BIRDS AS ART PHOTO SITE GUIDES

I often receive e-mails that read something like this:

I think that you are the greatest bird photographer in the world and I once saw your book in Barnes and Nobel and it looked great. I cannot come on any of your IPTs because I need to support my dying grandmother, but I am taking two weeks off from that horrendous chore to come down to Florida this spring to photograph birds. And even if I had the time, I could really not join you on an IPT. They are too expensive. And besides, my Lexus is always forever in the shop and my Jaguar does not have that much trunk space. I will be in the St. Pete Sarasota area this spring. Please tell me exactly where and when to go, what types of birds to expect, what tides and winds would be best for afternoons and mornings at each spot, where to stay, where to eat, and please also let me know which techniques work best at each spot. And if you have a few seconds left after that, please include a few images to show me exactly what types of images I will be able to make.

Thanks in advance--you are the greatest!

If your schedule or your budget does not allow you to join us on an IPT, we are proud to offer the next best thing: BIRDS AS ART Photo Site-Guides. Why travel to a new spot and waste days trying to find the birds and learn the light and the winds when you can now purchase a BAA Photo Site Guide? Having one is the next best thing to joining an IPT. While we plan a whole series of these guides for the popular locations that I visit often like Bosque, Fort Myers, and San Diego, the Fort DeSoto Site Guide is now available.

Each Site-Guide (as a PDF file) will tell you where and when to go, what to expect, what winds and tides are best for each spot, where to stay and dine, and, in addition, will include active links to a technique article that will help you produce better images during your visit. Each will also include a small collection of images to inspire you,to show you what is possible, and hopefully to get your creative juices flowing. Fort DeSoto and Sarasota are hot right now, and each will be getting better in the weeks (and months for the Sarasota spot) to come. For a sample of what you can expect see Bulletin #133, April 9, 2004

Why spend $1,000s or even tens of thousands on equipment and travel and arrive at a great spot without knowing where to be when? If it takes a day or two (or even three) to figure out where the birds are, your decision not to purchase the appropriate Site Guide might not make sense...

Send us a check made out to "Arthur Morris" or a Paypal in the amount of $50.00 and your Fort-DeSoto/Sarasota BAA Site-Guide will be on its way to you soon via e-mail. (If you send a check, be sure to include your e-mail address.)

FORT DE SOTO SITE GUIDE

Fort DeSoto is about the only bird photography hotspot that I know of that has the potential to offer great opportunities to every day of the year. The big attractions here are shorebirds, all the large wading birds (including Roseate Spoonbill at various seasons), many species of terns, and gulls. In the spring photograph the breeding behaviors of Royal & Sandwich Terns and Laughing Gull. Flight photography can be good when feeding sprees occur just off of the beach. These feature terns and gulls and Brown Pelican. Spring and fall migration can be excellent for all manner of warblers, vireos, gnatcatchers, tanagers, grosbeaks, and orioles in some of the wooded areas. There are several good locations within an hour of DeSoto that can also offer some great opportunities; Sarasota and the Skyway Bridge Piers are also covered in this Site Guide. By purchasing the guide you will know exactly where to be on what tide and what wind. Why waste your time searching for the birds when you can just show up and act like a DeSoto veteran?

BAA now accepts credit card orders by phone: 863-692-0906. 9am to 3pm is best. MasterCard and Visa only. Be sure to tell us your email address : ) when you order by phone.

SAN DIEGO SITE GUIDE (Note: The Brown Pelicans, which are the big attraction in San Diego, have their bright red bill pouches only in winter, so this guide--though useful at other times of year--is most valuable to those visiting at that season.)

I have worked non-stop since I got back from NANPA preparing the San Diego Site Guide, the third in the series. The Site Guides are the closest thing to joining an IPT that you can experience without actually joining us. And they cost only fifty bucks; a lot less than an IPT! I share everything that I know about the five killer photography spots within 20 minutes of downtown San Diego. Learn where and how and when to photograph the amazing California race of Brown Pelican; Marbled Godwits against bright buff backgrounds; Wood Ducks, Lesser Scaup, and Ring-necked Duck at point blank range; and a variety of stunning gulls (including Heerman's, Western, and California) both perched and in flight. You will learn where to go on what wind and what tides are best for each coastal location. As usual, I have held nothing back. The Fort DeSoto and Bosque Site Guides have received nothing but praise from the more than 200 photographers who were able to visit these sites for the first time as if they had been photographing them for a decade.

The San Diego Site Guide (8936 words, 38 color photographs) is available right now. It will prove most useful to folks visiting in the colder months, but many of the locations are productive in other seasons as well, especially spring. You can send us a Paypal for $50 or call with a credit card number. (If the latter, you will need to give us your e-mail address.) Yes, BAA is finally accepting credit cards over the phone!

BOSQUE SITE GUIDE

I am proud to announce here that our second BIRDS AS ART Site Guide is now available. I spent the last three days writing and designing the guide. Site Guides are designed to help photographers get the most out of visits to various bird photography hot spots. The Bosque site guide is--at 35 pages--quite extensive. It includes explicit instructions on where you should be each morning and afternoon and is based on 10 years of experience at this incredible location. This site guide features a map of the refuge, detailed sections on both morning and afternoon strategies, flight photography tips, and a Bosque dining and birding guide. Also included are 34 spectacular images with illustrative, instructional captions.

If you plan on visiting the refuge for the first time this year, you would be foolish to make the trip without having this guide in hand. If you have visited previously, and are still unsure of where you should be at this time of day with that wind, this guide will prove invaluable to you as well. BAA Site Guides are designed as the next-best-alternative to joining an IPT.

If you think that this is ridiculously expensive for an e-mail file, please note the following:

#1: The BAA Complaint Department is closed until further notice.

#2: The Bosque Site Guide is worth at least twice the asking price.

#3: As is my usual style, I have held nothing back...

Send us a check made out to "Arthur Morris" or a Paypal in the amount of $50.00 and your Bosque BAA Site-Guide will be on its way to you soon via e-mail. (If you send a check, be sure to include your e-mail address.)

Our latest Site Guide, this one covering all of the hotspots in Southwest Florida, is now available. The price of each site guide is the same: $50.

BIRDS AS ART SITE Guides are designed to be the next best thing to joining an IPT. When you arrive at a location covered in a Site Guide the plan is for you to know where to go when and what to expect, to know what equipment and techniques will be effective, and to know what winds and tides are best. The new SW Florida Site Guide covers the following locations:

Ding Darling NWR then and now. Blind Pass Beach. The Sanibel Fishing Pier. The East Gulf Beaches. Little Estero Lagoon. A Secret Spot to try on really bad mornings on Sanibel. The Sanibel Causeway. The Venice Rookery. My here-to-fore secret White Pelican spot--head shots with a 300mm lens plus flight and action. Contact info for a sunset cruise with Captain Marian Schneider of Grande Tours. The two best Burrowing Owl sites on Cape Coral along with contact information for a local bird photographer who will have up to the minute information on the best Burrowing Owl and Bald Eagle nests and is willing to share! Little Estero Lagoon with info on a secret early morning parking spot... A short over-view on Tigertail Beach on Marco Island. Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

If you head to SW Florida this winter without a copy of our new Site Guide you will waste several days at a minimum trying to learn the hotspots. Why not go prepared?

BAA now accepts credit card orders by phone: 863-692-0906. 9am to 3pm is best. MasterCard and Visa only. Be sure to tell us your email address : ) when you order by phone.

ANTARCTICA SITE GUIDE AVAILABLE

The Antarctica Site, Travel, and Logistics Guide PDF on CD is now available. The site guide section covers only the areas that I visited on my cruise to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica, but the main purpose of the guide is to prepare you for a difficult logistical trip. Which tour do I join? What lenses do I bring? How do I protect my equipment in the harsh environment and more importantly, on the Zodiacs. What do I wear? What about footwear? What about electricity on board? These and dozens more questions will be answered. The 70 page guide includes 73 spectacular images with educational captions.

Craig Gibson, who was anxious to receive a pre-publication copy of the guide, had this to say via e-mail:

The expected value and productivity of my trip has gone up HUGE as a result of your guide. In my mind the guide is worth $50 eight days a week! That is my final answer!

Thanks and best, Craig

You can order your Antarctica Site, Travel and Logistics Guide (on CD only) today for $50 plus $3 shipping and handling ($53 total) in the US. Florida residents need to add 7% sales tax: $53.50 plus the $3 shipping and handling ($56.50 total). To Canada the cost is $50 plus $6 shipping ($56 total). For overseas customers the cost will be $50 plus $8 shipping and handling ($58 total).

CENTRAL FLORIDA SITE GUIDE

We are proud to announce that the "Central Florida Canoe Creek Road Area Site Guide" is now available. This Site Guide, an e-mailable PDF file, was written by Jim Neiger of Kissimmee, FL. Jim has spent the last three years photographing birds along Canoe Creek Road south of his home. He is out in the field most every day. Nobody knows this bird rich area better than Jim. Several months ago I asked Jim if he would be interested in writing a BIRDS AS ART Site Guide for the area. Jim has done a superb job. This Site Guide includes detailed maps, species lists, and three great tech tips: handholding the 500mm lens, using Manual mode, and attracting hard-to-photograph songbirds, hawks, and owls with tapes or CDs of their calls. This guide is ideal for folks visiting the Orlando area with a day or two to kill, or folks interested in photographing some of the hard-to-photograph species that are not to be found at the traditional photographic "hotspots".

Here is a list of the areas covered in the guide: Canoe Creek Road, Lake Cypress Road, the Lake Cypress Boat Ramp , the famed Caracara Tree, Joe Overstreet Road, Lake Kissimmee, Overstreet Pond, the Overstreet Boat Ramp Area, the Overstreet Airboat Launch Area, Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area including the Parker Slough Area, the Lake Jackson Canal and Observation Tower, and the Interpretive Trail and Wildlife Viewing Blind, and lastly, one of my very favorite spots, the Lake Marion Boat Ramp Area.

After I read the guide I told Jim that I was pretty upset with him because there were spots in the guide that he had never told me about! Some of the specialty bird species that are covered in the guide include Barred and Great Horned Owls, Snail Kite, Crested Caracara, Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, Osprey, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Sandhill Crane, Whooping Crane, Limpkin, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Meadowlark, Bachman's Sparrow, Eastern Bluebird, and Pine Warbler among others.

Jim Neiger's Central Florida Site Guide ($50.00) is available only through BIRDS AS ART. The PDF will be sent via e-mail. The easiest way to order yours today is to send us a Paypal from any Paypal link on the web site (www.birdsasart.com). Alternatively, you can send a check for $50.00 made out to "Arthur Morris" to us at PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855, or call us at 863-692-0906 (8am till 9pm eastern time) with your credit card (Master or Visa only) info. If you send a check, be sure to include both your phone number and your e-mail address.

To view a gallery of Jim's Canoe Creek Road images, click here:

http://www.birdsasart.com/htmlneiger/

Note: you can see the technical data by scrolling down while viewing the images as a slide show.

BAA now accepts credit card orders by phone: 863-692-0906. 9am to 3pm is best. MasterCard and Visa only. Be sure to tell us your email address : ) when you order by phone.

ROBERT AMORUSO’S MERRITT ISLAND/BREVARD COUNTY (MI/BC) SITE GUIDE (ON CD ONLY)

I am proud to announce that Robert Amoruso’s Merritt Island/Brevard County, Florida BIRDS AS ART Photographic Site Guide is now available. With the main body of the work coming in at more than 170 pages, it is by far the largest and most detailed BAA Site Guide. Unlike all of the previous Site Guides in the series, this one will not be available via e-mail. A CD with the PDFs will be sent to you by US mail. You can view some of Robert's images here: http://www.birdsasart.com/bn230.htm

This lavishly illustrated guide covers Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Viera Wetlands in Melbourne, Canaveral National Seashore, and Parrish Park and the Blue Heron Water Reclamation Facility, both in Titusville. The Merritt Island NWR section of the guide covers not only the famous Black Point Drive (in great detail I might add), but it covers a host of other areas within the refuge boundaries. These include but are not limited to Biolab Road, Scrub Ridge Trail (for Scrub Jays), Shiloh Marsh Road, L Pond Road, and Pump House Road. And in addition to pointing out the best locations for birds and other wildlife, Robert notes the best spots for scenic photography. Whether you are visiting from anywhere on the planet, are a Florida resident, or a local, you are sure to learn a ton from this guide. As with all BAA Site Guides the MI/BC Site Guide is designed so that when you arrive on your first-ever morning at one of the locations in the guide, you know exactly where to be when and what to expect.

Yikes, I almost forgot: the MI/BC guide includes 18 pages of Robert’s top photo tips. You can learn more about Robert and Wildscapes Images here: wildscapeimages@adelphia.net

You can order your Merritt Island/Brevard County Site Guide (on CD only) today for $50 plus $3 shipping and handling ($53 total) in the US. Florida residents need to add 7% sales tax: $53.50 plus the $3 shipping and handling ($56.50 total). To Canada the cost is $50 plus $6 shipping ($56 total). For overseas customers the cost will be $50 plus $8 shipping and handling ($58 total).

As is usual Paypal is quite convenient. Be sure to include your US Mail ship-to address. You can call us at 863-692-0906 with credit card in hand, or send a check for the correct amount made out to “Arthur Morris” to us as follows: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, 4041 Granada Drive, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855.

BAA OHIO SITE GUIDE by MATTHEW STUDEBAKER

A Guide to Ohio’s Best Places for Bird Photography

A BIRDS AS ART Site Guide by Matthew Studebaker

I met Matthew Studebaker last October when he graciously agreed to show me around the North Chagrin Reservation on a speaking trip to Cleveland. . I was blown away by the Wood Ducks and the lovely reflections of fall color. You can see my Wood Duck images and learn more about that trip here: http://www.birdsasart.com/bn213.htm. And I was again blown away while viewing Matthew Studebaker’s images and seeing the diversity of great subjects and places in his home state of Ohio. Several months ago Matthew approached me about creating an Ohio Site Guide and I thought that it was a great idea so Matthew went to work. His 61 page guide is exceedingly well done. And as you will see here http://www.birdsasart.com/bn228.htm, he is a skilled photographer (in spite of having “only” a Digital Rebel) and an excellent writer.

The guide gives explicit and clear directions (with great maps), best times to visit, and expected subjects for eight major locations: Crane Creek State Park (migrant songbirds, former IPT-site), Castalia, OH (wintering ducks), East 72nd St., Cleveland (gulls—including rare species, Red-Breasted Mergansers, and ducks), the aforementioned North Chagrin Reservation (ducks—especially tame woodies, Canada Geese, American Robin, migrant songbirds), Conneaut, OH (shorebirds, gulls, and terns), the Bath Nature Preserve (migrant and nesting songbirds, Great Blue Heron rookery), Cuyahoga Valley National Park (nesting songbirds especially warblers & vireos, woodpeckers, and Chipping Sparrow), the Tri-valley Wildlife Area (nesting songbirds especially sparrows—Henslow’s, Grasshopper, and Field, Eastern Towhees & Meadowlarks, and Sedge Wren) and Shawnee State Forest (migrant & nesting songbirds including Hooded, Cerulean, and Prairie Warblers).

In addition, there are lots of technique tips including an excellent section on judiciously using tapes to attract songbirds. Matthew is a set-up master and the Site Guide includes a how-to section with photographic examples and tips for getting the birds to perch on the set up! Lastly there is a section noting the locations of publicly accessible feeding stations in the state.

Matthew Studebaker’s BAA Ohio Site Guide is sent via e-mail as a 5mb PDF file. To order yours, send a check (made out to "Arthur Morris"—be sure to include your e-mail address) or a Paypal (easiest) for $50. Alternatively, you can call us at 863-692-0906 with credit card in hand.

Matthew leads photo tours to various Ohio locations for small groups and individuals. The tours are customized to suit the needs and to realize the goals of the participants Matthew offers in-field advice on how to create the image that you want. Some of his most popular tours focus on songbird photography in some of Ohio’s large forests. As I type these words, Matthew is conducting in-the-field research. As a result, he will be able to take participants right to their target species and then demonstrate the appropriate photographic technique.

You can contact Matthew by phone at 1- 440-423-0875 or via e-mail: matthewstudebaker@yahoo.com