Bird Photography Teacher Learns From Student ...

Your Fave?

Which of today’s four, very strong featured images is the best? All are invited to leave a comment and let us know why they made their choice. Thanks to the many who left thoughtful comments on yesterday’s shorebird images.

This Just In

Please note that clicking on each blog image to enlarge it, will connect you to a higher resolution image. For unknown reasons, the smaller images — even the verticals that are not rendered larger, simply do not look sharp. I am attempting to rectify that situation. In the meantime, click on the images to be impressed by the quality of the photos.

What’s Up?

Aside from some widespread power outages, Tropical Depression Henri did not do too much damage except to my pocketbook. I had to cancel several private In-the-Field sessions due to the rain (all the while while staying at the only nice hotel in close-in Nassau County). I actually headed out to the beach on Sunday morning in light rain, but Nickerson and Jones Beach were both closed because of the approaching “fierce storm.”

Today is Monday 23 August 2021 and it is still raining, 🙁 I will be heading back to younger daughter Alissa’s house after packing up this morning. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day.

Remember that you can find some great photo accessories (and necessities!) on Amazon by clicking on the Stuff tab on the orange/yellow menu bar above. On a related note, it would be extremely helpful if blog-folks like me, who spend too much money on Amazon, would get in the habit of clicking on the Amazon logo link on the right side of each blog post when they shop online. As you might expect, doing so will not cost you a single penny, but would be appreciated tremendously by yours truly. And doing so works seamlessly with your Amazon Prime account.

This blog post took about three hours to prepare (including the time spent on the image optimizations) and makes 236 consecutive days with a new one. Please remember that if an item — a Delkin flash card, or a tripod head — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to save 3% at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And doing so always earns my great appreciation.

Please Remember

With income from IPTs now close to zero, please, if you enjoy and learn from the blog, remember to use one of my two affiliate programs when purchasing new gear. Doing so just might make it possible for me to avoid having to try to get a job as a Walmart greeter and will not cost you a single penny more. And if you use Bedfords and remember to enter the BIRDSASART code at checkout, you will save 3% on every order and enjoy free second-day air shipping. In these crazy times — I am out at least forty to sixty thousand dollars so far due to COVID 19 (with lots more to come) — remembering to use my B&H link or to shop at Bedfords will help me out a ton and be greatly appreciated. Overseas folks who cannot order from the US because of import fees, duties, and taxes, are invited to help out by clicking here to leave a blog thank you gift if they see fit.

New and Better Bedfords Discount Policy!

You can now save 3% on all of your Bedfords photo gear purchases by entering the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout. Your discount will be applied to your pre-tax total. In addition, by using the code you will get 2nd day air shipping via Fed Ex.

Grab a Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III and save $14.99. Purchase a Canon EOS R5 and your discount will be $116.97. Purchase a Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and save a remarkable $389.94! Your Bedford’s purchase no longer needs to be greater than $1,000.00 for you to receive a discount. The more you spend, the more you save.

Money Saving Reminder

Many have learned that if you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H and would enjoy free second-day air shipping, your best bet is to click here, place an order with Bedfords, and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If an item is out of stock, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell phone at (479) 381-2592 (Central time). Be sure to mention the BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order to save 3% and enjoy free 2nd-day air shipping. Steve has been great at getting folks the hot items that are out of stock at B&H and everywhere else. The wait lists at the big stores can be a year or longer for the hard to get items. Steve will surely get you your gear long before that. For the past year, he has been helping BAA Blog folks get their hands on items like the SONY a9 ii, the SONY 200-600 G OSS lens, the Canon EOS R5, the Canon RF 100-500mm lens, and the Nikon 500mm PF. Steve is personable, helpful, and eager to please.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs (remember those?) and dozens of photographers 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.

This image was created by Anke Frohlich on 21 August 2021 at the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, NY. While seated on damp mud, she used the hand held Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 2500. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/2500 sec. at f/4 (wide open). AWB at 6:59am on a mostly cloudy morning. Tracking: Spot S/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version. Image 1: Lesser Yellowlegs, juvenile (probably retching) Courtesy of and Copyright Anke Frohlich Photography

Anke On Action

Anke especially loves photographing birds that are doing something interesting: foraging, flying, fighting, bathing, preening, or trying to spit up a pellet of indigestible material as in Image #1 above.

Toward those ends, Anke almost never uses a TC so that she can better attain the high shutter speeds needed to freeze action. And similarly, she does not hesitate to use relatively high ISOs.

This image was also created by Anke Frohlich on 21 August 2021 at the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, NY. While seated on damp mud, she used the hand held Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 400. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/2500 sec. at f/4.5 (stopped down 1/3-stop). AWB at 7:32 am on a mostly cloudy (then sunny) morning. Tracking: Spot S/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version. Image 2: Short-billed Dowitcher, preening juvenile. Courtesy of and Copyright Anke Frohlich Photography

Press the Shutter Button!

Anke shoots fairly aggressively, always at 30 fps, usually in relatively short bursts of from 3-5 images for birds on the ground, and longer sequences for birds in flight. She has followed my oft-given advice: In good situations, press and hold down the shutter button once focus has been acquired to ensure having as many different instants and poses to choose from as possible. She has done that in spades with the preening dowitcher image above.

This image was also created by Anke Frohlich on 21 August 2021 at the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, NY. While seated on damp mud, she used the hand held Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 400. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/2500 sec. at f/4.5 (stopped down 1/3-stop). AWB at 7:32 am on a mostly cloudy (then sunny) morning. Tracking: Spot S/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version. Image #3: Lesser Yellowlegs juvenile fighting. Courtesy of and Copyright Anke Frohlich Photography

The Unexpected

Anke loves surprises. Like all of us, she delights in discovering unusual behaviors and poses in her images, stuff that the human eye cannot detect. After spending time observing and figuring out the battling behaviors, she took many hundreds of fighting Lesser Yellowlegs images before the rains put us out of business. Getting a great fighting image is a huge challenge: having two good head angles is a rarity. Having the bird you want in focus, is challenging. And getting both birds on the same plane and sharp is a nearly-impossible when working at close range.

This image was also created by Anke Frohlich on 21 August 2021 at the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, NY. While standing near the Raunt, she used the hand held Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 2500. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/2500 sec. at f/7.1 (stopped down 1 2/3-stops!). AWB at 10:15am am on a mostly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version. Image #4: Lesser Yellowlegs juvenile landing. Courtesy of and Copyright Anke Frohlich Photography

Hand Holding and Using Smaller Apertures

Like most folks who are physically able to hand hold a 600mm f/4 lens, Anke far prefers shooting flight and action and pretty much everything else without using a tripod. For this angelic image, she stopped down five clicks on aperture while going five clicks higher on ISO then she would have had she been working wide open at f/4. With spectacular results.

Considering that Anke began photographing birds only 14 months ago, her progress has been astounding.

Typos

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