BIRDS AS ART BULLETIN

BIRDS AS ART BULLETIN #264

June 26, 2008

GANNETS GALORE TRIP REPORT & PICTORIAL

GANNETS GALORE/3 NEW AUGUST TRIPS

THE NUMBER ONE REASON TO VISIT BONAVENTURE THIS SUMMER

IPT UPDATES

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Photographic theme: Images from my recent trip to Bonaventure Island, Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec.

Northern Gannet pair, nesting material exchange, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops off the sky set manually: 1/800 sec. at f/4. Fill flash at +1 stop with Better Beamer. Mongoose M3.5 on the Gitzo 3530 LS tripod with the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm.

With the white skies I used lots of flash to make the whites really white. I used 45-point AAFPS to create sharp images of the two birds. This pair was nesting on the roof of a blind/shelter enabling us to utilize white or grey sky backgrounds. It may very well have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. See more details below.

Northern Gannet, head portrait, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops off the sky set manually: 1/640 sec. at f/7.1. Fill flash at zero with the Better Beamer. Mongoose M3.5 on the Gitzo 3530 LS tripod with the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm.

To make images like this you could either sit low at the edge of the colony or work the birds on the roof of the blind/shelter. (See more on that below.)

Northern Gannet, undersides “T” flight image, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 70-200 f/4 L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC (handheld at 154mm) with the EOS 1-D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering + 2/3 stop off the blue sky overhead sky set manually: 1/640 sec. at f/9. Fill flash in Manual Mode at 1:1.

In sunny conditions when using High Speed Synch for flash flight, I usually try not to use too high a shutter speed as the faster the shutter speed, the less the flash output. Check out this great BPN High Speed Synch tutorial for both Canon and Nikon users in the Educational Resources Forum here: http://birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14466 (New vistors will need to register; registration is free. Members may need to log in.)

GANNETS GALORE TRIP REPORT & PICTORIAL

Upon my return from the Zegrahm’s Wild Britain Cruise on June 11, I landed very late in Orlando, grabbed a motel, got some sleep, and flew to Montreal, Canada the next day. On the morning of the 13^th, I met Chris Dodds and friend/client John Zimmerman at 4am for the 13 hour drive to Perce in northern Quebec. It was blue skies all the way. On the morning of June 14, my 62^nd birthday, we took the ferry to Bonaventure Island and made the 1.8 mile walk up the big hill. I had been a bit worried about making that walk up and down for five straight days, but Chris was right: “Take it slow and it is an easy walk.” When we arrived at the gannetry, I was totally blown away. So so many birds at arms length. Dozens, even hundreds of gannets in the air at all times, many carrying huge loads of nesting material, many landing just yards away. That day, the photographic action was nonstop, but it was not a birthday present, for the succeeding four days were equally exciting. And as each day came and went, I visualized and created many new and different images. I felt like a painter locked in a huge warehouse with hundreds of blank canvases and an unlimited supply of paints. I was in bird photographer’s heaven.

That evening Chris and I met the five remaining members of the group. Weather permitting, we planned to spend four hours in a large Zodiac photographing the gannetry and the cliffs from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Though it was rough on the two mornings that we went out very early, we had some great flight and scenic opportunities. Then Danny, the skipper of the Zodiac, would drop us of on the island and we would make the climb to the birds. Danny brought along coolers full of sandwiches and fruit, enough to feed an army. Once he learned that I was diabetic he had his chefs prepare me egg salad and fruit salad every day. We would load our vests with food and head up the hill.

I have been to Antarctica. I have been to Kenya. I have been to Tanzania. And I have been going to Bosque for the past 13 years. All of those places offer great photographic opportunities. But no place that I have been has ever offered as consistent and spectacular action as Bonaventure. Rather than share the details of the trip with words, I will do it with images. And as usual there are lots of lessons and lots of details in the captions. If, after checking out the images, you would like to get in on the action this August, see GANNETS GALORE/3 NEW AUGUST TRIPS below.

Gannetry, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 15mm fish-eye lens handheld with the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 320. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/18.. ISO 400.

To create a sharp handheld image I rested my left forearm on the tower railing. I glanced at the double-bubble in the hot shoe just before depressing the shutter button and adjusted the camera as needed to level the image. (If the horizon line is off even a bit with the fish eye you will lose lots of the image after rotation and crop so it pays to be right on...)

Northern Gannet with seaweed for nest, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens with the 2X II TC and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops off the sky set manually: 1/500 sec. at f/11. Flash did not fire. Mongoose M3.5 on the Gitzo 3530 LS tripod with the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm.

As there were lots of birds collecting nesting material in the grass at the top of the cliff I sat down and went to work with the 2X teleconverter on the 400 DO. .

Northern Gannet, 2 day old chick in the nest, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 70-200 f/4 L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC (handheld at 280mm) with the EOS 1-D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop set manually: 1/250 sec. at f/5.6. On-camera fill flash at -1 stop with Better Beamer.

On our last morning there were dozens of brand new chicks. If you join us in August, they will all be fat and cute and sassy.

GANNETS GALORE/3 NEW AUGUST TRIPS

I had such a great time and made so many great images that I am going back to Quebec on August 14^th, mainly to create some images of the large, white fluffy chicks. The trips below offer amazing value. They include three four-hour Zodiac photo-cruises in the early morning hours (weather permitting), breakfast and snacks with more than enough left over to make a healthy lunch, seven more hours of great photography at the colony, four nights lodging (at $135/night), three return ferry trips ($25 per trip), and the park entrance fees ($3.50 per day). All Canadian dollars.

Now here is the amazing news: traveling all that way? Come a day early or stay an extra day—or both. Join Chris on the ferry at 9am, and photograph on your own for seven hours. That gives you four or five days of great photography for roughly the cost of three. You will need to cover your extra hotel night or nights, your ferry rides, and your park fees.

Can you stand any more great news? Chris is bi-lingual and over the course of his 131 walks up the hill, he has crafted a wonderful relationship with the park staff. Oftentimes his groups are invited to photograph from areas not generally accessible to the visiting public. Chris is an excellent photographer and a skilled teacher.

121,000 Northern Gannets. Non-stop flight photography. Fluffy, cute, white chicks by the thousands. Black-legged Kittiwakes, Common Murres, and Razorbills nesting on the cliffs. Gannet nests close enough to touch. Learn many new techniques including flash flight in sunny or cloudy conditions, creating flash blurs, flash as main light techniques, and creating intentional blurs.

Here are the details:

Gannets Galore: Aug. 12-14, 2008. Limit 6 - 1 opening CAD $1995.00. Introductory Slide Program: 7pm on AUG 11. Leader: Chris Dodds

Gannets Galore: Aug. 16-18, 2008. Limit 6 - 6 openings CAD $1995.00. Introductory Slide Program: 7pm on AUG 15. Leader: Chris Dodds

Gannets Galore: Aug. 20-22, 2008. Limit 6 - 6 openings CAD $1995.00. Introductory Slide Program: 7pm on AUG 19. Leader: Chris Dodds

Sign up for back to back trips and join Chris on the ferry for an additional day of great photography on your own and Chris will pick up the cost of the extra night’s lodging, the round-trip ferry fare, and the park fees. Gluttons may choose to add the day before and the day after for a total of nine great days of photography as above. (They will need to pick up the additional costs for the day before and/or the day after.) Register with a spouse or a friend (double occupancy) and apply a $200 discount to each registration.

Do consider joining Chris (or Chris and me on the middle trip) for the photographic experience of a lifetime. We fully expect the trips to fill in short order so if you are serious about joining us, please do not hesitate. You can find the complete details (including travel info and unsolicited testimonials) here: http://webfarm.foliolink.com/Asset.asp?AssetID=13968&AKey=HKP7BK55.

You must contact Chris to register. To register before Sunday call Chris at home: 1-450-827-1007. After that, try him on his cell: 1- 514-945-6195. Be sure to leave a message as Chris will be in and out of coverage for the next bit while scouting for an amazing Newfoundland Photo Trip for the summer of 2009. Follow up your phone message with an e-mail to Chris at chris@chrisdoddsphoto.com and please copy us at birdsasart@verizon.net. Registrations will be accepted on a first come/first served basis. If you get shut out of the middle trip, be assured that you will be in good hands with Chris.

Gannetry on the cliffs, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 24-105mm IS Zoom lens handheld at 96mm with the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/5.6.

You will enjoy lots of great chances to create scenic cliff-scapes from the Zodiac. Most of the birds nest on bare dirt atop the cliffs but as you can see here, good numbers of birds nest on the cliffs. The survival rate of the cliff-nesters is lower than that of the birds that nest up top.

Northern Gannet, resting in the rain, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm IS DO lens with the 2X II TC and the EOS1-D MIII on the Mongoose M3.5. ISO 200: 1/250 sec. at f/20. Manual flash as main light probably at 1:1.

After three weeks of just about perfect photography weather (mostly cloudy bright) on the Wild Britain cruise and the Bonaventure trip it started pouring on our last morning at the gannetry off of Perce. The birds are there for the touching so I thought of creating a flash as main light image of the rain drops on a nice bird. Flash as main light involves setting an ambient exposure that would yield a very dark or black image if the flash did not fire, in other words, the flash supplies ALL of the illumination.

Northern Gannet, awkward landing with nesting material, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 70-200 f/4 L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC (handheld at 154mm) with the EOS 1-D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering + 2 stops off the sky set manually: 1/1250 sec. at f/6.3. Fill flash at zero with Better Beamer.

We were blessed with grey skies and north winds. This created ideal conditions for photographing landing birds. The 70-200 with or without the 1.4X TC was deadly at Bonaventure.

THE NUMBER ONE REASON TO VISIT BONAVENTURE THIS SUMMER

The image below is not very impressive, until you consider the following. During the off season before last, the park put a roof on one of the observation decks creating a blind/shelter. Last summer it was just a roof. A few birds landed on it. This season, one pair had built a beautiful nest on one corner of the roof, and another pair was courting and building a nest just 4 feet away. By working from the steps leading to the deck it was possible to get at eye level to the birds and creating images with clean sky backgrounds was a piece of cake. Now, here’s the rub: earlier this season, a bird or two got caught in the openings between the roof slats and there is talk about removing the roof after this season. My dream is that the both nests will be successful (one did have an egg before we left) and that when I visit in August there will be two fat white chicks begging and getting fed… Do consider joining one of these amazing Gannets Galore trips.

Northern Gannet, female on nest, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops off the sky set manually: 1/1600 sec. at f/7.1. Flash off. Mongoose M3.5 on the Gitzo 3530 LS tripod with the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm.

This is the nest that had an egg (gannets lay only one) before we left. The unique occurrence of roof-nesting gannets presented amazing photographic opportunities. The first and second images in this Bulletin, and the two photos immediately below, were among the many that I created of the birds on the roof.

Northern Gannet, flash as main head portrait, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f.4 IS DO lens with the 2X II TC, a 25mm Extension tube, and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Flash (at +1/3 stop) as main light: 1/250 sec. at f/22 with Better Beamer. To maximize depth-of-field, I foucsed on the hinge of the bill, the vertical line in front of and below the eye; this ensured a sharp bill tip. Mongoose M3.5 on the Gitzo 3530 LS tripod with the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm.

Here, I set an exposure several stops darker than the correct ambient exposure. This rendered the white sky a pleasing middle-toned grey and created a quasi-studio portrait. To learn the basics of both fill flash and flash as main light techniques see the section on Flash Simplified in ABP II (916 pages on CD only): http://www.birdsasart.com/ABPII.htm

Northern Gannet, tight face portrait, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f.4 IS DO lens with the 2X II TC, a 25mm Extension tube, and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering off the white sky + 12/3 stops: 1/320 sec. at f/5.6. Fill flash at zero with the Better Beamer. Mongoose M3.5 on the Gitzo 3530 LS tripod with the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm.

Here, I added an extension tube so that I could focus closer than the minimum focusing distance of the lens. This was one of the many birds that roosted on the roof on most afternoons.

IPT UPDATES

Bosque IPT #1: NOV 22-25, 2008. Slide program on the evening of NOV 21. 4-DAY: $1799 Limit: 10/Openings: 2

Bosque IPT #2: NOV 29-DEC 2, 2008. Slide program on the evening of NOV 28. 4-DAY: $1799 Limit: 10/Openings: 3

SW FLA POST X-MAS IPT: DEC 27-29 or 30, 2008. Slide program on the evening of DEC 26. 4-DAY: $1799 (3-DAY OPTION: $1349) Limit: 10/Openings: 4

SW FLA PRESIDENT'S DAY IPT: FEB 13-17, 2009. Slide program on the evening of FEB 12. 5-DAY: $2249 Limit: 10/Openings: 5

Northern Gannet, landing blur, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens (handheld) and the Canon EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 50. Exposure as usual: 1 2/3 stops of the white sky set manually: 1/30 sec. at f/20. On-camera fill flash at -1 stop with the Better Beamer.

After three days of insane flight photography I had so many wonderfully sharp flight images from Bonaventure that I decided to slow down and create some intentional blurs. (Next time I will not forget my 9-stop neutral density filters so that I can avoid those tiny apertures...) This is a small crop from the right and from below, otherwise right out of the box.

Northern Gannet, immature, flash flight, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 70-200 f/4 L IS lens (handheld at 100mm) with the EOS 1-D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering + 2 stops off the sky set manually: 1/2000 sec. at f/4. Manual flash as fill at 1:1 with Better Beamer.

This image was created from the Zodiac on a windy morning. The birds were hovering right above us. With the boat rocking, I clipped the bird’s right wing tip and replaced the very ends of the three effected primaries individually using the Quick Mask techniques described so well in Robert O’Toole’s APTATS I PDF: http://www.birdsasart.com/aptats.htm

Chris Dodds smiling, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

I always enjoy a good challenge. Chris asked me to try and create a nice image of him smiling. Many others had tried and failed…

Chris is a passionate and caring leader as well as an excellent leader and an all around nice man.

Steve Metildi resting, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Steve, a multiple-IPT veteran is a skilled photographer and as pleasant as can be. Here, he is attempting to regain some strength after a morning of non-stop gannet action.

Northern Gannet, “No, No Gannette,” Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MIII on a Mongoose M3.5. ISO 50. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/30 sec. at f/14. ETTL flash at zero with Better Beamer.

The gannets perform a territorial display where they droop their wings, bob up and down, and shake their heads violently from side to side as if saying "no!." As soon as I saw this behavior I thought "flash blur." You create a flash blur by choosing a slow shutter speed along with the correct ambient exposure while firing the flash (usually in ETTL at zero). The flash creates a single sharp image super-imposed atop the blurred ambient image. As you cannot "see" what you will get, it is best to make as many images as possible. You do, however, need to set the drive to something slower than high speed so that the flash has flash time to recycle.

Cloudy sky and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS lens handheld at 100mm with the Canon EOS-1D MII. SIO 400. Evaluative metering + 1 stop set manually: 1/500 sec. at f/11.

I have created hundreds of images of the sea and the sky that looked great in the viewfinder and have always deleted every one. I finally made one that looks as good on the laptop as it did through the viewfinder.

Northern Gannet, “Seaweed in Your Face,” Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens (handheld) and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops of the sky: 1/1600 sec. at f/8. On-camera fill flash at zero with the Better Beamer.

At close range I am often amazed by how well the 400 DO/Mark III combination focuses on birds flying rapidly right at you.

Northern Gannet with mouthful of grass for nest, Bonaventure Island, Quebec

Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MIII on the Mongoose M3.5. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/10. ETTL flash at zero with Better Beamer.

This one was made by sitting next to the rope at the edge of the colony so as to have the Gulf of St. Lawrence as background.

.....

Best and love and great picture-making to all,

artie

Note: Arthur Morris has been a Canon contract photographer since 1996 and continues in that role today. Hunt's Photo of Boston, MA is a BAA sponsor as is Delkin Devices. Back issues of all BAA Bulletins can be found in the Bulletin Archives which may be accessed from the home page at www.birdsasart.com. To unsubscribe click here: unsubscribe.