Blue-Footed Booby Diving Part III

Stuff

Thursday was a day of rest, hanging around, and watching Law and Order reruns and the MLB playoffs on the tube. I did get lots of work done and scheduled a few more appointments in Florida for after I get home.

The Streak

Today makes seventy-two days in a row with a new educational blog post! This blog post took less than two hours to prepare (including the short time spent on the image optimization). 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.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me once again with both my DeSoto IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all 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.

New Listing

Sale Pending 9am on the day posted!

Andrae Acerra is offering a barely used Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near mint condition for $924. The sale includes the front lens cap, the strap, two Canon batteries, the battery charger, the original box and everything that came in it, and 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.

Please contact Andrae via e-mail or by phone at 1-908 832 9480 (Eastern time).

Both Patrick Sparkman and I used and loved the 7D Mark II until about two years ago when we both committed to using full frame Canon bodies. We both made some truly great images with it. Two of my three 2016 Nature’s Best honored entries were created with the 7D II, one still, and one video. artie

This image was created on the 2017 Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a Lifetime IPT at 7:03am from the zodiac with the hand held Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens and my favorite diving booby photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 2500. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops off the gray sky: 1/3200 sec. at f/4.5 in Manual mode. AWB. Center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. As seen in the DPP 4 screen capture below, the selected AF point and all four of the assist points missed the subject completely, yet the image is sharp on the bird’s eye. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a larger version. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5. Blue-footed Booby diving #3 Be sure to click on the image to see a larger, sharper version.

Blue-Footed Booby Diving Part III

AI Servo autofocus always has a tougher time tracking a moving subject against a background other than sky than it does when tracking a subject against a sky background. My advise when photographing birds in flight against a background other than sky has always been to concentrate hard and do your best to keep the selected AF point somewhere on the subject, preferably on its face, neck, or upper breast. As I was unable to do any of those things I’d have to assume that I had been tracking the subject well and that my custom case setting worked: my setting are designed so that the AF system will delay searching for for the background when the selected AF point falls off the subject onto the background. My personalized Custom Case settings are detailed in all of my recent Camera User’s Guides. I will be getting back to work on my 5D Mark IV User’s Guide as soon as I get home next Monday; I will be sharing some mew thoughts on those settings for the first time in the new guide.

The DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image

Canon 5D Mark IV Image Quality and Crop-ability

The excellent image quality of sharp 5D Mark IV images is due completely to to its 30.4MP full-frame CMOS sensor that balances fine detail and resolution with low-light performance and sensitivity; I rely on my three 5D IV bodies to produce sharp, low-noise images in a variety of conditions, images that can stand up to a healthy crop as with today’s featured image.

The Crop

The unusually (for me) large crop was dictated by the placement of the subject in the frame of the RAW file. With the crop, I was able to eliminate the extraneous boobies, and in addition, place extra emphasis on the droplets from the boobies that had hit the water just below today’s diving booby. All while being confident in being able to maintain image quality in the optimized image.

If In Doubt …

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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 :).