So, What Do You Think That I Did On Saturday Morning?

So, What Do You Think That I Did On Saturday Morning?

On Friday morning, I made more than 2000 photographs of various Ospreys. So, what do you think that I did on Saturday morning?

What’s Up?

Rain showers had been forecast for ILE on Saturday from dawn until 5pm. Though it was dreary for most of the day, the sun did peak through several times. I was down to the lake early and made a very few images. But I liked one; it is today’s featured image. It sprinkled for two minutes or so several times in the afternoon. Go figure. I culled my images from the Lake Blue Cypress boat trip, keeping 203 after the first edit (out of 3029). Many of the keepers are series of from three to ten similar images, most of which will wind up in the trash bin after the second edit.

I saw two very small Killdeer chicks and their protective parents running around just south of the pier. I wondered why I had not seen the adults there before. Then I realized that the two chicks were almost surely from the protected nest in the North Field. I was not able to make any images of them.

Shoot me an e-mail for Jacksonville IPT #1 late registration discount details.

Today is Sunday 5 June 2022. The forecast for this morning is for partly cloudy, but when I peeked out the back door at 5:00am, all that I saw were stars. It was warm and humid and very still. I will be heading down to the lake early. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took about 90 minutes to prepare and makes eighty-two days in a row with a new one.

Please remember to use the B&H and Amazon links that are found on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords. Please, also, consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn!

BIRDS AS ART Image Optimization Service (BAA IOS)

Send a PayPal for $62.00 to birdsasart@verizon.net or call Jim at 863-692-0906 and put $62.00 on your credit card. Pick one of your best images and upload the raw file using a large file sending service like Hightail or DropBox and then send me the link via e-mail. I will download and save your raw file, evaluate the exposure and sharpness, and optimize the image as if it were my own after converting the raw file in Adobe Camera Raw. Best of all, I will make a screen recording of the entire process and send you a link to the video to download, save and study.

Another Induro GIT 304L Price Drop

Amazingly, we have two, brand-new-in-the-box Induro GIT 304L tripods in stock. They are $699.00 each (were $799.00) and the price now includes the insured ground shipping to the lower 48 states. Weekday phone orders only: 863-692-0906.

Wanted to Buy

If you have any Canon Series III teleconverters (the 1.4X III or the 2X III) that you’d like to get rid of, please shoot me an e-mail if you are interested in turning them into cash. I have an interested buyer.

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 on items priced at $1,000 or more. With items less than $1000, there is a $50 flat-fee. One of the more popular used gear sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. If you are interested, please click here, read everything carefully, and do what it says. To avoid any misunderstandings, please read the whole thing very carefully. If you agree to the terms, please state so clearly via e-mail and include the template or templates, one for each item you wish to sell. Then we can work together to get your stuff priced and listed.

Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice only to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past years, we have sold many hundreds of items. Do know that prices for used gear only go in one direction. Down. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

New Listings

Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift Lens

Blog regular Alice Garland is offering a Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift lens in near-mint condition for $549.00. The sale includes the front and rear lens caps and insured shipping via major courier to the lower 48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears or other arrangements are made.

Please contact Alice at via e-mail or by phone at 1-509-954-4253 (Pacific time zone).

This specialty lens is used for portraiture, architectural, food, and landscape photography, the latter especially by folks photographing flower-fields. They offer precise control of depth of field. The newer “L” version of this lens sells new for $2,199.00 and is back-ordered pretty much everywhere. artie

Mixing a short telephoto field of view with perspective- and depth of field control, the TS-E 90mm f/2.8 from Canon is a tilt-shift lens well-suited to producing well-corrected imagery with a slightly compressed perspective. Up to +/- 8° of tilt is possible, for focus control, and +/- 11mm of shift, to adjust perspective and composition. The tilt-shift mechanism can be rotated +/- 90° for applying movements in any direction, and a tilt-locking mechanism can be used while shooting for greater stability. The lens also employs a Gaussian-type optical design to maintain image quality throughout the aperture range and a Super Spectra coating has been applied to individual element to reduce flare and ghosting for increased contrast and color accuracy.Canon & B&H

Canon Extender EF 2X II (teleconverter)

BIRDS AS ART Record Low Price

Blog regular Alice Garland is offering a Canon Extender EF 2X II (teleconverter) in excellent condition for a BIRDS AS ART record-low $148.00. The sale includes the front and rear lens caps and insured shipping via major courier to the lower 48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears or other arrangements are made.

Please contact Alice at via e-mail or by phone at 1-509-954-4253 (Pacific time zone).

As regular readers know, TCs are so important to what I do that I always travel with three 1.4X teleconverters and two 2X teleconverters. (Note: they do fail on occasion …) In addition, TC AF performance and results are much improved with the Canon mirrorless bodies like the EOS R5 and the EOS R3. artie

This image was created on 4 June 2022 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Standing at full height, I used the no longer available Induro GIT 304L/Levered-clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 800. 1/100 sec. at f/5.6 (stopped down two stops) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file exposure was determined to be perfect. AWB at 7:34:25am on dreary morning. Tracking: Zone AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to perfection. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Osprey — twin chicks in the nest

What I Did on Saturday Morning

I love bird photography. So, I went down to the lake and made more Osprey images. I had visualized today’s featured image for several weeks and had been waiting for the chicks to be large enough to stand up in the nest and be visible. And I knew that only a cloudy day would work. On both counts, Saturday 4 June was the day.

Do You Like This Image?

Why or why not?

Fat Boy Firsts

For the first time, I worked with the 400 f/2.8 on a tripod. And for the first time (other than accidentally), I stopped down, two full stops in this instance. I wanted to be sure that the large nest and all the moss was sharp. The plan worked well. Note the placement of the chicks in the upper left corner.

Be sure to click on the image to better see the AF point — a green circular crosshairs with a red box inside it. Image #1A: A7INFO screen capture for the Osprey — twin chicks in the nest image

Fat Boy AF

As stated here recently, all Tracking:AF-C Methods with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled are faster and more accurate with an f/2.8 lens than they are with slower lenses. As seen in the screen capture above.

For Eagle-eyed Readers Only

Image #1 is virtually the same as the image seen in 1A. But I did eliminate two tiny things that bugged me. If you can spot one of them, you are doing very well.

A7INFO

A7INFO is an ExifViewer for Sony e-mount cameras. It reveals the AF point or points used to create Sony raw files. In addition, it accurately lists the Focus Distance; this is very helpful when studying depth of field. The program was created by Wolfram Söns of Cologne, Germany. Click here to learn more about A7INFO.You can download the correct version for your computer here. While you’re at it, be sure to leave a donation to support Wolfram’s efforts; $10.00 is suggested.

Note: at present, there is no app that I know of that can tell you after the fact what AF method you were using to create a given raw file … A 7INFO does indicate what it calls AFAreaModeSetting, along with other AF info, but most of it does not correlate with the settings we see on the camera.

Perspective Question

Would setting on a ladder and working with a much taller tripod have helped this image? Why or why not?

Flight Photography at Jacksonville Till You Can’t Lift Your Lens! with Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Join me on the beach at Huguenot Memorial Park to learn about photographing terns in flight. 8,000 pairs of Royal Terns nest there and there are birds in the air all the time, often carrying all kinds of fish and crabs for their young. Learn about how the relationship between the wind and the sun impacts flight photography and about the best gear for shooting birds in flight. Join me on a workshop at Jacksonville this summer.

Cute & Beautiful: Photographing Chicks in Jacksonville, FL with Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

There is an amazing beach near Jacksonville, FL where 8,000 pairs of Royal Terns and 12,000 pairs of Laughing Gulls (along with a few other species) breed each summer. As this video shows, photographing the chicks is easy in the summer. And there is tons of great flight photography as well. If you want to improve your bird photography skills, consider joining me on an Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT).

Click on the composite image to enjoy the incredible quality of the hi-res JPEG. Clockwise from upper left clockwise and back around to the center: Royal Tern in flight with squid for chick; Royal Tern chick on beach; Royal Tern in flight with shrimp for young; Royal Tern chick — double overhead wing stretch; Royal Tern landing with greenback for chick; Royal Tern in flight with juvenile mahi mahi for chick; Brown Pelican — large chick preening; Laughing Gull in fresh juvenal plumage; Royal Tern chick begging; Many Royal Terns with many chicks on face of dune.

Jacksonville IPT: #1: 4 FULL DAYS — the afternoon of 16 June thru the morning of MON 20 June 2022: $2,099.00. (Limit 6 photographers)

Jacksonville IPT #2: 4 FULL DAYS — the afternoon of FRI 1 JULY thru the morning of TUES 5 July 2022: $2099.00 (Limit 6 photographers)

Jacksonville IPT #3: 4 FULL DAYS — the afternoon of FRI 15 JULY thru the morning of TUES 19 July 2022: $2099.00 (Limit 6 photographers/Openings: 5)

Ride with me: add $200.00. I do not like to disappoint: each trip will run with one participant. If necessary.

I first visited the breeding bird colony at Jacksonville in late June 2021. I was astounded. There were many thousands of pairs of Royal Terns nesting along with about 10,000 pairs of Laughing Gulls. In addition to the royals, there were some Sandwich Terns nesting. And there are several dozen pairs of Brown Pelicans nesting on the ground. Flight photography was non-stop astounding. And photographing the tern chicks was relatively easy. Folks could do the whole trip with the Sony 200-600, the Canon 100-500 RF, or the Nikon 500 PF or 200-500 VR. With a TC in your pocket for use on sunny days. Most of the action is within 100 yards of where we park (on the beach). As with all bird photography, there are times when a super-telephoto lens with either TC is the best tool for the job.

Morning sessions will average about three hours, afternoon sessions about 1 1/2 hours. On cloudy mornings with favorable winds, we may opt to stay out for one long session and skip the afternoon, especially when the afternoon forecast is poor. Lunch is included on the first three days of the IPT and will be served at my AirBnB. After the first lunch there will be an introductory program. On days two and three we will do image review and Photoshop after lunch.

We will be based somewhere west and a bit north of Jacksonville where there are many AirBnB possibilities. The deposit is $599.00. Call Jim at the office any weekday at 863-692-0906 to pay by credit card. Balances must be paid by check.

What You Will Learn on a Jacksonville IPT

• 1- First and foremast you will learn to become a better flight photographer. Much better.
• 2-You will learn the basics and fine points of digital exposure. Nikon and Canon folks will learn to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure, and SONY folks will learn to use Zebras so that they can be sure of making excellent exposures before pressing the shutter button.
• 3- You will learn to work in Manual exposure mode even if you fear it.
• 4- You will learn to evaluate wind and sky conditions and understand how they affect bird photography, especially the photography of birds in flight.
• 5- You will learn several pro secrets (for each system) that will help you to become a better flight photographer.
• 6- You will learn to zoom out in advance (because the birds are so close!) 🙂
• 7- You will learn how to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them.
• 8- You will learn to spot the good and the great situations.
• 9- You will learn to understand and predict bird behavior.
• 10- You will learn to design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system.
• 11- You will learn to choose the best perspective.
• 12- You will learn to see and control your backgrounds.
• 13- You will learn to see and understand the light.
• 14- You will learn to see and create pleasing blurs in pre-dawn situations.
• 15- You will learn to be ready for the most likely event.

And the best news is that you will be able to take everything you learn home with you so that you will be a better photographer wherever you are and whenever you photograph.

Typos

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