Nickerson Beach has been excellent; I have been loving the cloudy conditions but the sun is coming. I saw Billy Joel’s last and fiftieth performance at Madison Square Garden last. It was an amazing experience. At 75, his voice is still great and his strength and stamina amazing; he was on stage for 2 hours, forty five minutes non-stop. Needing a new fanny pack, I drove into the city to shop at B&H before the show so I did not get back to my AirBnB until well after 1:00am. With clear skies and a NW wind I slept in on Friday. I did find the perfect fanny pack and will share the details here soon.
Multiple IPT veteran Monte Brown who is sharing my AirBnB in Lido Beach for the (extended) first Nickerson Beach IPT, arrived at 11:00am.
Today is Saturday 27 July 2024. We will head to Nickerson early for a morning session. First timer Judy Stepenaskie will be joining us for 4 1/2 days this afternoon. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day.
Today’s post documents the amazing and eclectic life of my good friend, Dr. Greg Gulbransen. I urge you to read everything below and watch the two videos, especially the second one that details the work he did on his new book, Say Less. The Leica video below is a must watch. Say Less is a photo book. The images are beautiful, dramatic, and disturbing at once. In short, Greg is an amazing friend, doctor, person, and photographer. I look forward to seeing him at Nickerson again in early August.
If you care to add any that I missed after watching the two videos, please do so by leaving a comment.
Dr. Greg Gulbransen
Greg started out shooting fashion but transitioned to documenting the lives of unique individuals with interesting stories. Greg loves meeting new people and tries to preserve their legacy with photography. Greg also enjoys the solace of cold weather wildlife. His images have been published in the New York Times, Daily Mail, ELLE, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Northwell Health, The Weather Channel, Spirit and Flesh, Grazia and Pandora to name a few. Some of Greg’s documentary work has been featured on the A & E Network’s History Channel.
I’ve known Greg seemingly forever. His life and his work have been documented here on the BAA Blog several times. His photography can only be described as eclectic. Early on, he began photographing birds and soon began to excel as a fashion and architectural photographer. More recently he has worked on self-assigned projects in West Virginia and in the South Bronx, NY, NY.
To get a better idea of who Greg is, check out his Instagram page here. Virtually every one of his posts will put a smile on your face.
The Tragedy
The story above has been shared here before. Greg took a huge tragedy and made sure that something good came of it. All while maintaining a healthy outlook and life, being happy, and accomplishing great things.
Say Less
Building Trust in Photography
Over the course of three years, in the South Bronx, Dr. Greg Gulbransen photographed Malik, a leader of the violent street gang, the Crips. Malik was shot and paralyzed in 2018 by the bullet from a rival gang, and as a result his world now centers around his small Bronx apartment in New York, where he is cared for by his family and fellow gang members.
Gulbransen, a practicing pediatrician, had been photographing in the Bronx during his spare time and had got to know some of the local kids. He began to notice a lot of young men in wheelchairs with spinal injuries and was professionally curious. He was told they had all been shot. He wanted to speak to someone in a wheelchair and was introduced to Malik through a fellow Crip.
‘As a physician, it was a way to explore one facet of the epidemic of gun violence in this country. There are shootings every day in the five boroughs of New York City and the Bronx is the worst. But across the country, gun violence and the availability of guns is a public health emergency. The effects are devastating. The physician in me wants to show people who don’t live in areas with high rates of gun violence how terrible it can be in these places, how complicated the problem is, how far-reaching the effects of the gun-violence epidemic are. The photographer in me is trying to show what it’s like to be a victim of gun violence while also being a part of the problem.’
Image #1: Malik’s bedroom in the Mitchel Houses, Bronx, NY
Image courtesy of and copyright 2024: Greg Gulbransen Photography
Shot and Paralyzed
One summer night in 2018, Malik left his apartment to pick up a sandwich for dinner. He was shot in front of a 99-cent store by a rival gang. The bullets severed Malik’s thoracic spine and instantly paralyzed him from his chest down. Malik was one of the key leaders of the local set, and so, even after the shooting, gang members continued to come to his apartment at all hours of the day and night, to talk, plan and to take care of their leader.
Malik lives with his mother and grandfather in a housing project. There are no nurses or aides to help with Malik’s care so during the day his mother, Eyanna, manages his many medical issues such as changing his diaper and catheter, and his father is on call at night. The photographs in the book show Malik’s day-to-day life, the cramped apartment, the difficulties of inhabiting and navigating the small space in a wheelchair, the visiting gang members, hushed conversations, the closeness and love of his family, and the proximity to violence and loss.
‘It’s a very emotional space. There’s tension there, darkness, fear. It’s a place of turmoil. Yet at the same time there was always so much love and caring. The apartment was filled with contradictions.’
Image #1: Greg Gulbransen’s friend Malik
Image courtesy of and copyright 2024: Greg Gulbransen Photography
Trapped
To this day, Malik can’t enter certain neighborhoods or travel down certain streets or there’s a good chance a rival gang member will try to finish him off. His world is his bedroom. He is trapped.
‘I’m trying to complicate things for readers (hopefully) by showing that passing judgment on people like Malik might not, morally speaking, be as easy as it might seem. There are a lot of victims here and, yes, some of them are perpetrators, too. I’m definitely not saying these guys are saints —- they’ve all made choices and they should absolutely be held accountable for those choices, but they’re victims, too.’
In this short YouTube video(12:05), I share the 64 keepers that I cherry picked from the 6206 images that I created in less than four hours at Nickerson Beach Park on Long Island on the morning of July 24, 2024. Watch to the end to learn the fine points of selecting your keepers and my optimization plans for many of the images. Note: editing the day folder took less than 20 minutes; I tagged only the very best and deleted several thousand sharp, perfectly exposed (but boring) flight shots of Common Terns.
I had taken the Auto Train to Lorton, VA late on Monday 22 July and made it to my AirBnB near Nickerson Beach the next day before 4pm. I headed to the beach early the next morning despite the threat of rain and the heavily overcast skies. Feeling a bit lazy, I grabbed only my Sony 300mm f/2.8 GM lens, an FE 1.4X TC, and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 iii — 120 frames per second. I left the 600mm f/4, a 2X TC, and my tripod in my SUV.
As I was not expecting to do too well in the gloom on what turned out to be a 3 mile scouting walk, I opted not to take an extra battery or an additional Delkin 160GB. So much for planning. At 10:30am my card was full and the battery exhausted. So was I after having driven six hours on Tuesday.
Learn about joining me at Nickerson Beach this summer, or at Homer, AK for eagles in February 2025 by clicking here. There is just one spot left on the first Homer IPT.
This image was created on 24 July 2024 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, NY. Seated on damp sand, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 500. 1/1600 second at f4 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 8:42:41am on a solid overcast morning. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be perfect.
Zone AF-C AF with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #1: American Oystercatcher juvenile stretching wings overhead (canvas added left and above)
Exposing to the Right
As I’ve said here hundreds of times, properly exposed images made on dreary days should looked washed out bordering on over-exposed. So, be sure to expose to the right as I did with both of today’s featured images. You saw the raw files for each in the video above so you know what I am talking about. Learn to bring them back to life in the Digital Basics II PDF and in the Digital Basics III Video Series.
Left My 200-600 in Florida
Many folks are astonished to learn that I actually left the very versatile Sony 200-600 f/6.3 GM lens in Florida. On purpose? Why? Because of my faith in the Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (Sony E) (with or without either teleconverter). Though a bit less versatile because the 300 f/2.8 is not a zoom lens, I love the light weight and the hand hold-ability of the 300mm. In addition, when you work at f/4 with the 1.4X TC in place, you save 1 1/3 stops of light, super important on overcast days. Also, it acquires focus much faster than the 2-6, in part, because of its super-wide aperture.
It is easy to see why the 300mm f/2.8, 1.4X TC, a9 iii has quickly become my favorite hand held flight and action combo.
For those who did not use my link to purchase their Sony 300mm f/2.8 GM lens, you can order your a copy here for $209.93.
Click on the image to enlarge and to be able to read the fine print.
The BAA Sony 300mm f/2.8 Lens Guide
Impressed by my (or Pat’s) Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) images? Use either my Bedfords or B&H affiliate link to purchase your Sony 300mm f/2.8 GM lens and shoot me your receipt via e-mail and request a copy of the first-ever BAA Lens Guide. I thought that it would take only minutes to create this guide, but I was dead wrong. In the process of creating it, I learned a ton about the lens. And even better, I discovered a simple yet potentially fatal flaw that was resulting in sporadically unsharp flight images. The set-up fix is simple. Just be sure to use one of my affiliate links and get the guide for free.
If not, you can purchase a copy here for $209.93. Yes, it never hurts to use my links and it never costs you one penny more. And if you contact me via e-mail before you make a major purchase, I can often save you some money.
This image was created on 24 July 2024 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, NY. Seated on damp sand, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 500. 1/1600 second at f4 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 8:42:41am on a solid overcast morning. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be perfect.
Zone AF-C AF with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #2: Common Terns — two adults landing, one with fish
Astounding a9 iii Autofocus
Yes, the Sony a-1 images have slightly more than twice the megapixels (50MP as compared to 24MP) than the a9 iii. But when shooting action and flight, what good are more megapixels if the image is not razor sharp on the eye? No good at all. In addition, the a9 iii gives me more confidence when shooting fast-moving birds so inevitably, I get better results.
A7INFO screen capture for Image #2: Common Terns — two adults landing, one with fish
What Can I Say?
Not much, as in this case a screen capture is worth 1000 words. Though the Sony a1 had the greatest AF system that I ever used, it is simply not as consistently good at Bird Face-Eye tracking as the a9 iii.
Note also the washed out look of the raw file.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
On Monday evening, I am headed north on the Auto Train as I type. At dinner, I had a surprisingly excellent flatiron steak and had the absolute pleasure of meeting a young lady (champion) gymnast from The University of Florida named Trinity Thomas. She competed against and is friends with many of the young women going to Paris as members of the USA Olympic Team. As a 3x NCAA National Champion and a 5x US National Team Member, she is the real deal. Doubt me? Check her out on Instagram by searching for her gymtrin account. She even has her own Wikipedia page here! Trinity finished her collegiate career with a record-tying 28 perfect-10 scores and a record-breaking five Gym Slams (scores of perfect 10 on every apparatus)!
At the same dinner table, I met two young brothers from Virgina. The younger one, Luke De Gance (17 going on 18), is a talented hight school placekicker who aspires to kick for the Gators at Trinity’s alma mater, The University of Florida (where she recently earned her Masters Degree). She is looking forward to a career in nursing. The De Gance brothers were returning home after volunteering at a church summer camp in Florida. Luke’s older brother John-Paul is studying Sports management at Northern Virginia Community College. If you have lost faith in the youth of America, your spirits would have been uplifted had you been at dinner last night with the four of us.
Today is Tuesday 23 July. Once the Auto Train pulls into the Lorton, VA station, I will get into my vehicle for the 5-7 hour drive to my AirBnB in Lido Beach, less than ten minutes from Nickerson Beach. Whatever you do, I hope that you too have a great day.
There are usually not lots of opportunities to use wide angle zoom lenses for bird photography, but I had three good chances on the recently concluded Jax IPTs. If you have a favorite among today’s three featured images, please leave a comment and let us know why you made your choice. Which brings us to a great buy for Canon shooters.
Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM Lens
Multiple IPT veteran Geri Georg is offering a rarely used Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM lens in Excellent Plus to Near-mint condition for a ridiculously low $1099.00.
The sale includes the original box, the front and back lens caps, the lens pouch, the lens hood, 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 Geri via e-mail or by phone at (970) 219-4493 (MTD).
This lens is a scenic photographer’s dream come true. It sells new at B&H for $2199.00. Grabb Geri’s pretty much new lens and a handsome $1100.00 artie
Characterized by a revamped optical design, the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM from Canon is a workhorse wide-angle zoom and member of the well-regarded L-series of lenses. Featuring a series of specialized elements, this lens utilizes a trio of aspherical elements and two ultra-low dispersion glass elements to control a variety of aberrations for high sharpness and clarity. Both SWC and ASC coatings have also been applied to the elements in order to reduce lens flare and ghosting for increased contrast and color accuracy.
Complementing its optical prowess, a ring-type Ultrasonic Motor offers fast, smooth, and near-silent autofocus performance, which is further benefitted by full-time manual focus operation and an internal focusing design. The lens is both water and dust-resistant, and fluorine coatings have also been applied to the front and rear elements to protect against fingerprints and smudges from affecting image quality. B&H and Canon
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dSLR Camera Body
Multiple IPT veteran Geri Georg is offering a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV body in very good condition for an incredibly low $599.00. The sale includes the front body cap, the original and one extra Canon battery, the battery charger, a black LensCoat body bag, a near-mint Delkin Sensor Scope with the top and bottom caps and the case, 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 Geri via e-mail or by phone at (970) 219-4493 (MTD).
What can I say? The 5D IV was my favorite-ever Canon digital dSLR. I owned and used three of them while my 1DX II and a 1DX III sat on the shelf in my garage. A new 5D Mark IV, with its 30.4MP full-frame CMOS sensor, is still in productions and sells new for $$2,299 at B&H. If you have been dreaming of a 5D IV, grab this one save $1,250.00. artie
Supporting My Efforts Here
If you enjoy and learn from the blog, please consider using one of my affiliate links when purchasing new gear. It will never cost you a single penny. To support my effort here, please order from B&H by beginning your search here. Or, click here, to order from Bedfords and enter the discount code BIRDSASART at checkout to receive 3% cash back to your credit card and enjoy free Second-Day Air Fed-Ex shipping. It is always best to write for advice via e-mail.
In many cases, I can help you save some serious dollars. And/or prevent you from purchasing the wrong gear.
Summer On Long Island
Check out the July and August Nickerson Beach (& Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge/East Pond) IPT offerings here and consider joining us to learn a ton, make lots of great images, and improve your image processing skills.
Car Rental Warnings
All are advised to avoid renting a vehicle from either Fox or SIXT. I rented a car from Fox in San Diego (through Expedia) and when I went to pick up the car they would not allow me to rent the car without paying for their (always previously optional) over-priced insurance. They said it was state law. I have been renting a car in San Diego for more than fifty years and never once had been forced to purchase insurance. When I said that I would cancel my reservation and rent from National they said, “Fine, but you lose all your money. We do not allow cancellations.” All of the major NA rental outfits allow you to cancel anytime before pick-up without penalty. When I returned the vehicle two days early, they said, “We do not give refunds.” Another first.
In Denver, I rented from SIXT, big in Europe. The agent was kind and sweet and told me “No charge to upgrade to a BMW X-3 and no charge for a second driver.” I returned the SUV two days early expecting a refund as the guy in the lot had said. Instead, they ran my AMEX card for an additional $671.00 (for a variety of invented charges)! That after my discount for two days early return.
Forewarned is forearmed.
This image was created on 16 July 2024 at Huguenot Memorial Park on the second morning of the extended JAX IPT. Standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM lens (at 24 mm) and The One, the Sony a1 Mirrorless Camera.. ISO 1600. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/125 second at f/2.8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the raw file brightness was dead solid perfect. AWB at 6:14:58am, 15 minutes before sunrise.
Lower center Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version.
Image #1: Gulls, terns, and pelicans on the beach at low tide
Wide Angle Convenience
One of the beautiful things about Huguenot Memorial Park this season was that we rarely had to venture more than 100 yards from my parked SUV. Clouds in the east often scream out for a wide angle lens before sunrise. I would park the car in the perfect spot, shoot the sunrise, and then move the car up 100 yards or so to the protective ropes and park for the morning. This was much better than having to lug the 12-24 on the beach for a long photo session; it is a heavy lens. Geri’s used Canon 16-35mm III is a lot lighter! Grab it before it sells.
Pano Crops
Wide angle photos of groups of birds often do well after being cropped to panos. This puts more emphasis on the small-in-the-frame birds.
Bracketing Wide Angle Bird-scapes
When creating bird scapes with a wide angle lens, I always take the time to set 1/3-stop bracketing. I do this to ensure creating one dead-solid perfect exposure, not for the purpose of creating an HDR. (Note: to create a series of high dynamic range images it is always best to be on a tripod.)
This image was created on 17 July 2024 at Huguenot Memorial Park on the third afternoon of the extended JAX IPT. Standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM lens (at 24 mm) and The One, the Sony a1 Mirrorless Camera.. ISO 400. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/800 second at f/4.5 (stopped down 1 1/3 stops) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 6:11:51pm.
Lower center Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version.
Image #2: Mostly Laughing Gulls on the beach at high tide
Blast-off Aftermath
On Wednesday afternoon past, we were on the beach at high tide when more than 20,000 gulls and terns blasted off at once and circled around for five minutes. It would have been great to have been right below them with a wide angle lens, but alas we were all shooting flight with medium telephotos at the time and the car was too far away. IAC, most of the gulls landed high up on the beach, so I grabbed the 12-24, zoomed in to 24mm, and went to work. I love the birds, the soft light, the sky color, and the clouds. WDYT?
This image was created on 18 July 2024 at Huguenot Memorial Park on the fourth afternoon of the extended JAX IPT. Standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM lens (at 12 mm) and The One, the Sony a1 Mirrorless Camera.. ISO 500. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/800 second at f/8 (stopped down three stops) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 4:35:35pm.
Lower center Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version.
Image #3: Gulls, terns, and pelicans on the beach at low tide
The Black Cloud
If you look just above the horizon on the left side of the frame, you will see the indigo blue/black cloud that served as the background for the previously published image below. This image was made 20 minutes after the tern shot that; by that time, the black cloud had shrunk as the white storm cloud grew in size. The 12mm focal length turned out to be perfect for the shot I envisioned.
This image was created on 18 July 2024 at Huguenot Memorial Park on the fourth afternoon of the extended JAX IPT. Standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 500. 1/4000 second at f/5.6 (stopped down 1 full stop) in Manual Mode. AWB at 4:13:50pm on a bright sunny afternoon (just before a huge storm hit). RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be dead solid perfect.
Zone AF-C AF with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #4: Royal Tern in flight with fish for chick
Wind Against Bright Sun and Indigo Blue/Black Skies
With an ominously dark sky to the north and the wind from the southeast, things looked grim at best. But following the basic tenet, keep the wind at your back, I came up with a winning approach: shoot the birds flying south 3/4 backlit against the indigo blue/black skies. Again, Sony Zebras to the rescue; we set our exposures to show just a few Zebras on the whitest parts of the backlit birds — the top of their heads and the edges of the wings.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
