What’s Up?
Yesterday was a swim in a cold pool, core exercises, and beginning to catch up on 100s of unanswered e-mails. Been swamped. I did three programs at CNPA weekend past and I finished assembling each program about ten minutes before I went on stage. That’s cutting it close.
I started and finished this post on Tuesday morning. In all, it took about 2 hours to prepare and was published at 8:43am from my home in ILE.
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This image was created in cloudy conditions at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 110mm) and the Canon EOS 7D Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 as framed: 1/1250 sec. at f/5.6 in Av mode was spot on. AWB. DPP 4 performed superbly as I moved the Shadow slider to +4 during the RAW conversion to open up the details in the dark clothing. Rig on the Black Rapid RS-7 Strap. Central AF point (manual selection)/AI Servo/Rear Focus on the photographer’s face and re-compose (being sure not to shift my position while hand holding as that would throw off the focus). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Chris Billman and friends |
Photographer, Friends, and Dinosaur (?)
Pictured above are IPT veteran Chris Billman (Nickerson Beach & San Diego), a slew of Brandt’s Cormorants, and the original Canon 100-400 zoom lens.
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This image was created in cloudy conditions at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 560mm), and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops as framed: 1/125 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. Rig on the Black Rapid RS-7 Strap. Central AF point (by necessity)/AI Servo/Expand/Rear Focus on the base of the bill just forward of and below the bird’s eye (as originally framed) was active at the moment of exposure as is almost always best when hand holding. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Non-breeding adult Brandt’s Cormorant head portrait |
One man, two images, and lots of lessons
1-For whatever reasons there were large flocks of Brandt’s Cormorants on the cliffs at La Jolla this year, probably out-numbering double-cresteds by 100-1. And for whatever reason, they were all silly tame.
2-Note that Chris’s dungarees are pretty much covered in mud. Good photographers do not hesitate to get down and dirty when they need to.
3-Chris is properly supporting the lens with his left hand placed at least half way out on the lens barrel.
4-While the new 100-400 II is clearly superior to the older version there are still thousands of great images to be made with the venerable version.
5-While the newer lens with its incredible close focus of .98 meters is able to create tight head portraits of cormorants with any camera body and a skillful approach, you can zoom out enough to photograph a tall photographer even at fairly close range.
6-Note that with the cloudy conditions Chris was able to work without regard to sun angle.
7-The new 100-400 II becomes even more versatile with the addition of a 1.4X IC.
8-The 4-stop IS system on the 100-400II is quite effective, here at 1/125 sec at 560mm.
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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 :).
Life-long Californian (until very recently) and I’ve never seen shorebirds allow a standing human so close – with one exception. That was after a violent week-long rain drenching, and the starving birds were so intent on feeding an elephant could have loomed over them and they wouldn’t have paid notice.
The difference with Florida birds is something I’ve always marveled at.
Hey Bill,
While they are birds of the shore (and of rock piles and pilings and cliffs), cormorants are not shorebirds. The latter group includes the sandpipers, plovers, oystercatchers, avocets, and stilts and all of their cousins. artie
Ouch. Duh. A much chagrined thanks!
(Glances over at opened copy of “The Shorebird Guide” on desk…nope, no cormorants here!)
No worries. And no ouch needed. It is a common mistake and my job here is to educate 🙂
later and love, artie
ps: increasing the Galapagos discount in tomorrow’s blog…. 🙂
I’ve been to La Jolla a few times in the last month or so and noticed the exact same thing about the numbers of cormorants and particularly noticed how surprisingly tame the Brandt’s cormorants were. I’m not entirely sure why. Last year this was not the case
Hell… What do you do to cormorants in La Jolla so that they are so tame? 😎