What’s Up?
The forecast on Tuesday for Lido Beach was for rain all day on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Other than a light mist here and there, it did not rain at all on Wednesday or Thursday. I went out early on Wednesday morning, made some nice blurs, photographed a lovely beach plant, and had an encounter with the week-old skimmer chick that is featured in today’s post.
On Wednesday afternoon I wanted to treat Pat Fishburne to a nice thank you lunch at Wild Ginger in Rockville Center but she kindly insisted on treating me instead. Then I drove her to an airport hotel for her early Thursday morning JFK to Fort Myers flight. I will be sharing some of her amazing images with y’all here soon.
Today is Friday 9 August 2024. The forecast is again calling for rain all day. My plan is to head to the beach early unless it is pouring.
Whatever you are doing, I hope that you have fun too.
Note the versatility of the 70-200 lens in Images #1 and #2. I will be sharing other images made that morning in a future blog post.
70-200mm f/2.8 Minimum Focusing Distance (MFD) Tip
In most systems, the 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses offer excellent MFDs.The MFDs vary as you zoom in and out; the longer the focal length the closer you can focus.
When you can get really, really close to your subject, you need to pay attention to make sure that you are not too close to focus. Working in Continuous AF, make sure that focus has been attained by watching the AF point or points in the viewfinder. If they stabilize where you want them to, the bird’s eye for example, you are good to go. If they continue to dance around, you are too close and need to move back at least a few inches.
On occasion, I have created long series of image only to find out on the laptop that none were sharp. Why? I had been too close and not paying attention to the details.
Your Call?
1- What happened with the skimmer chick that morning?
2- Do you think that the chick will survive?
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This image was created on 7 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY. Seated on damp sand, I used the hand held Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens (at 200mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi Metering + 2 1/3 stops in S (Shutter Priority) mode. AUTO ISO set ISO 2500. 1/125 sec. at f/2.8 (wide open). AWB at 6:48:31am on a totally overcast, threatening to rain morning. Tracking: Expand Spot S AF/C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Black Skimmer, weak, exhausted chick about one week old |
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This image was also created on 7 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY. Now lying on the damp sand, I used the hand held Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens (this time zoomed out to 80mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi Metering + 2 stops in S (Shutter Priority) mode. AUTO ISO set ISO 1600. 1/125 sec. at f/2.8 (wide open). AWB at 6:48:59am on a totally overcast, threatening to rain morning. I activated the in-viewfinder level as I was in quite an awkward position. Tracking: Expand Spot S AF/C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #2: Black Skimmer, weak, exhausted chick about one week old facing a big challenge |
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The raw file for this image, also created on 7 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY, was made with the iPhone 15. Image #3: Black Skimmer, weak, exhausted chick about one week old in my hand |
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The raw file for this image, also created on 7 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY, was made with the iPhone 15. Image #4: Left of the bottom of the sign post, note the weak, exhausted skimmer chick in a scrape inside the colony ropes |
Typos
All questions and comments are welcome. With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Artie the chick must have traveled quite a distance to get from the colony to the surf unfortunately there was no way it could get back up the sand wall. Nature is often beautiful but can quickly turn vicious.