Mission Accomplished: Inca Tern AF Miracle Flight Shot/400 DO II & 7D II

What’s Down?

I am typing this blog post on the early morning of Tuesday, October 27, 2015 as the rest of the gang sleeps. We are supposed to fly via small plane this morning from Bleaker Island to Saunders Island. After a summer-like first day on Bleaker Island (Sunday) in the Falklands, we dealt quite successfully with steady north winds of 25 knots with gusts to 30 on Monday. It sounds quit windy in the pre-dawn blackness so we shall see what develops. Our stay on Bleaker has been great. We have concentrated mainly on King Cormorant and Rockhopper and Gentoo Penguins. More on those at some point. After Saunders we fly back to Stanley, capital of the Falklands, for a day trip to a rockhopper colony on Saturday. If all goes as planned, we will board the Ortelius for our Cheesemans’ South Georgia expedition that evening.

I hope to get on line in Stanley so that this and several other new blog posts might be published from the cloud during my time aboard ship.

While traveling in the Southern Ocean I will be 100% without internet from 24-30 OCT and then again from 1-14 NOV. Jim will be in the office doing his usually stellar job of minding the store and Jen will be here to help with with all things IPT related. You can reach either of them by phone at 863-693-0906. You can reach Jim by e-mail or Jen at e-mail (the latter with Attn. JEN in the Subject line).

Please refrain from e-mailing me from 23 OCT through 15 NOV. Fat chance on that. 🙂

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Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily.

You can see the complete listings by clicking here or always by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right end of the navigation bar at the top of each blog post page.

After a lull in September, things have really heated up lately:

Alan Walther sold his 500mm f/4L IS for $3900 in mid-October.
IPT veteran Larry Master sold his 300mm f/2.8L IS II lens for $4750 on October 22, 2015.
Canon 500mm f/4L IS (the “old five”) was sold by Glen Shellhammer for $4250 in mid-October, 2015.
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens was sold instantly by Walt Anderson for $4750 in mid-October, 2015.
Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the “old five”) was sold by Dane Johnson for $4150 in early October 2015.
Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 zoom lens (Canon mount) was sold by Beth Starr for $4,999 in early October 2015.
Canon EOS-1D X in excellent condition was sold by Patrick Sparkman for $3650 in early October, 2014.
Canon EF 100-400 f 4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens was sold for $699 by Sean Traynor on October 7, 2015.
Canon 100-400 L IS zoom lens (the old 1-4) was sold by Susan Carnahan for $675 in mid-October, 2015.

You can find the complete listings here.

This image was created at Vina del Mar, about two hours west of Santiago, Chile on October 23, 2015. We like to put our layover days to good use. I used the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens and the the amazing Canon EOS 7D Mark II. ISO 500. Evaluative metering +2 2/3 stops off the sky: 1/1000 sec. at f/4. Center AF point (Manual selection)/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The only active AF point just caught left-most tail feather… Click on the image to see a larger version. Inca Tern wheeling in flight on grey sky day

Mission Accomplished Part II

On our second layover day in Santiago, Chile–after having a great day with the condors–we headed west in the pre-dawn darkness with our local guide to photograph Inca Tern. Though I did not make many good images of this gorgeous and unique species, I was quite happy with this one. Learn lots more below.

This JPEG represents the original RAW capture

The DPP 4 Screen Capture/400 DO II/7D II AF Inca Tern Miracle

As you can see by viewing the DPP 4 screen capture above, creating a sharp image here was indeed something of a miracle as the AF point (illuminated in red above), barely caught the tip of the bird’s left-most rectrice. Sometimes it seems that many of my sharpest flight images are created in situations where the active AF point either barely catches the subject or is nowhere near the subject. I’d say that the AF tracking is pretty good in these cases….

With the sky completely blinkied with +2 2/3 stops EC off the sky, I actually pulled the exposure down a bit during the RAW conversion by moving the Brightness slider to -.33. Note the histogram pushed completely to the right to ensure maximum underwing detail. In low light flight situations the heavier 400 DO II kills the 100-400 II. With the latter I would have needed to be at least to ISO 800 to get to 1/1000 second….

Moving the Bird in the Frame

With the bird near the upper frame edge in the original image, I used a variety of techniques from APTATS II (and from APTATS I as well) to move the bird in the frame and wind up with a pleasing composition.

APTATS I & II

Learn the details of advanced Quick Masking techniques in APTATS I. Learn Advanced Layer Masking Techniques in APTATS I. Mention this blog post and apply a $5 discount to either with phone orders only. Buy both APTATS I and APTATS II and we will be glad to apply at $15 discount with phone orders only. Please call Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-221-2372 to take advantage of this offer. I am pretty sure that we have extended that offer to the BAA Online Store as well…

You can order your copy of “The Photographers’ Guide to Canon Digital Photo Professional 4.0” (aka the DPP 4 Raw Conversion eGuide) by Arash Hazeghi and Arthur Morris by clicking here.

The DPP 4 eGuide (PDF)

Learn how and why I and many other discerning photographers choose and use only DPP 4 to convert their Canon RAW files in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly. The latest version supports all of the newer Canon camera bodies and several older models including the EOS-7D and the EOS-1D Mark IV. The DPP IV Guide is the ideal companion to the 7D Mark II User’s Guide, a runaway best seller.

DPP 4 Kudos

From Richard Gollard via e-mail:

I have been doing tons of studying the books and PDFs that I have purchased from BIRDS AS ART. And I have to say that after reading the DPP 4 conversion guide that you did with Arash Hazeghi I tried DPP 4 and was blown away with the difference from the conversions that I made with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Thanks for the consistently great information.

The DPP 4 eGuide (PDF) Updated for 1D Mark IV and the original 7D

The DPP 4 eGuide was recently updated to include the luminance and chrominance noise reduction values for both the 1D Mark IV and the original 7D. If you purchased your copy from BAA please e-mail Jim and request the DPP 4 1d IV/7D update. Please be sure to cut and paste page 1 into your e-mail as proof of purchase.

Click here for complete info on Induro tripods and to learn which one is the best fit for you. Or click here or on the logo-link above to purchase via our OPG affiliate link.

First Induro Kudos

Dennis Zaebst left this on the original Induro blog post:

Hi Artie,

I just received my new GIT 304L from OPG after using your link above. Thanks for the great tip!

I am a convert from an older Gitzo (model 1320, really old). I love all the features of the new 304L tripod and I’m really impressed with it. It’s a really precision piece of equipment. One of the best features, but perhaps not emphasized enough above, are the quick-release leg locks. Just a quarter turn and they are released, and equally quick to lock. This is compared to my old Gitzo, requiring more than a full turn, taking about twice as long to set up and use, or to put away. I was always a bit frustrated with the Gitzo as the legs required a fairly hard pull to extend or collapse, and this was a bit awkward to deal with. Not so with the 304L.

Best, Dennis

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