The Thanksgiving Miracle ???

What’s Up?

With the unsettled weather and tons of geese, Bosque has been great. The other day I was standing below the tour loop road at a barrier gate to a maintainece road. We had been there several times as it got us a bit out of the wind and a bit closer to the geese and cranes. We had seen a roadrunner on each ocassion; it was both bold and shy. It would practically walk between our tripod legs and then run like the dickens. I was photographing geese and cranes in flight with first-timer Dennis Carlson when suddenly the roadrunner darted into view at point blank range. I rotated the lens in the barrel to vertical and quickly moved the Limit Range switch from Not Full to Full. I spun the shutter speed dial five clicks slower for what I guessed would be a good exposure.

The roadrunner faced us for about two seconds. I had Wide AF set on vertical. As the lens focused I could see that the active points were on the bird’s breast. Not ideal, but I knew that if I tried to change to an upper AF point the opportunity would be lost. So I fired off one frame just an instant before the bird took off.

When we were done for the day and parked behind the hotel, I placed my Delkin 128GB UHS-II Power card in the left-hand pocket of my jeans as I do everyday. Along with the battery. (I had only used one body that afternoon.) When I got to my room, I reached confidently into the left-hand pocket to extract the card. The pocket was empty. The battery was inexplicably in my right-hand pocket, but the card was gone. I checked and re-checked all of my pants and coat pockets, refusing too believe that I had lost a card with images on it, never to be found again. I had never done that before. (I had “lost” many cards before but always managed to find them.)

I went back to the car to see if I had mistakenly left the card in the camera. I had not. Using the flashlight on my i-Phone, I carefully searched around the driver’s seat and in the trunk without success. So I fired up the car and headed back to Brooks where I had purchased some skin cream on the way home thinking that the card might have fallen out when I grabbed my wallet. The card was not on the floor near the check-out counter. And nobody had turned it in.

I went back to the room and re-checked all the pockets again. No card. I was resigned to the fact that the card was gone, and with it, a single good image of the Greater Roadrunner. That night, I dreamed that I had myseriously found the card and was quite happy, at least until I woke up. IAC, I was hopeful, heck, strangely confident that it would turn up.

With six inches of fresh snow on the pavement and atop my rental Mazda, the chances of finding the card on the ground where we had parked near the gate the night before, were non-existant. Thanks to first-timer Doug Jackson who helped my clear the snow off my car that morning. IAC, I continued to have hope. Continued below …

IPT Updates

The 2020 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) WED JAN 8, 2020 thru and including the morning session on SUN JAN 12: 4 1/2 days: $2099.(Limit: 8/Openings: 5)

Click here for complete IPT info and details.

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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 EOS-1DX, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. Most recently the price of used Canon 600mm f/L IS II lenses have been dropping like a rock with the introduction of the 600 III. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

The Used Gear page has been hot for the past two months with the continuing price drops on Canon and Nikon gear. There are still lots of great buys right now on the Used Gear Page. In addition to the recent sales below, there are many pending sales.

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens

BAA record-low Price!

IPT veteran Joe Randle is offering a Canon 500mm f4L IS USM Super Telephoto lens (the “old five”) in near-mint condition for the BAA record-low price of $2499.00. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk with keys, a Realtee LensCoat, a Don Zeck lens cap, the front front lens cover, Wimberley P-40 Arca-Swiss compatible lens plate (a $58 value) and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.