Contact us by phone at 863-692-0906 (Eastern Time Zone) or by e-mail at birdsasart@att.net or birdsasart@verizon.net.  The att e-mail address is best from overseas.

We gladly accept credit card orders by phone from 8am till 7pm Eastern Time (8 am till 3pm Fridays and some weekends).  You can use the PayPal links on the web site to order anything.  Just type in the item(s) and the amount.  If using your own PayPal account, please send to either of the e-mail addresses above.

Note:  maximize this e-mail for best formatting. 

Important Request: if responding to this e-mail, please take the time to delete all images and all irrelevant text.

Black-throated Green Warbler, fall female on spent sunflower, Monhegan Island, ME

Image Copyright 2008: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MII.  ISO 400.  Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/8.

To see how even a top pro can learn a ton from good critiques, check out the BPN thread on this image here:  http://birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21669  This is the version that I created after getting some great advice from the members at Avian Free and Wild.   There you can read the story of the creation of the original and check out the original image that needed help.  Sometime we fall in love with an image and become blind to the flaws... 

MONHEGAN ISLAND, MAINE TRIP REPORT

On October 2, I flew to Portland, ME where I was met by multiple IPT-veteran Mike Milicia and his wife Ann who had graciously agreed to drive me to Port Clyde, ME where we would catch the ferry to Monhegan the next morning.  Monhegan is a 1.75 by .75 mile island located 12 nautical miles off the coast of southern Maine.  It is home to less than 100 folks year-round and to lots of artists and tourists each spring and fall and to lots of birders in spring and especially in fall.  Lots of rarities are found each autumn as migrants are blown off course by storms, especially those from the northeast.  The most exciting part of our trip was the ferry ride over.  There was a stiff wind from the east and when we entered open water the boat was rolling and pitching big time, often becoming airborne and then crashing back into the sea with a thud.  I sat in the lee of the wheelhouse and still got soaked. Eventually, I was thrown off the bench seat that I had occupied and decided that it was best to stay seated in several inches of water--can you say "wet butt?"  Folks on the upper back deck were drenched with literally tons of cold saltwater.  It was so rough that nobody dared try to move to a safer spot.  After about an hour of the rough stuff we were at the wharf on Monhegan but even there the wind ruled and we disembarked with great care.   We were on the boat that arrived just after noon.  On the 5pm trip on the same boat, two lifeboats were torn loose by the wind and despite rumors to the contrary nobody was seriously injured. 

Though we did not enjoy a spectacular fallout, there were migrant passerines around pretty much every day.   While birding might have been great, bird photography was only fair to good as the birds around town were mostly in thick tangles and the birds out of town were in deep dark woods.  We enjoyed two consistent spots.  The first was a flower garden right on Main Street that attracted several Black-throated Green Warblers and a few Black-capped Chickadees.  The problem there was that the island's very few pick-up trucks drove back and forth continuously each morning during the sweetest light.  We could never figure out where they were going or what they were doing...   Bird Watcher's Digest editor Bill Thompson III had told me about an old birder who spends each fall on Monhegan.   We found the large (rather homey) fish shack that Tom Martin rents each season rather easily as his backyard was filled with birdseed.  And with sparrows, probably ten species in all:  Savannah, Chipping, White-crowned, Clay-colored, Song, Swamp, Lincoln's, White-throated, Lark, and I am pretty sure that I had a single late Field Sparrow as well.  When we asked Tom--as crusty a character as you would ever hope to meet--if it would be OK for us to set up some perches in his yard, he replied gruffly, "Do whaddever you want!"   Tom was originally from Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania and now lives in Manhattan with his wife of many decades.

Aside from those two spots, and some chances with Peregrines on the east-facing high cliffs, we really had to work to create an avian image or two.  The Ice Pond offered bathing Herring and Black-backed Gulls and a few Mallards most afternoons.  Dinners were the highlight of the trip.  We ate at the Island Inn every night.  We stayed 7 nights and I had the 1 1/2 pound lobster about five of those nights.  Yum-mee.  Mike and Ann sampled most everything over the course of the week.   Did I mention that the mussels appetizer was killer?  We headed back to the mainland on the 9am ferry on Friday, Oct. 9.  The seas were blessedly calm. With Ann Milicia again at the wheel we made our way south towards Portland for the seminar.  We stopped at Red's Eats in Wiscasset for their famed lobster rolls (no bun for me) and the lobster was exquisite.   The lobster shack closed for the summer the next day so the line was quite long.  Thanks again to Mike and Ann for their excellent taxi service, friendship, and camaraderie!  (And additonal kudos go to Ann for finding a single cooperative Yellow-bellied Sapsucker for Mike and me.)

                                                             Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens with the 2X II TC and the EOS-1D MII.  ISO 1600.  Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/80 sec. at f/8.  Fill flash at -1 stop with Better Beamer.   

Knowing of the great noise control at high ISOs with the Mark III I did not hesitate to go to ISO 1600 when I needed it.  And Image Stabilization helped me to create a sharp image at 1/80 second with an effective focal length of 1300 mm (or 26X magnification!).  The stick through the head and the stick in front of it (see below) were more than I could bear so I used the "divide and conquer" and the "protect and defend" techniques as described in Digital Basics to clean things up.  A representation of the converted RAW file is below, the optimized image above.  You can learn more about Digital Basics here: http://www.birdsasart.com/digitalbasics.htm

PORTLAND, MAINE SEMINAR REPORT

By any standards, the seminar was a huge success.  The Eastland Park Hotel provided a wonderful venue, with lots of room for both attendees and exhibitors.  Gary Farber from Hunt's Photo and Video was there with lots of great gear and accessories as was Canon Pro Markets Rep Carl Peer with lots of product to demo and a wealth of knowledge that he was eager to share.  Monsieur Chris Dodds drove down from Quebec and worked the BAA table with the afore-mentioned Mike Milicia.   After a lunchtime sensor cleaning demonstration, we sold all 18 SensorScopes that I had brought.  We sold every ABP II, 11 of 12 pairs of NEOS, all three Gitzo 3530 LS tripods, a slew of Mongoose M2.3 and M3.5 heads, and just a ton of other stuff.  Thanks to our major sponsors: Canon USA, Hunt's Photo and Video, and Delkin Devices.  Additional generous door prizes were provided by Lowepro, Wimberley, 4th Generation Design,  Bird Watcher's Digest, Vertex Photographic, HP Marketing, Visual Echoes, and Lens Coat. 

Though I ran a bit over on the morning session, we were easily able to complete the Saturday programs as advertised.   Judging by the rapt attention of the audience and their reaction, the educational portions of the seminar were superb as well. The hottest Saturday topic seemed to be the explanation of histograms while on Sunday folks sucked up all of the Photoshop stuff from the basic workflow to the most advanced Quick Masking techniques.  Thanks again to the 93 who attended on Saturday and the 90 who came on Sunday and again to the folks who provided the wealth of door prizes.

I am looking at Quebec and Southwest Florida as the next two seminar sites.  If you live in a major metropolitan area and are connected to a large camera club or camera store and would like to explore the possibility of having a BIRDS AS ART "The Art of Nature Photography; It Ain't Just Birds" weekend seminar in your area, please get in touch via e-mail.

Clay-colored Sparrow, Monhegan Island, ME

Image Copyright 2008: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART