One Day. 8,000 Sony a9 iii Images. And My Seven Faves

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On Friday morning, Bob Eastman enjoyed his first roadkill cafe experience with the ILE vultures. When he returned from Vero he showed up with a huge, very smelly dead raccoon that he shoveled up on SR 60 and placed in a large cooler. He did not have faith in the creature, but I did. We put it to the left of the pier and the Turkey Vultures found the stinking mess in about two minutes. When the sun broke through the clouds, however, I knew that we needed to move it to the South Peninsula. We did. Despite a brisk wind from the north, we did OK. Remember that as the sun rises it moves to the southeast presenting a wind-against-sun condition. Though not as bad as a northwest wind on a clear morning, a wind from the north at this time of the year is far less than ideal. Anyhoo, we had more than 80 vultures on the long dead raccoon in short order. The Turkey Vultures predominated at first, but when we left at 8:30, there were 30 Black Vultures finishing off the remains of Rocky.

We had a very few birds land the “wrong way” and did our best with those. As a side benefit, we had the first-ever birds landing on newly-planted-by-Bob The Perch III. After a harrowing day of trying and failing to pick up the new pool pump being shipped by UPS to older daughter Jennifer’s home in Babson Park, we headed down to the lake at our usual 5:00pm and did well with a pair of dancing cranes. I used one of my two a9 iii bodies all day. I had forgotten how incredible the AF system is with that mirrorless body.

Today is Saturday 14 December and Bob and I will be heading down to the lake at 6:55am as usual. Whatever you choose to do, we hope that like us, you choose to be happy and have fun.

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This image was created on 13 December down by the lake near my home. Standing on the beach to the left of the pier, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 2000: 1/500 sec. at f/2.8 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 7:06:24am in the shade with some clouds in the eastern sky. Tracking: (upper center) Zone AF/C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Sandhill Crane, female calling

Love the Soft Light and the Sand Background

As you learned in the Bird Photography Shutter Speed YouTube video in the blog post here, 1/500 sec. is borderline risky when photographing a calling crane. It worked perfectly for this image. Using Tracking: (upper center) Zone AF/C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection enabled, a9 iii grabbed the crane’s eye and stuck to it like glue.

This image was also created on 13 December down by the lake near my home. Working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 6400. 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead-solid perfect. AWB at 7:29:46am on a mostly sunny morning. Tracking: (center) 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: Red-shouldered Hawk, adult screaming

Processing a9 iii Raw Files

I shoot my a9 iii bodies with Color Creative Look NT (neutral). The raw files do not look as richly colored as a-1 raws. The trick is to change the profile to Adobe Color, Adobe Standard, or Adobe Vivid during the raw file conversion in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). At times, Adobe Landscape looks even better. That is how each of today’s featured images wound up with rich, gorgeous, natural-looking colors.

This image was also created on 13 December down by the lake near my home. Standing on the beach to the left of the pier, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter (at 420mm) and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1250: 1/3200 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead solid perfect. AWB at 7:44:12am on a partly sunny morning. Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to perfection. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #3: Crested Caracara in flight — wings fully up

Just One Good Chance

This handsome adult Crested Caracara flew over Stinky Rocky when we placed it on the beach just to the left of the pier. As it flew left to right into the north wind, I was astounded at how the a9 iii’s AF system tracked the eye even during the downstroke. Working at only 60 fps, I created more than 60 images of this single flyby. I kept four with this one being my favorite.

This image was also created on 13 December down by the lake near my home. Standing on the South Peninsula, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter (at 420mm) and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 800: 1/4000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead solid perfect. AWB at 8:05:55am on a then sunny morning. Tracking Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to perfection. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #4: Turkey Vulture adult taking flight from The Perch III

Pre-Capture

As noted above, I usually work with my a9 iii at 60 fps rather than at 120 fps, the max. I keep Pre-capture at 0.5 sec., one-half second. When I am positive that a bird is going to take flight, I will usually pay a very short visit to My Menu and increase that to 1.0 sec., one full seconds.

Remember that for Pre-capture to work you need keep the shutter button half pressed an see the tiny green box tracking the bird’s eye in order for the Pre-capture images to be saved to the card once you press the shutter button. As with this image, Pre-capture is most valuable in take-off situations.

This image was also created on 13 December down by the lake near my home. Seated on the South Peninsula, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter (at 420mm) and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 800: 1/4000 sec. at f/5 (stopped down 2/3 stop) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead solid perfect. AWB at 8:32:20 am on a then sunny morning. Tracking Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to perfection. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #5: Black Vulture braking to land

Be On the Lookout for Wrong Way Birds

When trying to shoot flight in wind-against-sun situations, you must train yourself to look for birds that are not flying the right way, in this case, those that are not landing directly into the wind. By 8:30am, there was a bit of west in the north wind. This bird should have been landing away from us, but for whatever reason, it gave us a halfway decent chance. The a9 iii made the best of my good luck.

Twenty other Black Vultures landed facing away from us; butt shots only!

This image was also created on 13 December down by the lake near my home. Sitting below the hill to the north of the parking circle, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with Exposure Compensation (EC) on the thumb dial. Shutter Priority +1 stop. AUTO ISO set ISO 250: 1/3200 sec. at f/4 (stopped down one stop). AWB at 5:21:17pm with some clouds in the western sky. Wide AF/C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #6: Sandhill Crane, male displaying at sunset

60 fps is Fast!

Even using the slowed down frame rate, I created nearly 8000 images of the silhouetted cranes on the small hill in less than 20 minutes. Most folks believe that that is just too many images. But, the truth be told, picking the 49 keepers took less than five minutes. How? Working in Photo Mechanic, I keep my finger on the right arrow key and pause only when an image jumps off the screen and screams, I am special, save me! When I come to a long series of static shots that I like, I will randomly tag two of them and continue on to the action shots.

This image was also created on 13 December down by the lake near my home. Sitting below the hill to the north of the parking circle, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with Exposure Compensation (EC) on the thumb dial. Shutter Priority +0.7 stop. AUTO ISO set ISO 250: 1/6400 sec. at f/2.8 (wide open). AWB at 5:25:06pm with some clouds in the western sky. Wide AF/C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #7: Sandhill Crane, female dancing at sunset

Your Calls?

Which of today’s featured images is the strongest? Why? Which of the two crane silhouettes do you like best? Why?

Typos

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