Then, on the afternoon of the rising full moon, I screwed up. Without considering the wind, I brough

This image was created with the Canon 24-105mm banff travel f/4L IS EF USM AF Lens (hand held at 35mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera (Body Only) $200 instant savings + 2% Reward [expires 5 JAN] ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/60 at f/7.1 in Tv mode. Central Sensor Surround/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF on the flock in flight and re-compose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see the spectacular larger banff travel version.
Note that with a distant flock a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. the birds in flight were rendered relatively sharp. I used the technique for low-light shooting that is described in detail in the hugely popular eBook, "A Guide to Pleasing Blurs" by Denise Ippolito and yours truly.
With two sold-out groups that included all 25 of 26 very happy campers (10 folks on the IPT, 15 and 1 on the Canon DLC trip), banff travel my 2012 Bosque visit (NOV 17-DEC 2) was a huge success. As noted previously , the refuge was in very good to excellent banff travel shape and we were blessed with some very sweet sunrise colors. The following situations were consistently superb: sunrise fly-ins and blast offs, chances for single cranes in flight banff travel and sunset colors and silhouette opportunities. Mid-morning blast-offs and fly-ins (a new phenomenon) got better as time passed. With corn in the single field near the tour loop road being knocked down well back from the road and with the complete absence of south winds in the morning, chances to photograph single geese in flight were few and far between.
banff travel Dennis (kept everyone smiling) Holt, Charles (helped us with our short trip to White Sands after the IPT) Scheffold, Val (what an interesting life he has led) Sneeberg, and Gaurav Mital (who determined to keep on improving his skills by leaps and bounds traveled all the way from India) were all multiple-IPT veterans and Nikon-guy Michael (always pleasant) Goodman was on his second. First-timers included Nikon-shooter Gary (what can I say? Another super nice guy) Ellwein (who, inspired by Denise, is now posting in BPN s Out of the Box forum), John Haedo (who taught us a great expand and fill canvas Photoshop technique), BPN co-Out of the Box moderator Cheryl (a real sweetie) Slechta (who inspired everyone on the trip with her eye opening creativity), Nancy (on the quiet side but always happy) Watson banff travel (wife of co-leader Mike Hannisian), and BPN member Tom (always smiling broadly) banff travel Rambaut (rhymes with gumbo). Tom won the farthest-travel-to-the IPT award having flown from Australia!
With 16 in the Canon DLC group and the workshop only a brief 2+ days just learning the names was a challenge. Most everyone was enthusiastic and eager to learn. We were extremely lucky with two great sunrises and a great sunset and in addition, had some great mid-morning banff travel blast-offs banff travel and fly-ins. On Sunday afternoon we reviewed and printed images before kissing everyone good-bye.
Through-out the two workshops, co-leader Denise Ippolito proved to be an amazing asset. While I was making sure to get the group quickly from one ideal location to the next and providing general overall advice Denise was relentless in providing individual help to all, checking shutter speeds and histograms, and providing huge amounts of inspiration by sharing her incredibly creative images, many of them pleasing blurs. Thanks Lady D! Co-leaders Jim Heupel and Mike Hannisian provided lots of additional help on the IPT.
This image of Snow Geese and a few cranes in the main impoundment was created with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto banff travel zoom lens with the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (teleconverter) (hand held at 98mm) with the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera (Body Only) $200 instant savings + 2% Reward [expires 5 JAN] ISO 50. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop 1/2 sec. at f/14 in Manual mode. Central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF and re-compose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Denise began making super-slow pan-blurs to eliminate various distracting elements and inspired pretty much everyone in the group. Learn lots more in the hugely popular eBook, "A Guide to Pleasing Blurs" by Denise Ippolito and yours truly.
Overall, I was right on my game as far as having the groups in the right spot at the right time: day after day, morning after morning, afternoon after afternoon we enjoyed the very best opportunities that Bosque had to offer. And despite the fact that there were lots of other photography tours going on, we were pretty much alone. As I say often, when it comes to photography tours, you get what you pay for.
Then, on the afternoon of the rising full moon, I screwed up. Without considering the wind, I brought the IPT group to the traditional spot. A gorgeous full moon rose in front of us in the east, while hundreds of cranes flew behind us .. To make matters worse, we had been in the perfect spot just 30 minutes before. banff travel And left. Live and learn. I will make note of the specific conditions and locations in the next update of the Bosque Site Guide .
My friend, National Geographic photographer Tim Laman 20 articles, recently sent me a signed copy of his new Birds of Paradise book. I will treasure right up there with signed copies of two of Jim Brandenburgs books, Chased by the Light and Looking for the Summer . Tim did all the beyond-amazing photography in Birds of Paradise; Edwin Scholes, ornithologist and bio-diversity video at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology co-authored the book with him.
For the past 8 years, Tim Laman spent much of his life in the wet, bug-infested rain forests of New Guinea, surrounding islands, and northeastern Australia in an effort to photograph all 39 of the world s species of birds of paradise, birds so beautiful and colorful as to defy the imagination. At times, Tim spent a month in the same tree waiting for the perfect banff travel image of a rare species with his Canon digital gear at the ready. The field work, described in great detail in the book, is not something that any of us would like to have done. Except maybe Tim. The first time I skimmed the book, I pretty much gasped out loud at the turn of each page. Could a bird like that really exist? I dare say that very few of us will every see even a single banff travel species in life. You can see them all displaying banff travel in their full glory in Birds of Paradise.
You can learn more about Tim and the book project on Tim s web site (be sure to let the slide show load and run) or cut to the chase and order your signed copy here . Or, you can order the book from Amazon here.
Each of the three talented photographers above will each present a unique program on Saturday, December 15, 2012 (10:00 am to 5:00 pm) at the Palisades Center Mall, 1000 Palisades Center Dr, West Nyack, NY.
Arthur Morris is a free-lance nature photographer, teacher and writer banff travel specializing in birds. He is widely recognized as one of the world s premier bird photographers and photographic educators. His images, published the world over, are noted for both their artistic design and their technical excellence. His fitting credit line: BIRDS AS ART. His book, The Art of Bird Photography is the classic How-to work on the subject. The all new follow-up, The Art of Bird Photography II (916 pages of CD only) was released in 2006 to rave reviews. Artie, one of the original Explorers of Light, has been a Canon contract photographer for the past fifteen years and continues in that role today. He is a co-founding publisher of BirdPhotographers.net A popular speaker, he has conducted more than 500 slide programs and seminars over the past two decades. He currently travels, photographs, teaches and speaks his way across North America and the world while leading BIRDS AS ART/Instructional banff travel Photo-tours and Photo-Cruises each year. Art will talk about and show you What Makes a Good Nature banff travel Photograph.
Robert, a professional photographer for more than a decade, now specializes in wildlife and nature. He is an accomplished photographic instructor; he got his start co-leading BIRDS AS ART/Instructional Photo-Tours with Art Morris. banff travel He has written two Photoshop tutorials and a Nikon camera User s Guide for BIRDS AS ART Books. In his presentation, banff travel Robert banff travel will share the inspiration, the passion and the creative vision that drives his photography. Robert will share some of his favorite images,equipment,and techniques and the stories behind them.
Denise Ippolito is a freelance photographer, artist and writer living in NJ. She is a moderator in the Out of the Box Forum at BirdPhotographers.net . Denise has co-led several BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tours with Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Denise offers her own workshops featuring avian, flower and HDR photography. As a former award winning floral designer and garden center owner, Denise has worked extensively with flowers; her most recent eBook Bloomin Ideas reflects her love for flowers and art.
Denise banff travel Ippolito and Arthur Morris co-authored the hugely banff travel popular eBook, A Guide to Pleasing Blurs. Her program will cover the great variety of techniques that can be used to create pleasingly blurred images in the field, and at times, during post-processing. Topics that will be discussed and illustrated include pan blurs, zoom blurs, camera movement blurs including flame- and jiggle-blurs, subject movement blurs including moving water blurs, long exposure blurs, the need for accurate focusing, managing your ISO settings, in-camera multiple exposures, subject to film plane orientation, choice of shutter speeds, and how subject to sensor distance affects the degree of blurring.
With the advent of digital photography and the popularity of intentionally blurred images in prestigious nature photography competitions, more and more people are enjoying the challenges and rewards of creating pleasing blurs. Whether you photograph banff travel wildlife, flowers, people, street scenes or landscapes, this is one program that you will not want to miss if you would like to learn to unlea