A back to the basics blog post about Global Photography Tours and what it does.It basically starts and ends with the phrase What is a “photography tour”? Basically defined, a photography tour is a specialized trip wherein participants are presented with unique photo opportunities, with top professional photographers there to assist, to take the best photos possible. Shoots are arranged at optimum hours and locations and, thanks to the relationships Global Photography Tours has cultivated with village families, participants are often welcomed into family homes. This provides exclusive opportunities for portraits of the native people. Photo instruction is incorporated on the go and participants are encouraged to share images at evening meals. Keep in mind...The best photography tours limit the size of their groups—12 people at most—so book early. Prices often include accommodations, ground transportation, and most meals, but usually not airfare. Global Photography Tours recommends that you bring a laptop installed with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 or 4 software (available at Adobe.com)

Zoo's are a great place to get started in learning how to photograph birds but you must always keep in mind those distracting backgrounds.. When visiting a zoo to photograph birds, try, when possible, to wait until feeding time and then try to position yourself to get the clearest view of the bird as possible and at the same time getting as clean as background as you can.   Once you are in the best position you can, your next obstacle you need to consider is if there is any fencing or glass obstructing your view. 

If their is some type of fencing or glass in front of you place the front of your lens as close and as square to the fence or glass as possible. In the case of wire or mesh fencing, point it through the center of the opening and set your lens to its widest  aperture. This will help to blur out the wire or mesh.  If on the other hand you are lucky enough not to have any fencing or mesh in your way then get a basic composition and then check your background for any distractions.  The idea is too keep it as clean as possible with the least amount of clutter.

For birds with indentity tags or rings, try setting a wide aperture and include out of focus foreground detail to obscure the ring or identity tag.  Also try to crop in tight on your subject  to create a bird portrait. This is  great and easy of way removing distracting clutter and backgrounds.

Capturing birds in flight isnt as hard as it sounds.. all you need are the right settings.

If you want to freeze the bird put your camera in aperture priority mode and either ISO 200 or 400 and set your lens to its widest aperture. This will ensure that you get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the movement of the bird you are photographing.

If your goal to is to blur the bird in motion then set your camera to shutter priority mode , the same setting as if you were going to freeze the motion, however in this case set your ISO to 100 and your shutter speed to between 1/30 and 1/125 of a second. The exact amount will depend on the exact effect you are trying to create and the amount of blur you want in either the bird or the background.

Stormy weather conditions can sometimes provide the ideal opportunity to take unusual and very interesting photographs. What some people don't realize is that stormy weather sometimes can often bring with it brief periods of dramatic lighting which is particularly desireable for creating moody landscape shots that have gleaming colors.

One of the most magical moments to look out for is when sunlight is juxstaposed with dark brooding clouds. This type of effect is normally seen just before of after a heavy rain shower and the resulting conditions may only last for a just a few minutes or even seconds. Therefore, it pays to be prepared by having you and your camera ready. You also should have a suitable subject in mind for when these fleeting lighting conditions occur.

The maximum contrast is achieved with front lighting when the sun is behind you as this produces strong colors in the landscape.  After the rain the colors can be even stronger as the downpour will have washed the dust particles from the atmosphere which increases visabilty.

What is Lightroom?*

Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4 software provides a comprehensive set of digital photography tools, from powerfully simple one-click adjustments to cutting-edge advanced controls. Create images that inspire, inform, and delight.

The new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 software helps you create amazing images that inspire, inform, and delight. Bring out the best in every shot with powerfully simple one-click adjustments and a full range of cutting-edge advanced controls. Craft elegant photo books and effortlessly share your best shots on social networks, in web galleries, and more. Perfect your images, organize all your photographs, and share your vision—all in one fast, intuitive application

Blurb book publishing

Easily create bookstore-quality photography books directly from within Lightroom. Choose from more than 180 professionally designed layouts and order directly from Blurb. Receive 20% off from Blurb on your first book created using Lightroom 4 software.*

Extending Lightroom

Extend the capabilities of Lightroom with hundreds of plug-ins and presets from third-party developers for everything from exporting images for printing online to creating dramatic color and tone effects.

* The Description above is from the Adobe Lightroom page.. I don't think I would do any better in explaining the program

Ordering:

Florida's Birding & Photo Fest will be presenting programs and tours led by some of the world's best bird and nature photographers during the 10th Annual Florida's Birding & Photo Fest, set for April 25-29.More than 150 exciting birding and outdoor photography events. A haven for outdoor photographers and bird lovers with more than 150 field trips, boat trips, kayak excursions and workshops and taking place during spring migration. All of the events are designed to put people where they can easily observe nature in the wild. For more information go to the Festival website at http://floridasbirdingandphotofest.com/

When out on a photography tour you will often encounter many situations where depth and distance affect the type of photo your are trying to make. Often the variety of lighting used for different layers can help to emphasize relative distances. For instance if the foreground is in shadow and the background is brightly lit, this will create a stronger effect then if the whole frame is uniformly lit. It also pays to incorporate a complementary element in the foreground of your photo, even when the main subject of the photograph is positioned in the distance... Always remember hat the more layers there are at distances from you, the easier it is to create depth.

A histogram can be defined as graphical display used as a way of depicting and manipulating the brightness, tonal range and contrast of a digital image.. Basically the information in the histogram graphs the colors and tones in our photos which can easily be viewed with  on the back of most modern SLR cameras today. It  can be a lengthy subject to go into with many details that can be covered, however, my objective in this photography blog is just to give a brief overview of it, for those who may be unaware of what a histogram is and what it represents.  There are many articles out there that will go into more depth on the subject if one is interested in learning more about this important area of photography.

In photography the horizontal axis in a histogram tells us how the tones of our images from solid black to solid white are distributed (left to right).

The vertical axis on a histogram, as it relates to photography, tells us how many tones there are in the same image.

A histogram is used so you can better examine the exposure.  A histogram is not used to judge framing, focusing, composition etc.

The "ideal"  histogram should be representative of the tones in the image. It should be spread across the image with a to go to the right,(generally means better tones)  and have as little clipping on either side of the histogram as possible. If the readings are bunched to the left the shot may be underexposed, if bunched to the right, the image may be too bright, but that's about it... because other then that any shape is as good as any other.

Hard light and soft light are not absolute values - there are infinite variations in light direction and diffusion. For example,  clouds effect light in the way that is softens it.  The more cloud cover there is, the more diffuse the light becomes. Heavy clouds can bounce the light around so much that it becomes so even that there are no visible shadows.  Lighter cloud soften the light to a lesser degree, so that it is still evident where there the sun is and creates some shadow detail. Partial cloud cover  can create conditions where the subject is lit by a mixture of direct and indirect light. As well as being diffused and reflected in clouds, light is reflected by the ground, the  sky and other objects.

These are important ideas to keep in mind when you go on a Global Photograpy Tour as depending on your destination of choice, how much time that tour spends outside as well as the time of day you photograph. On all Global Photography Tours,  you are going to always encounter both of the values to some degree.

Photo of a red tailed hawk taken at a Audubon Society swamp sanctuary.

The Red-tailed Hawk is a bird of prey, one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the "chickenhawk," though it rarely preys on standard sized chicken. Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, the majority of hawks captured for falconry in the United States are Red-tails.

Red-tailed Hawks soar above open fields, slowly turning circles on their broad, rounded wings. Other times you’ll see them atop telephone poles, eyes fixed on the ground to catch the movements of a vole or a rabbit, or simply waiting out cold weather before climbing a thermal updraft into the sky.

Red-tailed Hawks mate in the Spring. They perform a sort of courtship "dance" where the male and female dive and roll in the sky. They will even lock talons (sharp toes) and fall together awhile before splitting apart. Both the male and female build the nest. They usually choose a very tall tree, such as an oak or pine, or a rock ledge.

Nests are built with sticks and lined with twigs, bark shreds, pine needles, and green plant material. The female hawk lays two or three white eggs with brown spots.