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Summer On Long Island
Check out the July and August Nickerson Beach (& Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge/East Pond) IPT offerings here and consider joining us to learn a ton, make lots of great images, and improve your image processing skills.
What’s Up?
I have not had this much fun on an IPT in ages. After screwing up the first morning sunrise things have been getting better and better. We had a very nice sunrise on Monday (but not as great on the one on Sunday had been). Like Sunday morning, things got hot fast but we enjoyed some excellent photography. Monday evening was the bomb with a cool north wind and an indigo black cloud to the north. We did lots of flight photography. Tuesday morning was blessed cloudy and we shot lots of large tern chicks on the clean sand. Tuesday night was fabulous as we photographed dozens of Royal Tern chicks in the wash on a cloudy bright afternoon. Until two very overweight rednecks drove at high speed right through large flocks of birds (including the terns that were right in front of us) on their e-bikes. They hit a young Laughing Gull and broke its wing and passed by us laughing. When they returned, they paused to give us some lip. We called the cops and they did come. Not sure if they found them.
The birds returned after a while and were amazingly tame. At 6:45pm the sheriff came to shoo us off the beach so I took Steve and Sandy out for dinner at the Palms Fish Camp Restaurant. The food was quite good and we had a great time.
I just finished downloading and learned that I have 5830 images to edit from our great day. And most of those were made with the (slower frame rate) a-1. As there was little wind in the afternoon, there was not much flight photography so I rarely used the a9 iii.
Today is Wednesday 17 July and we will be back out there early hoping for a killer sunrise to make up for the one we missed. I hope that you have fun too.
Please remember to use the B&H 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!
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.
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If you’d like to try out a new lens or if you need a lens for a specific trip or project (or for an IPT), LensRentals.com is the only way to go. To save 15%, simply click on the logo link above, arrange for your rental, and type in BIRDSASART15. If you type the gear you are looking for in the search box, it will pop right up. LensRentals.com offers affordable insurance. You can decline it, opt for LensCap: Damage Only, or select LensCap: Damage & Theft. Then hit PROCEED TO CHECKOUT. After you enter all of your info but before completing your order, be sure to scroll down to Promo Code box and enter the BIRDSASART15 code to save 15%.
I checked on renting a Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens for a week. The cost is only $122.00. LensCap: Damage Only coverage can be added for a very low $18.00. Going with LensCap: Damage & Theft would be $27.00. The shipping charge varies. They offer an interesting program called Lensrentals HD. By signing up for this shipping discount program ($99.00/year), you’ll get free Standard Shipping on all the orders you place.
Renting a Sony 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens for a week will cost you $536.00. The two coverage options come in at $76.00 or $114.00. Less your 15% discount when you enter the BIRDSASART15 code into the Promo Code box at checkout and enter the BIRDSASART15 code in the Promo Code box at checkout to save 15%.
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Bedfords Amazing BAA Discount Policy
Folks who have fallen in love with Bedfords can now use the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout to enjoy a post-purchase, 3% off-statement credit (excluding taxes and shipping charges) on orders paid with a credit card. The 3% credit will be refunded to the card you used for your purchase. Be sure, also, to check the box for free shipping to enjoy free Second Day Air Fed-Ex. This offer does not apply to purchases of Classes, Gift Cards, prior purchases.
Visit the Bedfords website here, shoot Steve Elkins an e-mail, or text him on his cell phone at (479) 381-2592.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are — out of ignorance — using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads. And the same is true in spades when ordering new camera bodies or lenses. My advice will often stave you some serious money and may help you avoid making a seriously bad choice. Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. If you are desperate, you can try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.
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This image was created by multiple IPT veteran Steve Shore on 15 July 2024 at Huguenot Memorial Park on the third morning of the extended JAX IPT. Seated on dry sand behind his flattened tripod, he used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber 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 1600. 1/1000 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead solid perfect. AWB at 7:44:13am on a blessedly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Sandwich Terns with fish for tern chick
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The Situation
We were sitting on the beach near a patch of pretty clean sand facing east on a cloudy morning. There were handsome tern chicks of varying sizes everywhere. The relatively small chick featured in both of today’s images, confused the heck out of us. With its orange bill, it sure looked like a Royal Tern chick. For more than an hour, several adult Sandwich Terns landed nearby attempting to feed it. Though it was begging constantly, it was never fed. At times, one or two more adult Sandwich Terns would join in the coffee klatch.
My advice to Steve was to trust Tracking; Zone AF, acquire focus, and blast away whenever there was some action. Why not be more selective with both framing and focus? If you tried to see a good pose you would not be fast enough to capture it before it was gone. So we both sprayed and prayed and each of us made several fine images.
Remember that Steve switched to Sony at my urging before the last spring Fort DeSoto IPT that he attended. His progress has been astounding. He cannot believe the sharpness he is getting at 1200mm.
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This image was also 15 July 2024 at Huguenot Memorial Park on the third morning of the extended JAX IPT. Seated on dry sand behind my flattened tripod, I used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber 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 1600. 1/1000 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be 1/3 stop short of perfect. AWB at 7:44:50am on a blessedly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #2: Sandwich Terns with fish and a tern chick
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My Best
I used the same approach that I had advised Steve to use and got really lucky on this one. I sprayed and prayed the field. I rarely look at images on the back of the camera in field and thus was totally amazed when this one popped up.
Color Balance
Though the two images were made within a minute or so of each other and we were both using. AWB, note that Steve’s image, #1, is bluer with a darker background than my somewhat warmer image. I did not realize thatI had optimized them so differently. Which color balance do you prefer?
Can a Sandwich Tern Chick Have an Orange Bill?
I am pretty sure that the chick was in fact a Royal Tern as Sandwich Tern chicks have slimmer bills that range from yellow to black with a bit of yellow … But I would not bet my life on it. If it was a Royal Tern chick, the only explanation is that the adult birds were somehow confused.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Artie, I’m no expert at identifying gulls, terns, shorebirds etc. so I can’t say if the chick was Royal or Sandwich, but I know there is something called “allogrooming” where one species of bird sometimes feeds another species. I witnessed this firsthand many years ago when a dark-eyed junco nest was attacked by a cat and the parents started to feed the northern cardinal chick in a nearby nest. It felt like their parental instincts to feed a chick took over even though they had lost their own chicks.
Meant to finish my thought previous thought by saying that maybe something like that is going on with the Sandwich tern parents and the royal tern chick is being opportunistic.
The adult Sandwich Terns repeatedly flew right to the same chick and offered it fish. The chick never grabbed one though it seemed to be in position to do so. Not sure on the allogrooming. Allopreening, preening a bird of the same species as part of courtship (or not), is fairly common — Black Vultures do it all the time.
with love, artie
Arthur, like the color balance on your picture. I’ve said for years white balance is an overlooked aspect of getting great pictures
Thanks. Sony AWB does a decent job and then I fine-tune the color to my taste.
artie
Sure. Young Sandwich Terns can have yellow bills and legs that darken as they get older. Look here for example: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/357200681.
Thanks, Derek. We’ve seen many like that. And some with grey or black bills. The chick in my photo appears to be a Royal Tern chick. I am thinking that the adult Sandwich Terns were somehow confused…
with love, artie