Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

What’s Up?

The weather on Wednesday morning was perfect: hazy sun with an east wind at about 12 mph. I got some nice stuff on adult cranes, both species of vulture, and a few not-too-great images of the young eagle flying around the South Peninsula. And I got lots of work done on my two GNPA keynote programs.

Today is Thursday 24 March 2022. The forecast is calling for cloudy early with thunderstorms in the afternoon. I will probably stay in until the skies get black later in the day. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too had a great day. This blog post more than two hours to prepare and makes fourteen days in a row with a new one.

Please remember to use the B&H and Amazon links that are found on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords. Please, also, consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn …

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 on items priced at $1,000 or more. With items less than $1000, there is a $50 flat-fee. 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%. If you are interested, please click here, read everything carefully, and do what it says. To avoid any misunderstandings, please read the whole thing very carefully. If you agree to the terms, please state so clearly via e-mail and include the template or templates, one for each item you wish to sell. Then we can work together to get your stuff priced and listed.

Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice only to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past years, we have sold many hundreds of items. Do know that prices for used gear only go in one direction. Down. 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.

Nikon D5 Professional dSLR

BIRDS AS ART Record Low Price

Sigmon Whitener is offering a Nikon D5 (Dual XQD/CF Express Type B) in like-new condition with 55,000 actuations for a BAA record-low $2796.95. The sale includes the original box and everything that came in it including the strap, one battery, the dual battery charger, the manual (Sp and En), the USB connecting cord, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Although the D5 has a 20MP sensor, the frame rate and AF tracking are the best (IMO) you can get in a DSLR. Some of my best BIF shots were made with this camera. It’s also great for any type of sports photography. And the low light performance is best of any camera I have owned. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Sigmon via e-mail or by phone at 1-818-239-2403 (Pacific time).

The D5 was buy first Nikon camera body. After using it for ten minutes on flying pelicans in San Diego I sold all of my Canon gear. The AF system is indeed superb. artie

Nikkor AF-S 80-400mm f4.5-5.6G ED VR Lens

BIRDS AS ART Record Low Price

Sigmon Whitener is offering a Nikkor AF-S 80-400mm f4.5-5.6G ED VR lens in like new condition for a BAA record-low $1096.95. The sale includes the lens, all accessories that came with the original purchase – case, front and rear lens caps, manual, original Nikon lens collar and foot, lens hood, original box. Also included is a Really Right Stuff LC_A13 lens collar with RRS LCF-10B quick release foot. This collar makes for a much more robust and smoother action and sells new for about $250. I do not want to sell without the RRS collar and foot. 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 Sigmon via e-mail or by phone at 1-818-239-2403 (Pacific time).

I owned and loved this super-sharp and very versatile lens when I shot Nikon. It was my go-to lens on my bucket-list Emperor Penguin trip to Snow Hill Island, Antarctica. It complements either the 500 PF or the 600 f/4 VR lenses perfectly. As it sells new for $2,296.95, you can save an incredible $1200.00 on Sigmon’s pretty much new lens. artie

This all-new card is comprised of images created on my JAB 2022 visit to San Diego. Click on the composite to enjoy a larger version.

The 2022/23 San Diego Brown Pelicans (and more!) IPTs

San Diego IPT #1. 3 1/2 DAYS: WED 21 DEC thru the morning session on Saturday 24 DEC 2022. $2099.00. Deposit: $699.00. Limit: 6 photographers.

San Diego IPT #2. 4 1/2 DAYS: SAT 7 JAN thru the morning session on WED 11 JAN 2023: $2699.00. Deposit: $699.00. Limit: 6 photographers.

San Diego IPT #3. 3 1/2 DAYS: FRI 20 JAN thru the morning session on JAN 23 DEC 2023: $2099.00. Deposit: $699.00. Limit: 8 photographers.

Please e-mail for information on personalized pre- and post-IPT sessions.

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) and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Ducks; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Northern Shoveler 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 and California Sea Lions (both depending on the current regulations and restrictions). 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.

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.

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 SONY Zebras. 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. (Or two seconds with SONY zebras…) And you will learn what to do when the light is changing constantly. What you learn about exposure is 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, often with 70-200mm lenses! 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 those opportunities. And depending on the weather and local conditions and tides, there are a variety of other fabulous photo chances available in and around San Diego.

The San Diego Details

These IPTs will include four or five 3-hour morning photo sessions, three or four 1 1/2-hour afternoon photo sessions, and three or four working brunches that will include image review and Photoshop sessions. On rare cloudy days, we may — at the leader’s discretion, stay out in the morning for a long session and skip that afternoon. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility. And so that we can get some sleep, dinners will be on your own as well. In the extremely unlikely event that Goldfish Point is closed due to local ordinance (or whimsy) — that has never happened in the past fifty years, I will of course do my very best to maximize our photographic opportunities.

A $599 deposit is required to hold your slot for one of the 2022/23 San Diego IPTs. You can send a check (made out to “BIRDS AS ART”) to us here: 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, is due right after you sign up.

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.

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. Do note that many plans require that you purchase your 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.

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.

Typos

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

Your Thoughts?

Do you like today’s featured image? Why or why not? All comments are both welcome and appreciated.

What’s Up?

I forgot to mention that on Sunday morning, while photographing with Peter Dominowski, I had an American White Pelican on the ground here at ILE for the first time ever. It landed several times on the South Peninsula but was very shy.

I enjoyed an excellent Monday morning session. The potential crane mom continues to sit on her two eggs. I keep hoping to spot some orange fluff on her back or tucked under her, but so far, nothing. I saw a “vulture” on the ground on the South Peninsula but as I drove past it realized that it was the young eagle! Oops! It flew off, of course. I had a few more chances with the eaglet as the morning progressed but did not get anything great. I spent a bit of time at the vulture tree and made a few very nice images of a dramatically side-lit TV (Turkey Vulture) flying toward me in the canal to my left. Just before heading home, I spent some time with a pair of Sandhill Cranes on the rise behind the small building that sits near the base of the pier. Birds on any type of hill or elevated ground will usually offer distant backgrounds that can be rendered soft and out-of-focus. And that was indeed the case.

Be sure to click on today’s featured image to view the larger, high-res version.

I was glad to learn that BAA friend Greg Gulbransen sold his Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens in near-mint condition (with extras) for a very low $7996.95 (was $8496.95) in mid-March 2022 and that Used Gear Page regular Karen McCormick sold her Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4E FL ED VR lens in excellent condition a very low $5750.00 (was $6750.00) immediately after the price drop.

Today is Tuesday 22 March. The forecast for the morning is really a good one for bird photography: clear with a southeast breeze. 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 an hour to prepare and makes twelve days in a row with a new one.

If you are headed to Gatorland this Sunday 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 that are found on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords. Please, also, consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn …

And Please Remember

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 earn 3% cash back 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.

Brand-New and As-Good-As-Ever Bedfords BAA Discount Policy

Folks who have fallen in love with Bedfords can now use the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout to enjoy a post-purchase, 3% off-statement credit (excluding taxes and shipping charges) on orders paid with a credit card. The 3% credit will be refunded to the card you used for your purchase. Be sure, also, to check the box for free shipping to enjoy free Second Day Air Fed-Ex. This offer does not apply to purchases of Classes, Gift Cards, or to any prior purchases.

Money Saving Reminder

Many have learned that if you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H and would like to enjoy getting 3% back on your credit card along with free 2nd Day Air Fed-Ex 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 check the box for Free Shipping. That will automatically upgrade to free 2nd Day Air Fed-Ex. Steve has been great at getting folks the hot items that are out of stock at B&H and everywhere else. The waitlists 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 a 1, 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.

Important Note

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small percentage when you purchase from Amazon after using any of the Amazon links on the blog (including the logo-link immediately above). My link works with Amazon Prime and using it will not cost you a single cent. Huge thanks, BTW 🙂

Please Remember Also

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 (still!) save 3% on every order and enjoy free second-day air shipping. In these crazy times — I lost about fifty thousand dollars in income due to COVID 19 — 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.

This image was created on 20 March 2022 down by the lake at Indian Lake Estates. 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. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1600: 1/2000 second at f/6.3 (wide open). AWB at 8:07:12Am on a bright sunny morning. Tracking: Zone with Bird/Face-Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Turkey Vulture in flight — dramatically side-lit

Different Usually Works Very Well …

I had seen several Turkey and Black Vultures flying in as I pulled up to the Vulture Trees. I parked on the grass, got out of my SUV, and set the exposure for the incoming birds. First, I set 1/2000 sec. wide open and then aimed the lens at the light toned bark at the top of the left-most vulture tree. I know that raising the ISO until I see Zebras on the highlights of the bark will yield a workable if not perfect exposure for the dark birds that have some highlights on them. I had several decent chances with birds flying right at me right down sun angle but none of those excited me. After a few minutes of nothing, I looked to my left and saw a Turkey Vulture flying east down the canal. The woods on the south side of the canal were completed shaded, but the bird was lit by the sun, albeit more than 30 degrees of sun angle.

My mind processed the situation as follows:

• 1- Since the bird is lit by full sun, the manually-set exposure should be pretty good.
• 2- Since TVs have super-bright white bill-tips, there was absolutely no reason to try and lighten the exposure.
• 3- Though I often rail against using sidelight when photographing birds, I thought that the sunlit bird flying against a very dark background might look pretty neat.
• 4- I thought that I should practice what I preach: when something unexpected happens, try not to think too much, acquire focus, and press the shutter button.
• 5- Different in bird photography is almost always a good thing. Especially when you are photographing a common subject that you photograph often.

I fired off about 15 frames and kept five good ones. Today’s featured image was the best of the lot. Since there was a sunlit moss-covered tree trunk on the right side of each frame, I executed a healthy crop from the right and from below. Image #1 contains about 70% of the original pixels. The crop left a few sunlit stalks of weeds in the bottom right; those cleaned up nicely with the Patch Tool and Content-Aware Fill.

The Lessons

• #1: Trying for something different is always an excellent option, even if you fail.
• #2: When something unexpected happens, press the shutter button.

And finally, a realization:

• #3: Like backlight, sidelight works best against dark backgrounds.

Sony 200-600 Versatility

Check out the amazing versatility of the Sony 200-600 G lens by comparing today’s featured image with the feautured image in the The Handoff. Gatorland Update blog post here.

The BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide You can purchase your copy here in the BAA Online Store.

The BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide

126 pages, 87 photographs by Joe Przybyla and Arthur Morris.
The PDF for this e-Guide is an electronic download sent via e-mail.

Purchase your copy here in the BAA Online Store.

I had thought about doing a guide to some of the great but little-known photo hotspots around central Florida for about a decade, but those plans never came to fruition. I met Joe online in the Avian Forum at BirdPhotographer’s.Net about two years ago. Joe’s photography has improved tremendously over the past few years; he credits the BAA blog, my books and PDFs, and his participation on BPN. The one thing that I learned right from the get-go about Joe is that he is a hard and tenacious worker, always striving to improve his skills and to grow his knowledge base. As he knew of more than a few good spots in central Florida, I broached the idea of us doing a photographic site guide that covered many of the little-known photographic hotspots from Brandon to Lakeland to Joe Overstreet Road to Indian Lake Estates (my Florida home for the past 20 years or so). After more than many, many dozens of hours of effort, The BIRDS AS ART Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide is now a reality. Thanks to Joe’s wife Dottie for her review of our writing. We all learned once again that writing is a process, a back-and-forth process. All thanks to the white pelicans of Lakeland. Here are the locations that are detailed in this e-Guide:

• Indian Lake Estates: Sandhills Cranes with chicks and colts, lots of vultures, and Ospreys up the kazoo!
• Gatorland, Kissimmee: Learn to make great images of wading birds in a cluttered rookery.
• The Brandon Rookery: Great for nesting Wood Storks, Great Egrets, and more.
• Circle Bar B Reserve, Lakeland: Here you will find a great variety of avian subjects in a great variety of habitats.
• Lake Morton, Lakeland: There are lots of silly tame birds here including and especially American White Pelican during the colder months.
• Lake Mirror, Lakeland: Tame Anhingas, Limpkins, and a zillion White Ibises at times.
• West Lake Parker, Lakeland: Here you will have a chance for two difficult birds, Snail Kite, and Purple Gallinule.
• Joe Overstreet Road, Kenansville: Crested Caracara, meadowlarks, Loggerhead Shrike, and much more on the fenceposts and barbed wire.

Each location includes a map, a detailed description of the best spots, best season, light and time of day instructions, the expected species, and an educational and inspirational gallery that is designed to open your eyes as to the possibilities.

You can purchase a copy here in the BAA Online Store.

Typos

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