Roseate Spoonbill Mission Accomplished; but it was tough!

What’s Up?

Clemens, Donna, and I had a great morning in the Stick Marsh near Vero Beach. After the session, Clemens headed back to West Palm and Donna and I headed back to ILE. After brunch, I started packing for the drive to Titusville. That was followed by my last swim till next Sunday and more packing. We left at 2:30pm. Huge thanks to Donna for doing the driving while I worked on the laptop. We arrived at Donna’s VRBO at 4:30 and met Donna’s partner Beverly Still and their dog Majik, a very large and affectionate labradoodle. I tried and failed to nap. When I awoke, I noted the wind against-sun-conditions and the potential for sunset color so we all hopped in my car and headed to Black Point Wildlife Drive.

The western sky began to get gorgeous as we looked for one single bird to silhouette. We found a Great Blue Heron in just the right spot and worked on varying our image designs with the SONY 200-600s. On the way out, the sky got even more spectacular so we stopped for some wide angle Florida postcard scenics.

Today is Sunday 14 March 2021; did you remember to spring the clocks forward? The forecast for Titusville the morning is for clear with very little wind. We are heading out very early in search of some sunrise images.

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you have a great day.

This blog post took about two hours to prepare and makes eighty-two days in a row with a new one. Please remember to use my B&H affiliate links or to save money at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout.

Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide

Incredibly, the supremely helpful Bruce Dudek finished his edit of the final draft and sent it to me. I will be incorporating his edit today and getting the final PDF made ASAP. I should be getting the complete guide along with the link for the Educational R5 Image Gallery video out no later than Tuesday.

Two weeks ago, I sent out about a dozen copies of the almost finished Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide for review to folks who had previously gotten free copies of the R5/R6 AF e-Guide by using my affiliate links to purchase their Canon mirrorless gear. In the same vein, I contacted everyone who purchased the R5/R6 AF e-Guide last week. More recently, folks who purchased the R5/R6 AF Guide were offered the opportunity to purchase a copy the pre-publication guide for review. Many folks have responded with thoughtful reviews, most recently, IPT veteran Warren Howe. And Bruce Dudek has continued to be a valuable resource.

Because the camera and the Menus are so complex, this guide has required a ton of research, a huge amount of time, and a lot of effort; I am thrilled that it is almost finished. The final update of the R5/R6 AF e-Guide has become part of the complete Camera User’s e-Guide; it has already been revised and expanded.

The complete Camera User’s guide will sell for $75.00. Folks who purchased their Canon gear using my links will receive a $65.00 discount; the guide will cost them a nominal $10.00. Folks who spent more than $7500.00 on Canon mirrorless gear using either of my affiliate links (B&H or Bedfords), will receive the Camera User’s e-Guide for free. Folks who purchased the R5/R6 AF e-Guide will receive a $10.00 discount on the User’s e-Guide. The best news is that the end is in sight.

This image was created on 13 March 2021 at the Stick Marsh in Vero Beach aboard Clemens Van der Werf’s flats boat. I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 500mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 640. Exposure determined with ISO on the Thumb Wheel: 1/3200 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open). AWB at 7:41am on a clear morning. Wide/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed well. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version. Image #1: Roseate Spoonbill downstroke flight

Roseate Spoonbill Mission Accomplished; but it was tough!

It was a beautiful morning but again the wind was more north than east: most of the birds were flying and landing away from us. As far as exposure is concerned, the Roseate Spoonbills needed one-third more light than the Great Egrets, and we never knew which bird was coming next. In addition, as the morning wore on, some light clouds came in making getting perfect exposures that much more difficult; RawDigger showed both of today’s images to be about 2/3-stop too dark.

I created more than 3,000 images. Half were insta-deletes because parts of the bird were cut off by the frame edge. That was usually caused by my being too greedy (and not zooming out as I did with Image #1 above. Most of the rest were deleted because of a poor wing positions, signs and distracting birds (and their reflections) in the background, harsh shadows, and bird-flying away issues. On the first edit I kept about 160 flight images. That will be pared down to about 30 after the second edit.

Flight photography can be tough even with a great rig.

This image was created on 13 March 2021 at the Stick Marsh in Vero Beach aboard Clemens Van der Werf’s flats boat. I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 600mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 640. Exposure determined with ISO on the Thumb Wheel: 1/3200 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open). AWB at 7:24am on a clear morning. Wide/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed well. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version. Image #2: Roseate Spoonbill flying low

The Sony Alpha a1

My new camera continued to amaze. Out of the more than 2,500 flight images made with the a1/200-600 G rig, about six were not perfectly sharp on the eye. When the light got harsh, I experimented with flight photography with the 2X TC added. Nearly all of those images were insta-deletes but amazingly, I did get a few good ones.

I sent out the first issue of the SONY Alpha a1 Set-up and Info Notes (#1) yesterday afternoon and followed that up with issue #1A answering a good question by Larry Master and sharing some new stuff that I learned from Patrick Sparkman.

As I am pretty sure that I will never do a formal Sony Alpha a1 Camera User’s e-Guide, all who purchased their Alpha a1 bodies via a BAA affiliate link have been subscribed to my Sony Alpha a1 Set-Up and Info Updates. This same service may be purchased by anyone with an a1 body via a $150.00 Paypal to birdsasart@verizon.net indicating payment for Alpha a1 Info Updates. All getting the updates will be encouraged to shoot me questions with the answers copied to all in the group.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.