What’s Up?
Despite the cloudy forecast, Thursday morning dawned still and clear with a light mist in the air that cleared quickly. The crane in the North Marsh sat steadfastly on her nest with two eggs and the branched eaglet remained branched. The crane family on the South Peninsula was MIA. Despite the perfect conditions, I almost made it home without making a single image. Then I stopped to try for some Cattle Egrets in a low-growing, purple flower setting. When I checked on the eagle nest the young bird was jumping around from its perch to the nest and back again. I was thrilled to see it make a ten foot “flight” from the nest to its perch to the south. Then one of the adults flew in with a big silver fish and the eaglet returned to the nest for breakfast. And I returned home to prepare brunch. As I left, I saw that the crane family had crossed to the North Field (but ignored them to head home and get to work).
All day yesterday I thought that it was Friday … Anyhoo, I got a ton of work done on Thursday. I now have 368 images in the first of my two GNPA Keynote programs. About half the slides are arranged properly, the other half are not. And I need to get down to less than 350 photos. I worked on lots of images from my two Jacksonville visits last year in preparation for announcing two Jacksonville IPTs this summer. I sent 44 work-related e-mails — about par for the course, and I did a gear consult by phone. Lastly, I began work on today’s blog post.
Today is Friday 18 March 2022. The morning forecast is again calling for still and partly cloudy … Such forecasts at ILE often mean “still and sunny.” Time will tell. IAC, I will head down to the lake for a bit. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too had a great day. This blog post took a bit more than three hours to prepare and makes eight days in a row with a new one.
I will be heading to Gatorland on Saturday and Stick Marsh on Sunday to check things out. If you are on the list for Gatorland early entry for this Saturday and would like to learn to be a better photographer, please get in touch via e-mail ASAP.
Please remember to use the B&H and Amazon links on most blog pages and always in the right column and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords. And please consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn …
Used Gear Kudos via e-Mail from Tom Muilhern
Good afternoon, Artie,
Just a fast word of thanks. I just completed second purchase of equipment using your site. I am retired on SS my fun budget — let’s just say it is tight, leading me to the used equipment market. FIRST TIME (March 2021). You went out of your way to find me what I was looking for (a Canon 100-400 II lens). The lens was not listed yet, but you found one for me. I got a great deal/price, in better condition than posted. SECOND TIME (March 2022). I grabbed the 7d MK II package that was listed on your Used Gear Page by Steve Zarate. Again, the process was easy, the price was great, the equipment in very good condition, and packed and delivered as stated.
Thanks again! I have recommended your site to others and will continue to do so.
Tom Muilhern
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This image was created on 24 February 2022 by Clemens Van der Werf at Lake Blue Cypress, FL. He used the hand held Canon RF 600mm f/4L IS USM lens with the Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS R and the Canon EOS R3 Mirrorless camera body.. The exposure was determined via histogram evaluation. ISO 640. 1/4000 sec. at f/5 (stopped down 2/3 stop) in Manual mode. AWB at 7:25am on a sunny morning. Image courtesy of and Copyright 2022: Clemens Van der Werf
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Clemens Van der Werf
Clemens is a longtime friend. After attending 13 IPTS in the early 2000-teens, he is surely my most accomplished student. Anita North is a very close second. I am often envious of Clemens’ (and of Anita’s) work. Clemens’s five images are indeed beyond spectacular. His photos have been featured here on the blog many times. If you would like to see some of those blog posts, type his name into the little white search box at the top right of each blog post and hit Return. That will quickly yield ten pages of links! And, you can see more of his work in his virtual print gallery at Shop.clemensvanderwerf.com. Be especially sure to check out his Bald Eagles Gallery. Equally spectacular are Ice, Penguins, and Yellowstone in Winter. Clemens apparently likes cold weather; he will surely need to add a Snowy Owl gallery ASAP!
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This image was created on 2 March 2022 by Clemens Van der Werf in Michigan. He used the hand held Canon RF 600mm f/4L IS USM lens with the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, the Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS R and the Canon EOS R3 Mirrorless camera body. The exposure was determined via histogram evaluation. ISO 500. 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 11:37am on a cloudy-bright morning. Image courtesy of and Copyright 2022: Clemens Van der Werf
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Clemens Van der Werf and the Canon R3
After his first visit to Lake Blue Cypress Clemens called to tell me that the R3 was a lot better than the R5 for photographing birds in flight and in action. “Why?,” I asked. “The autofocus is a lot stickier” he replied. After the second Snowy Owl trip he expanded his thoughts by saying that R3 AF was much better than R5 AF as far as AF tracking accuracy was concerned, especially in low light situations. In addition, he said that the smaller R3 raw files were beautiful and that they stood up nicely to healthy crops. He will be using his R5 for landscapes and his R3 for all of his bird photography, especially when shooting flight and action.
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This image was created on 2 March 2022 by Clemens Van der Werf in Michigan. He used the hand held Canon RF 600mm f/4L IS USM lens with the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, the Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS R and the Canon EOS R3 Mirrorless camera body. The exposure was determined via histogram evaluation. ISO 500. 1/5000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 11:43am on a cloudy-bright morning. Image courtesy of and Copyright 2022: Clemens Van der Werf
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Clemens and Greg and the Snowy Owl Trips
Clemens traveled twice to Michigan this winter to photograph the Snowy Owls. Our mutual friend, Greg Gulbransen, accompanied him on both trips. The first trip was OK at best, but they persisted and did a lot better on the second trip. And the second trip was a lot warmer. It only got down to -20° F. Greg was using the Nikon Z9 and he also produced many fine images with his hand held 400mm f/2.8 lens. I will be sharing some of those with you here soon. As the pious and corrupt Warden Samuel Norton in “The Shawshank Redemption” said often, “I see you two all the time, you’re thick as thieves, you are.”
Shawshank Redemption
Shawshank Redemption is my favorite movie of all time, by miles. I have seen it dozens of times and always enjoy it. If you don’t have the time to relive the movie right now, you can visit the list of great quotes here on the IMDB website for a quick Shawshank fix (along with a few tears).
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This image was created on 4 March 2022 by Clemens Van der Werf in Michigan. He used the hand held Canon RF 600mm f/4L IS USM lens with the Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS R and the Canon EOS R3 Mirrorless camera body. The exposure was determined via histogram evaluation. ISO 1600. 1/2000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 6:02 on a then very cloudy afternoon. Image courtesy of and Copyright 2022: Clemens Van der Werf
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Impressed By the R3?
I you shoot Canon and were impressed enough by what you saw and learned here today to want to buy one, please use the B&H link (Canon EOS R3 Mirrorless camera body) or purchase from Bedfords and receive 3% back on your credit card and enjoy free second day FedEx shipping. Then send Clemens a thank you note for sharing his R3 images and comments.
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This image was created on 4 March 2022 by Clemens Van der Werf in Michigan. He used the hand held Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM lens (at 300mm) and the Canon EOS R3 Mirrorless camera body. The exposure was determined via histogram evaluation. ISO 640. 1/2500 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open for 300mm) in Manual mode. AWB at 4:40pm on a cloudy afternoon. Image courtesy of and Copyright 2022: Clemens Van der Werf
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Your Assignments for Today
- 1- As you surely expected, all are invited to leave a comment stating their pick as today’s best image along with the reasons that they made their choice.
- 2- Advanced students can leave a comment detailing the one or two thing(s) that they liked best about each image. Undertaking this exercise will surely help you become a better photographer.
- 3- The most advanced folks can take a crack at this one: considering all five images, what one thing in a single image bugs me?
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Having used the R5 and the R3 fairly extensively, I agree with Clemens’ assessment about the AF bring stickier. I don’t think that most of the big birds are much of a challenge for either the R5 or the R3, but where I’ve found the R3 to have the biggest advantage is the refresh when shooting. The R5 shoots 20fps and therefore when shooting in electronic shutter, you are essentially getting a 20Hz EVF. This is okay, but with fast moving birds that are taking up a fairly large percentage of the EVF, they can switch directions fairly rapidly and within one frame I’ve had them completely vanish. With the R3, the 30fps shooting ends up yielding a 30Hz EVF while continuously shooting in the EVF. This 50% increase is a significant improvement and, combined with the faster, stickier autofocus, makes it notably easier to track large in the frame fast flying birds. I still wish the R3 had 45-50 megapixels, but otherwise it seems to be an upgrade in every other aspect compared to the R5 for still shooting. In bursts like this I feel like I’m getting double to triple the number of tack Sharp shots with the R3 as compared to the R5.
Both are great tools and I’d be happy to be “stuck” with either of them. 😉
Image #2 and #3 are my favorites. Having a hard time deciding which of those two I would pick as better. Love the symmetry in the 3rd image along with the long stretched downward wings with slightly curled wingtips. But the pose and the wings on the 2nd image is so cool. What bugs me is the background in image #1, specially those black areas – am I thinking like you?
Hi Muhammad,
The dark areas do not bother me as much as the brighter, sunlit branches and thin trunks …
with thanks and love, artie
5th image is awesome…
Hi Artie, I think the 2 owls together is the strongest image. However, in that image the left wing of the upper owl has a feather out of place. That’s my guess. From what I’ve observed, you seem to remove things that seem to be irregular, so nothing detracts from the subject. For me, that feather is like a cowlick that needs a little hair gel to make it behave.
Agree on #5, but I never noticed the out of place feather until you mentioned it.
with love, artie
Beautiful images!!! but and may be a typo, how did he use a RF600 with a EF1.4x and a Adapter. The RF and EF stuff dose get confusing.
I think all 5 are cute but I really like#1 because of a possible fight and #2 because Snowy Owl turned his face to the photographer while flying!
Wing clipping in the 3rd image, even if the expression and the claws are fantastic, is bugging me. My favorite is #4.
Thanks. That does not bug me.
with love, artie
ps: my favorite is not #4 🙂
My fave is #4. But is the WB making it a tad blueish?
#4 is by far my favorite. The action and story it tells, looking at the eyes, claws, etc!
I think the shadow on the back of the ospreys head would bug you. I know you don’t like shadows across a subject, especially the head.
Good evening Guru. It’s 8.27 pm here.
In the description of the wonderful image of two Ospreys by Clemens; it is mentioned Canon RF 600mm f/4L was used with Canon EOS R3 via Canon mount adaptor. But RF lens is supposed to mount directly on a Canon mirrorless body. Am I right?
You are correct sir. I will fix it later. You were the second to point that out 🙂
a
Artie
I love image #2 the wings and the look over as it comes in like hey wait how did you get there …amazing Photo!
Image #4 a close one as being my best as the concentration as it comes in for dinner the feet open are really the best in this for me as he’s coming right at Clemens.
for me #2 then #4 but i would love any of then to call my own and would love to be able to get owls i LOVE them!! (An Owl IPT now that would be amazing!)
Well done Clemens! and thank you for sharing!
I am not most advanced or even advanced and still have yet to get to one of your ipt’s to learn from the best however i am going to say the head turn on the upper osprey is what is bugging you.
always with love b
Good work, Robert!
a
The missing pupil in image #4.
Not at all. There is a far more grievous flaw in one of the images.
a
ps: what is the strongest image???
Image 4…. Right eye pupil barely visible?
Thanks for commenting, but nope. Which is for favorite?
a
Good morning Artie, all great images. In a hurry to post a comment so will be short as going out to photograph Sharptail grouse. What bothers you most is the ospreys wing intersecting the tree branch.
Thanks and have a great session, but no on the wing merging with the branch.
with love, artie