Homer IPT Openings
Due to a family illness, I have had a cancellation on both Homer IPTs. If you are interested in joining us for one or for both, please get in touch via cell phone or text to 863-221-2372 immediately.
My Call
The Brown Pelican flight image in the last blog post is my very favorite pelican image. Ever. In addition, it is easily one of my top ten all time best photos. Ever Several folks pretty much agreed. Elle summed up my feelings perfectly when she left this comment:
January 25, 2025 at 3:16pm
I am enamored of this one because it is unusual and artistic. I love the curve of the wing leading the viewer’s eye to the beak and the bird’s eye. I love all the orange details in the head against the complementary deep blue background. The texture of the feathers contrasts beautifully with the smoothness of the background.
Thanks, Elle!
What’s Up?
After a cloudy morning session on Sunday morning, Vasili Chernishoff headed back to LA a happy man. When we got back to the AirBnB, I finished cherry picking his best images from the more than 80,000 he created during a week of shooting. I had picked nearly 300 pretty good ones. We sat together at my laptop and got that file down to below 200 after a second edit.
On Saturday morning, Bob Eastman and Vasili headed down to the Brandt’s Cormorants while I hung out with the pelicans for a bit. I grabbed my 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II lens and headed down the hill. I did not make it far when I spotted a gorgeous male Allen’s Hummingbird. I quickly headed back to our SUV and grabbed the 600mm f/4 GM, both teleconverters, and my now beloved a-1 ii. The bird flew away but returned quickly. I called Bob to let him know. I kept shooting and the bird kept flying away and returning. I called Bob a second time and told him to come quickly and to bring Vasili. We all got in on the action. After less than 50 minutes, I created 6048 raw files. I kept 40 and processed four of those for today’s blog post.
I could not help but think of Jim Brandenburg’s amazing Zen/quasi-religious self assignment, Chased by the Light. Having “lost his passion for photography,” Jim gave himself a challenge: for ninety days between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, he would make only one photograph a day. The result? Immense personal growth, an exquisite book and a National Geographic article that featured all 90 images. I have a signed copy of the fancy version of that book that is inscribed, “To the master, in the name of shared passion.” It is beyond a prized possession.
Things are quite a bit different today with mirrorless cameras that capture at 30, 40, and even 120 frames per second, and can even save as many as 120 frames recorded before you even press the shutter button. I guess the question is, “In retrospect, do I feel at all guilty? The short answer is “No, not at all.” I love what I do and I love being alive to be able to enjoy today’s amazing mirrorless technology.
Learn more about Chased by the Light in the wonderful blog post by Jim Doty here.
Today’s post features six very special male Allen’s Hummingbird images, four by yours truly and one each by Bob and Vasili. Oh, and by the way, Go Chiefs! Go Patrick (Mahomes)! Condolences to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. Again
Today is Monday 27 January 2025. Bob and I will be headed back to La Jolla for what promises to be another cloudy, drizzly morning. Whatever you opt to do, we hope that you too choose to have a great day.
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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This image was created on 25 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA on an In-the-Field session with good friend Vasili Chernishoff. Standing at full height, 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 with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 2500. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/500 second at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 9:09:48am on partly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #1: Allen’s Hummingbird male — wing raised display |
Getting the White Sky Exposure Right
With the relatively dark hummingbird set against a near white sky when the clouds covered the sun, I knew that I needed to add a ton of light to the exposure to avoid under-exposing the subject. I raised the ISO until the sky was completely Zebra-ed and then hit a convenient button to turn them off so that I could compose the image.
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This image was also created on 25 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA on an In-the-Field session with good friend Vasili Chernishoff. Again, standing at full height, 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 with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 2500. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/500 second at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 9:11:16am on partly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #2: Allen’s Hummingbird perched male side view |
Changing Perches
The bird switched perches often, fly off, and then return to one of about four favorite perches. Note that though the background for Image #2 was the distant cliff wall, the exposure remained exactly the same as it was in Image #1. Why? The amount of light falling on the subject had not changed.
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This image was also created on 25 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA on an In-the-Field session with good friend Vasili Chernishoff. Again, standing at full height, 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 with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 2500. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/500 second at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 9:15:57am on partly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #3: Allen’s Hummingbird male scratching |
Why 6048 Images?
Not really sure. I can only say that photographing a tiny, feisty bird at 1200mm is a difficult challenge. I stuck with 1/500 second at ISO 2500 rather than going to a faster shutter speed and a much higher ISO. At 1/500th, I knew that I would lose some images to motion blur. Even perched hummingbirds rarely sit still. They are constantly looking around. As the position of their head changes, the reflectance of the gorget, the richly colored feathers about the neck, changes almost constantly. So, to capture the brilliant iridescence of the gorget feathers, making lots of images never hurts. And when they display or scratch or spread their wings, the best policy is to keep the hammer down.
Iridescence is the optical phenomenon where a surface appears to change color depending on the angle of illumination or viewing. The word “iridescent” comes from the Greek word iris, which means “rainbow”. (Google AI Overview).
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This image was created on 25 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA during an In-the-Field session by my good friend Bob Eastman. Standing at full height, he used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 600mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 6400. 1/2500 second at f/6.3 (wide-open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 9:23:05am on a partly cloudy morning. RawDigger showed the exposure to be within 1/6 stop of dead solid perfect. Tracking: Spot (S) AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #4: Allen’s Hummingbird male — raised wings display
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Bob’s Eastman’s Trusty Sony 200-600 G Lens
It became a standing joke. As Vasili and I were deciding on which lens to use for a session, Bob would opine, “I think I’ll take my two to six.” It is his only long telephoto lens and as you have seen here, he consistently created some fabulous images. As the hummers at this spot are ridiculously tame, Bob was able to get closer than Vasili and I as his Minimum Focusing Distance (MFD) is roughly half that of the 600mm f/4 primes, 7 feet as compared to about 13. None-the-less, Bob’s optimized image utilized slight more than 25% of the original pixels, a further testament as to the quality of sharp Sony a-1 raw files. Kudos to Bob for raising the ISO enough to create a perfect exposure in difficult conditions.
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Image #4A: The Photo Mechanic Screen Capture depicting the full frame original for Image #4, Allen’s Hummingbird male — raised wings display.
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Large High ISO Sony a-1 Crops
As noted above, sharp a-1 files can stand up to relatively large crops. In this case, 75% of the original pixels were discarded. Note also the cleanup job that I did on the leaves.
Sony Alpha 1 (a-1) Mirrorless Camera Body (with Extras!)
Price reduced $200.00 on 27 January 2025
Used Gear Page regular, IPT Veteran, and BAA friend Dane Johnson is offering his rarely used backup Sony a-1 (ILCE-1) mirrorless camera body in like-new condition for a ridiculously low $3,598.00 (was $3,798.00). This body has been updated to Firmware 3.00 that reportedly improves Bird Face-Eye tracking to levels attained by the a1-ii. The sale includes a like-new Really Right Stuff Modular L-plate set (a $215.00 value), a Sony 160GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card (a $268.00 value), the original product boxes, the owner’s manual, the USA warranty card, the body cap, the camera strap, one battery and the charger, the cords, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Dane via e-mail or by phone at 559-593-0989 (Pacific time zone).
I have used Sony a-1 bodies as my workhorse cameras for three years. They produce stunning 51MP files with vivid natural colors. The AF system is science-fiction-like. They are rugged and dependable and 30 frames per second is nothing to sneeze at. With a brand new A-1 ii going for $6498.00, you can save $3100.00 (plus the two great extras) by grabbing Dane’s pretty much as good as new copy ASAP Right now, B&H is offering a used a-1 in like-new condition for $4,397.00. That makes Dane’s body package an absolute steal. artie
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This image was created on 25 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA during an In-the-Field session by my good friend Vasili Chernishoff. Standing at full height, he used the Gitzo tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Canon RF 600mm f/4 L IS USM lens with the Canon Extender RF 2x and the remarkable Canon EOS R1 Mirrorless Camera. ISO 8000. The exposure via the in-viewfinder histogram and JPEG review: 1/1000 second at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 9:29:44am on partly cloudy morning. Bird-Eye/Face AF-C performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #5: Allen’s Hummingbird male — raised wings display |
Well Done Vasili!
Though Vasili needs to continue to work on being more selective, he created some outstanding images. As I cherry picked his 80,000 photos (sorry, Jim Brandenburg), I was incredibly impressed by the Bird Face-Eye tracking accuracy and the high ISO performance with regards to the noise levels. I loved Vasili’s choice of perspective and the angled line of the perch. You will be seeing more of Vasili’s excellent images here soon.
Huge Thanks to Anita North!
Huge thanks to Anita North who helped me with the optimization of Vasili’s fine image. The sky to the left of the subject was bright. Anita explained to me by phone how to apply a Linear Gradient in Camera Raw while subtract the subject. This is a technique that I have been trying — without success, to learn for about 20 years. I think that I’ve got it now!
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This image was also created on 25 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA on an In-the-Field session with good friend Vasili Chernishoff. Again, standing at full height, 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 with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 2500. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/500 second at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 9:36:02am on partly cloudy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #6: Allen’s Hummingbird male — raised wings display |
A Tiny Bit of Sun
As the sun peeked out just a bit, I was able to eke out a bit of blue in the sky.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Love them all, but I think Bob wins the day! The perch puts it over the top for me.
Artie they are all great images, I like the unusual pose in #3 and really like Bob’s vertical.
Way to go Bob.
Thanks, Monte Great chatting yesterday.
with love, artie
Bob Eastman’s #4 is Gold!
Thanks, Warren. The Remove Tool did wonders on those leaves.
with love, artie and Bob
Art: I was amazed by the results the three of you got with such diverse equipment. Particularly amazing was Bob Eastman’s image #4. I also loved #2, a beautiful background despite a white sky day.
Thanks, Pat. You would have done quite well with your 300mm f/2.8 and the 2X TC. That has a very small MFD.
with love, artie
While all are amazing, the vertical crop and subsequent cleanup of Bob Eastman’s original horizontal image is visually stunning to my eye. Well done!