Making Baby Sandhill Cranes!

Which is the Best Image?

All are invited to leave a comment letting us know which of today’s six featured images they like best, and why they made their choice.

Thanks for all the comments on the Black Vulture images in yesterday’s blog post. The consensus pick was Image #4 with the interesting background. My pick was Image #2, the vertical with the somewhat crazy flight pose.

What’s Up?

On Monday morning, I enjoyed another great photo session at ILE. It began on the pier with 321 blurs. Those included eight keepers after the first edit. I took a few snaps of the eagle before and after the sun hit the nest. I am pretty sure, but not positive, that the bird was feeding a chick … Next up was a Cattle Egret on a piling at the boat ramp dock in super-sweet early morning butter light. I kept nine of 96. Each featured a lovely green background. When something spooked the egret, I followed the movement and I saw three Killdeer on the boat ramp in the shade of my SUV. Two of them bathed. In just 2 minutes 18 seconds, I created 269 images; 23 of those survived the first cut. Then I drove to the parking circle to check out The Perch. On the way, I saw two cranes atop the small knoll just to the north. I positioned the car on sun angle and working off the BLUBB, I made a bunch of ordinary images at 840mm with the 600mm f/4, the 1.4X TC, and the a1. Then things got really exciting. In all, I created 482 images of the cranes on the rise. Keep reading below to learn what happened next.

Sunset on Monday was another cloudy bust. Today is Tuesday 11 January 2022. Clearing skies with a north wind are in the forecast. I will get down to the lake for at least a while. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took more than three hours to prepare (including the time spent on the six image optimizations) and makes 62 consecutive days with a new one.

Please remember that you can find some great photo accessories (and necessities, like surf booties!) 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 who, like me, 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.

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Sony Alpha 1 Bodies in Stock at Bedfords/free card offer!

Steve Elkins of Bedfords let me know recently that he had several Sony a1 bodies in stock. If one of them has your name on it, please click here and be sure to enter the BIRDSASART coupon code check the box for free shipping to enjoy free Second Day Air Fed-Ex. Right now, in lieu of the 3% credit refunded to the card you used for your purchase, you will receive a Sony 160GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card, a $399.99 value!

Brand New and As-Good-As-Ever Bedfords BAA Discount Policy

Folks who have fallen in love with Bedfords can now use the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout to enjoy a post-purchase, 3% off-statement credit (excluding taxes and shipping charges) on orders paid with a credit card. The 3% credit will be refunded to the card you used for your purchase. Be sure, also, to check the box for free shipping to enjoy free Second Day Air Fed-Ex. This offer does not apply to purchases of Classes, Gift Cards, or to any prior purchases.

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Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs 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. If you are desperate, you can try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.

This image was created on 10 January 2022 at Indian Lake Estates. Working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). ISO 800. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/1250 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 8:06:41am on a mostly sunny morning. Tracking: Spot S AF-C performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a higher-res version. Image #1: Sandhill Crane female inviting copulation

The Invitation

The two cranes began walking down the back side of the small hill. One of them leaned forward, almost as if bowing. This indicates one of two things:

A- The bird is about to take flight

B- The female is beginning a sequence of behaviors inviting the male to copulate.

In this case it was B. The bird that had leaned forward had been the female. She walked toward me and spread her wings low and to the side as you see in Image #1. This was a clear invitation to the male to copulate. I was vertical at 840mm. The moment that I saw the male walking up behind the female, I knew that he had accepted. Even as I made a few images, I knew that I would need to remove the teleconverter and switch from vertical to horizontal ASAP to avoid clipping wings and more.

This image was created on 10 January 2022 at Indian Lake Estates. Working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). ISO 800. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/2000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 8:06:58am on a mostly sunny morning. AF Method unknown, but whatever it was, it performed amazingly well. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a higher-res version. Image #2: Sandhill Crane pair copulating, male with foot raised over female’s head

The Good News and the Bad News

Faced with a rapidly-developing, pretty-much-perfect situation, my heart was pounding. You might think it strange that after 38 years of bird photography I could still get so excited. It took me 16 seconds to remove the TC, remount the camera body, turn the lens to horizontal on the BLUBB, and adjust the exposure (albeit incorrectly). During the time that it had taken me to remove the TC, the male had mounted the female. I noted way too many Zebras, so I increased the shutter speed. But I increased it only two clicks from 1/1250 sec. to 1/2000 sec. As the aperture went from f/5.6 to f/4 when I removed the TC, I should have gone three clicks to 1/2500 sec. As a result of this error, all of the raw files were over-exposed to varying degrees, some by as much as 1/3 stop. The over-exposures were all in the bright tones of the under-primary feathers. I used the knowledge gained from working with RawDigger for the past three years — all of the Ov-Exp pixels were in the G channel — and the techniques detailed in the Saving the Whites Video to successfully process the six images featured here today.

This image was created on 10 January 2022 at Indian Lake Estates. Working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). ISO 800. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/2000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 8:06:58am on a mostly sunny morning. AF Method unknown, but whatever it was, it performed amazingly well. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a higher-res version. Image #3: Sandhill Crane pair copulating

Pedal to the Metal

Because I had to remove the TC, I was a bit late to the party. From there, it was all over in less than four seconds. I do not remember releasing pressure on the shutter button. There were 87 images in the sequence. I opted to keep only 13. I clipped a wing in only two images; all the rest were quite excellent. But you simply cannot keep all the good ones with the a1.

Note: Images #2-5 are all quite similar, but there are small differences in each photo the led me to keep this or that image and to discard many others. The determining factors had to do primarily with differing head and wing (and even foot) positions, mostly with respect to the male bird, the one on top 🙂

This image was created on 10 January 2022 at Indian Lake Estates. Working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). ISO 800. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/2000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 8:06:59am on a mostly sunny morning. AF Method unknown, but whatever it was, it performed amazingly well. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a higher-res version. Image #4: Sandhill Crane pair copulating, male’s wings raised for balance

AF Method

AF Method unknown, but whatever it was, it performed amazingly well.

On my gripped a1, I have three AF Methods enabled. But only two are enabled on my other a1. With the camera set up properly, the camera remembers both the AF Method and the position of the point or zone when you switch from vertical to horizontal. I am 100% sure that for Image #1, the vertical, I was using Tracking: Spot S. But in all the excitement, I am not sure if I was using that or Tracking: Zone. But it did not matter: every one of the 87 images in the copulation series was sharp.

This image was created on 10 January 2022 at Indian Lake Estates. Working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). ISO 800. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/2500 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 8:07:01am on a mostly sunny morning. AF Method unknown, but whatever it was, it performed amazingly well. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a higher-res version. Image #5: Sandhill Crane pair copulating, male biting head of female

More Fine-Feather Detail?

After clicking on each image to view the high-res version, please leave a comment if you think that one of today’s images shows more fine-feather detail than the other five. If yes, which one. If they all look the same to you, you are invited to leave a comment stating that. Your answer will help me out quite a bit.

This image was created on 10 January 2022 at Indian Lake Estates. Working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). ISO 800. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/2500 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 8:07:01am on a mostly sunny morning. AF Method unknown, but whatever it was, it performed amazingly well. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a higher-res version. Image #6: Sandhill Crane pair copulating, male dismounting

The Dismount

All good things must come to an end. To dismount, the male stepped over its mate. Less than five minutes after driving away from the knoll, I was about five seconds too late another pair of cranes copulated on the South Peninsula. Let’s hope that there are lots of crane chicks this season.

The Saving the WHITEs (and lots more!) Video image

The Saving the Whites (and lots more!) Video

My two biggest challenges when optimizing images are getting the BLUEs just right, and restoring detail to the WHITEs and highlights of properly exposed raw files. There are four things that I do to accomplish the latter. All are covered in detail in this 21+ minute video, along with a dirty trick to try if the first four do not work perfectly. Sit with me at my laptop as I teach you how to save the WHITEs. I begin with the raw conversions of two different raw files, today’s featured Snowy Owl image, and Joe Usewicz’s spoonbill image that was featured in the Extraordinary Over-Exposed (?) Spoonbill/Saving the WHITEs Optimization blog post here.

In addition to learning how to save the WHITEs (in both images), you will learn how to expand canvas using the amazingly convenient Content-Aware Crop Tool, to set the White Balance (color temperature), to set the WHITE and BLACK points, see Digital Eye Doctor and RawDigger in action, learn to make a Color Range Selection, and lots more.

To purchase your copy of the Saving the Whites Video (and lots more!) video, you can send a PayPal for $37.00 to us at birdsasart@verizon.net, call Jim in the office at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand, or visit the item in the BAA Online store by clicking here.

After clicking on each image, check out the nice detail in the white face of the owl in the optimized version (Image #1), with the virtually absent detail in the face of the owl in the Photo Mechanic screen capture (Image #1A). As I have been saying here often for two decades, properly exposed raw files will often appear washed out with little detail in the highlights …

Typos

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