 2011: two weeks on the boat (Limits: 12/Sold out).

If you are a happy camper and would like to have your name(s) placed on a waiting list or either the 2010 or 2011 trip or on the the seriously interested list for the 2012 trip, please e-mail us at birdsasart@att.net

ROBERT O'TOOLE PHOTOGRAPHY HOMER BALD EAGLE INSTRUCTIONAL PHOTO-TOUR WITH ARTHUR MORRIS/BIRDS AS ART. March 18-22, 2011 & March 24-28. 5-FULL DAYS: $3249. Limit: 12 (Including the leaders/both sold out). Both of these trips sold out with long waiting lists within hours after being announced to the BAA Friends List. The Friends List consists of IPT veterans who fit in the happy camper category. If you have been on an IPT and/or you are a truly happy camper and would like your name added to the BAA Friends List, please e-mail me at birdsasart@att.net and include a short note.

MIDWAY ATOLL IPT, April 2012, (from Oahu, HI). 7-FULL DAYS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. (Sold Out.)

Best and great picture-making,

artie

Note: Arthur Morris has been a paid Canon contract photographer, part of the Explorers of Light program, since 1996 and continues in that role today. Hunt's Photo of Boston, MA is a BAA sponsor as is Delkin Devices.