No Bird Photos Last Night But I Got a Hug From a Stranger

What’s Up?

Conditions were fair to good on Friday morning here at ILE but as my late Dad would say, “We didn’t do such good.” Never discouraged, Bob Eastman and I headed down to the lake at 5:13pm for sunset. Working from the south end of the South Field, we tried some images of the hundreds of vultures returning to their roost across the South Canal opposite the South Peninsula. I deleted them all. Next, we checked the South Peninsula perches; all were empty. We headed down toward the south end in hopes that we might enjoy some action at the small Boat-tailed Grackle roost. The evening was dead clear but the orange glow to the SW was getting pretty sweet.

As we approached the end of the peninsula we saw a guy in a kayak. Bob said, “He must have a big fish — he’s paddling with one hand.” He shouted him a howdy and he asked, “Can you guys take some photos of me?” So we did. Read the rest of the story below. I almost forgot to mention that I learned a huge lesson about high ISOs due to a mistake that I made.

Today is Saturday 4 January and if you are reading this post after receiving a new style notification via e-mail, it means that a new, more efficient BIRDS AS ART blog has been created successfully. If you received a new style e-mail advising you of this post, please leave a short comment stating, “Got it!”

I was so excited after receiving the e-mail below from Peter Kes in the middle of the night during a pit stop that I could not get back to sleep. It is 4:29am as I type. Bob and I will be headed down to the lake at about 7:00am. We both hope that you choose to have a great day.

Great News From Peter Kes (via a WhatsApp Message)

Peter sent the much anticipated news at 2:10am (from RSA) and I saw his message at 3:18am.

Morning

All is done.

BIRDSASART-BLOG.COM is

– updated to PHP 8.3 (latest)
– updated to WordPress 6.7.1
– all plugins are on latest level
– Post Notification is deactivated, not deleted
– Newsletter was installed and activated
– all active subscribers from Post Notification have been imported to Newsletter
– a new Template (POST NOTIFICATION TEMPLATE) has been added
– The Newsletter ‘Subscribe’ page has been added to the pagelist, replacing the Post Notification Subscription pages
– The Newsletter ‘Subscribe’ page can be seen in the yellow navigation bar

Now we just have to see if it works! Peter is 99.99% sure that it will. I’m from Missouri …

This image was created on 3 January 2024 down by the lake near my home at ILE. I used the handheld Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens (at 148mm) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 25600: 1/5000 sec. at f/4 (stopped down one stop) in Manual mode. AWB at 5:36:16pm in the shade about six minutes before sunset. Tracking: Zone AF/C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Patrick with female Largemouth Bass

Bob Was Right!

Bob called out, “You got a fish?” The guy, Patrick above, said, “Yes. Can you take some photos of me with it?” “Of course,” we shouted. Bob helped Patrick land the kayak and the young man showed us the fish. He had been keeping it in the water to keep it alive and well. He wanted to measure it and release it. The fish was 25 inches long with a girth of 18 inches, a big, fat, pregnant momma. From that information, AI Overview calculated that it weighed approximately 10.3 pounds. A nice fish. Patrick was so, so excited.

Patrick gave Bob his cell phone and Bob made lots of images of the very happy fisherman. I grabbed my 70-200mm GM ii lens and went to work. When we finished up, Patrick removed his boots and waded into the canal holding the fish by its tail so that it could pass water over its gills while finning. Within two minutes, the big bass, having regained its strength, flapped its tail hard and swam away, none the worse for wear.

I gave Patrick my card and told him to e-mail me so that I could send him some images. After several rounds of high fives, Patrick approached me and gave me a huge hug and a pat on the back. On the short ride back to my home, both Bob and I were enveloped by a warm glow (despite the fact that we had not created a single good bird photo on our late afternoon outing). Sometimes, life is about more than bird photography.

This morning, however, I realized that both Bob and I got some some flight shots of the drake Mallard on Patrick’s cap!

A few days before, during a walk on the pier at about 4:45pm, there was a young guy fishing while standing on the pier railing! As I approached him, he set the hook into a big fish but lost his lure. We chatted a bit. He thought that it might have been a bass or a gar. Anyhoo, the guy standing on the railing turned out to be Patrick in the kayak.

This image was also and obviously created on 3 January 2024 down by the lake near my home at ILE. I used the handheld Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens (at 200mm) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 25600: 1/5000 sec. at f/4 (stopped down one stop) in Manual mode. AWB at 5:36:33pm in the shade about six minutes before sunset. Tracking: Zone AF/C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #2: Why the Largemouth Bass was so-named

The FISH AS ART Style

As I love working tight, I moved in as Patrick posed with his bass and created the tight shot above that is quite similar to my BIRDS AS ART style, clean, tight, and graphic. Bird Face-Eye autofocus had no problem tracking the yellow belly of the frog lure.

The Huge Mistake

My in-the-field workflow involves carefully choosing a shutter speed, setting the aperture — usually wide open, and then raising the ISO until I see a few Zebras on the highlights. I wanted to work at 1/500 second as that would have been more than high enough to produce a sharp image. In my haste to get things done, I inadvertently set the shutter speed to 1/5000 sec. Then I simply raised the ISO using the Thumb Dial until I was some Zebras on the water in Image #1. As I teach others, I simply did not pay attention to the ISO. Thus, after screwing up the shutter speed setting I wound up at ISO 25600.

The Valuable Lesson

After using my double noise reduction technique (as detailed in DB II and in the DB III Video Series, Volume I), I was stunned by the clean color and the smooth creamy backgrounds with nary a trace of noise. These two images should answer the question of how the The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera, handles high ISO noise.

Bob’s cell phone image Image #3: Patrick and Largemouth Bass Image courtesy of and copyright 2025: Bob Eastman

Thanks Bob!

Helping Patrick land the kayak, taking photos of Patrick and the fish, and helping him successfully release the fish, Bob had as much fun as I did!

Should You Upgrade to or purchase a Sony a-1 ii?

Aside from the improved ergonomics as compared to the a-1, other nice features include the fact that the rear screen tilts both ways. Pre-capture will surely prove to be a plus while in my option, the Speed Boost feature is a total waste for bird photography. In addition, the resolution on the rear monitor has been improved dramatically. Not to mention that Bird Face-Eye tracking on the a-1 ii is significantly better than on the a-1 and that the 51MP file are to die for. And don’t forget the Pre-Capture feature!

So, the big question is, is the a-1 ii “worth” a gear upgrade. Remembering that I can never know whether or not something is worth it to you, I can say that I was not floored when using my a-1 ii. The differences between the a-1 ii and the original a-1, are neither huge nor eye-opening. The huge difference between the new camera body and the a9 iii is, of course, the 51MP a-1 raw files (as compared to the 24MP files rendered by the a9 iii).

With the price of a new a-1 having recently dropped $1500.00 to $4,998.00, the decision for new Sony buyers is a very tough one. The a-1 II sells new for 6,498.00. And the price of used a-1 bodies will continue to drop (but not as much as I had thought before using the a-1 ii).

If you do purchase an a-1 ii, be sure to use one of my two affiliate links so that you will receive my a-1 ii settings (in the form of a CAMSETii.DAT file), the Buttons and Dials Guide, and an Info Sheet. Folks who do not purchase their new a-i using my B&H link or from Bedfords here and entering the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout will be able to purchase the a-1 ii guide for $227.43. If you are at all confused and do not want to screw up your order, please get in touch via e-mail.

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Typos

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