Thought Processes on Sidelight and on Different ...

Your Thoughts?

Do you like today’s featured image? Why or why not? All comments are both welcome and appreciated.

What’s Up?

I forgot to mention that on Sunday morning, while photographing with Peter Dominowski, I had an American White Pelican on the ground here at ILE for the first time ever. It landed several times on the South Peninsula but was very shy.

I enjoyed an excellent Monday morning session. The potential crane mom continues to sit on her two eggs. I keep hoping to spot some orange fluff on her back or tucked under her, but so far, nothing. I saw a “vulture” on the ground on the South Peninsula but as I drove past it realized that it was the young eagle! Oops! It flew off, of course. I had a few more chances with the eaglet as the morning progressed but did not get anything great. I spent a bit of time at the vulture tree and made a few very nice images of a dramatically side-lit TV (Turkey Vulture) flying toward me in the canal to my left. Just before heading home, I spent some time with a pair of Sandhill Cranes on the rise behind the small building that sits near the base of the pier. Birds on any type of hill or elevated ground will usually offer distant backgrounds that can be rendered soft and out-of-focus. And that was indeed the case.

Be sure to click on today’s featured image to view the larger, high-res version.

I was glad to learn that BAA friend Greg Gulbransen sold his Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens in near-mint condition (with extras) for a very low $7996.95 (was $8496.95) in mid-March 2022 and that Used Gear Page regular Karen McCormick sold her Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4E FL ED VR lens in excellent condition a very low $5750.00 (was $6750.00) immediately after the price drop.

Today is Tuesday 22 March. The forecast for the morning is really a good one for bird photography: clear with a southeast breeze. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too had a great day. This blog post took a bit more than an hour to prepare and makes twelve days in a row with a new one.

If you are headed to Gatorland this Sunday and would like to learn to be a better photographer, please get in touch via e-mail ASAP.

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This image was created on 20 March 2022 down by the lake at Indian Lake Estates. I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 600mm), and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1600: 1/2000 second at f/6.3 (wide open). AWB at 8:07:12Am on a bright sunny morning. Tracking: Zone with Bird/Face-Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Turkey Vulture in flight — dramatically side-lit

Different Usually Works Very Well …

I had seen several Turkey and Black Vultures flying in as I pulled up to the Vulture Trees. I parked on the grass, got out of my SUV, and set the exposure for the incoming birds. First, I set 1/2000 sec. wide open and then aimed the lens at the light toned bark at the top of the left-most vulture tree. I know that raising the ISO until I see Zebras on the highlights of the bark will yield a workable if not perfect exposure for the dark birds that have some highlights on them. I had several decent chances with birds flying right at me right down sun angle but none of those excited me. After a few minutes of nothing, I looked to my left and saw a Turkey Vulture flying east down the canal. The woods on the south side of the canal were completed shaded, but the bird was lit by the sun, albeit more than 30 degrees of sun angle.

My mind processed the situation as follows:

• 1- Since the bird is lit by full sun, the manually-set exposure should be pretty good.
• 2- Since TVs have super-bright white bill-tips, there was absolutely no reason to try and lighten the exposure.
• 3- Though I often rail against using sidelight when photographing birds, I thought that the sunlit bird flying against a very dark background might look pretty neat.
• 4- I thought that I should practice what I preach: when something unexpected happens, try not to think too much, acquire focus, and press the shutter button.
• 5- Different in bird photography is almost always a good thing. Especially when you are photographing a common subject that you photograph often.

I fired off about 15 frames and kept five good ones. Today’s featured image was the best of the lot. Since there was a sunlit moss-covered tree trunk on the right side of each frame, I executed a healthy crop from the right and from below. Image #1 contains about 70% of the original pixels. The crop left a few sunlit stalks of weeds in the bottom right; those cleaned up nicely with the Patch Tool and Content-Aware Fill.

The Lessons

• #1: Trying for something different is always an excellent option, even if you fail.
• #2: When something unexpected happens, press the shutter button.

And finally, a realization:

• #3: Like backlight, sidelight works best against dark backgrounds.

Sony 200-600 Versatility

Check out the amazing versatility of the Sony 200-600 G lens by comparing today’s featured image with the feautured image in the The Handoff. Gatorland Update blog post here.

The BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide You can purchase your copy here in the BAA Online Store.

The BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide

126 pages, 87 photographs by Joe Przybyla and Arthur Morris.
The PDF for this e-Guide is an electronic download sent via e-mail.

Purchase your copy here in the BAA Online Store.

I had thought about doing a guide to some of the great but little-known photo hotspots around central Florida for about a decade, but those plans never came to fruition. I met Joe online in the Avian Forum at BirdPhotographer’s.Net about two years ago. Joe’s photography has improved tremendously over the past few years; he credits the BAA blog, my books and PDFs, and his participation on BPN. The one thing that I learned right from the get-go about Joe is that he is a hard and tenacious worker, always striving to improve his skills and to grow his knowledge base. As he knew of more than a few good spots in central Florida, I broached the idea of us doing a photographic site guide that covered many of the little-known photographic hotspots from Brandon to Lakeland to Joe Overstreet Road to Indian Lake Estates (my Florida home for the past 20 years or so). After more than many, many dozens of hours of effort, The BIRDS AS ART Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide is now a reality. Thanks to Joe’s wife Dottie for her review of our writing. We all learned once again that writing is a process, a back-and-forth process. All thanks to the white pelicans of Lakeland. Here are the locations that are detailed in this e-Guide:

• Indian Lake Estates: Sandhills Cranes with chicks and colts, lots of vultures, and Ospreys up the kazoo!
• Gatorland, Kissimmee: Learn to make great images of wading birds in a cluttered rookery.
• The Brandon Rookery: Great for nesting Wood Storks, Great Egrets, and more.
• Circle Bar B Reserve, Lakeland: Here you will find a great variety of avian subjects in a great variety of habitats.
• Lake Morton, Lakeland: There are lots of silly tame birds here including and especially American White Pelican during the colder months.
• Lake Mirror, Lakeland: Tame Anhingas, Limpkins, and a zillion White Ibises at times.
• West Lake Parker, Lakeland: Here you will have a chance for two difficult birds, Snail Kite, and Purple Gallinule.
• Joe Overstreet Road, Kenansville: Crested Caracara, meadowlarks, Loggerhead Shrike, and much more on the fenceposts and barbed wire.

Each location includes a map, a detailed description of the best spots, best season, light and time of day instructions, the expected species, and an educational and inspirational gallery that is designed to open your eyes as to the possibilities.

You can purchase a copy here in the BAA Online Store.

Typos

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