Need Your Help. Just Fledged Osprey in Flight. So What Makes a Good Flight Image? If you are not able to open this blog post via the link, please try again in five minutes. If you are still unable to open it, please contact us via e-mail to samandmayasgrandpa@att.net. Most of the problems that have plagued the blog for the past two weeks have been solved. Details soon.

Stuff

Once I am confident that all who receive their blog notices can access the blog I will share the details of the many Catch-22 rabbit holes that we encountered …

On Saturday it was cloudy bright, perfect for finishing my long lens AF Fine-tuning outdoors with the lights. It has been raining since then. On Sunday I finished up AF Fine-tuning my new Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR lens (purchased just for the gannet boat trips!) and my versatile Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR. I have been hand holding the latter to photograph the wonderful Sandhill Crane nest that I discovered only four days ago. I have nick-named the pair the “Army Corps of Engineers cranes” for the work they have done fortifying their nest with two eggs. Lots of photos soon.

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Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Patrick Sparkman saved $350 on a recent purchase!

Booking.Com

Several folks on the DeSoto IPT used the Booking.Com link below, got great rates, and saved a handsome $25.00 in the process. If you too would like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and to earn a $25 reward on your first booking. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

This image was created on May 17, 2018 down by the lake near my home with the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens (at 500mm) and the blazingly fast autofocus king, the Nikon D5 with Dual XQD Slots. ISO 800. Matrix metering plus about 1 2/3 stops off the sky: 1/2000 sec. at f/6.3. AUTO1 WB at 9:37am on a cloudy morning. One down and one to the right of the center Group (grp) AF point/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. As originally framed, the left-most of the four AF points was right on the bird’s face. Click on the image to see a larger version. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +3. Recently fledged young Osprey returning to nest

A Walk By the Lake

For my first visit to the lake in the past few weeks, I decided to head down without the 600. I took the 200-500 with the D5. I tend to go with the D5 over one of my two D850 bodies in pure flight situations (though I am not sure that this is the best tack …) There were a zillion Ospreys flying around but good situations were scarce. I made about 40 images and all but one or two were razor sharp on the bird’s eye or eyes. Yet I kept only this one …

So What Makes a Good Flight Image?

Many folk think that any sharp flight image is a good image. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, if an image is not at least acceptably sharp it will wind up in the trash on the first edit. Here are the additional factors that determine the success of a given flight image:

• 1-Wing position. Wings fully up or fully down are ideal. Flat wing positions only work if a bird is angling toward you or is directly overhead, the latter ideal if the bird is soaring. In addition, there are many interesting take-off and landing poses.
• 2-The orientation of the bird to the imaging sensor. If a bird is flying even slightly away from you most flight images will be failures (unless you get a nice look-back head angle).
• 3-The quality of the light. Making a great flight image when the sun is out at full strength is extremely difficult due to shadows. Your best chance in those conditions is to try to capture a wings fully up pose with the bird slightly angling toward you in flight. My great preference for flight photography is for cloudy or cloudy-bright skies.
• 4-Head angle. Many otherwise perfect flight images are ruined because the bird’s head is turned away …
• 5-On rare occasion, skilled folks may be able to capture sharp images featuring unusual and/or dramatic poses: top shots, bank shots, birds turning in flight, birds landing with talons out-stretched, birds diving, or mid-air prey captures. Even more rare are interactions between two birds in flight.

If I left anything out, feel free to leave a comment.

Remember: sharpness is not nearly enough …

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Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

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Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).