Your Call
Which is your single favorite image in today’s post? Why did you like it best?
What’s Up?
Bob Eastman and I did very well on Sunday morning, first with three tame Limpkins in the bay left of the pier in the pre-dawn light. We were checking out a large flock of Cattle Egrets feeding on the South Peninsula when two white birds flew in to join them. My brain said, “Snow Geese.” But, I thought, there are no Snow Geese in Central Florida.. So, I tried to realize the geese into just two more egrets. They, however, decided not to land and flew out over the lake. We made a few not-so-great images but they were images of two Snow Geese. They flew around in great circles and eventually flew right towards us pretty much on sun angle. We both got some decent images. I was stunned. After we checked the south end of the South Peninsula we drove back north. Suddenly Bob said, “Watch it!” I had nearly run over the two geese. We got out of my vehicle and made some very nice images. These birds were undoubtedly pushed south by the polar vortex conditions in the north central states and Saturday morning’s brisk north wind helped them make it to the sunshine state.
Snow Goose is very rare in Central Florida; it is not even on the Polk County eBird checklist.
Taking a step back, we did well on Saturday morning with a flock of eye-level Cattle Egrets on the hill just south of the bathroom by the parking circle; we got some flying in and some flying out. Saturday evening was strange. When Bob and I got down to the lake about 30 minutes before sunset, we both noticed that the sun seemed super bright. You could barely glance at it without hurting your eyes. We drove around for a while and got nuthin’. Then we decided to walk out on the pier and see what flew by. You guessed it: we got nuthin’. A few minutes after the sun had set, we were walking back to my SUV when our favorite pair of cranes walked by. I said to Bob, “Perhaps we should reconsider.” Keep reading below to learn why I made a u-turn, what I was hoping for, and the gifts that awaited us.
Today is Monday 6 January 2025. We will be heading down to the lake early to see if the Snow Geese stuck around. Whatever you are doing, we hope that you choose to be happy.
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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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This image was created on 4 January 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE. Standing to the left of the pier, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 243mm) and the and The Latest Greatest Flagship Body, the Sony a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Shutter Priority +1.3 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 8000: 1/640 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open). RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 6:00:22pm, 18 minutes after the time of the clear sunset. Tracking: Spot XS/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly. Image #1: Sandhill Crane pair ready to head to bed in the marsh |
Why I Made a U-turn
When I saw the two cranes walking southwest across the parking circle, I said to Bob, “Not so fast. We might get them crossing the shallow bay to head to their evening roost in the marsh.” Most evenings they cross the bay heading southwest so getting a decent image of them is difficult. Just about 6:00pm they stopped on the shore of the small bay for a moment. The challenge was to get high enough to separate their heads from the marsh and wide enough to get some sky color. The good news was that they were not walking directly away from us. When I decided to head back rather than to head home, I figured that an image like this was about the best we could hope for.
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This image was also created on 4 January 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE about three minutes before I created Image #1. Again standing to the left of the pier, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 485mm) and the and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Shutter Priority +1.7 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 10000: 1/1250 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open). RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 5:56:15pm, 15 minutes after the time of the clear sunset. Wide AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly. Image #2: Sandhill Crane pair — courtship dancing |
The Amazing Gift!
At about four minutes before six, we were blessed when the two cranes began to dance. I was a bit closer to the action than Bob and, being my usual pixels-on-the-bird greedy self, zoomed in more than he did. As a result, I clipped lots of wings. This one is pretty much full frame. With both birds sharp and parallel to the sensor, two good head angles, and a decent background, this was the best of the 26 sharp keepers. The action lasted about two minutes; in that time, I created more than 200 images.
a-1 ii High ISO Performance
Though I have been using my new camera for only about a week, I have been quite impressed with the high ISO performance in terms of noise. While you will surely loose some fine detail when working at ridiculously high ISOs, the noise-reduced files are quite clean. Click on both images to enlarge them and check out the nearly noise-free backgrounds. I did, of course, use my double noise reduction technique (as detailed in DB II and in the DB III Video Series, Volume I).
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This image was also created on 4 January 2025 by Bob Eastman down by the lake near my home at ILE. He was behind me and to my right, kneeling. He used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 245mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) Shutter Priority at 0. AUTO ISO set ISO 2500: 1/1600 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open). AWB at : 5:56:34pm, 15 minutes after the time of the clear sunset. Tracking: Spot XS/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly. Image #4: Sandhill Crane pair — courtship dancing |
Almost the Exact Same Instant, by Bob
Though the cameras indicated the Images #2 and #4 were created 19 seconds apart, the two bodies were never synchronized. I would bet that the two photos were created within a second or two at most of each other. Why? The pose of the female bird, on our right in both images, is virtually identical while the larger male, on our left, was dancing.
There are several reasons for the difference in the color and tonality of the backgrounds:
1- Bob was shooting much darker than I was resulting in an under-exposed raw file with deeper colors.
2- Color is in the eye of the person doing the processing.
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This image was also created on 4 January 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE less than about 20 seconds before I created I created Image #2. Standing to the left of the pier, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 485mm) and the and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Shutter Priority +1.7 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 4000: 1/800 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open). RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 5:55:53pm, about 13 minutes after the time of the clear sunset. Wide AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly. Image #5: Sandhill Crane male courtship run |
A Late Addition
I woke very early on 6 January and decided to add another of my dancing crane images. I wanted to process one more towards orange so that I could be like Bob. At one point in the courtship dance, the male would run frantically away from the female to our left (south) and then turn around and run frantically back to her (as in Image #5).
Notice that soon after this image was made, I raised the shutter speed from 1/800 sec. to I/1250 sec. to ensure that the images would be sharp. With Image #5, I was lucky to get it really sharp at “only” 1/800 sec. If you missed the Shutter Speeds for Bird Photography video, you can view it here.
The Time Has Never Been Better!
With the Sony 200-600 available for less than $2K (new) and the price of a-1 bodies falling, there has never been a better time to change your life. As you see in this blog post and have seen in many recent blog posts, the versatility of this inexpensive lens often trumps the faster, far more expensive fixed focal length telephoto lenses offered by Sony: the 600mm f/4, the 400mm f/2.8, and the 300mm f/2.8.
Use one of my affiliate links and I can have you set up making great images in a matter of minutes, just as I’ve done with Bob Eastman, the amazing Anita North, Pat Fishburne (at age 86!), Andrew Schonbek, Steve and Elizabeth Shore, Carolyn Johnson (at age 80), Geri Georg, and too many more to remember. They all switched. You can do it too!
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iPhone 15 Pro Max image by yours truly, Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART Focal Length: (mm): 15.7 Image #5: Snowy Egret foraging 27 minutes after sunset |
What’s to Learn?
1- The richest colors often appear long after the time of sunset. Don’t give up too early (as we almost did).
2- iPhones offer almost unlimited depth of field.
3- It is a lot easier to carry an iPhone in your pocket than it is to lug a wide angle zoom lens into the field in a vest or a fanny pack.
4- Folks in relatively the same spot using the same lens will often make vastly different images of the same scene. Especially when they are using a zoom lens 🙂
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Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
I betcha you could process #2 towards orange if you wanted. I am usually not a fan of silhouettes, but outstanding images by both of you!
Absolutely. Easy peasy. But I like the lighter background better 🙂
with love, a
Agree with Pat. For me, it’s the position of the birds, seemingly looking into each other’s eyes more than in Bob’s fine similarly timed image. Shows the advantage of high frame rates.
Thanks, Cliff. Bob was at 30 fps. Due to a new-corrected screw-up, I was only at 20fps. Have a great 2025!
with love, a
image #2 made me say “wow”. The high key background with silhouetted birds is unique. Love it.
Thanks, Elinor. Perhaps I should have gone the same route with Image #5.
a
Art: What a wonderful series of pictures but my favorite is #2 — no distractions, just the silhouette of the cranes dancing.
Thanks Pat!
with love, a