Muddy-Neck and the Little One. SONY Camera Body Help Needed. Harry Chapin. And Used Nikon Gear

What’s Up?

Same old, same old. The lake was very good on Saturday morning. I will be heading down a bit earlier today, Sunday 29 MAR 2020. The SONY guide is this-close to being finished.

SONY Camera Body Help Needed

If you own a SONY body and have ever had the viewfinder black out when you raised your rig to your eye to shoot, please click here and let me know the exact camera model. Please also include a detailed description of the event, how long it lasted, the frequency of such occurrences, and anything that you did or do to rectify the situation.

Please note that I am not talking about the 2-3 seconds that it takes for a camera to turn back on after it has been asleep. Toward that end, here is a free excerpt from the new e-Guide:

Power Save Start Time

Power Save Start Time (under the gold Setup Menus) should be set to 30 Min. If you choose a shorter duration in hopes of saving battery power, you will not save very much, and the SONY batteries are excellent. But you will be dismayed when you raise your camera to your eye and it takes 2-3 seconds for the camera to awaken. If you accidentally leave your camera on, it will power down after 30 minutes and prevent your battery from becoming exhausted.

From Fred Innamorato via e-mail

Hi Artie,

I want to thank you for making the Sony e-Guide and videos available and for the work you put into the blog as well as for your books that teach us how to photograph birds and also for your camera User’s Guides. There is just no possible way I would have been able to get my Sony a9 ii camera settings so technically correct for doing birds in flight on my own without this guide. in my opinion, Sony should pay you for taking on the task of educating their customers. Sony has created an amazing camera but they fail to explain to their customers how to take full advantage of it. I appreciate that you know and have access to some very competent people with the technical backgrounds to assist you in your field experimentation to come up with the best and most practical and useful Menu Settings for bird photography. We all will benefit from your unique ability to pull this together. I am especially happy with your instructions on how to use the Zebra Settings for getting proper exposures. I really can’t thank you enough Artie for making my bird photography hobby so much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise. My photography brings me great satisfaction. Sharing quality photographs with my family and friends has generated lots of interest in my hobby and why I do it. Life is good!

I highly recommend the purchase of your Sony e-Guide and Video(s). This information is just not available anywhere else. Even from Sony …

Fred Innamorato

The Sony Camera Videos and Pre-publication e-Guide Costs and Discount Info

I recently sent aa link to the March 19 Version of the SONY e-Guide to the 31 folks who have purchased it. It will surely be the next-to-last pre-publication version.

The cost of the SONY e-Guide is $100.00 US and will include one of the camera set-up videos — we offer one video each for the a7r iii, the a7r iv, the a9, and the a9 ii — and the written guide with the galleries. The guide is now 98% done and you will — of course, receive the final version when it is completed. I sent out the third draft today to those who have purchased the Guide with or without the discount.

Folks who have used my B&H links or purchased their SONY gear from Bedfords will receive said discount based exactly on how much they spent. If you spent more than $10,000 you will receive one free video and the e-Guide. Additional camera videos are $25.00 each. If you spent $2400, you will receive a 24% discount, and so on and so forth. And again, additional camera videos will be $25.00 each.

I will need time to verify your B&H purchases so folks will need to send their receipts and then be a bit patient. It is much easier to verify Bedfords’ purchases but I need those receipts as well.

If you have not used BAA links, please do so in the future. If that is the case and you would like the e-Guide now, please send a Paypal for $100 US to birdsasart@verizon.net and be sure to include the words “SONY Pre-publication Guide” in the Paypal e-mail along with the name of your camera or cameras so that you can receive the correct video or videos. Please add $25 for each additional camera video. Be sure to send a copy of the Paypal transaction to me via e-mail.

Folks who have used BAA links to purchase their SONY gear should send their receipts to me via e-mail asap and let me know which camera videos they need. I will verify their purchases as quickly as possible and send a quote to be paid via Paypal as above.

Thanks to all who have properly used my B&H links or gone through the fabulous Steve Elkins at Bedfords, and thanks to everyone for having faith in the information that I provide, knowing that it will be the best available anywhere.

BIRDS AS ART

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

Today’s Entertainment

Harry Chapin

From the YouTube Harry Chapin Topic

Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter, humanitarian and producer best known for his folk-rock and pop-rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s and became one of the most popular artists and highest-paid performers. Chapin is also one of the best charting musical artists in the United States. Chapin, a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, sold over 16 million records worldwide. He has been described as one of the most beloved performers in music history. Chapin recorded a total of 11 albums from 1972 until his death in 1981. All 14 singles that he released became hits on at least one national music chart.

As a dedicated humanitarian, Chapin fought to end world hunger. He was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. Chapin is credited with being the most politically and socially active American performer of the 1970s. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.

Most of you know Chapin’s biggest hit, Cat’s in the Cradle:

I’ve long since retired and my son’s moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, I’d like to see you if you don’t mind
He said, I’d love to, dad, if I could find the time
You see, my new job’s a hassle, and the kids have the flu
But it’s sure nice talking to you, dad
It’s been sure nice talking to you
And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me
My boy was just like me …

But his “story songs” are little known. Here are a few of my very favorites:

Mr. Tanner.

A Better Place to Be.

All My Life’s a Circle These lyrics made sense: No straight lines make up my life; And all my roads have bends; There’s no clear-cut beginnings; And so far no dead-ends until they became ironic when he died in a (somewhat mysterious) car crash on the way to a concert at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island. At the time, Harry and the band were donating half of their concert gates to World Hunger.

I wanna Learn a Love Song. The man was an incredible poet: I come fresh from the street, Fast on my feet, kinda lean and lazy. Not much meat on my bones, and a whole lot alone. And more than a little bit crazy. The old six string was all I had. To keep my belly still. And for each full-hour lesson I gave, I got a crisp ten-dollar bill.

She was married for seven years, To a concrete castle king. She said she wanted to learn to play the guitar, And to hear her children sing. So I’d show up about once a week, In my faded tight-legged jeans, With a backlog full of hobo stories, And dilapidated dreams.

…

Well, I guess you know what happened, God, I never been so clean. Yes, I feel like I’m working in a Hollywood movie, Or living out a good bad dream. And all them pinup girls in that tinsel world, Never touched me like she can. It took another man’s wife in the real world life, To make this boy a man.

Yikes, I almost forgot 30,000 Pounds of Bananas. Check out a live concert version here. While doing the research for this blog post, I learned that this song was based on a real accident. (Wikipedia here.)

I could easily list another twenty. For a total immersion experience, play the Greatest Stories album mix here.

If you have a favorite Harry Chapin song, please leave a comment. (Taxi and Sequel for starters!)

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%. Please understand that e-Bay prices are bogus. And the same is true of the prices of used gear including my dear friends at B&H and the other mega-outfits. They offer you pennies and then try to sell the stuff to ignorant folks for ridiculously high prices. With their huge international exposure, they occasionally find someone …

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 many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the 5Ds and 5Ds R, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, the Canon 200-400 with internal extender, 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. The prices garnered for used Canon gear has tanked completely as demand has dropped tremendously. It is ironic that for decades Canon gear had very strong resale value …

Note: all BAA Used Gear sales include insured ground shipping via UPS to lower 48 US addresses only. Others who live elsewhere are invited to e-mail the seller for shipping surcharge info. Sellers should charge you only the difference between shipping to the farthest US location from their home and the charge to a non-lower-48 address.

New Listings

Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens

Dennis Westover is offering a Nikon 300mm AF-S f/2.8 ED VRII telephoto lens in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $3649.95. The sale includes the original box, the Cordura travel case, the instruction manual, the lens strap, a Really Right Stuff replacement lens foot, the Nikon Cordura front lens cover, a custom hard front lens cap, the rear lens cap, 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.