Rob Snell: Gun Dog Supply Guy, My DeSoto IPT Chauffeur, My Good Friend, and a Damned Sharp Photographer

What’s Up?

I realized on Friday, the day after my surgery, that if I had assumed that the gall bladder pain was actually referred kidney stone pain and/or waited a day or two on the gall bladder pain and it had gone away, that it might have ruptured. This would have required a much more difficult and extensive surgery, at least ten days in the hospital, and a far greater risk of post surgery infection. I would never have made the South Georgia Expedition much less my Falkland pre-trip…

Worst case would have been to have gone to South America, gotten through the Falklands pre-trip, and had the gall bladder rupture on the ship. With no chance of being evacuated, sepsis would have occurred followed in a day or two by a very painful death. So here I am starting to pack and feeling great, anticipating that my white blood cell count will be fine by Monday morning. Or not. Either way, I am and have been totally blessed as usual. More stuff below.

More Stuff

I took one oxycodone for pain last night. Never again. I did not fall asleep for 4 1/4 hours after getting into bed at ten. Slept from 2:15am till 5:00am. That was it. I did stay flat for six hours, mostly doing crosswords when I knew that I had no chance to sleep. Had a productive day. While I was in the hospital, the Western Medicine protocol, i.e., the hospital rules, did not allow me (with my A1C of 5.4) to manage my own diabetes with my own insulin so my sugars sky-rocketed. Considering that high glucose levels after surgery (for both diabetics and non-diabetics) raise the chance of infection fivefold and slow down the healing process, I had Jim smuggle in my insulin in on FRI morning; By afternoon, I had it down close to normal range. It was totally normal on Satruday. But in fear of the high sugar levels, my body now has 6 pounds of fluid trapped in my cells 🙂 It will dissipate over the next two weeks but right now I feel like that Pillsbury guy… You gotta love stupid rules.

But heck, the surgeon was great and I am alive because of him (and because of my DO Dr. Holmes, who was on top of things on Tuesday morning).

Jim Dolgin is the first sign-up for the Spring Fort DeSoto IPT. You can check out the slightly revised info in yesterday’s blog post here or by clicking on the BAA IPTs tab on the orange/yellow menu bar above.

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.

The Streak: 331!

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, 331 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.

Selling Your Used Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

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 all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange tab on the right side of the menu bar above.

SEPT/OCTUsed Gear Sales Continue to be Flaming Hot!

• Joseph Higbee sold a Canon EF 2X III Extender in excellent condition for $349 an hour after it was listed on September 26. Soon thereafter he sold a Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent condition for $1449 and a Canon EOS 7D in excellent condition for $299.
• In less than one day in late September Steve Zarate sold his Canon EOS 7D camera in very good condition for a BAA record low price of $279 and his Canon EOS 7D II in excellent condition for a BAA record low price of $799.
• Within two days of listing Joe Alexander sold his Canon EF 100-400mm L IS USM lens in excellent plus condition for $599in late September when he also sold one of each of these: Canon EF 1.4x III and Canon EF 2x III Extender in excellent plus condition for $249 each within an hour of listing them. When he first contacted me he had them priced, way, way, way too low…
• Yours truly, Arthur Morris, sold one of his two Canon EOS 5DS R bodies in excellent condition but for a very small, very fine sort of x-shaped crack in the upper-right corner of the top LCD screen, for $2549 in late September.
• Doug Rogers sold his Vortex Razor 85mm Ultra High Definition Scope in like-new condition for $795.00 in mid-September.
• Ed Hutchinson sold his Canon EF 100-400mm L IS USM lens, the “old 1-4,” in like-new condition for $649 and his EOS 5D Mark III in like-new condition for $1499 within days of listing them in mid-September.
• Hisham Atallah sold his Canon 600mm f/4L IS II lens in excellent condition for $9499 in mid-September within days of listing it.
• Good friend and BAA Japan IPT co-leader–the oft-honored BBC and Nature’s Best photographer Paul McKenzie–sold his Canon EOS 1DX in excellent condition with an extra Canon battery for $2299 in mid September two days after it was listed.
• Eric Karl sold his Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal Extender in excellent condition for the full asking price, a very low $8,099 in mid-September.
• Gary Meyer sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III in mint condition for $1599 with an off-brand battery grip in mid-September.

New Listings

Canon 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens

Another Weapon of Mass Destruction!

IPT veteran Larry Master is offering a Canon EF600 f/4L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for $9,295. The sale includes a LensCoat, an Aquatech soft lens cap, the rear lens cap, the front lens cover, the lens and trunk straps, lens manual, original case, and insured ground shipping via FEDEX or UPS to US addresses only. The lens will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Larry via e-mail or by phone at 1-518-645-1545 (Eastern time).

As y’all know, the 600 II has been my go-to long lens since its introduction several years ago. It is relatively lightweight and super-sharp. It goes great with the 1.4X III TC and with a bit of practice and good sharpness techniques, you should be able to make sharp images with the 2X III TC down to 1/60 sec. Not to mention that Rob Snell does pretty darned good with his. As a new one goes for $11,499 you can save a tidy $2004 by grabbing Larry’s lens right now. artie

Canon EOS 7D Mark II with battery grip

Lowest price ever for like new with the BG-E16

Jim Brown is offering a Canon EOS 7D Mark II with the BG-E16 Battery Grip in like-new condition with only 17,377 shutter actuations for only $1049. Both items are in their original boxes with all items that came as new. The camera was purchased new on 12/02/2014. Serial # 032021002973. These will ship USPS insured Priority mail in two separate boxes when your check clears unless other arrangements are made. PayPal accepted.

Please contact Jim via e-mail or by phone at 239-434-9498 (Eastern time).

Simply put, the 7D II is the greatest ever value in a digital camera body. It’s 1.6 crop factor is great for folks wishing for greater reach. I used and loved two of them until I went to all full frame. A 7D II image is one of two of mine being honored in this year’s Nature’s Best contest. In addition a 7D II video is in the final, final round of judging. artie

This image was created on the Fort DeSoto Fall IPT with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops: 1/500 sec. at f/4.5 in TV mode (shutter priority). AWB. Center Zone AF/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is 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. Image #1: Reddish Egret shaking head and neck vigorously Image courtesy of and copyright 2016: Rob Snell

My Thoughts on Rob Snell’s Reddish Egret shaking head and neck vigorously image.

I love the tension and the background colors, and the obviously vigorous whole-lotta-shaking-going-on. And the superb sharpness. As you will read about below, Rob is a master at making very sharp images. And with this image, Rob did a great job by being at +1 2/3 stops. That yielded a pretty much perfect image. The optimized image above was cropped a bit from the bottom, from the left, and from the top. Rob will be improving by tons as he learns to make consistently better exposures and to get the bird out of the frame.

As you learned in yesterday’s (potentially) monumentally educational The Skills You Need to Develop to Become a Good Bird and Wildlife Photographer blog post here, I feel that of all the skills needed to become a good bird or wildlife photographer, being able to create sharp images is the most difficult for many folks. Of the 80% of the images that I delete well more than half are deleted because of sharpness issues. On the other hand, Rob, hand holding the 600II with maybe the world’s heaviest DSLR, rocks sharpness.

Rob Snell

Of the six wonderful folks on the Fort DeSoto Fall IPT, Rob Snell was one of two first-timers, along with Juan Tolentino. The multiple IPT veterans were Bob DeCroce, Catherine Costolo, Carlotta Grenier, and the irrepressible, sharpness-obsessed Jake Levin. Repeat clients, or recidivists as I like to call them, are a sign that you are doing something very right.

recidivist

(/rəˈsidəvəst/) noun: a convicted criminal who reoffends, especially repeatedly.

Anyway, Rob and I hit it off immediately when we met by chance in the lobby prior to the 2pm meet-up. I was so comfortable with him that I asked him flat out if he would mind driving my car to and from Fort DeSoto each day. “Sure,” he said. On our first ride to the park I learn that Rob shoots the 600II either hand held or on a monopod; the former I am not capable of doing, the latter I frown upon because of possible sharpness issues even though I have never used one and despite the fact that tens of 1,000s of sports photographers use them on a daily basis with great success.

We pull into one of my favorite afternoon spots and I point out a young Yellow-crowned Night Heron. I tell Rob where to park and the other members of the caravan pull in behind us. Within 30 seconds Rob is approaching the bird-handing holding his 600 II. The rest of us are setting up our gear for the next five minutes. I learned later that he was in Av mode wide open at f/4 and ISO 800 as it was quite cloudy. Very good. He was in Evaluative metering–a choice that I often make in new situations. So good on that. Despite that fact that the water was a very light grey, he was shooting the metered exposure. He had not added any light via exposure compensation. He did not hear me shout out, Plus two stops should be good. So his histogram was right in the middle, two stops underexposed. Bad. But boy, the images were sharp. Pretty much every image of his that I saw on the IPT was sharp. Very sharp.

I learned very quickly that Rob was pretty much guessing when it came to exposure and that he suffered from SAFPS, Center AF Point Syndrome. He got better at both as the days flew by. That when the sun is not out at full strength and the scene averages to well lighter than a middle tone it was a revelation to him that the meter was so totally stupid. Conversely, he learned that when the sun is out at full strength , zero or +1/3 stop is usually pretty good. And that with smaller bright white subjects against middle dark backgrounds you often need to go to -1/3 and beyond. Hey, I wrote that in both the The Art of Bird Photography, the original ABP in soft cover, and in The Art of Bird Photography II, ABP II: 916 pages, 900+ images, on CD only! Some things never change. Buy the Two-book Bundle, ABP and ABP II, and save $10. Together they make for a monumental bird photography education. In all cases and situations you need to remember to check your histogram and to check for blinkies in each new situation. And once you understand the sun in/sun out deal you will start nailing your exposures very quickly.

This originals for this creative montage were created on the first afternoon of the Fort DeSoto Fall IPT with the hand held Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. All of the originals were, as noted above, two full stops underexposed. Auto ISOs: 640, 800, 1000, 800, 800. 1/4000 sec at f/4. Exposure compensation: +2/3 stop. I had thought that he was at the metered exposure but the EXIF does not lie. In Manual mode. Center Zone AF/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Image #2: Yellow-crowned Night Heron, juvenile taking flight Image courtesy of and copyright 2016: Rob Snell

Rob’s Comments

NIGHT HERON MONTAGE — These shots were taken at the first stop on the first afternoon of the Fort DeSoto session. We pulled up to the little beach and artie spotted a juvenile night-heron. I like to shoot handheld (or with a monopod) because I can move faster. Tripods slow me down. I know I lose some stability, but I mostly shoot flying birds at shutter speeds of 1/500 and faster. I grabbed my 1DXII + 600mm 4.0 IS II, put it on my monopod, and took off. The juvenile looked like he was thinking of flying, so I started firing.

PHOTOSHOP — As I previewed these shots it almost looked like a video of the bird taking off. I try to capture motion in my pictures of flying birds, but I wondered if I could make a montage of him taking off without it being too busy. I started with the image with the best background, but I ended up deleting most of it. I put each frame of the bird in a separate layer, and since the background was blown out (properly exposed?), it was easy to isolate each bird with only a little erasing. I changed the opacity of the layers to show the passage of time starting at 20%. I had to move the birds to the left because the standing, squatting, and jumping image would all overlap.

Artie’s Comments

This is one of the most creative take-off montages I have ever seen. I love the gradations in the exposure, the various wing positions, the positioning of each bird in the frame, and the open bill. The last pose is killer good as a stand-alone. As noted above, the RAW file was two stops under-exposed. I was there 🙂 So Rob had to have lightened each image either during conversion or in Photoshop. This introduces noise but the 1DX II handled it quite well and each version of the bird is small in the frame.

I could not have made five frames without clipping the bird even if I was on a tripod. So huge kudos to Rob for nailing the five in the frame while hand holding the 600 II. Much lighter than the previous version but still 8.65 pounds is a lot. Plus the 3.37 pounds of the 1DX Mark II. The strength and skill to pull this one off is remarkable. Thanks a stack to Rob for sharing these two great images with us.

Your Favorite?

Which of Rob’s two images is your favorite? Why? Yeah, they are different but you can still pick a favorite.

Rob’s Dog Supply Business

Those with dogs or those who love dogs in general will surely want to check out Rob’s site here. I am not a big fan of dogs but I was fascinated by some of the items and the video, both dealing with obedience training and collars. The fascinating items include GPS systems for dogs!, dog collars, training collars, leads and leashes, dog houses, and retriever dummies! They have some nice looking ducks. From the website: We train our dogs with the products we sell. Taking care of folks and their dogs since 1972. Our family-owned & operated small business wants to be your one-stop shop. Get fast, friendly service with safe, easy, & secure shopping.

Rob told me straight-up that he is a brilliant, self-taught internet marketer. He was very right.

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.

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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 🙂