Results of the NANPA Referendum calling for, in part, that the board put the question of joining with ASMP to a vote of the members

NANPA Tidbit of the Day

Most– probably well more than two of the 2 1/2-hour NANPA (Members-only) — supposed Town Hall session were spent extolling the virtues of both NANPA’s and ASMP’s leaders and boards. Not a single NANPA member got to speak or ask a question. Attendees were repeatedly told how great things would be, of all the great benefits they would now enjoy, and how dedicated, hard-working, skilled, wonderful, honorable, well-intentioned, and virtuous were the folks who set this “agreement” up in secret behind their member’s backs.

Near the very end, after answering dozens of carefully selected, hand-picked softball questions while ignoring many dozens of pointed questions that had been posted by the opposition, NANPA President Beth Huning said, and I quote exactly:

Oh, I found it. I found it. And this is gonna be a kind of general answer, uh, because there are a lotta specifics and there’s not a lotta time to do into the details, but one of the questions had to do with the fact that we recognize that a Referendum has been proposed by a group of members. Um, and the question had to do with when the board um, will address it. Uh, and, I just wanted everybody to realize that before this Refer … Referendum was presented, the agreement with ASMP had already been signed. And so, this Referendum came in after the signing of the agreement. And so the board is wrestling now with how to address it. But we have 45 days to figure that out. And so we may not get you an answer right away, and we are in a transition with ASMP we recognize that those concerns are out there. There are — is a vocal group that doesn’t like this and were not gonna be able to please everybody. But at the same time we have a lotta members that have been clamoring for the kinds of benefits that we’ve been talking about here today.

This is what she was actually saying to the 95% of the NANPA membership: “We do not care what you say or think. We say that the deal is done, therefore, it is done; who are you to question that? We will continue to evade and stall just as we have been doing for months.”

What’s Up?

On Wednesday, I got down to the lake twice, once in the morning, and then again at sunset. I enjoyed two fairly productive sessions. I was glad to learn that multiple IPT-veteran Mike De Rosa was the first to sign up for the Spoonbill MINI IPT. See yesterday’s blog post for details.

Today is Thursday 1 December 2022. This blog post took about two hours to minutes to prepare and makes two hundred forty-eight days in a row with a new, educational post just for you. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day.

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This image was created on 11 November 2022 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from my SUV, I used the BLUBB--supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 1000: 1/1000 sec. at f/8 (wide open). When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file exposure was determined to be 1/3 stop too dark. AWB at 8:07:16am on a clear mostly sunny morning. Tracking: Zone AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly even at 1200mm. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Green Heron–adult on The Perch with crest raised

What Excites Me? (I)

Making a decent image of a new species on The Perch excites me. As Green Herons are generally quite skittish, I slapped the 2X TC onto the 600 f/4, put the rig on the BLUBB- after making sure that the Direct Manual Focus switch was set to OFF, and approached very cautiously while limiting my movement. I stopped more than 160 feet (48.89 meters) from the subject. Image #1 is a small proportionate crop from the top and bottom left.

Your Call

Which of today’s two featured images do you like best? Why?

This image was created on 11 November 2022 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. While seated on the grass, I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 426mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 5000. 1/1000 second at f/6.3 (wide-open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 5:46:57pm right at sunset on a mostly cloudy afternoon. RawDigger showed the exposure to be dead-solid perfect with the center of the sun ball over-exposed just a bit. Tracking: Zone AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection produced a sharp image. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #2: Sandhill Crane at sunset dancing with dead grasses

What Excites Me? (II & III)

Finding something good at the very end of a session excites me. As does having something photographically amazing unfold right in front of me. I headed down to the lake at 5:12pm in hopes of creating some sunset silhouettes. It was a stormy afternoon with large dark clouds covering most of the sky, but I hoped that I might get lucky as there was a bright orange bit of clear sky on the southwest horizon right where the sun would be going down. At this time of year, there are often big flocks of Icterids flying around late in the day and groups of wading birds flying into the nighttime roost in the reeds. But not last night.

I headed down to the vulture trees and almost stopped for a 70-200 sunset scenic with three cranes in the foreground with lots of trees in the background. As the sun had just come out from the lowest layer of clouds, the contrast would have been too great, so I made a U-turn and headed to the South Field. As the sun was getting ready to disappear at the end of the day, I came across two cranes. So, I grabbed the 200-600 and scrambled to get on the ground for some crane silhouettes. I made a very few images when the one of the cranes picked up some dried grasses and began dancing with the other bird. Several times I needed to get up and move left or right and get back down to place the action right in front of the color. I created more than 100 images in about two minutes. All but one of them sucked and were deleted instantly.

Serendipity counts for a lot in nature photography. But the fact is that I kept trying. And once the magic happened in front of me, I was able to adjust the camera settings and come up with a single sharp, nicely-framed image with a workable exposure. BTW, many good images were deleted because I was too greedy and did not zoom out enough to avoid clipping wings and feet.