A + B + Manual Labor = C

Stuff

With our clean-up work done, Saturday was a relaxing day of enjoying our new living room air conditioning. Next in line is waiting for the insurance claims folks to call and visit. We still have not seen a Peace River Coop utility truck in the backyard so we will be without power for at least another day or two or three or … That means that the BIRDS AS ART Online Store is currently out of business. The forecast for Sunday is hot and still.

The Streak

Today marks fifty-four days in a row with a new educational blog post — Irma be damned! This one took about two hours to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

Everybody’s Doing It…

Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. 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 charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. 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. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.

Used Gear Sale from the past month

Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 5Ds body in like-new condition for $2249.00 in early September.
Ron Paulk sold his Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for $9,899 with lots of great extras in early September.
Lisa Tri sold her Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Zoom lens (the original IS version) in near-mint condition for the BAA record low price of $898 in early September.
IPT veteran Joe Messina sold his Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $7,900 in early September.
Ivan Kuraev sold his Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $1699 and his Canon EOS 5D Mark IV in excellent near-mint condition for $2499 in early September.
IPT veteran Mike Ross sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II with the Canon BG-E16 Battery Grip all in mint condition for $1,099 on the first day it was listed in early September.
Ray Stranagan sold his Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens in excellent condition for $3999 in early September, just three days after it was listed.
IPT veteran Richard Bohnet also sold his Canon EOS 5D MK III (with an L-bracket) in near-mint condition for $1449 and his Canon EOS 7D in excellent condition for $279 in late August.
IPT veteran Richard Bohnet sold his Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens (the “old” 1-4) in excellent condition for an even $500 in mid-August.
Multiple IPT veteran Carlotta Grenier sold her Canon EOS-1DX camera body in excellent condition for $2358 and a never used Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens for Canon EF in better than like-new condition for the BAA record low price of $998.
Eric Karl sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III body in very good plus condition with extras for $1,300 in mid-August.

New Listing

Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM Lens

Australia and New Zealand Sale Only

IPT veteran Barry Barfield from Down Under is offering a used Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the “old five”) in excellent condition for $5015 AUD ($4050 USD). The sale includes the lens trunk with keys, the front leather cover, the rear lens cap, a Max 4 LensCoat, a Forest Green Hoodie, and insured ground shipping to Australia and New Zealand. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made. Photos are available upon request.

Please contact Barry via e-mail or by cell phone at +61.418780575.

The 500 f/4s have been the world’s most popular telephoto lenses for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports for many decades. I owned and used and loved my “old five” for many years. If you live Down Under and don’t have the cash for the 500 II and can handle the additional 1 1/2 pounds (exactly), then this is your next best option. artie

Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM Lens

Price reduced $100 on September 16, 2017.

Multiple IPT veteran Duncan Douglas is offering a lightly used Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the “old five”) in like-new condition (but for some small scratches on the bottom of the original lens foot) for $4099 (was $4199). The sale includes the original box, lens trunk, the lens strap, the front leather cover, the rear lens cap, a 4th Generation Designs CP-51b replacement foot with all the wrenches, the original Canon lens foot, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made. The lens was cleaned and checked by Canon in May, 2017.

Please contact Duncan via e-mail or by phone at 201-400-3804 (Eastern time).

The 500 f/4s have been the world’s most popular telephoto lenses for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports for many decades. I owned and used and loved my “old five” for many years. We have sold more than a few recently for $3999 and even two for $3799. Duncan’s lens is priced just a bit higher as it is in pristine condition. If you don’t have the cash for the 500 II and can handle the additional 1 1/2 pounds (exactly) then this is your next best option. The 500 II goes for $8999 so you will be saving a cool $4,900 and getting a virtually brand new lens to boot. artie

Booking.Com

I could not secure the lodging that I needed for last year’s UK Puffins and Gannets IPT in Dunbar, Scotland, so I went from Hotels.Com to Booking.Com and was pleasantly surprised. I found the rooms that I needed with ease at a hotel that was not even on Hotels.Com, and it was a nice hotel that I had seen in person. And the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward.

Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of 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.

Please Don’t Forget …

As always–and many folks have been doing a really great job for a long time now–please remember to use the BAA B&H links for your major and minor 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 BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.

This image was created on the morning of Monday, September 12, 2017 after Irma had visited the long night before. I used the hand held 24-105mm f/4L IS lens (now replaced by the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II) at 24mm, and my favorite post-hurricane camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop as framed: 1/40 sec. at f/11 in Av mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: zero at W. Center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Rear button focus on one of the upper support struts on the left and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. A: The “Before” view of the kiddie corner of my lap pool from inside the pool cage

The Before

As detailed in the recent My Personal Pool Cage Miracle Times Two! blog post here, this is what I woke to on the early morning of Sunday September 10, 2017 after Irma had visited that night. A good part of the crown of the fallen oak tree had landed atop the pool cage while another substantial section occupied Jim’s wildflower/butterfly garden — you can just see part of the split rail fence on the right side of the frame.

This image was created on the evening of Saturday, September 16, 2017. I used the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber tripod/Induro BHM2S ballhead/Wimberley P-5 plate-mounted 24-105mm f/4L IS lens (now replaced by the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II) at 65mm, and my favorite post-hurricane camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops as framed: 1/8 sec. at f/11 in Av mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to +1. Center Flexi-zone Rear button AF (in Live View for mirror lock-up and 2-second timer) with the AF box on on the blade of the hand saw and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. B: the two Corona tools that Jim and I used for the initial clean-up

The Clean-up Tools

While we could have just waited around a week or so for the insurance claims folks to come by, Jim and I decided to start the clean-up work. I remember saying to Jim, “The best way to approach large, seemingly impossible tasks is one branch at a time.” And that is exactly what we did. We only had what looks like a meager set of tools, one ten-inch hand saw and a set of loppers. But boy oh boy, those two tools were both rugged and efficient. Amazingly, we used the loppers on branches up to about 2 1/2 inches in diameter; the larger stuff fell to the hand saw. With the latter a three-inch branch was a piece of cake even for me. A four-inch branch required a minute or three of effort. And a five-inch branch, about the largest we tackled, might take as long as five minutes. Jim was a lot faster than I was. Many times with the larger branches, it would be impossible to keep the saw moving once you got half-way through. The trick there was to extricate the saw blade and start from the opposite side of the first cut. The hand saw only cut on the back stroke. Once you got the hang of it it really did cut like the proverbial hot knife through butter. You can check out Corona Loppers here and Corona hand saws (and more) here.

This image too was created on the evening of Saturday, September 16, 2017, again with the Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber tripod/Induro BHM2S ballhead/Wimberley P-5 plate-mounted 24-105mm f/4L IS lens (now replaced by the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II) at 28mm, and my favorite post-hurricane camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops as framed: 1/6 sec. at f/16 in Av mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: zero at W. Center Flexi-zone Rear button AF (in Live View for mirror lock-up and 2-second timer) with the AF box on one of the upper support beams and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. C: The “After” view of the kiddie corner of my lap pool from inside the pool cage

The After

I’d guess that Jim put about twenty hours into this project, with about 15 for me. The hard work felt really good despite the hot, still days. We did most of our work in the early mornings or late afternoons. Most sessions were followed by a cooling visit to the pool. We both wound up napping for too long in the afternoons. You can see one of our two huge brush piles just beyond the split rail fence on the right. Each measures something in the vicinity of 50-60 feet long, four – five feet high, and eight to ten feet deep.

Why did we do it? I guess that our main reason was that there was not much else to do. It did not hurt that we wound up removing several hundred pounds of the crown of the downed tree from atop the pool cage. And Jim can now get back to work on his garden. There are still some large branches on top of the pool cage including one e three that split off the large tree that still stands. You can clearly see the trunk of that tree in the left center of the frame about ten feet from the pool cage. If it had fallen onto the pool cage, the damage would have been measured at least in thousands of dollars …

If In Doubt …

If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.

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 please remember that I am 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, 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 :).