Webinar on Video

Designing and Creating Pleasing and Dramatic Natural History Images

Webinar on Video: $30 via Electronic Download

In this 1 hour 28 minute plus video you will learn and be inspired. We cover everything from the very basics to the fine points. After a brief bio, the topics include It!
Behavior, Action, Diagonal Lines, and the Cuteness Factor; Birds in Flight — The Holy Grail of Bird Photography; Mis-Framing!; Basic Image Design/HORIZONTALS: Get the subject out of the center of the frame. Basic Image Design/VERTICALS: The center of the frame
is generally fine; The Importance of BACKGROUND; Isolating the Subject; Other Elements of Composition; On Getting Low; Going Wide for Bird-scapes; Super-tight!; Working in Sunny Conditions; Working in Cloudy Conditions; Working in Foggy Conditions; Working in the Shade; Working in Bad Weather; Creating Back-lit Images; Creating Silhouettes; and Creating Pleasing Blurs. 

Each segment of the program consists of an average of about 15 images that will drive home the points being made, educate you, and inspire. The instructions and advice, given clearly and concisely, are based on my near-38 years of experience photographing birds with telephoto and super-telephoto lenses. 

This presentation is based on the webinar that I did for the South Shore Camera Club in April. Below are a few of the comments.

Anita North

Though I have been inspired by and learned from you for several years, doing the webinar the night before the IPT began was particularly noteworthy. I should watch it or create and study a cheat-sheet based on it before every shoot. In the video you cover all the bases: assessing the location, the weather, the light, the wind direction, and the sun angle. You talked about finding good opportunities, isolating the subject, composing the image, getting low or high, seeing the background, leaving an unproductive location trying somewhere else, and lots more. Photographing birds at the beach is a big challenge on all accounts and doing the session the night before was terrific and helpful. I was attentive and focused on what I needed to do. The webinar reminded me of the walk-around check-list that pilots are trained to do before they fly.

Donna Bourdon

Doing the webinar as the introductory program for the DeSoto IPT was a stroke of brilliance. When we headed out each of the next four days, I was inspired and felt completely prepared. Your instructional style is always easy to relate to, especially as you describe the attention to detail in each of the photographs that you shared in the webinar. You reminded us of the importance of getting low, of paying attention to the image design, particularly at the bottom of the frame, and to trust the focus tracking. These instructions improved my images a thousand-fold. I always avoided getting low because I don’t like sand all over me and my camera. But because of the inspiring images and your comments during the webinar, I decided to challenge myself. As is usual, you were right. What a difference it made to be at or near eye level with our subjects rather than be shooting down on a beautiful bird. I also started trusting the focus tracking on the Canon R5 and wasn’t disappointed; thanks again for helping me set it up correctly. It tracked perfectly and I was able to set up pleasing compositions in camera instead of during post-processing. Thank you Artie for always encouraging me to be my best.

Joe Usewicz

Excellent program last night. Zoom is not easy. Stopping for questions, as well as the quality of questions, really worked out well. 

Phill Bird

Great program last night, Artie. Thanks very much for inviting your followers to attend. Your photos and instruction are inspiring.

Elinor Osborn

Thanks for the invitation to last night’s program. It was very informative and beautiful as usual.

Bruce Boswell

Absolutely wonderful program last night. Thanks so much for inviting us to the zoom presentation. At the end I wanted to see more!

Michael Pollak

Thanks for last night’s excellent and informative presentation. The examples of your photography you shared were very inspiring. 

Walt Foreman

Thank you for setting up last night’s webinar so blog readers could join in. It was enjoyable and educational! The webinar was a great success from my audience point of view. And I’m sure there were plenty of other people “out there,” like me, who wanted to jump in with “cosmos” and “lenticular”! The energy was there in both directions, even if you mainly felt your own generous expenditure.