Just Some Stuff ...

What’s Up?

My 17 1/2 hour travel day was relatively uneventful except for the exhaustion. My first morning in northern Ontario was filled with a mother and baby Moose, Walleye, Northern Pike, nesting Herring Gull, and fishing Bald Eagles. Only nine 1/2 more days to go.

FlexShooter Pro You can order your FlexShooter Pro from the BAA Online Store right now for $599.00 plus the shipping by clicking here, or by phone (on weekdays) at 863-692-0906.

FlexShooter Pro Comments

Via e-mail from Peter Llewellyn

Hi Artie,

I received a FlexShooter Pro head from the first batch and must tell you it is the best tripod head I have ever used. It is way better than Wimberley V2 and the RRS gimbal (both of which I have used in the past). It will now be the only tripod head I will ever use. I’m looking forward to getting the Setting up a Tripod in Your Vehicle video. Thanks so much for offering that free to the folks who have purchased a FlexShooter Pro from you.

I am sure that as people try my head more orders will be coming from north of the border.

All the best, Peter

If you are among the first on your block to be using this great new head we would love to hear from you. Positives and negatives and questions are all welcome via e-mail.

FlexShooter Pro Updates

A very few FlexShooter Pro heads are still in stock here in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store. We have sold 36 of the first forty that we received — all to positive reviews — and are expecting 20 more next week. We have the correct BigFoot plate available for all lenses but for the Nikon 600mm f/4 VR lens. — see below for info on that. If you try to place an order in the BAA Online Store and it shows as back-ordered, please call Jim on Monday at 863-692-0906 to place your order and ensure getting one from our third batch.

As most of you know, I am now using the FlexShooter Pro for 100% of my tripod-mounted photography. See here and here to learn more. Or see the video here.

My plan is to do a second informational FlexShooter Pro video in Ontario with additional tips.

Last week I got my hands on the prototype for the new FLN-60 Bigfoot for the Nikon 600 VR. It is long enough to balance the 600 alone with any Nikon camera body and the best news is that the Wimberley F-1 Flash Bracket fits perfectly and mounts easily. I will post a photo here soon. We will have them in stock in about three weeks.

D-Day by Robert Capa

Warning

Do NOT click on the link below unless you have some time to do some serious surfing and a willingness to be moved by the incredible photos and stories.

D-Day by Robert Capa/from TIME — 100 Photographs — The Most Influential Images of All Time

Below is an excerpt from the the amazing collection here. Many of the images are accompanied by entirely captivating, interesting, moving, and amazing accounts. More than a few — including the image above — are accompanied by powerful videos.

It was the invasion to save civilization, and LIFE’s Robert Capa was there, the only still photographer to wade with the 34,250 troops onto Omaha Beach during the D-Day landing. His photographs—infused with jarring movement from the center of that brutal assault—gave the public an American soldier’s view of the dangers of war. The soldier, in this case, was Private First Class Huston Riley, who after the Nazis shelled his landing craft jumped into water so deep that he had to walk along the bottom until he could hold his breath no more. When he activated his Navy M-26 belt life preservers and floated to the surface, Riley became a target for the guns and artillery shells mowing down his comrades. Struck several times, the 22-year-old soldier took about half an hour to reach the Normandy shore. Capa took this photo of him in the surf and then with the assistance of a sergeant helped Riley, who later recalled thinking, “What the hell is this guy doing here? I can’t believe it. Here’s a cameraman on the shore.” Capa spent an hour and a half under fire as men around him died. A courier then transported his four rolls of film to LIFE’s London offices, and the magazine’s general manager stopped the presses to get them into the June 19 issue. Most of the film, though, showed no images after processing, and only some frames survived. The remaining images have a grainy, blurry look that gives them the frenetic feel of the action, a quality that has come to define our collective memory of that epic clash.