Looking to a Great 2009 for All at BPN

[Arthur Morris]

Been away for a week leading the Post X-mas BIRDS AS ART IPT with Al and Fabs. The weather and local conditions made for totally spectacular photographic opportunities. I spent four mornings at Little Estero Lagoon, the group three mornings. You can learn the secrets of photographing all of the SW Florida hotspots in our SW Florida Photographic Site Guide.

This Brown Pelican was photographed at Estero with the Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens handheld with the EOS MIII. ISO 250. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop (I knew that I would be working very close to the sun and would not need lots of plus compensation): 1/8000 sec. at f/4.

I hope that all at BPN have a happy, healthy, wonderful, productive, and recession-proof 2009 filled with learning and great images.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Keith Carver]

Thinking back into 2008 and now into 2009, I realize what a phenomenal gift is BPN, so thanks! I note your post is at 5:45 am, you're up early for more photography today?

Classical beautifully lit silhouette with very smooth gradient BKGN. As for the pelican, is it flying away? Can't quite tell on my little iPhone LCD. Will look later on my Apple Cinema monitor.

All the best for 2009, Artie!

[Rene' Villela]

Artie... You don't expect me to criticizes your picture, do you? So I'll go straight to wish you a great 2009 and to thank you for all your help! Cheers!

[Arthur Morris]

Thinking back into 2008 and now into 2009, I realize what a phenomenal gift is BPN, so thanks! I note your post is at 5:45 am, you're up early for more photography today? Classical beautifully lit silhouette with very smooth gradient BKGN. As for the pelican, is it flying away? Can't quite tell on my little iPhone LCD. Will look later on my Apple Cinema monitor. All the best for 2009, Artie!

I was up at 4am as usual but no photography today.... Just work and football. Mostly work. You are both welcome and right about BPN

It looks as if it is flying away but on the ORIG which is lighter it looks as if it was flying towards us (even though the wind was from the east at sunrise...) I guess that the definitive answer is that I am not positive either way (as often happens with Sandhill Crane SILHs....)

[Arthur Morris]

Artie... You don't expect me to criticizes your picture, do you? So I'll go straight to wish you a great 2009 and to thank you for all your help! Cheers!

Hi Rene, YAW and thanks for the good wishes. I do expect everyone from BPN to offer honest (but gentle) critqiues of my work. While I do like this one a lot, most of the images that I post could have been improved one way or another. Also, a good critique lets folks know WHY you like a good (or great0 image. :) :) :)

[Stephen Stephen]

Artie congratulations to you and the rest of the BPN team for a great first year. My best wishes to everyone here at BPN.

[Harold Davis]

i love the colors and the gradient from top right to bottom left. the one thing i see here that i run into the same way is haloing around the bird. i took yours and added some gaussian blur to see if it looked better and it took care of the halo but did not look as sharp. go figure! same as mine!

hope you have a wonderful 2009 and thanks to you and all the BPN staff for an awesome site!!!!!

[Dave Leroy]

Hi Artie, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your books, digital basics and all the other postings and e-mails that you send out. I enjoy photography, but all the little tips and advice that you give just make it all so much better. Little things like how to hold a camera/lens while on a tripod to how to quickly use curves in pp'n have made it all the more enjoyable.
So a big thank you.
BPN is just a whole new experience beside that and a good one too.
Now a critque; I am imaging the bird flying away from me; flying away towards the LLC, where the nice warm sunshine is coming from; where I need to be headed. LOL
Dave in Vancouver.

[Juan Aragonés]

Best whishes for the new year Artie and I like the pelican silouette instead of the fact that the upper right corner looks a bit dark to my taste.

[Bob Malbon]

Art, You and the crew at BPN did make 2008 better for me and I hope to have time to contribute more to this great work of "Art". Happy New Year to all! Bob Malbon

[Raymond Barlow]

congrats on a fantastic 2008 for BPN, and looking fwd to more in 2009 ... a great group here Artie, and wonderful image too.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Happy New Year! I like the gradient BG and remember well what a great place for photography Little Estero is.

[Mike Lentz]

Happy New Year to you as well!
I love this image, the gradient in the orangish/yellow sky is beautiful... plus I'm a sucker for tack sharp silhouettes!

[Bob Blanchard]

Hey Artie - Happy New year my friend! Little Estero truly is one of our treasures here, and I appreciate being able to sepnd the time there with you! Hope everyone had a great time at that IPT! Thanks so much for this great forum! Critiques have made me much better as a photographer, and certainly do more than the "nice shot" comments you get on other forums (regardless of the image's qualities or problems). Happy New Year all!

BTW Artie.....NICE SHOT :D:D:D (sorry, couldn't resist).

[John Deakin]

Best regards for the New Year Arthur, thanks for sharing your inspirational images and knowledge and also to all at BPN for maintaining a wonderful website.

Best regards

John