The Homer IPTs

No Reasonable Offer Refused

I hate sailing with a less than full boat. If you would like to make a low-ball offer on one or more of the Bald Eagle IPTs below, please click here.

IPT #1: MON 20 FEB 2023 through the full day on FRI 24 FEB 2023. Five full days/20 hours on the boat: $5500.00. Limit 5 photographers/Sold Out
IPT #2: SAT 25 FEB 2023 through the full day on THURS 2 MAR 2023. Six full days/24 hours on the boat: $6600.00. Limit 5 photographers/Openings: 3.
IPT #3: FRI 3 MAR 2023 through the full day on TUES 7 MAR 2023. Five full days/20 hours on the boat: $5500.00. Limit 5 photographers. Openings: 1.

Rooms at Lands End Resort are currently available for all of the dates above.

What’s Up?

It was cloudy with a southwest wind on Friday morning. I set up my tripod at the eagle nest and sat in the car for 2 1/2 hours working on my laptop while waiting for them to wake up and do something. They were not as active as they had been the previous morning, but I did get to make about six short videos. Watch the 33-second video and learn about BAA and Sony a1 video below.

I swam again on Friday despite the rain and cold. I continue to spend lots of time on my 2022 taxes and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was glad to learn that IPT veteran Anar Daswani will be signing up for the first Homer IPT.

Today is Saturday 4 February 2023. The forecast for this morning is for clear and colder with a north wind switching to the northeast at about 8am. I will be heading down to the lake early. This blog post took about 90 minutes to prepare and makes three hundred twelve days in a row with a new, educational post. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day.

Please, please, pretty please remember to use my B&H or Bedford’s affiliate programs for all your new gear purchases.

The plan is to continue to post every day until the streak reaches one year and one day and then go back to posting every other day.

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!

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.

Please remember that if an item — a Delkin flash card, or a tripod head — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout for your major gear purchases. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And always earns my great appreciation.

Branching Eaglet In-the-Field Workshops

Join me for two hours of instruction at Indian Lake Estates any day from now through the morning of Monday 13 February: $200.00. Add a working brunch with image review and a Photoshop session for another $100.00 to round out an incredibly educational morning. Though we will concentrate on the baby eagles, there is lots going on right now. Backup subjects include Sandhill Cranes, Ospreys building nests, and more. If you would like to set up a session on a suitable weather morning, please contact me via e-mail.

Eaglets Branching Soon Sony a1 Video

For the past two years, a pair of Bald Eagles have nested down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL Last year they successfully fledged a single chick. This year they have two. As you will see in this short video (created yesterday on 3 February), the large chicks will soon be leaving the nest to explore nearby perches and exercise their wings by flapping. The nest tree was recently remodeled by Hurricane Ian. It is now wide open and easy to photograph. In the first clip, one of the young eagles is re-arranging a large branch in the nest. In the second clip, one of the eaglets is exercising its wings.

I am — of course, hoping that before I leave a week from this coming Tuesday, one of the young birds climbs up the large diagonal perch on our left and flaps its wings while perched on the tip of the branch. Heck, you gotta have a plan. As long as we’re at it, an east or southeast wind would be ideal.

Directions to the eagle nest tree will be included in your purchase of the BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide. If you already own a copy of that guide, please shoot me proof-of-purchase via e-mail and request the location of the nest.

I used the Sony 600mm f/4 GM lens and the a1 to create the two short videos that were edited, combined, and exported in iMovie. On sticks, of course — an Induro GIT 304L topped by a Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro.

BIRDS AS ART and Sony A1 Video

About 15 months ago at Sebastian Inlet, I was chatting with bird photography YouTube rock star, Mark Smith. He shared some a1 slow motion video with me. I was very impressed. Then, he kindly set up my a1 to shoot slow motion video and taught me the basics of using it. Since then, I have made some pretty neat videos. Almost immediately I suggested to Mark that he do a guide to shooting a1 video; at that time, he did not want to share his amazing techniques and settings. Each time that I have mentioned on the blog that I was creating some a1 video, folks e-mailed asking me to share my settings and the techniques. But they were not mine. Each time I replied I stated that I was honoring Mark’s request that I not to share his video stuff with anyone. Most folks understood but several were pissed off. Well, the great news is that Mark is now offering an online video course in which he shares and details everything he knows about a1 video. And I can state emphatically that he knows quite a lot. He developed many of the techniques, techniques that nobody on the planet uses or know about. Scroll down for the details.

Anyhoo, back to my videos. Even though Sony A1 videos come out of the camera as .MP4 videos, processing them is tricky. Many video editing programs cannot even play them. I considered Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Sony’s Catalyst Production Suite, but all seemed too complex for my current needs. And most of them are fairly expensive.

So, for more than a year, I’ve had lots of decent videos to share, but no way of processing them. A few weeks ago, I tried iMovie — free and already on my computer. I found just what I was looking for: a simple, fast, and easy to learn program that handled a1 video files with ease. Clipping, trimming, and then combining portions of video is a snap as is increasing the playback speed. And the same goes for setting the transitions and exporting the finished video.

You will, therefore, be seeing some of those videos here from time to time. Next up will be a San Diego Brown Pelican three-clip video.

Sony A1 Video Capture Guide – The Complete Online Course by Mark Smith

On sale for $297.00

Mark Smith has posted many astounding videos on YouTube. As a result, he has been asked hundreds of times: How do you capture great video with the Sony a1? Early on, he spent hundreds of hours shooting video right after the a1 was released. He has had dozens of videos go viral and amass millions of views. It took an unbelievable amount of time and effort to unlock the a1’s full video potential. In his online course, he shares everything he’s learned along with the techniques that he has developed.

To order the course or to learn more, click here, click on Online Courses, click on the access the course link, and then scroll down to see the course contents. There are 46 lessons with just under three hours of video telling you everything you could possibly want to know about capturing breathtaking video using the Sony A1. Included is a great cheat sheet that simplifies the various settings. I am currently studying the lessons so that I can better understand how Mark set up my a1 and consider a slew of options!

Typos

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