Keep or Delete? Ordinary or Special?

Keep or Delete? Ordinary or Special?

The dearth of birds on the perches and the overall lack of variety and action has left me concentrating on the cranes. Here is the question of the day:

Is it possible to create a special image of a crane standing there doing nothing (Images #1 or 2), or a group of cranes standing in the same spot preening (Image #3)? Please click on each of today’s three featured images to enlarge and then decide if any or all of them are in any way special. If yes, what factors make them special to you? Or should I have deleted them all as too ordinary? Perhaps the fact that I took the time to optimize each of them might be an indication of how I feel about them. Or perhaps I am trying to trick you.

Which (if any), is the strongest image? Which is the weakest of the three?

What’s Up?

Despite having put up three new perches recently, Bob Eastman and I have had to work hard for a few good images at most. On Wednesday I kept very few images — some nice vulture flight in the morning and some nice sunset tree silhouettes, all with the hand held 300mm f/2.8/1.4X TC/a-1 rig. I sent the Shutter Priority with AUTO ISO and Exposure Compensation on the Thumb Dial menu trick to both the a-1 Firmware Update group and the a9 iii group. Then I sent the SONY Alpha a1 Set-up and Info Notes e-Mail K (10 DEC 2024) to the a-1 Set-up and Info group.

Today is Thursday 12 December 2024. Bob will be back from Vero this afternoon. As we are waiting for the new pool pump to arrive, and another cold front came through last night, I doubt if I will be doing much swimming till Monday. I did my slow quarter mile yesterday with the pool at 70° F. I just checked the thermometer at 4:23am; it is down to 68°F …

I will be heading down to the lake for sunrise to try and improve on a vulture tree sunrise color image we have been working. Then I need to scoot into town do run some errands. Whatever you choose to do, we hope that like us, you choose to be happy and have fun.

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I created this image 1 December 2024 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: ISO 1250. 1/1000 second at f/11 (stopped down one stop) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 8:07:27am on a sunny morning. Tracking: (upper center) Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #1: Sandhill Crane adult head and neck portrait

1200mm on the BLUBB

As noted here often, working on the world’s best beanbag at 1200mm is child’s play with a v2.02 Firmware a-1. With bright sun, I had more than enough light to employ a fast shutter speed despite stopping down one full stop. Note: stopping down to f/11 did not bring up any unwanted background detail because the distance to the background was great.

I created this image 1 December 2024 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: ISO 800. 1/400 second at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 7:58:54am on a rare cloudy morning. Tracking: (upper center) Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #2: Sandhill Crane adult doing nothing

A Nothing Shot?

So, we have a single crane standing there doing nothing in relatively flat light. Do you see anything special about this image or was I pipe dreaming?

I created this image on 12 December 2024 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Again, working from the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: ISO 1600. 1/500 second at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 7:24:42am on another rare cloudy morning. Tracking: Expand Spot S/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #3: Sandhill Cranes — a family preening session

A Family Preening Session

Here is another seemingly blah-on-the-surface photograph. Is there anything at all special about it? Either way, what are the negatives?

Note that the bird on our right is last year’s young, about eight or nine months old. How do you identify them? The feathers of the front cap on the young bird are more pink than the red front caps of the adult’s. I did need to use a few tricks to sharpen up the face of the adult in the back as it was beyond the depth of field.

Typos

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