How I Screwed Up the Composite. Next Week: White Pelicans, the North Tampa Rookery, and the Hooptie Deux

What’s Up?

I had another good morning down by the lake on Thursday. My new idea fizzled, but I have figured a way to improve it. The young eagles are flapping like crazy, but only in the nest. 🙁 I swam twice, and did a bit more packing for my upcoming trip to Homer, AK.

Though very few folks commented on the two recently posted videos,, I learned a lot from those comments and will follow up on what I have learned soon. I was glad to learn that the sale of Anthony Ardito’s Sony 600mm f/4GM is pending.

Today is Friday 10 February. I will run down to the lake early if it is clear to see what’s up, and then continue getting ready for my Alaska trip. I need to order a few things today for the trip. This blog post took about two hours to prepare and makes three hundred eighteen 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. If you use B&H, please be sure to click on any link in the blog to start your search. Or simply start with this link. There is always the option of e-mailing me for gear advice and for the correct links.

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.

Price Drops

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4E PF ED VR Lens with extra

BAA Record-low Price!
Price reduced $200.00 on 9 FEB 2023

John Armitage is offering a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4E PF ED VR lens in excellent condition for a BAA record low $1,395.95. The sale includes the original tripod mount, a Lens Collar Support Tripod Mount Ring RT-1 for Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4E PF ED VR lens (a $29.99 value), the soft case, the front and rear caps, the original box, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact John via e-mail

The skilled and venerable Anita Gail Erica North owned and used this lens a lot on her international travels when she shot Nikon. It is light in weight and focuses quickly and accurately. artie

Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM Lens

Price reduced $100.00 on 10 FEB 2023

Homer IPT registrant Charlie Curry is offering a Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM lens in like-new condition for a very low $899.00 (was $999.00). The sale includes the original box, the front and rear caps, the lens hood, the soft case, the manuals, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower 48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Charlie via e-mail.

This is a fast, versatile, wide angle zoom lens the features advanced G Master optics, a robust physical design, and a bright f/2.8 constant maximum aperture. It is the go-to lens for folks shooting scenic landscapes, sports, and portraiture. It is noted for its high resolution and sharpness throughout the zoom range due to the correction of a wide variety of spherical and chromatic aberrations. Sony & B&H

Version II of this lens sells for $2,298.00 so you can pocket some handsome savings by grabbing Charlie’s lens now. artie

Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM Lens

Price reduced $100.00 on 10 FEB 2023

Homer IPT registrant Charlie Curry is offering a Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM lens in like-new condition for a very low $1398 (was $1498.00). The sale includes the front and rear caps, the lens hood, the soft case, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower 48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Charlie via e-mail.

Offering G Master performance in a compact, fast, and versatile form, the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM is a wide-angle zoom covering ultra-wide to standard wide-angle fields of view. It is Ideal for a range of subjects from scenic landscapes to lifestyle to architecture. The lens’s advanced optics and bright f/2.8 design pair with a flexible zoom design to suit working in a variety of shooting conditions. It is designed to achieve notably high resolution and sharpness across the zoom range via the correction of a wide variety of spherical and chromatic aberrations. Sony & B&H

This lens sells new for $2,198.00 so you can save a very nice $800.00 by grabbing this one right now. artie

Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens

Price reduced $100.00 on 10 FEB 2023

Homer IPT registrant Charlie Curry is offering a Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS lens in excellent condition for a very low $448.00 (was $548.00.) The sale includes the front and rear caps, the lens hood, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower 48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Charlie via e-mail.

This lens from Sony will satisfy nearly all the wide-angle needs of full-frame E-mount shooters. The flexible wide zoom is characterized by a constant f/4 maximum aperture, making this an ideal lens for street photography, landscapes, cityscapes, and other subjects requiring a broad field of view and the inherent versatility of a zoom. Based on the ZEISS Tessar optical concept, this lens uses has 12 elements in ten groups that help ensure a smaller overall lens size along with reduced flare, distortion, and chromatic aberration. The constant f/4 maximum aperture offers consistent performance throughout the zoom range and also lends greater control over focus position when using shallow depths of field. The rounded seven-blade diaphragm yields a pleasing bokeh quality. Sony & B&H

This lens sells new for $998.00; save a very nice $550.00 on this lightweight wide-angle by purchasing Charlie’s Vario-Tessar 16-35. artie

Sony Alpha a7R IV Mirrorless Digital Camera with LifePixel Full Spectrum Infrared Conversion

Price reduced $200.00 on 10 FEB 2023

Charlie Curry is offering a Sony Alpha a7R IV Mirrorless Digital Camera with LifePixel Full Spectrum Infrared Conversion in like-new condition with only 1171 shutter actuations for a silly low $1499.00 (was $1699.00). The sale includes the LifePixel box, the manuals & cords, one battery and the charger, the front cap, the camera strap, a (no longer available) SmallRig L-bracket, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only — inquire for shipping to other locations. Payment by cashier’s check only.

Please contact Charlie via e-mail.

I dabbled with infrared several years ago. And loved it. Getting Charlie’s a7R IV infrared body for the same price as the body alone is a huge steal as the conversions cost several hundred dollars at a minimum. artie

This is a two-image composite that should have been a three- or four-image composite. Both were created on 7 February 2023. Seated on damp mud, I used the lowered, no-longer available Induro GIT 304L tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted 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 640. 1/3200 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be perfect. AWB at 7:24:12am on a clear morning. Manual focus with Focus Peaking performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Bald Eagle chicks in the nest: Look! Mommy’s Home.

How I Screwed Up in the Field

In the Screwed Up Again! What’s Real? What’s Fake? blog post here, I posted a botched version of the composite above. The three folks who commented all realized that the lower left corner of the frame was a mess. I had tried to very hard to fill in the added canvas lower left with a combination of Quick Masks, the Clone Stamp, and Content-Aware Fill, but the result simply would not pass muster.

My huge mistake had been not realizing that I needed to create at least a third image for the pano. (It would have been relatively easy to fill in the sky in the upper right.) Once I made the image now on the upper left, I could have simply pointed the lens down and created an image or two. As I was using Manual focus and manual exposure, adding such an image to the composite would have been child’s play. It is a lesson that I will remember for a long time.

If anyone would like to take a crack at filling in the canvas, please shoot me an e-mail and I will get the .TIF file to you via a large file sender.

Why I Screwed Up in the Field

Failure to think things through. If I am able to create a decent four-frame rectangular or square pano in the future, I will be sure to post it here. 🙂

This image was created on 2 February 2020 at Lakeland, FL. Seated on damp grass, I used the lowered, no-longer available (except from BAA) Induro GIT 304L tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. ISO 500. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/1600 second at f/7.1 (stopped down 2/3-stop) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 8:27:20am on sunny morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #2: American White Pelican head and shoulders portrait in sweet early morning light

White Pelicans in Lakeland, the secret North Tampa Rookery, and 1 1/2 DAYS on the Hooptie Deux for Spoonbills

If you would like to join Gary Chappell and me in Lakeland on Tuesday morning for American White Pelicans, at the secret rookery in North Tampa that afternoon, and on the 1 1/2 day Spoonbill IPT beginning on Wednesday, get in touch via e-mail or text me at 1-863-221-2372.

Image #2A: A7INFO screen capture for the American White Pelican head and shoulders portrait in sweet early morning light image

Science-Fiction-Like Autofocus

The latest/greatest mirrorless camera bodies from several companies offer amazing AF performance by being able to find and track a subject’s eye. I firmly believe that all things considered, the Sony A1 is the best of the lot. If you would like to learn why, please click here.

Click on the image to better see the green eye-AF boxes in action. Sony Alpha 1 Flight Photography AF Points!

The SONY Alpha a1 Set-up Guide and Info Group: $150.00 (or Free)

The SONY Alpha a1 Set-up Guide and Info Group is going great guns as more and more folks chime in with thoughtful questions and experience-based answers. As the a1 is becoming more readily available, more and more folks are getting their hands on this amazing body. By June 1, 2022, the group was up to an astounding 124 lucky and blessed folks. (More than a few folks own two or more a1 bodies! Early on, we discussed the myriad AF options. I gave my opinion as to the best one for flight and general bird photography. The best news is that everyone in the group receives an e-mail that includes a .DAT file with my a1 settings on it, and explicit directions on how to load my settings onto your a1; talk about convenience! I am now offering a .DAT file compatible with firmware update 1.20. Your entry into the group includes a consolidated Sony a1 CAMSETA2 INFO & GUIDE. New a1 folks will now receive six e-mails instead of the previous 28! You will receive new e-mails as they are published. Simply put, this e-mail guide is an incredible resource for anyone with an a1.

All who purchased their Alpha 1 bodies via a BAA affiliate link — B&H or Bedfords — will receive a free Sony Alpha a1 Set-Up Guide and free entry into the Info Updates group after shooting me their receipts via e-mail. (Note: it may take me several days to confirm B&H orders.). Others can purchase their guide here in the BAA Online Store.

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 Przybyla 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.