Jim Miller Made My Day. Again. The Great Tern Flight Photography Slaughter. And Tips ... And 30fps Notes

What’s Up?

Today is Monday 11 October 2021. Jim Miller made my day early on. When I checked e-mail, I was delighted to find one from him:

Dear Artie, I write to thank you again for the many opportunities, lessons, experiences, and results on the Ft. DeSoto IPT last week. I would happily do it again next week for the third IPT of the fall session, if it was at all possible. I never thought I would experience a double rainbow at sunrise over the Gulf in my lifetime, but to be led to the spot, with the proper equipment, the best instruction, and the chance to capture that wonder … I am still trying to process that experience. It was a great pleasure to be with the group, and I was impressed how much was taught and how much was learned. There were so many great situations for different species and conditions, but most important, the chance to create great photos of all types.

I guess this was my 5th DeSoto trip with you. They are something that I treasure and anticipate all year, so I thank you for spreading the joy and knowledge of bird photography with such commitment and enthusiasm.

Do consider joining me for the sure-to-be-fantastic third Fort DeSoto IPT: 3 1/2 Days: Tuesday 19 October through the morning session on Friday 22 October. $1999.00 includes three working lunches. Limit six photographers/Openings 4. Scroll down for complete details.

Thanks to the many who e-mailed asking about the Rainbow Color Magic Trick offer in the Rainbow Image Optimization & Color Magic Trick blog post here.

I will likely head down to the lake at sunrise to see what’s up. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took well more than two hours to prepare including the time spent on the image optimizations and screen captures. You can learn a ton by studying the images and the captions, by considering the Image Question below and leaving a comment.

Remember that you can find some great photo accessories (and necessities, like surf booties!) on Amazon by clicking on the Stuff tab on the orange/yellow menu bar above. On a related note, it would be extremely helpful if blog-folks who, like me, spend too much money on Amazon, would get in the habit of clicking on the Amazon logo link on the right side of each blog post when they shop online. As you might expect, doing so will not cost you a single penny, but would be appreciated tremendously by yours truly. And doing so works seamlessly with your Amazon Prime account.

Please remember that 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 save 3% 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.

If You Are On The Fence About Joining the Third DeSoto IPT …

Click the play button above.

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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 old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 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 lighter 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.

As used gear sales have slowed just a bit in recent months — especially with dSLR bodies, there are lots of great buys right now both below and on the Used Gear Page.

New Listings

Sony Alpha a9 Mirrorless Digital Camera Body

BIRDS AS ART Record-Low Price
Free SONY Camera User’s e-Guide and Video!

BAA-friend Anke Frohlich is offering a Sony a9 Mirrorless Digital camera body in excellent-plus to near-mint condition for the BAA Record-low price of $1799.00. The sale includes the original box, the strap, a copy of the SONY Camera User’s e-Guide and Video, and insured UPS ground shipping to lower-48 US addresses. (No battery, no charger, no USB-to-camera cable.) Your new camera will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Anke via e-mail or by phone or text to 1-917-701-5278 (Eastern time zone).

From the moment I tracked that first incoming Brandt’s Cormorant, I knew that SONY a9 series bodies featured the world’ then-best autofocus system. I upgraded to the a9 ii as soon as it was released for the slightly larger body size. If you can find a new a9, it sells for $2,999.00 so you can save a very nice $1,200.00 by grabbing Anke’s a9 and get started with SONY’s great AF system. Not to mention that the new Sony A1 sells for $6498.00 … artie artie

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens

Mark Baity is offering a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens in like-new condition for $3,798.00. The sale includes the original tough front lens cover, lens hood, front and rear lens caps, hard carrying case, the original box and packaging, 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 Mark via e-mail at e-mail

The 300mm f/2.8 autofocus lenses have long been the first choice of the world’s best hawks-in-flight photographers with and without a 1.4X TC. When teamed up with either the 1.4X or 2X TC, they make a great hand-holdable walk-around lens. For folks with an EOS R5 or R6, the 300 II would make a great workhorse lens for bird photography (with both TCs) and an incredible flight lens. Grabbing Mark’s lens will save you an incredible $2,700.00 as new ones are going for $6099.00 from B&H. I owned and used several versions of the 300 f/2.8 lens for many years until finally replacing my 300 f/2.8 II with the 400 DO II several years ago. That said, the 300 f/2.8 II represents a great value as the 400 DO II now sells new for $6,899.00. artie

Please Remember

With income from IPTs now close to zero, please, if you enjoy and learn from the blog, remember to use one of my two affiliate programs when purchasing new gear. Doing so just might make it possible for me to avoid having to try to get a job as a Walmart greeter and will not cost you a single penny more. And if you use Bedfords and remember to enter the BIRDSASART code at checkout, you will save 3% on every order and enjoy free second-day air shipping. In these crazy times — I am out at least forty to sixty thousand dollars so far due to COVID 19 (with lots more to come) — remembering to use my B&H link or to shop at Bedfords will help me out a ton and be greatly appreciated. Overseas folks who cannot order from the US because of import fees, duties, and taxes, are invited to help out by clicking here to leave a blog thank you gift if they see fit.

New and Better Bedfords Discount Policy!

You can now save 3% on all of your Bedfords photo gear purchases by entering the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout. Your discount will be applied to your pre-tax total. In addition, by using the code you will get 2nd day air shipping via Fed Ex.

Grab a Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III and save $14.99. Purchase a Canon EOS R5 and your discount will be $116.97. Purchase a Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and save a remarkable $389.94! Your Bedford’s purchase no longer needs to be greater than $1,000.00 for you to receive a discount. The more you spend, the more you save.

Money Saving Reminder

Many have learned that if you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H and would enjoy free second-day air shipping, your best bet is to click here, place an order with Bedfords, and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If an item is out of stock, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell phone at (479) 381-2592 (Central time). Be sure to mention the BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order to save 3% and enjoy free 2nd-day air shipping. Steve has been great at getting folks the hot items that are out of stock at B&H and everywhere else. The wait lists at the big stores can be a year or longer for the hard to get items. Steve will surely get you your gear long before that. For the past year, he has been helping BAA Blog folks get their hands on items like the SONY a9 ii, the SONY 200-600 G OSS lens, the Canon EOS R5, the Canon RF 100-500mm lens, and the Nikon 500mm PF. Steve is personable, helpful, and eager to please.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs (remember those?) 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.

I created this image on 6 October 2021 on the second morning of the 2nd DeSoto IPT. I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 478mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 640. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/3200 sec. at f/7.1 (stopped down 1/3 stop) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that this image was 1/3 stop under-exposed; that knowledge helped me to set the exposure slider correctly during the raw conversion in ACR. AWB at 11:47am on dead-clear morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C Bird/Eye Detection AF was active at the moment exposure and performed perfectly. Click on the image to view a hi-res version. Image #1: Royal Tern coming in for a landing

A Slaughter

With the wind and sun behind us, a dark storm cloud background, and almost all of the birds taking the same flight path (like jets coming into JFK on a busy afternoon), our last hour on the beach was a tern flight photography slaughter.

The Situation

Having observed the tern flocks the previous day, I knew exactly where we needed to be late in the morning. We sat on the flock, and picked off the incoming terns one at a time. We were actually so close to the flock that some of the participants (and I) added a 1.4X TC to their rig and worked on head portraits. We had many dozens of great chances.

That the birds were consistently landing about halfway deep into the flock made framing the images easier. With the smaller Sandwich Terns, I advised folks to zoom to their longest focal length. With the larger royals, I suggested that zooming out in advance (esti-zooming) to about 450mm would help them avoid clipping wings. I did the same. See more from that amazing morning in the YouTube video here.

I created this image on 6 October 2021 on the second morning of the 2nd DeSoto IPT. I 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. ISO 640. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/3200 sec. at f/7.1 (stopped down 1/3 stop) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that this image was 1/3 stop under-exposed. Though slightly less than ideal, that knowledge helped me to set the exposure slider correctly during the raw conversion in ACR. AWB at 11:52:36am on dead-clear morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C Bird/Eye Detection AF was active at the moment exposure and performed perfectly. Click on the image to view a hi-res version. Image #2: Sandwich Tern coming in for a landing

SONY 200-600/Alpha 1 Versatility

As seen here consistently, the SONY 200-600 G lens is supremely versatile. On two of the fort Second DeSoto IPT mornings, I left the 600 f/4 in the car and headed out with “just” the 200-600. I was never disappointed at not having the faster lens along, even for an instant. The ability to zoom in and out for flight photography is a huge plus. With many of the birds — including most of the shorebirds — at DeSoto so tame, 600mm was often more than enough focal length. It’s light weight and relatively low cost make it hugely appealing to many bird photographers, especially those new to SONY and those who simply cannot afford to plunk down $13K.

And the a1 is beyond the beyond. Soft flight images are now an extreme rarity. I was shocked to see that the head of the bird in Image #2 (immediately above) needed a bit of Topaz Sharpen AI Motion Blur.

Adding to the 200-600/a1 versatility is the lens’s amazing performance with the SONY 1.4X TC. Not only I did I use that combo for handheld shorebird photography at 840mm, but I did lots of flight photography with it as well. The results were amazingly stunning. Or stunningly amazing. Images soon.

While the 200-600 remains tough to get — Bedfords is your best bet as usual, Steve Elkins finally got a nice shipment of Alpha 1 bodies last week and filled most of the orders on his wait list. If you can afford an a1 and finally decide to get the best-ever camera for bird photography, remember that using either of my links gets you free membership into my Sony a1 Info and Updates e-Mail group.

Important Note

Please note that each of today’s featured images represents the full frame original capture … Which is your favorite? Why?

I created this image on 6 October 2021 on the second morning of the 2nd DeSoto IPT. I 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. ISO 500. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/3200 sec. at f/7.1 (stopped down 1/3 stop) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that this image was 1/3 stop under-exposed. Though slightly less than ideal, that knowledge helped me to set the exposure slider correctly during the raw conversion in ACR. AWB at 11:52:36am on dead-clear morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C Bird/Eye Detection AF was active at the moment exposure and performed perfectly. Click on the image to view a hi-res version. Image #3: Sandwich Tern braking to land

Image Question

Should I have taken the time to re-position this bird in the frame? Why or why not?

30 Frames per Second Notes

That Images #2 and #3 were made in the same second should not at all be unexpected. Note however, that the file number for Image #2 is _A1B7457 while the file number for Image #3 is _A1B7465. That shows that seven additional images were created between the two keepers and gives you a good idea of just what 30 frames per second is capable of.

Typos

With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.