BIRDS AS ART BULLETIN 153

NOVEMBER 15, 2004

Visit: www.birdsasart.com

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

LENS AND LAND RANCH VISIT/PHOTO ADDED

DELKIN NP-E3 REPLACEMENT BATTERIES FOR CANON DIGITAL CAMERAS/CORRECTION

FREE EXCERPT FROM DE SOTO/SARASOTA GUIDE

Photo Theme: images (except for the Lowry McAllen photo) made at the North Skyway fishing pier in a single morning.

Baitfish, Skyway fishing Pier, St. Petersburg, FL

LENS AND LAND RANCH VISITS

I will be leaving in 36 minutes to fly to Canon's Lake Success headquarters to meet with three top lens engineers/designers from Japan. I fly back to Florida on Tuesday for the Spacecoast Birding Festival, and then continue on to New Mexico on Friday for the three sold out IPTs. I will be out of the office until at least 7 DEC so please hold off on any questions for me till then. Jen will be here taking care of the tour business, and Jim will be here to meet your mail order needs. Be safe, and have a great Thanksgiving.

LENS AND LAND RANCH VISITS

I inadvertenly failed to insert the image of Lowry McAllen at work in Bulletin 152:

Lowry McAllen at work, Las Colmenas Ranch, TX

Image copyright 2004 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Lowry worked virtually non-stop to ensure a successful photo-visit. He even cleaned out the floating debris from a tiny morning pond in the dark with a fish net so that we would have clean backgrounds for any bathing birds.

DELKIN NP-E3 REPLACEMENT BATTERIES FOR CANON DIGITAL CAMERAS/CORRECTION

From friend/subscriber Bob Ettinger who noted that I incorrectly typed mHa in Bulletin 152:

"mAh is the abbreviation of 'milli-amp hours'.  It is the product of current ('Amps') and time (hours).  mAh is a measure of the total energy available from the battery.

If your battery indicated 1.5 mAh, that means that it will supply 1.5 mA for 1 hour, or 3 mA for 1/2 hour, or 0.75 mA for 2 hours, etc."

Thanks Ett!

     Snowy Egret and breaking baitfish, Skyway fishing Pier, St. Petersburg, FL

Image copyright 2004 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

FREE EXCERPT FROM DE SOTO/SARASOTA GUIDE

If you find few or no birds at North Beach on a morning low tide and strike out after back-tracking to Isla Del Sol, do not despair.  Head back to I-275 and take it South.  Just before the Sunshine

Skyway bridge, take the exit for the (north) Fishing Pier.  (Be sure to follow the signs to the pier carefully.)  Pay your fee, open your eyes, and park the car.  There are often huge feeding sprees

of terns, gulls, and pelican as there is often a ton of bait taking shelter under the pier.  Even Snowy Egrets often join in and get to practice their in-flight dip-feeding.   A handheld intermediate telephoto

lens is best for the flight photography which will be quite challenging at best as the birds are wheeling, diving, and fishing erratically.  With a long lens and a 2X TC head shots of Sandwich and Royal

Terns are possible and head shots of Laughing Gulls are easy as many birds come to rest on the railings.  The Snowy Egrets often land on the railings with the baitfish in their bills (but swallow them

a bit too quickly!)   This is a morning-only spot and if there is an east, southeast, or south wind, the action can be incredible.   All but the image of Lowry McAllen were made on a single morning in early

November 2004.  I regret that because of time constraints I am unable to include the technical data and comments.

To order your BAA site guide, click here:  http://www.birdsasart.com/siteguides.htm  (So far only Bosque and the De Soto/Sarasota Guides are available.

Brown Pelican, Skyway fishing Pier, St. Petersburg, FL

Image copyright 2004 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Sandwich Terns and Laughing Gull on railing, Skyway fishing Pier, St. Petersburg, FL

Image copyright 2004 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

 Sandwich Tern head portrait, Skyway fishing Pier, St. Petersburg, FL

Image copyright 2004 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Best and love and great picture-making to all,
Artie

Note: Arthur Morris has been a Canon contract photographer since 1994 and continues in that role today. Hunt's Photo of Boston, MA is a BIRDS AS ART sponsor, as is Delkin Devices. Do feel free to forward this Bulletin to one or more photographer-friends. Those wishing to subscribe click here: mailto:http://birdsasart.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=94ad23bd96f48a1de2ca612b3&id=bdb4a511a0?subject=subscribe To unsubscribe, click here: mailto:birdsasart@verizon.net?subject=unsubscribe. Back issues of all BAA Bulletins and relevant BAA Notes are archived on the web site at: http://www.birdsasart.com/bn.html