A Really Big, Pleasant Surprise: My Favorite-Ever Camera Body, the SONY a9 II

What’s Up?

It’s 6:38am on Tuesday, December 10, 2019. I am at the gate at MCO headed to Islip. I will be doing an Event Space program at the B&H superstore on Wednesday and Thursday, seeing Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday evening, and seeing Hamilton and the Book of Mormon on the weekend. I fly home on Thursday the 19th.

Thinking of the San Diego IPT? Be sure to check out the San Diego Gallery here. Or browse the galleries by clicking here. Remember: looking at and studying great images is an excellent way to improve your bird and nature photography.

The BAA Used Gear page is the place to sell your big lenses, your high-end camera bodies, and your accessories. BAA friend and multiple IPT veteran Paul Reinstein sold his Canon 600mm f/4L IS III lens in near-mint condition (with extras) for an amazingly low $11,499.00 exactly forty minutes after it was listed yesterday …

B&H Event Space Programs This Week

Folks can view the live stream on the B&H Event Space website here.

Photographing Birds in Flight

Wednesday, December 11, 2019 1:00 PM ET – 3:00 PM ET. Speaker: Arthur Morris. Skill Levels: Basic, Intermediate, Advance. Location: B&H Event Space: Second Floor of B&H NYC SuperStore at 420 9th Avenue, New York NY 10001.

This slide-illustrated lecture will feature more than two hundred of Artie’s spectacular photographs of birds in flight. As he shares images from his favorite locations around the globe, he will teach us everything we need to know in order to create striking images of flying avian subjects. The topics to be covered include: gear (lenses, camera bodies, tripods, and heads), understanding the importance of wind direction and sky conditions, ideal wing positions, shooting strategies, the best AF modes to use for flight photography with Canon, Nikon, and SONY, the importance of using a good stance, post-processing, getting the right exposure, and image design.

To register to attend or to stream live online, click here.

Photographing Nature in the Galapagos Archipelago

Thursday, December 12, 2019 11:00 AM ET – 1:00 PM ET. Speaker: Arthur Morris. Skill Levels: Basic, Intermediate, Advance. Location: B&H Event Space: Second Floor of B&H NYC SuperStore at 420 9th Avenue, New York NY 10001.

This slide-illustrated program will feature more than two hundred of Artie’s spectacular photographs of birds, pinnipeds and reptiles created on fourteen BIRDS AS ART Photo-Cruises around the Galapagos. You will learn about the best landings and locations, the great variety of photographic subjects, gear choices, getting the right exposure, image design, and post processing.

To register to attend or to stream live online, click here.

IPT Updates

• The 2020 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) WED JAN 8, 2020 thru and including the morning session on SUN JAN 12: 4 1/2 days: $2099.(Limit: 8/Openings: 5)

Click here for complete IPT info and details.

BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase over $1000.00, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve has been great at getting folks the hot items that are out of stock at B&H. Those include the SONY a7r IV, the SONY 200-600, the SONY 600mm f/4 GM, and the Nikon 500mm PF. Steve is eager to please.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the EOS-1DX, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. Most recently the price of used Canon 600mm f/L IS II lenses have been dropping like a rock with the introduction of the 600 III. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

The Used Gear page has been hot for the past two months with the continuing price drops on Canon and Nikon gear. There are still lots of great buys right now on the Used Gear Page. In addition to the recent sales below, there are many pending sales.

Recent Sales

Multiple IPT veteran Jake Levin sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II in excellent plus condition for $648.00 in early December 2019.
BAA friend and multiple IPT veteran Paul Reinstein sold his Canon 600mm f/4L IS III lens in near-mint condition (with extras) for an amazingly low $11,499.00 within an hour of it being listed in early December.
Multiple IPT veteran George Golumbeski sold his Canon 600mm f/4L IS III lens in near-mint condition (with extras) for an amazingly low $11,299.00 within hours of it being listed in early September. (I forgot to note the sale here …)
Blog-regular Anthony Ardito sold a Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED AF-S VR Zoom lens in like-new condition for the very low price of $799.95 (was $899.95) in early December 2019.
Ken Siegel sold a Sony A9 Mirrorless Digital Camera Body in mint condition for $2598.00 (was $2698.00) ten days after it was listed.
Josh Anon (son of noted photographer and Photoshop expert Ellen Anon) sold a SONY a7R IV Mirrorless Digital camera body in like-new condition for only $2998.00.
Joe Randle sold his Canon 400mm f4L IS DO USM Telephoto lens (the original 400 DO) in near-mint condition for $1999.00 and a Canon Extender EF @x teleconverter in near-mint condition for $229.00 on the second day of listing.
Joe Randle sold a used Canon Extender EF 1.4X teleconverter in near-mint condition for $229.00 moments after it was listed in late November 2019.
Ken Siegel sold a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $3299.00 in mid-November soon after listing.
Jerry Barrack sold a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Digital Camera Body in near-mint condition for $ 1,999.00, a Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $5,799.00, a Canon EOS 7D Mark II camera body in near-mint condition for a BAA record-low $648.00 in early November 2019.
BAA friend and multiple IPT veteran Paul Reinstein sold his Canon EOS-1D X Mark II body with a shutter count of 40,759 in near-mint condition for $3,599.00 and his Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L S II USM lens in excellent condition for the BAA record-low price of $1195.00 both in mid-November 2019.
I sold my SONY a9 in near-mint condition for $2,597.00 on November 11, 2019.
Jerry Barrack sold his Canon Extender EF 1.4X III teleconverter in near-mint condition and his Canon Extender EF 2X III teleconverter also in near-mint condition, both for a very low $224.00 in early November.
Jerry Barrack also sold a Wimberley WH-101 Gimbal Head w/QR C-30 clamp (the original) and a heavy-duty Gitzo 410 tripod for the silly low price of $399.00.
Peter Noyes sold his Sony Alpha A7R III Mirrorless Digital Camera body in like-new condition with a shutter count of less than 1,000 for $1998.00 the first day it was listed in early November.

New Listing

Canon 100-400mm IS L lens (the “old 1-4”)

Owen Peller is offering the original Canon 100-400mm IS L lens (the “old 1-4”) in like-new condition for the very fair price of $599.00. This immaculate lens has seen little use. The sale includes the front and rear lens caps, the original box, the tough fabric carrying case, 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 Owen via e-mail e-mail or by phone at 1-954-882-1480 (Eastern time zone).

The original 1-4 is a sharp, amazingly versatile telephoto zoom lens. When I used Canon, I made hundreds of great images and saleable with this lens (including the front cover of Scott Weidensaul’s “Return to Wild America. And it was Denise Ippolito’s favorite Canon lens. Owen’s lens would make a great starter lens for a beginning bird or nature photographer, especially when paired with a 7D Mark II. artie

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers 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. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

This is a Photo Mechanic Screen Capture of my six favorite wigeon images

SONY a9 II Animal Eye AF-C

I created more than 300 wigeon images in a single afternoon; all but one of them was razor-laser sharp on the eye with incredible fine-feather detail about the face. I kept 23. Above are six of my seven favorites. Image #1 (below) was my 7th fave.

When I sold my a9 and purchased the a9 II, I was thinking that it was a rather dumb move. I had not used the a9 a whole lot, and I was impressed by the AF capabilities for birds in flight. Astounded in fact. And the file size of a9 II images had not been increased as everyone had assumed. But like many others, I like having the latest greatest gear. That said, I was amazed by the a9 II at Bosque. The slightly larger body gave the a9 II a pro-body feel like the a7R IV. I was routinely able to create sharp flight images with the a9II/2X TC/600 GM (at 1200mm!) Are you kidding me?

When photographing with Anita North at the duck pond in Socorro, I mentioned that Upper Zone Animal Eye AF-C was working to perfection; once the system detected the duck’s eye, the tiny box within the Zone stuck to it like glue. Even the wings forward and wings back flapping shots were super-sharp on the eye. Anita was using the original a9 with the 200-600. Even though her camera was set up exactly the same as mine, Animal Eye AF was not performing well at all. The combination of Upper Zone AF and the focal length versatility of the 200-600 allowed me too easily frame the subject as I wanted while including the reflection. The result was many pleasing compositions.

Considering all of the above along with the actual 15 fps frame-rate in AF-C, the SONY a9 II has quickly become my favorite-ever camera body.

This is a Capture One-12 Screen Capture for Image #1 (below): American Wigeon drake swimming

Capture One-12 Screen Capture for Image #1 (below)

Be sure to click on the image to get an idea of the incredible sharpness and fine-feather detail of the a9 II/200-600 combo. I am hoping to do some Herring Gull flight photography with this rig toward the end of my Long Island visit. The red blotches on the duck’s forehead is the Highlight Exposure Warning in C-1. Had I blown it? No, not at all. The few blinkies on the brightest WHITEs were easily recovered during the RAW conversion in Capture One Pro-12 using a combination of the Exposure and Highlight sliders. Notice that there were no dark blue blotches indicating under-exposed shadow tones. In effect, the exposure was perfect.

This image was created on December 3, 2019 on my busman’s holiday after the 2019 Bosque IPT. I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 496mm) with the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body. ISO 400. Exposure determined by Zebras: 1/1600 sec. at f/7.1 in Manual mode. AWB at 3:32pm on a clear afternoon. Upper Zone Animal Eye AF-C worked to perfection; once the system detected the duck’s eye the tiny box within the Zone stuck to it like glue. Image #1: American Wigeon drake swimming

Wigeon Drake Perfection

With a handsome drake as the subject, the bird right on sun angle, a perfect head-angle showing the green sheen of the eye patch, and the nice blue water, I was quite happy with this image. ISOO 400: 1/6000 second atf/7.1 was the perfect exposure for the ducks with their white forehead and wing patches.

This image was also created on December 3, 2019 on my busman’s holiday after the 2019 Bosque IPT. Again, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 600mm) with the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body. ISO 400: 1/1250 sec. at f/7.1 in Manual mode. AWB at 4:02pm on a clear afternoon. Image #2: American Wigeon hen swimming

Exposure Note

When I went from a drake to a hen, I opened up the exposure by going two clicks lighter on the shutter speed. For this image, I erred as I only went from 1/1600 sec. to 1/1250 sec. With the complete absence of white on this female wigeon, I should have opened up three clicks to 1/800 sec. IAC, I increased the exposure in Capture One Pro-12 with no ill effects.

San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects, including and especially the Pacific race of California Brown Pelican. With annual visits spanning more than four decades, I have lots of photographic experience there … Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

The 2020 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) WED JAN 8, 2020 thru and including the morning session on SUN JAN 12: 4 1/2 days: $2099.(Limit: 8/Openings: 5)

Introductory Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; WED JAN 7, 2020.

Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s (nesting with eggs and possibly chicks) and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heermann’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others are possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the IPT cards, there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well. Not to mention a ton of excellent flight photography opportunities and instruction.

Please note: where permitted and on occasion, ducks and gulls may be attracted (or re-located) with offerings of grains or healthy bread.

Learning Exposure, Whether You Like It Or Not

Whether you like it or not, we will be beating the subject of exposure like a dead horse. In every new situation, you will hear my thoughts on the exposure situation along with my thoughts on both Nikon and Canon histograms and the subject of blinkies. Whether you like it or not, you will learn to work in manual mode and to get the right exposure every time as long as a bird gives you ten seconds with the light constant. And you will learn what to do when the light is changing constantly. What you learn about exposure will be one of the great takeaways on every IPT.

Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT, there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

It Ain’t Just Pelicans

With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography as well. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication. You will be guided as to how to make the best of all of those opportunities. And depending on the weather and local conditions and tides, there are a variety of fabulous photo chances available in and around San Diego.

Did I mention that there are lots of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter? Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

The San Diego Details

This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. And so that we can get some sleep, dinners will be on your own.

A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 3385, or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 10/11//2018. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance for both big international trips and US-based IPTs is highly recommended as we never know what life has in store for us. I strongly recommend that you purchase quality travel insurance. Travel Insurance Services offers a variety of plans and options. Included with the Elite Option or available as an upgrade to the Basic & Plus Options you can also purchase Cancel for Any Reason Coverage that expands the list of reasons for your canceling to include things such as sudden work or family obligation and even a simple change of mind. My family and I use and depend on the great policies offered by TIS whenever we travel. You can learn more here: Travel Insurance Services. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your travel insurance within 14 days of our cashing your deposit check or running your credit card. Whenever purchasing travel insurance, be sure to read the fine print carefully even when dealing with reputable firms like TSI.

Variety is surely the spice of life in San Diego. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

Getting Up Early and Staying Out Late

On all BIRDS AS ART IPTS including and especially the San Diego IPT, we get into the field early to take advantage of unique and often spectacular lighting conditions and we stay out late to maximize the chances of killer light and glorious sunset silhouette situations. We often arrive at the cliffs a full hour before anyone else shows up to check out the landscape and seascape opportunities.

If In Doubt …

If you are in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.

Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the 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 or Bedfords, 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 or Bedfords 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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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 :).