Golden-naped Tanager

Wood Ducks

Great Horned Owl

Screech Owl

Contents:

1. Reminder: Lighthouse Point Art Show April 2nd, 2006

2. Africa 2006

3. Ecuador

4. Alaska

5. Looking Out My Backdoor

6. Nikon Coolscan 5000

ART SHOW:

A quick reminder, the 12 th Annual LHP Yacht & Racquet Club Arts Exhibition will be held on April 2 nd, 2006 from 11:00 a.m. through 3:00 p.m. The location is 2701 NE 42 nd St. Lighthouse Point (954) 942-7244.

Along with many other talented artists, I will be exhibiting some of my work as well as handing out information regarding my upcoming photo safaris to Africa, Panama, Ecuador-Galapagos, and soon-to-be Alaska and the Pantanal area of Brazil. I will also have some of those little photo gadgets for sale, which you will see at the bottom of this newsletter. Please stop by for a visit or just to say hello!

AFRICA:

Cheetah Brothers	Lions and Van
Elephant and Baby	Elephant and Van

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

ECUADOR:

Ecuador is also just around the corner! Ecuador’s rain forests and cloud forests will be our destination this November 4th- 14th. Details are on my website, or if you’d like me to mail you a brochure, just give me a call (954) 941-7901, or e-mail me at: jojo1w@aol.com Many of you have written and asked about my upcoming trip to the Galapagos. Plans have not been finalized yet, but this will be in 2007.

ALASKA:

Alaska has long been a destination I have wanted for my Photo Safari groups, but I just haven’t been able to find that ‘perfect’ spot and ‘perfect’ setup. As most of you know, I won’t take groups to places that I haven’t been beforehand and checked out all aspects and layouts of the situation. I look for photo opportunities, ability to handle a lot of equipment—electric for charging etc., safety features, accommodations etc. I am especially interested (and seek out diligently) areas that most other groups do not go or are not aware of. May 15 th I will be leaving for a fairly remote area of Alaska on a ‘re-con’ mission. I am told by my hosts that this is going to be the answer to my quest. More later…

LOOKING OUT MY BACKDOOR:

	Horned Owl

One does not always have to travel far to have some fabulous photo opportunities, especially here in Florida. I, and many other photographers, birders, & nature lovers, have spent six or more weeks hanging out with this little guy (who isn’t so little anymore!) This Great Horned Owl chick and parents, as well as this little Screech Owl, and this handsome pair of Wood Ducks have given us hours of pleasure, wonderful pictures, made me some new friends and is only thirty minutes from my home!

	Horned Owl

NIKON COOLSCAN 5000:

Hopefully I have found the right answer as to what to do with some of the “jewels” in my over-64,000-slide library. While at the PMA show, I consulted with a couple of my Canon tech-buddies about Canon scanners versus others. Both highly recommended the Nikon Coolscan 5000. I was impressed. Being a diehard Canon devotee, I thought this was pretty nice of them. They were not being disloyal to Canon, they were being downright honest, which is another reason I am 100% a Canon user. While chatting with Ernie Mastroianni, the photo editor at Birder’s World magazine about some other business matters we have going on, I mentioned to him that my new Nikon scanner had just arrived. I was very pleased when he told me that he often uses that same equipment for the magazine when he doesn’t have time or want to spend the money on a drum scan. Actually the statement was that a clean, good quality, sharp slide properly handled and tweaked will come out as well as a drum scanned slide. For those of you with thousands of slides filed in your library and know that some of them should be safely put on an archival-gold CD (the ones sold by Delkin—www.delkin.com are my recommendation) may find this is the answer for you also. I’ll keep you up-dated as I start to print some of them after they’ve been scanned. Any of you with any tips or information, please share with me.

Wood Duck

Cheetahs

Photographers & Birders at Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge 

Little Bee-Eater