What’s Up?
Monday morning started off very slowly, but I wound up with two excellent chances, one with an adult crane holding a white feather that it had just preened and the other with a pink-capped juvenile crane. My right shoulder is feeling much better after an ART treatment by chiropractor TJ McKeon in Lake Wales on Friday and two days of rest. I had been simply pushing too hard with 72 lengths every day. I’ve dropped back to 60 lengths (88 to a mile) and am enjoying my swims a lot more. When I was about twelve, my late Mom used to say, “This child does not know the meaning of the word moderation.” Not a lot has changed there.
I continue to be blessed by the dependable cranes and vultures (and herons) here at ILE. And for that, I am thankful.
The forecast for today — Tuesday 8 SEPTEMBER 2020 — is par for the course: early sun turning cloudy with afternoon thunderstorms and a high of 87 degrees. I will be headed down for yet another morning photo session at about 7:30am.
I was glad to learn yesterday that IPT veteran Mark Overgaard sold a fifth Canon lens from his September 4th blog post listings: the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens in excellent plus condition for a very low $549.00.
Having priced Mark’s lenses a bit more aggressively than in the past few months, these sales are another strong indication that the used gear prices of Canon lenses are strengthening a bit. That most likely because of the raving reviews of the Canon EOS R5 Mirrorless Digital Camera (Body Only). Learn all about this great new body in the Canon Comeback Fueled By Mirrorless Bodies & Lenses. The skinny on everything that you wanted to know about Canon Mirrorless but were afraid to ask … blog post here. As always, if you purchase any new gear, please use my B&H affiliate links or get in touch with Steve Elkins at Bedford to get your stuff faster and save a few bucks as well.
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SONY e-Guide Discount Program
Purchase a (new) qualifying SONY camera body (a7r iii, a7r iv, a9, a9 ii) from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a $40 discount on the SONY e-guide. Purchase a (new) SONY 200-600mm G lens from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a $25 discount on the SONY e-guide. Purchase a (new) SONY 600mm f/4 GM lens from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a free SONY e-guide with one or two videos.
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112 sold to rave reviews. The SONY e-Guide by Patrick Sparkman and Arthur Morris |
The Sony Camera User’s e-Guide (and Videos)
Click here to purchase the guide with one Camera Set-up Video. Be sure to e-mail us by clicking here to specify your camera body so that we can send you a link for the correct video.
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Click here to learn more about the SONY e-Guide.
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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 of more than $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.
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.
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This image was created on 6 September 2020 at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from my new SUV I used the Induro GIT 304L/FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital Camera Body. ISO 2000. Exposure determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/500 sec. at f/4.5 in Manual mode was confirmed as perfect by RawDigger. AWB at 7:42am on a then cloudy morning. Tracking Flexible Spot (M) Continuous AF was active at the moment of exposure and performed to perfection. Photo Mechanic screen capture for today’s featured image: Great Blue Heron with snake |
Not Quite Prepared, But Lucky! The Bobcat story all over again …
Early on Sunday morning, I walked out to the pool deck to get a look at the eastern sky. There was a pretty large foggy cloud that would obscure the sunrise for a bit. So I did a bit more work on my laptop (where I spend a good part of my life) and did not head west towards the lake until 7:45am. I was headed for the South Field. There are five canals on the left of Park Ave, four on the right. There are usually not many birds hanging around near the canals. I happened to glance to my left as I rolled past Avocado Drive. I hit the brakes when I saw a Great Blue Heron subduing a small snake.
The tripod was not set up in the car. My a9 ii was not turned on. I had no idea if one of the teleconverters was mounted. I knew that I had to act quickly so I backed up, drove across the median, and positioned the X5 so as to yield a light-toned water background. If I had move the car either up or back a bit, the background would have changed to a dark reflection the vegetation lining the canal on both sides. I did not get too close and risk flushing the bird.
The 600mm f/4 GM rested on a pillow in front of the passenger seat and the 200-600G was lying on it. Each had an a9 ii with a clean card mounted on it. I grabbed the big rig both for the reach and the speed and placed the barrel on the lowered window. Working with an f/4 lens in the low light was a much better choice than working at f/6.3 as it would save me three or four clicks of ISO. I noted that the aperture was a perfect f/4.5 so I knew that there was no teleconverter mounted. That was lucky and good. First, I chose my shutter speed: 1/500 sec. would likely allow me to create a sharp image without having the lens on the tripod. With the left-over ISO of 400, the image was way-dark (as I expected). So, as detailed in The Sony Camera User’s e-Guide (with one Video), I raised the ISO using the rear control dial until I had extensive Zebras on the light-toned water. I knew that that would give me a good exposure on the subject. ISO 2000 was perfect.
I turned the rig to vertical and instantly knew that framing would be difficult. I was too close to include the whole bird in the frame but not close enough for a head, shoulders, and snake portrait. That said, the crop tool would be my friend, so I did not worry about clipping the bird’s feet. I ripped off more than 47 frames in less than three seconds. Then, noting that the sunlight hitting both of the bird’s ankles was getting stronger, I moved the car well back and left to get on light angle as the sun topped the foggy cloud. When I stopped, the heron was licking its chops. It had swallowed the snake.
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This image was created on 6 September 2020 at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from my new SUV I used the Induro GIT 304L/FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital Camera Body. ISO 2000. Exposure determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/500 sec. at f/4.5 in Manual mode was confirmed as perfect by RawDigger. AWB at 7:42am on a then cloudy morning. Tracking Flexible Spot (M) Continuous AF was active at the moment of exposure and performed to perfection. Great Blue Heron with snake — the optimized image |
The Editing and Cropping Decisions
I opened the first image in the series in RawDigger (from Capture One-20) and as expected, noted a perfect exposure. Picking my keepers from the series in Capture One was based on small differences in head angle and the position of the snake. Even in the five keepers, the great blue’s head was angled ever-so-slightly away from me. I realized that as I worked, but did not want to move forward and give up the light-toned water background. The snake had not been wriggling a whole lot. Only the last few images had the feet included in the frame with a nice strip of grass at the bottom but with the crop that I had in mind, that was irrelevant.
I was thinking of some sort of boxy crop for this one but eventually decided to stick with 2:3. I did that by picking Original Ratio from the Crop Tool drop-down menu. You can note my preferred crop by comparing the optimized image with the complete RAW file as seen in the screen capture that opened this blog post.
Note also that I used the Patch Tool and Content-Aware Fill to eliminate the distracting light tone angled grass stem lower right center. That and
tons more (with the exception of Capture One RAW Conversions) — along with all of my personalized Keyboard Shortcuts — are covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail.
The Lesson
The more familiar you are with your gear, especially with the camera controls, the faster you can get into action when you are extremely pressed for time. The trick is not only to get some shots off, but to be able to create sharp images with a reasonably good (or perfect as here) exposure.
Do note that one of the huge advantages of the SONY pro bodies over the Canon EOS R5 & 6 is that you have Zebras in the Finder when shooting stills (as most of us do). With the R5 & 6 Zebras are available only when shooting video.
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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 :).
What I really like about this image is how the position of the snake’s body mirrors that of the heron’s neck.
Artie,
Nice image, as usual. I’m pretty sure the reptile the Blue Heron has is one Florida’s legless lizard species.
Thanks, Bryan. I never considered that. I will e-mail you a magnified screen capture of the behind the head detail. LMK what you think.
with love, artie
Munch Munch!!!
Good morning Artie. Did you consider taking 1 or 2 additional vertical exposures to create a panorama? This would have allowed you to include the entire GBH. Any movement of the snake could be easily resolved in Photoshop. I have tried this technique when working at close range with a stationary subject using a prime lens with no time or ability to increase distance to subject. It also increases the pixel density of your image—helpful if printing large. Thanks for the great content.
Best
Jose
Hi Jose, Good idea but it would not have worked here. Why? There was not enough room to fit the bird in the frame from side to side … Two horizontals would have done it with the benefits that you mention. I actually once did a 2X2 stitched pano of the great blue.
Thanks for your kind words and YAW.
with love, artie