Finally Got Lucky With Copulating Black Skimmers!

What’s Up?

When I got to the beach on Saturday afternoon, I had a decision to make: take the 600mm f/4 and the tripod (with both TCs in my fanny pack), or take it easy and go with “just” the 200-600? There were plenty of clouds to the west, but I decided to go light and hope that the clouds dissipated. They did, and I enjoyed some sweet light until about ten minutes after seven.

Multiple IPT veteran, Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a lifetime registrant, and good friend Muhammad Arif arrived a bit after I did. Here is a lesson that I taught him (even though I wasn’t on the clock). When working a flock of birds, in this case a group of about 30-40 skimmers that were setting up to nest, it is usually best to work the edges. The fewer birds in a given area, the better chance you have of isolating a bird or a pair. Following my own advice and getting right on sun angle, I created today’s featured image.

The afternoon was great fun and full of action and behavior. We photographed skimmers flying, landing with their wings raised, running about excitedly, chasing after the ladies, exchanging small bits of nesting material, allo-preening, digging their scrapes, nuzzling up to their honeys on the scrape, courtship feeding, copulating, and calling.

With mostly clear skies and a NW wind, I stayed in on Sunday morning, picked my 102 keepers from more than 2,200 images from Saturday afternoon, unpacked, and set up the VRBO that will be my home till the end of the month.

On Sunday evening, in terrible conditions — mostly sunny with a strong east/southeast wind, I walked the beach east to the second jetty and actually made more than a few nice photos.

Today is Monday 12 June 2023. I will be getting to the beach early. This blog post took well more than two hours to prepare. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too are gonna have a great day.

All are cordially invited to join me at Nickerson Beach this month or next year or on a Homer or a San Diego Instructional Photo Tour (IPT). I will be announcing fall dates for two or three Fort DeSoto IPTs soon. Not to mention a Galapagos Photo-Cruise of a Lifetime in August 2024.

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.

Nickerson Beach June 2023 Common Tern/American Oystercatcher/Black Skimmer In-the-Field Sessions

I am offering both morning and afternoon sessions from now through the end of this month. If you would like to become a better bird photographer, shoot me an e-mail to learn the details. Scheduling for these sessions can be arranged on short notice by checking the weather. A better option is to join me on the IPT. As I have nobody signed up, I can tailor the dates for the first one who does.

IPT veterans and couples or friends signing up together are invited to e-mail for discount information.

This image was created on 10 June at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY. Seated on dry sand using the knee-pod technique and working through the viewfinder, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 422mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1250. 1/3200 second at f/6.3 (wide-open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 6:47:07pm on a then sunny afternoon. RawDigger showed the exposure to be perfect. Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection grabbed the male’s raised wing yet the image was super-sharp on the visible eyes of bother birds. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Black Skimmers copulating

Copulating Skimmer Images

I cannot remember ever seeing a great — or even a good image — of mating Black Skimmers. Pretty much all of the skimmer copulations that I have seen in July and August last about three seconds. Most end almost before you have a chance to raise your lens. As skimmers are very social birds, there are usually many distracting birds in the frame. Isolating a copulating pair is a huge challenge. For all those reasons, I am really stoked about today’s featured image.

The Good About Taking the 200-600

The 2-6 turned out to be the perfect choice. First, I got lucky as the sun came out for more than 1 1/2 hours. Second, the birds were relatively close to the ropes. Third, being able to zoom in and out was a Godsend. Had I taken the 600mm f/4, there would have been no way to fit the birds into the frame.

What’s Good About This Image?

The short answer is “lots!”

More specifically:

1- The scene was relatively clean. See the BEFORE image in the animated GIF below.
2- I was right on sun angle.
3- The subjects-to-film-plane orientation is pretty much perfect with the birds just this side of square to the sensor.
4- Both heads are on the exact same plane.
5- Despite the fact that AF grabbed the wing of the male, both eyes, heads, and faces are razor sharp.
6- With perfect head angles for this image, about 3° toward me, both faces are perfectly lit.
7- Though I came close, I did not clip the swept back wings of the male.
8- I caught the moment of the cloacal kiss.
9- The near wing of the male bird did not merge with the horizon.
10- The combination of my chosen perspective with the focal length resulted in a nice strip of blue sky being included in the frame.
11- There is not a shadow to be seen anywhere on either bird.
12- The light was warm and sweet.

The next frame was quite excellent as well with the bills crossed.

What’s Bad About the Optimized Image?

Not a whole lot from where I sit. Does anything bug you?

a- Would you have removed the half dozen or so green and brown bits below and slightly behind the folded wingtips of the female?
b- Do you like the o-o-f tern in the upper right background? Why or why not?

The Image Clean-up

Yes, beaches are often cluttered places. My choice is often to clean them up while aiming to create an image that is visually more pleasing than the original capture. As was done with this image. I used my usual cadre of clean-up tools and techniques including the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, Content-Aware Fill, and the Clone Stamp Tool, the latter to do the dividing when using Divide and Conquer. In addition, I used a series of small Quick Masks each refined by a Regular Layer Mask.

Removing the stick below the breast of the female and evening out the shadows required the most work.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II). You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a PayPal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand. Be sure to specify Digital Basics II.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

The techniques mentioned above and tons more great Photoshop tips and techniques — along with my complete digital workflow, Digital Eye Doctor Techniques, and all my personalized Keyboard Shortcuts — are covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.

Please note: the Divide and Conquer technique was inadvertently omitted from DB II. It is detailed in a free excerpt in the blog post here.

Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here. Note: most of the videos are now priced at an amazingly low $5.00 each.

You can learn how and why I converted all of my Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide here. More recently, I became proficient at converting my Nikon RAW (NEF) files in Adobe Camera Raw. About three years ago I began converting my Nikon and Sony RAW files in Capture One and did that for two years. You can learn more about Capture One in the Capture One Pro 12 Simplified MP4 Video here. The next step would be to get a copy of Arash Hazeghi’s “The Nikon Photographers’ Guide to Phase One Capture One Pro e-Guide” in the blog post here. Today, I convert my Sony raw files in Photoshop with Adobe Camera Raw.

You can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.

Common Terns are among the stars of the Nickerson show in June

Summer 2023 Nickerson Beach Terns, Skimmers, & Oystercatchers Instructional Photo Tour (IPT): 3 1/2 (or 4 1/2) DAYS. Monday afternoon, June 19, thru the full day on Thursday June 22 (or Friday June 23), 2023. 3 1/2 Days: $1899.00 includes three working brunches. (4 1/2 Days: $2199.00 includes four working brunches). Limit six photographers

The Summer 2023 Nickerson Beach Terns, Skimmers, & Oystercatchers IPT

I am offering two options for this IPT. Locals might prefer the 3 1/2 day IPT. Folks traveling from out of town will almost surely want to maximize their travel dollars by staying the extra day. The stars of the show will likely be the nesting Common Terns. As many have been on eggs for a week or more, we should get to photograph some small chicks and lots of birds in flight with fish. We should have lots of American Oystercatcher families with chicks of varying sizes. Photographing them at dawn along as they forage along the edge of the surf is an exciting experience. We will get to photograph early morning skimmer flock blast offs, lots of afternoon midair battles, and will likely have some skimmers on eggs. Flight photography for all three species will abound.

Many folks head home feeling that while our time in the field was fabulous and productive, that the working brunch sessions were even more valuable. During image review you will learn to select the best images from several thousand made with your 20- and 30 fps camera bodies. And we will process a few images and distribute the screen capture videos for you to learn from after the trip. And all IPTs offer follow-up image critiques.

Change your life: sign up for this IPT today. Please shoot me an e-mail if you would like to explore the possibility of renting some Sony gear (including an a1) from me.

Some of What You Will Learn on a Nickerson Beach IPT

• 1- The basics and fine points of digital exposure; how to get the right exposure every time after making a single test exposure (or before if you are using SONY gear).
• 2- How and why to work in Manual mode (even if you’re scared of it).
• 3- How to approach free and wild birds without disturbing them.
• 4- Lots about bird behavior and how to use that knowledge to help you create better images.
• 6- To spot the good and great situations and to choose the best perspective.
• 7- To see, evaluate, and understand the light.
• 8- To design pleasing images by mastering your camera’s AF system.
• 9- And perhaps most importantly, to evaluate wind and sky conditions and understand how they affect bird photography. You will learn where and when to be (and why).
• 10- More than you could ever imagine.

The Details

We will be on the beach very early to enjoy sunrise. The morning sessions will run at least 3 1/2 hours. Afternoon sessions will begin at 6:00pm and run till sunset. There is never a set schedule on an IPT — we adapt to the conditions. On cloudy mornings with the right wind, we may opt to photograph till 11:30am or so and skip the afternoon session. That especially when the afternoon weather is looking iffy.

There will be a Photoshop/Image Review session before and after brunch (included) each full day. That will be followed by Instructor Nap Time. Each of these IPTs will run with only a single registrant as I do not like disappointing anyone. The best airports are JFK or Slip (if you have lots of Southwest points. Once you register, you will receive an e-mail with lodging information. Do know that it is always best if IPT folks stay in the same general area (rather than at home or at a friend’s place a good distance away).

Folks attending this IPT will be out in the field ridiculously early and stay out late to take advantage of sunrise and sunset colors; this is pretty much a staple on almost all BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tours. Doing so will often present unique photographic opportunities, opportunities that will be missed by those who need their beauty rest and those who need to get home for a proper dinner. I really love it when I am leaving the beach at 9:00am on a sunny morning after a great session just as a carful or two of well-rested photographers are arriving … We may be getting our feet wet on occasion, especially in the mornings, but those who wish to keep their feet 100% dry can do so.

Your $599 deposit is due now. Credit cards are OK for that. You can register by calling Jim or Jennifer during weekday business hours at 863-692-0906 with a credit card in hand. Once you leave a deposit, you will receive an e-mail with your balance statement and instructions for sending your balance check ASAP for this short-notice IPT. Those who wish to pay for the trip in one fell swoop via check may do so by making the check out to BIRDS AS ART and then mailing it to BIRDS AS ART, PO BOX 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with detailed instructions, and clothing and gear advice right after you register. Please shoot me an e-mail if you plan to register or if you have any questions.

IPT veterans and couples or friends signing up together may e-mail for discount information.

Typos

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