What’s Up?
It is almost 9pm on Wednesday evening as I type. I woke at 2:56am this morning, finished 2 1/2 days of micro-adjusting my two new 5D IV bodies with four lenses and five different teleconverters… I swam a half mile at 9:30 and drove across the state arriving at the IPT hotel at 1:30pm. I met the group at 2pm and we headed out at three. No nap!
Ed Hutchinson sold three of the four items he listed in less than a day and so did Joseph Higbee!
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the folks 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.
New Listing
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Zach Zacharias is offering a used Canon EOS1D Mark IV in excellent condition for a BAA record low $1,349.00. The sale includes the camera body with front cap, the battery charger with the original plus one extra battery, the manuals and CDs, the original straps, all the cables, and UPS insured ground and insured. Your item will not be shipped until your check clears.
Please contact Zach via e-mail.
Two 1D Mark IVs served as my workhorse camera bodies for more than four years. The 1.3crop factor allows for extra reach in a fast, rugged pro body. Zach’s 1D IV is priced to sell. artie
The Streak: 321!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 321 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next fall. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.
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This image was created on the first afternoon of the Fort DeSoto Fall IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 3200. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/800 sec. at f/9 in Manual Mode was a 1/3 stop underexposure. Daylight WB. I selected the AF point two up from the center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the bottom of the bird’s neck right on the same plane as the bird’s eye. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5. Great Blue Heron/immature with saltwater catfish |
The First Afternoon
I have a small but great group. Three multiple IPT veterans and two newbies. And one more multiple IPT veteran arriving on Thursday evening. All nice. All happy campers. It was a cloudy afternoon filled with tame Short-billed Dowitchers, tame Willets, tame Least Sandpipers, tame Great Egrets, and a fishing Snowy Egret attracting baitfish by splashing the water with its bill. Only Bob DeCroce got on a Great Egret with a pretty decent fish. And then it happened; I looked up and saw a Great Blue Heron flying right at us with a big catfish in its bill. It dropped the fish on the grass and I prayed for it to pick it up. It did, and eventually ate the whole thing (much to our delight)! After the GBH’s fish dinner it was high fives all around.
5D IV ISO 3200
Whaddya think?
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This image was created on the first afternoon of the Fort DeSoto Fall IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/400 sec. at f/9 was perfect. Daylight WB. I selected the AF point two to the right of the of the center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Four up from the cetner AF point would have been just as good or better. The latter would have placed the selected AF point right on the bird’s eye. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5. Great Blue Heron/Down The Hatch |
I Could Believe It Ate the Whole Thing
Nobody in the group thought that the bird would be able to swallow the relatively large catfish. Having seen them swallow fish twice as big, I knew that it was just a matter of time. The key to the success of this image was my choice of perspective; I got low to get the green strip at the bottom of the frame rather than having it intersect the bird’s face as it would have if it had been in the middle of the frame.
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 we are always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
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 🙂
Is there a reason for the back end of the heron being chopped off?
Yes. To get a better look at the fish and the feather details. Notice that I have cut not clipped…
a
You don’t seem to do that for most of your other bird shots. Why this one?
I don’t feel it really adds anything compositionally and the amount of extra feather detail revealed compared to an uncut back end isn’t that great. The head shot is the one which really reveals some significant detail.
I have lots of full frame shots of this bird. I like the front end vertical portrait a lot better for the reasons I mentioned in my first response. If you’d like to learn about vertical front-end portraits and other basics and advanced compositional considerations check out ABP and ABP II. I am fine if you do not like the image and if you like the head shot better. But I know what I like and why I like it.
a
I already have ABP and ABP II thanks.
Well bless your heart 🙂
a
I like the first image with the GBH carrying the fish. It really shows the size of the fish, the light is good and that funny GBH skinny drumstick.
When herons burp does it smell like fish?
Great image, Artie. GBHs are amazing predators. I’ve seen them pick fish out of a big river like a bald eagle and seen them eat rodents. Thanks for the background tip. You have me pretty well trained on that by now!