Foofie-headed Bird . And a Post-processing Question ...

Stuff

On Thursday I went down to the lake with client-friends/house guests Anita North and Loren Waxman, both of whom were with me on the 2017 Galapagos Photo-cruise. We did well with a family of two handsome adult cranes and two too-cute colts. The shoulder is still the shoulder and the inguinal hernia is still the inguinal hernia. The hernia bothered me a bit in the morning but felt fine for the rest of the day. The left shoulder continues to feel a bit better each day. I will be getting a stem cell/PRP/Prolozone injection in my injured left wing Friday midday in Bradenton.

If you would like information on the July/August 2019 Galapagos Photo-Cruise, please shoot me an e-mail.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog 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 went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can always see the current listings by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

Recent Used Gear Kudos

From James Lewis via e-mail

Hello Art, The sale of all my listed items went well. Thank you; things wouldn’t have gone so well without your help. James

List of recent Used Gear Page Sales from the past six weeks!

In early April, Mike Lawie decided to give his Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD lens for Canon EF to his daughter and kindly sent mea check for 2 1/2% of the original asking price of $699. He turned down an offer of $500.
James Lewis sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for $1,199.00, his used Canon EOS 5D Mark II & an EF 40 mm f2.8 STM lens, both in excellent plus condition, for $749.00, his Canon EOS 7D Mark II with a BG-E-16 Battery Grip, both in both in excellent plus condition, for $797.00, and his Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM lens in excellent plus condition for only $799.00, all within days of listing.
Anita North sold her Canon 400m f/4L DO Lens in like new condition for $5999 in early April before it was even listed.
John Norris sold his Canon 1DX Mark II — premium kit — (with less than 2,000 actuations!) in like-new condition but for a few small scuff marks for top left and bottom right for the BAA record-low price of $3,996.00 in late-March.
Jim Brennan sold his Canon 5D Mark III camera body in very good to excellent condition for $1,299.00 and his Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens in good condition for $999.00, both within hours of listing in late March, 2018.
Top BAA Used Gear page seller Jim Keener sold a Fujifilm X-Pro2 Mirrorless Digital Camera in like-new condition for $1299.
Katherine Tryon sold her Canon EOS-1D X in excellent condition (with less than 16,000 shutter actuations) for $2324.00 in late March, 2018.
Kevin Hice sold a lightly used Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $3099.00 soon after it was listed in late March, 2018.
Ron Thill sold his Tamron SP 150-600 f/5.6-6.5 Di VC USD G2 lens for Canon EF in like-new condition for $949 in mid-March.
Joel Williams sold his Fujifilm XF 16-55 f/2.8 R LM WR lens in like-new condition for only $549 near the end of March 2018.
Jim Brennan sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for only $1,219.00 on the first day of listing.
Jim Burns sold his EOS-1D Mark IV body in excellent plus condition for a BAA record low $998; not sure exactly when 🙂
David Solis sold a brand new Sanho HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA 3 1 TB wireless photo/video memory card backup for $399.00 after being contacted on the first day of listing.
David Solis sold his Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8L IS USM (the original version) lens in excellent plus condition for $2399.00 after being contacted on the first day of listing.
David Solis sold his Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM (the “old five”) in excellent plus condition with perfect glass for the BAA record low price of $3399.00.
Les Greenberg sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM zoom lens in mint condition to a local buyer and is sending me a check for 2 1/2% of the original asking price of $1599.
Joel Williams sold his Fujifilm XF 50 f/2 R WR lens in like-new condition for only $299 in early March.
Rajat Kapoor sold his Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens (the “old 1-4”) in near-mint condition the first day is was listed for $649.
Jim Brennan sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the “old five”) in near-mint condition and a Canon EF 1.4 III teleconverter in very good condition for $3,599.00 right after listing them in early March.
Gary Meyer sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition for $798 soon after it was listed in early March.

New Used Gear Listing

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D IF-ED lens and a Nikon TC-14E II 1.4x Teleconverter

Jean-Guy Gallant is offering a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D IF-ED lens and a Nikon TC-14E II 1.4x Teleconverter (for D-AF-S & AF-I lenses only), both in excellent condition, for the extremely low price of $799.00. The sale includes the front and rear lens caps, the front and rear TC-14II caps, and the original product box for the TCE only. The sale also includes insured ground shipping via major courier to US and Canadian addresses. Your items will not ship until your check clears.

Please contact Jean-Guy via e-mail.

The lens alone goes for $1349.00 new. I was surprised to learn that that the Nikon 300 f/4 focuses closer than the Canon 300mm f/4 (4.76 feet as compared to 4.93 feet). The magnification with the Nikon 300 f/4 is .27X (as compared to .24X for the Canon) makes both lenses ideal not only for birds and birds in flight, but for a great variety of small subjects such as dragonflies and butterflies, frogs and toads, and medium sized and large flowers. IPT veteran Krishna Prasad, my Nikon guru, loves this lens for birds with both the TC-E14 and the TC-E17. artie

Canon AF Settings for Birds in Flight

Geoff Coe left a comment yesterday stating that he had tried the settings in the Canon AF Settings for Birds in Flight … (free to some) and Don M asked about that. Here is the info for those who may have missed it:

Canon AF Settings for Birds in Flight … an illustrated e-mail: $10. Free with proof of purchase for any BAA Camera Users Guide.

If you previously purchased a camera User’s Guide from BIRDS AS ART, you can get your free copy of the new Canon AF Settings for Birds in Flight e-mail by following these simple directions: Click here. This will open an e-mail to Jim with the subject line filled in. Now simply cut and paste a copy either the receipt you got when you purchased a camera User’s Guide from BAA or cut and paste the cover or the first page of your User’s Guide. Then hit send.

Those who have never purchased a camera User’s Guide from us (could it be?) can click here to order the new information from the BAA Online store for $10.00. Or, you can call Jim or Jen at 863-692-0906 to order. Or, you can send us a Paypal for $10.00 to birdsasart@verizon.net.

With love, artie

The Streak

Today makes two hundred fifty-seven days in a row with a new educational blog post! This one took less than an hour to prepare including the time spent on the image optimization. With all of my upcoming free time (or not…), the plan right now is to try to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Patrick Sparkman saved $350 on a recent purchase!

Booking.Com

Several folks on the Gatorland IPT used the Booking.Com link below and got great rates and saved a handsome $25.00 in the process. If you too would like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and to earn a $25 reward on your first booking. 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. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

This image was created at Darwin Bay, Galapagos Ecuador with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 330mm) and my old favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 250 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB on a typically cloudy early morning at this location. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to -4. One AF point to the left and one row up from the Center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was placed just below the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version. Nazca Booby, head portrait of large chick

Foofie-headed Birds

If you look up foofie in the dictionary, you will come up empty. I have been using that word for years to describe birds that have a silly-looking tuft of white feathers on the top of their heads, a sort of top-knot. The most common foofie-headed birds are domesticated ducks aka “soup” ducks or “lunch” ducks. There was a really neat mocha-colored foofie-headed duck at the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch in Phoenix, AZ. I even took a photo of it breaking my personal no soup duck images rule.

Foofie-headed Booby Chick

Because the Galapagos archipelago is pretty close to the equator, there are no well defined seasons. A given species may have chicks in June one year and in August the next year. I have loved visiting in June, July, and August when the weather tends to be cloudy bright, ideal for photographing nature in tropical climates. I have seen lots of Nazca Booby chicks over the years but in 2017 I was thrilled to see a few really big chicks like the foofie-headed one featured above. Best of all, as my Galapagos trip is the only one in the world that visits the three best locations twice each, we got to see this same individual at the beginning of the trip and then again almost two weeks later, and two weeks bigger. On the second visit we photographed him on a log flapping in place and strengthening its wings.

Do understand that the foofie-headed look is simply the chance result of some downy feathers remaining in place on the top of its head.

Post-processing Question …

Would you have removed the mess of matted feathers from the top of the bill?

This image was created at the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch on March 5, 2018 while seated behind my lowered tripod. I used the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens and the Nikon D850. ISO 400. Matrix metering-1/3 stop: 1/64000 sec at f/5 in A mode (aperture value, Av in Canon). AUTO1 WB at 5:58pm on a clear afternoon. Center Group (grp)/Shutter button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The bird’s head was pretty much centered in the array. Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +6. Domesticated foofie-headed duck

Domesticated foofie-headed duck

I do hope that purist nature photographers will forgive me for photographing this soup duck; this one surely has some Mallard blood in it. With this one the foofie-headedness is the result of genetics.

IPT Stuff

All IPTs include an introductory briefing before the IPT begins so you know what to expect, frequent in-the-field instruction and guidance (priceless), image editing and small group Photoshop instruction during and after lunch. Breakfasts are on your own so that we can get in the field early. Lunches are on me. Dinners are on your own as well so that we can get to bed as the days in spring will be long.

Rides with the leader are available on a limited basis for $50/day.

Registering for an IPT

To register for an IPT call Jim or Jen in the office at 863-692-0906 from Monday morning through Friday lunch with your credit card in hand to leave your $500 non-refundable deposit. Balances may not be paid by credit card so you will be asked to send a check for your balance along with the signed paperwork that you will find here.

Spring at DeSoto is often magical

DeSoto IPT #1 Sunrise: 7:07 am. Sunset: 6:22pm.

3 1/2 DAYS: SUN 15 APR thru the morning session on WED 18 APR: $1599. Limit 5 photographers.

You must purchase a season Parking Pass in advance for early entry. Click here and scroll down for info. If you are not a local, the six month pass if fine. Best to order by mail. Join me to photograph a wide variety of birds of the shore including pelicans, gulls, terns, sandpipers, oystercatchers, heron, egrets, and night-herons. Many in full breeding plumage. Most are ridiculously tame. Osprey likely. Learn to get the right exposure, flight photography techniques, my secret DeSoto locations, how to see the best situations (nobody is better at that than me), and how to make great images in extremely cluttered situations. Enjoy some great sunrises and sunsets.

Which will offer better opportunities, Desoto #1 or DeSoto #2? I have no idea. Both have the potential to be great.

Tame birds in breeding plumage and heron and egret chicks are great fun.

Gatorland IPT #2. Sunrise: 6:48am. Sunset: 7:58pm.

3 1/2 DAYs: THURS 26 APR through and including the morning of SUN 29 APR. $1599. Limit 5 photographers.

(2 1/2 DAY option) FRI 27 APR through and including the morning of SUN 29 APR. $1199.

Must purchase Gatorland Photographers Pass. Click here for details. All early entry. Late stays Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Gatorland IPT #2 should have lots of chicks, and lots of birds in breeding plumage. We will get to photograph Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Tricolored Heron, and Wood Stork. The Cattle Egrets in full breeding plumage will be present in good numbers. Learn my Gatorland strategy, to get the right exposure, flight photography techniques, my secret Gatorland spots, how to see the best situations (nobody is better at that than me), and how to make great images in extremely cluttered situations.

Help Support the Blog

Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. There is no problem using your Prime account; just click on the link and log into your Prime account. With love, artie

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.

Facebook

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 :).