What’s Up?
On Saturday, I suggested that we erect two perches on the lek for the Greater Prairie Chickens (GPCs). With Kevin’s help, we put one low driftwood perch in place, and a larger vertical perch. That morning, the birds wanted nothing to do with our perches. Even worse, both perches got in our way often. The low perch was so lovely that I made some images of it without a bird on it. At the end of our session, we agreed to remove the vertical perch as it was quite obtrusive. Kevin said that he thought the birds would get up on the low perch “in a day or two.” So on Saturday night, I dreamed of the GPCs posing on the perch.
If you had asked me what were the chances of that happening the next day, I might have said, “I mean miracles can happen, so possibly.”
Early on Sunday morning, a few males were strutting quite close to the low perch, and once or twice they got up on it for a moment. As I was desperate for a shot, I tried a few at ISO 51,000. When the sun finally made an appearance, it turned out that we had gotten lucky; the low perch was perfectly placed between the very long shadows of my blind and Anita’s blind. Then my dreams were answered — several males got up on the handsome perch, and then several females took a liking to it. One hen posed there for about ten minutes; I shot her at 600, 840, and 1200mm. Some of the. males displayed, some of them jumped. By the time we quit at about 8:30am, I had created 8952 images, almost all with the a9 iii that Anita kindly loaned me after mine went on the fritz on Saturday. I kept 396 photos. 185 of those will be used to create an a9 iii “dancing Chicken” movie. Counting all of those as keepers left me with a success rate of 0.44%, less than 1/2 of one percent. Images below.
Today is Monday 15 April. Our plan is to shoot in the wind in the morning, pack up the blinds, vacate our AirBnB and head north to Kevin’s place in Washburn, ND, forty miles north of Bismarck. Whatever you are doing, have fun and breathe deeply.
If you plan on purchasing a Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera (or anything else for that matter), please remember to use or write for either my Bedfords discount code or my B&H affiliate link. Folks who use one of my two affiliate links to purchase the a9 III will receive my .DAT settings (the complete camera set-up) along with a Buttons and Dials Guide.
Please remember to use the B&H links that are found on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords to get 3% back on your credit card and enjoy free second-day air FedEx. Please, also, consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn!
If an item — a Delkin flash card, or a tripod head — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout for your major gear purchases. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And always earns my great appreciation.
Your Call?
Which of today’s four featured images do you think is the strongest. Those kind enough to leave a comment are asked to let us know why they made their choice.
“I Mean Miracles Can Happen, So Possibly”
When 12-year old Grace VanderWaal auditioned for America’s Got Talent in 2016, that was her response to Simon when he asked, So, “Do you think you can win?” Howie Mandel hit the Golden Buzzer advancing her to the live show and on September 14, 2016, she did in fact win Season 11.
|
|
This image was created on 14 April 2024 at Fort Pierre National Grasslands, SD. Seated on a small camp chair working off the rear monitor in a large pop-up blind, I used the lowered Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. ISO 1600. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/320 second at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 7:04:50am on yet a other clear sunny morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version. Image #1: Greater Prairie Chicken — male jumping up. |
Miracle at 1/320 Second!
Once the sun hit the low perch, I had enough light to make sharp images of the GPCs on it. When this bird jumped up to the highest spot, I followed my own advice and pressed the shutter button even though I had little chance of making a sharp image at 1/320 sec. Miracles, however, do come true. (Note: in good conditions I will usually shoot flight at 1/3200 or 1/4000 second, or faster if possible.)
|
|
This image was created on 14 April 2024 at Fort Pierre National Grasslands, SD. Seated on a small camp chair working off the rear monitor in a large pop-up blind, I used the lowered Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. ISO 1600. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/400 second at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 7:05:17am on yet a other clear sunny morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version. Image #2: Greater Prairie Chicken — male on log. |
Blind Shadow
In both of the first two images, a good part of the background was the shadow of Anita’s blind. Do you like the lighter treatment of the shadow in Image #1, or the darker treatment in Image #2? Note: Images #1 and #2 were created only 27 seconds apart.
|
|
This image was created on 14 April 2024 at Fort Pierre National Grasslands, SD. Seated on a small camp chair working off the rear monitor in a large pop-up blind, I used the lowered Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 2000. 1/800 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be about perfect. AWB at 7:19:11am on sunny morning. Tracking Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly even at 1200mm. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #3: Greater Prairie Chicken hen on log |
1200mm
With lots of chickens getting up on the perch, I worked with the bare 600mm at times, or added the 1.4X TC for a bit more reach. When this hen posed for what seemed like an eternity, I went to the 2X TC. As expected, the sharpness at 1200mm is exceptional.
|
|
This image was created on 14 April 2024 at Fort Pierre National Grasslands, SD. Seated on a small camp chair working off the rear monitor in a large pop-up blind, I used the lowered Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 2000. 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be perfect. AWB at 7:48:42am on sunny morning. Tracking Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly even at 1200mm. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #4: Greater Prairie Chicken male on log |
The Sun Rises Quickly on the Prairie
By 7:45am on sunny days, there is enough light to use fast shutter speeds for action with reasonable ISO settings.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
For me my order of preference is 4-3-1-2. I much prefer the greater isolation of the background provided by the 840 and 1200 effective focal lengths.
The perch is handsome, but I wish it wasn’t on bare dirt. (Putting in on grass might have been a problem too, as the newly depressed grasses might not look natural). In any case, my favorite is Image #4 for the action and light, with Image #1 maybe even better with the bottom of the frame cropped to omit most of the dirt.
Hey Cliff,
The lek was in the middle of a huge Prairie Dog town. I did not see many options. We needed the height provided by their mounds. I do not mind the dirt at all. I even have some wider images that I like.
with love, a
Artie glad things worked out with the low perch, it does add interest to the images. Sounds like you are having a great time and producing lots of great images. I like all of todays images, my favorite is #2 the position of the subject on the perch is excellent and I like the warmer color.
Thanks, Monte. We had a blast in SD!
See you soon,
with love, a
Looks like a lot of fun and quite productive. I’m very impressed with the images coming out of the a9iii in your capable hands. They appear to clean up and post process well.
Thanks and agree.
a