Weapons of Mass Destruction Arriving
Steve Elkins of Bedfords let me know that he will be receiving two Sony 600mm f/4 GM lenses this week. These have been nearly impossible to come by. If you want to change your life, order one right now and be sure to use the BIRDSASART code at checkout to get 3% back on your credit card and enjoy free second-day air Fed-Ex. Click here to order yours now and make sure that you get one of the two (even though it will show up as Place Back Order.) That done, it would not hurt to shoot Steve an e-mail.
Use the discount code and receive any BAA book, e-guide, or e-book free.
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OKC Photocon 2022 |
OKC Photon 2022 INFO
I will be doing a Master Class entitled “A Bird Photographer’s Story” at OKC PhotoCon 2022 in Oklahoma City, OK on Saturday 22 October 2022. Check out the great line-up of speakers and programs here (and be sure to scroll down all the way). Check out the schedule here. I am really looking forward to seeing Joe McNally’s program, The Camera is a Visa – Around the Globe, on Friday (4:30 to 6:30pm). You can see some of his amazing, incredibly eclectic work here.
This big photographic event is sponsored by Bedfords. Click here to register ($119.99). Save $20.00 when registering by using the BAACLASS code at checkout.
OKC Photon 2022 Free Critique Offer
Folks who use the BAACLASS code at checkout are invited to set up a ten minute/ten-image critique with me on Friday or Saturday afternoon by contacting me in advance via e-mail. Whatever your favorite subject or genre, I’d love to see your best work. Many photographers do not realize that the principles that guide us are the same whether we like to shoot birds, wildlife, nature, food, people and portraiture, weddings, wars, sports, architecture, old buildings, old cars, or our grandchildren. A great photo is a great photo. Understand that I will evaluate each image as if it were my won. Once you have purchased your ticket, send it to me by e-mail and I will shoot you the additional details via return e-mail. I hope to meet you and see your best work in OKC.
What’s Up?
Same old, same old. Lots of exercise and no photography to speak of. I began my rope flow walk very early on the pier and was considering photographing the 99.9% full moon with the 600mm f/4 and TCs as it set, but it quickly disappeared behind the low clouds on the western horizon.
Today is Sunday 11 September. I plan on taking things on the easy side today. I will be watching (and TIVO-ing) many NFL games and the US Open tennis men’s final. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took about two hours to prepare and makes one hundred seventy 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 to get 3% back on your credit card and enjoy free second-day air FedEx. Please, also, consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn!
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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.
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. Order yours here while they last.
Is Image 1A a Ridiculous Crop?
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This image was created on 15 August 2022 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, NY. While standing at full height, I used the handheld Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 640. Exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/4000 sec. at f/4 (wide open). RawDigger showed that the raw file brightness was within 1/3-stop of being perfect. AWB at 8:19:29am on a sunny morning. Tracking: Spot 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 #1: Osprey — fresh juvenal plumage in flight |
The Situation
With a nice east wind at Nickerson Beach, I was photographing Common Terns returning to feed their chicks with the handheld 600mm f/4 GM lens. A bit too late, I noticed a young Osprey flying by to my left. As the bird was already by me and off light angle, I framed and fired without taking the time to add 1/3-stop of light. While I love the fresh plumage and the dorsal view, there was one thing about the image that led me to think about deleting it. Instead, I came up with the out-of-the-box crop below. What bugged me?
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This image was created on 15 August 2022 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, NY. While standing at full height, I used the handheld Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 640. Exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/4000 sec. at f/4 (wide open). RawDigger showed that the raw file brightness was within 1/3-stop of being perfect. AWB at 8:19:29am on a sunny morning. Tracking: Spot 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 #1A: Vertical out-of-the-box crop of the Osprey — fresh juvenal plumage in flight image |
The Seemingly Ridiculous Solution
As soon as I saw the original frame of today’s featured image on my laptop, I envisioned the out–of-the-box crop mediately above. What do you think of Image #1A? Which version do you prefer? Why?
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Head angle and possibly boring sky. Crop does not do it for me. Seen by itself the question would be “Why?”
Sincere thanks, Neil. I do not mind the blue sky and I prefer the tight, out-of-the box crop to the original image with the head turned away from us.
with love, artie
I prefer image #1. I would have cropped much tighter in 1a, to highlight the tail feathers and make the image more of an abstract. Have you thought about rotating the image 90 degrees CCW to make it a vertical where the bird appears diving? (Just a thought)
Thans, Jim. I played around with the crop here several times. I did not have much room to come in some more on the left while keeping the 3X2 proportion. Your first idea however is good one. If I rotated it 90° that would have either brought the head into the photo (and I did not want to have anything to do with that very poor head angle) or I would have had to cut the tail in half. Neither of those appealed to me. Not to mention that changes the orientation of an image messes with my brain.
Sometime in the mid-1980s when I was a pure beginner, VIREO sold a preening Anhinga image of mine to what was then TLBQ, The Living Bird Quarterly. They rotated it 90 degrees and used it on the front cover. That was my first cover on a nationally distributed magazine. It turned out to be the first of many. About thirty-five years ago I said to myself, “I’ll stick with this hobby until I get my first cover and then go on to something else.” Not.
with love, artie
What Joel Eade said.
Had to be the head angle 🙂