Depth of Field Fine Points ... And Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up Sessions

What’s Up?

I am working on this blog post early on Monday morning (Pacific time) so I am not sure yet what the day will bring. Aside from peace and happiness. Living The Work after attending The School for the Work last week has left me a changed man–at least this week 🙂 Among the issues I worked on there and will be continuing to work on are the following: being too judgmental; my fierce need for love, attention, and approval; my inability an/or unwillingness to consider that any criticism might be true, my fierce desire to prove that I am right in a given situation, and my tendency react too quickly by defending and then attacking (not physically) in many different situations … I continue to wear my School for the Work name tag on a string around my neck to remind me of the amazing stuff that I learned in Ojai, stuff that will help me grow and enjoy a lot more peace in my life, in my dealing with folks in general, and in my relationships.

I fly home on Wednesday on the wonderfully convenient Southwest SAN to MCO nonstop flight.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

The Streak: 5!

Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 5 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.

Gatorland In-the Field Instructional Meet-Up

Join me in Kissimmee, FL as below, to photograph Great (with chicks in the nest) and Snowy Egrets in breeding plumage, Wood Stork, American Alligator (captive), and more. Tricolored Heron likely. We should get to make lots of head portraits of all the bird species and to photograph them building nests, displaying, copulating, and flying. Learn to see, find, and make the shot in cluttered settings. Learn exposure and how to handle WHITEs. Learn fill flash and flash as main light. All of the birds are free and wild.

This Weekend’s Schedule

Friday afternoon, 4pm till closing: $75
Saturday morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $100. Lunch and Image Review: $75 additional.
Saturday afternoon till closing (late stay): $100.
Sunday morning (early entry): 7:30 till 10am: $100.

To pay for one or more sessions in full via credit card, call Jim or Jen in the office weekdays at 863-692-0906. You will be responsible for the cost of your Gatorland Photographer’s pass or passes. Please shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.

Selling Your Used Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the right side of the yellow-orange menu bar above.

Unsolicited, via e-mail, from Gerry Keshka

Hi Artie, I wanted to share how much I appreciate your Used Gear “service.” You have posted how you help sellers, but the other side of the equations is how much this service helps buyers. I have purchased three lenses (Canon 200-400, 500 f4 II, and 70-200 F2.8) all lovely experiences and I saved almost $5K over retail. Each of the sellers was delightful, willing to help me assess if the purchase was right for me by sharing their experience with the lens. Each lens was in the condition advertised (or better), and typically included several “add-ons” that would have cost several hundred dollars.

Recent Successful Used Gear Sales

• Mike Kaplan sold a Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition for $925 to a buyer who contacted him on day one when the body was listed in early March.
• Sue Sanborn sold her Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $4100 in early March. The value of this great lens has plummeted after the introduction of the 400mm f/4 IS DO II.
• Sandra Calderbank sold her used Canon EOS 7D Mark II in excellent plus condition with less than 20,000 shutter actuations for $948 in early March.
• Mike Pace sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS lens in very good condition for $4699 CAD to a Canadian only days after it was listed in early March.
• Kenton Gomez sold his Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II lens in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $7349 in early March, 2017.
• Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin sold his Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens in very good-plus condition for the very sporting price of $2199 USD to a Canadian buyer less than a week after it was listed.
• Owen Peller sold his Canon EF 400m f/4 IS DO telephoto lens — the “old 400 DO,– in like-new condition for $2,299 in early MAR, 2017.
• Brian Patteson sold his Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM super telephoto lens in near-mint condition for $4099 in early February.
• IPT veteran Dick Evans sold his NIKKOR AF-S 70-200 f2.8G ED VRII Lens in like-new condition to a local camera store and kindly sent me a check for the 2 1/2% of the original listed price.
• Steve Traudt is sold a Canon 500mm f4/L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens in excellent condition for $3550 in mid-February, 2017.
• James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM zoom lens in excellent condition for $899 in early February 2017.
• Dow Morris sold his Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM lens in like-new condition for $579 a few days after it was listed in early February 2017.
• James P. Nelson sold his Canon EF 100-400 zoom 1:4.5 – 5.6 L IS telephoto lens in excellent plus condition for a very low $549 in early February.
• Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II body in like-new condition for $949.00 in early February 2017 just two days after it was listed.
• Robert Blanke sold his Canon EOS-1D X body with the Canon GPS receiver in like-new condition for $2499.00 within hours of it being listed.

New Listing

Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens

Steve Traudt is offering a Canon 500mm f4L IS USM Super Telephoto lens in near-mint condition for $3899. The sale includes: rear lens cap, the lens trunk, lens trunk keys, lens hood (with neoprene camo cover) and front lens cover. Also included is a Wimberley P-40 Arca-Swiss compatible lens plate. Insured ground shipping via FedEx to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made. Bank cashier’s check preferred.

Please contact Steve via e-mail or by phone at 970.260.7723 (Mountain time).

The old five is a fairly lightweight super-telephoto lens that work well with both TCs. It is fast and sharp. I used mine as my workhorse lens (along with the old 600mm f/4) for almost ten years to photograph birds and wildlife all over the world. Both have been replaced for me by their far more costly version II counterparts. The 500 f/4s have long been the world’s most popular super-telephoto lenses for wildlife and sports. With these lenses selling quite well the demand for a near-mint copy should be high so best to act quickly if you think that this lens has your name on it. artie

This image was created on the Mini Gatorland IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens and the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 520mm) with the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/80 sec. at f/10 in Manual mode was perfect. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: 0. Large Upper Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system selected a cluster of four AF points that fell on and just above the bird’s eye. Image #1: Wood Stork tight vertical head portrait

Razor Thin …

Notice: at 520mm with a shutter speed of only 1/80 sec., this image is razor sharp on the bird’s eye. Notice also that even at f/10 — two clicks stopped down from wide open: f/8 — that the bill is not at all in sharp focus because of the razor thin depth-of-field, that due to the point blank sensor-plane to subject distance. In other words, the closer you are to the subject, the smaller the d-o-f (at a given aperture).

It looks as if the BKGR were far enough away that doubling the ISO and stopping down one full stop to f/14 might have sharpened the bill nicely without bringing up any problematic background detail … This might have been the perfect solution because the ISO 800 image had zero noise.

This image was also created on the Gatorland Mini-IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens and the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 264mm) with the rugged, blazingly fast Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/160 sec. at f/13 in Manual mode was perfect. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: 0. Large Center Zone/AI Servo/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure. The system selected a cluster of four AF points that fell on the top right of the stork’s head. Image #2: Wood Stork abstract top of head portrait

Zoom Out to Increase Depth of Field

Comparing the depth of field in the two images featured here is a revelation. Assuming that distance to the subject in each of today’s featured images is about 6 feet, the total depth of field for Image #1 works out to about 1/4 inch (at 560mm). But when you zoom out to about half of that (264mm) the total depth of field jumps up to 1 1/4 inches, well more than enough to cover the top of the head and the top of the bill. (Note: I realize that the sensor-plane to subject distance estimates here might be off a bit, but the principle remains valid.)

Your Fave?

Which of today’s featured images do you like best? Be sure to let us know why.

Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

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Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.

Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).