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What’s Up
It did not take me long in North Dakota to figure out that Sharp-tailed Grouse are a lot more difficult to photograph than the Great Prairie Chickens. The chickens look skyward just before they jump. The sharp-tailed give no clues. And the chickens jump a lot higher. We moved to a much cleaner lek with many fewer birds, but with our first cloudy morning and little action we did not do very well.
With 20-25 mph winds forecast for Monday afternoon, we had to take the blinds down. Today is Tuesday 22 April and we will be up earlier than usual as we have to set the blinds back up. It is supposed to be windy again today so I am hoping that we get in a morning session. Whatever you are doing, have a great time.
Don’t Look Now
Don’t look now, but this post marks 25 consecutive days with a new educational post.
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This image was created on 31 March 2024 at Cape Coral, FL. Standing at full height I used the Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 1600. Exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/30 sec. at f/4 (wide open). AWB at 7:10:32am in the shade. 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: Burrowing Owl on erected perch |
White Wall of House Background
I had collected a few halfway decent perches while driving around Cape Coral the previous afternoon. Any thing is better than the white PVC pipes that are used to cordon off the nesting burrows with string. I stuck the perch into a pipe that evening and was delighted to see one of the adults sitting on it early the next morning when I arrived.
The white wall of the house in complete shade provided a clean blue background. I could have easily rendered the wall white but I liked the look.
Extreme Shutter Speed
With a still subject, I am confident of creating sharp images at 1/60 sec. with the 600 on a tripod. Have been for more than 30 years. Making them sharp at 1/30 sec. is pushing it. The new, improved optical steady shot and image stabilization systems do not seem to make much of a difference — easily sharp at 1/60 sec., quite problematic below that down to an occasional sharp one at 1/15th sec.
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This image was created on 31 March 2024 at Cape Coral, FL. Standing at full height I used the Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 3200. Exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/60 sec. at f/4 (wide open). AWB at 7:11:49am in the shade. 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: Burrowing Owl chick with quizzical look on face |
1/60 sec. at 840mm
Somewhat surprisingly the situation is the same when I add the 1.4X TC to the 600: sharp at 1/60 sec. but much more difficult below that. Your sharpness techniques — the way you have your hands on the lens, have a lot to do with making them sharp at 1/60th. Join an IPT to learn the pro secrets.
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This image was created on 31 March 2024 at Cape Coral, FL. Standing at full height I used the Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. ISO 2000. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/80 second at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 7:29:16am in the shade. Tracking: Expand Spot S/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #3: Burrowing Owl chicks at burrow |
Those Weird Out-of-Focus Eyes
At Cape Coral, I noted that whenever I created a juxtaposition with both of the owls having their eyes open, that the eyes of the more distant bird were rendered strangely out of focus.
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This image was created on 31 March 2024 at Cape Coral, FL. Standing at full height I used the Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). ISO 800. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/500 second at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 8:14:20am on a then sunny morning. Expand Spot/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: Burrowing Owl chubby chick |
Another Square Crop
When discussing the use of square crops here recently, I forgot to mention another use: If you are shooting verticals and you wind up leaving much too much room above the subject, a square crop can be effective. Heck, this baby owl is so chubby and fluffy it is almost square. Note that once the sun cleared the houses to the east, adding the 2X TC became a viable option.
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This image was created on 31 March 2024 at Cape Coral, FL. I got a lot lower by pulling out the front leg of the tripod. Crouching quite a bit I used the Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). ISO 800. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/500 second at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 8:25:14am on a then sunny morning. Tracking: Expand Spot/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 #5: An Older Burrowing Owl chick |
Wise Old Owl at a Young Age
To me, this large Burrowing Owl chick looks quite erudite.
Getting the Clean Background
As the sun rose, I was surprised to see that the baby owls were keeping their eyes wide open, and they were quite accepting of my presence. I inched forward slowly and got lower by pulling out the front leg of the tripod. that effectively moved the background farther from the subject and resulted in the beautifully blurred backgrounds.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
As a resident of Cape Coral, like many, was delighted to view your photos of our “city bird”. Thank you for sharing them. This owl is a joy to watch & we are very proud of it.
Thank God for the sun!
I like the sun for the first and last hours of the day 🙂
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Really great images Artie! I always bring a beach towel when going to visit the Cape Coral owls. That way I can get on my stomach and be eye to eye with them – or even lower – with a long lens of course!
Thanks, G. You could get at eye level in the mornings just by crouching a bit as it was on a hill. On flat ground, I go toe-pod. Lying down is not longer an option for me. And the same goes for fire ants!!
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