Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Jax

If you are interested in sharing an AirBnB with me near Huguenot Memorial Park east of Jacksonville, FL during the second week of July, or in doing an IPT that week, please stop what you are doing and shoot me an e-mail. Here’s wishing you great light and better photography.

Your Calls?

Which of today’s three featured Royal Tern images is your favorite? Why? In one of the images, the color seems a bit off. Which one?

What’s Up?

My flights from Orlando to Minneapolis and then with a tight connection to Bismarck, ND were a breeze. Kevin and Anita picked me up and we drove down to Pierre (be sure to say peer or pier), SD where we are staying in a lovely 4 bedroom AirBnB that was built in 1911. It is both a warm, comfortable home and a museum. I cooked up some great burgers and made a wicked salad. I napped and washed the dishes while my two friends went to check on the leks. We head out early tomorrow morning for our first try for the Prairie Chickens. Wish us luck!

Today is Wednesday 10 April 2024. We walked about 1/2 mile in the dark from Kevin’s truck to the three blinds that he and Anita had erected the night before. As it got lighter bit by bit and I could see the Greater Prairie Chickens, I was instantly enthralled. The amazingly colored males are gorgeous and the hens are understatedly beautiful. Working exclusively with the a9 iii, I created 8923 (as yet un-edited) images, most with the 1.4X TC in place. I glanced at the photos and was thrilled. I did not even attempt to photograph fights and interactions but that should come soon as the perfect weather is supposed to continue for at least a few days. Knock on wood. Photos soon.

Don’t look now, but this blog post makes eleven days in a row with a new educational post just for you. You know the drill; please use my affiliate links or patronize the BAA Online Store.

Click on the card to view a larger, sharper high resolution version. Sony a9 iii .DAT File and More e-Guide

Sony a9 iii .DAT File and More e-Guide

Though I have had the a9 111 for only a month, I have created many amazing images with it. (I did get to play with one in Homer for a bit>) As it is a complex camera body and there are more than a few differences when compared to the a-1, it has taken me a while to get the setup close to perfection and I am still and will continue to learn more everyday. I am 100% convinced that a9 iii Bird Face/Eye AF/C is significantly better than it is on the vaunted a1.

Use one of my two affiliate links (B&H or Bedford) to earn a free copy of the guide. Overseas folks and this who purchased their 19 iii without using a BAA affiliate link may purchase the e-Guide for $209.93 by calling Jim weekdays until noon on Friday at 863-692-0906.

Why so expensive? Heck, it is free if you use one of my links. Get in the habit. It never costs you one one penny more and in many cases I gave save you some money if you get in touch with me before you purchase something great.

Your camera cost you about $6K USD. You might opt to struggle with the menu and with trying to figure out the proper settings for bird photography. Or, for just 3 1/2 percent of the price of an a9 iii, you can have my settings on your a9 iii in about five minutes. And ten minutes after that you will know as much as I do about this amazing new technological miracle.

What you will get:

My a9 iii .DAT file along with instructions on how to load it onto your a9 iii. In just minutes, your camera will be set up exactly as mine is. And you can begin making great images.

A Buttons and Dial guide.

An INFO sheet with my comments on all the important stuff.

Product support to the best of my ability. E-mail your questions and I will either answer them or get them answered.

Occasional e-mails with anything new that I discover.

Rejoinder — there may very well be stuff about the a9 iii that I am unaware of. And some of that might be beneficial for bird photography. Do not hesitate to let me know via e-mail if you figure out something great.

Clockwise from upper left corner around to center: ink-stained Royal Tern with squid for chicks; fluffy white Royal Tern Chick about two weeks old; Royal Tern with shrimp for chicks; 3-4 week old Royal Tern chick; incoming adult Royal Tern with greenback; Royal Tern in flight with juvenile mahi-mahi; large Brown Pelican chick preening; field guide portrait of fresh juvenile Laughing Gull; Royal Tern chick begging for fish from incoming adult. Join me at Huguenot Memorial Park this July

Join Me

I have an AirBnB checking in on the late afternoon of Saturday 13 July and checking out on Thursday 19 July 2024. If you are looking to improve your bird photography by leaps and bounds while sharing the place with me, please shoot me an e-mail. ASAP. I will be announcing a 4 1/2-DAY Instructional Photo-Tour in that same time frame very soon. If you are interested in that, please do the same.

This image was also created on 28 June at Huguenot Memorial Park east of Jacksonville, FL. Again, standing at full height, I used the handheld 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 800. 1/1250 second at f/8 (stoped down 2 clicks or 2/3-stop) in Manual Mode. AWB at 10:25:03am on a then partly sunny morning. RawDigger showed the exposure to be perfect. Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Royal Tern large chick begging on face of dune

Huguenot Memorial Park in Early Summer

Driving on the beach at Huguenot Memorial Park in early summer is a bird photographer’s delight. You park this side of the last rope on the beach and you are within 100 yards of the Royal Tern colony atop the dunes. There are also many thousand Laughing Gulls and a few Sandwich Terns breeding as well. In some years, there are some Brown Pelican nests on the ground! .

In early July, the tern chicks begin to make their way down to the flats to bathe and drink and get fed by the parents. On the way, they spend a lot of time on the face of the dune where they are easy to photograph at eye level. They may also gather in fairly large groups at the base of the dunes.

Flight photography both in the mornings and the afternoons can be quite excellent as the terns are carrying all manner of marine life to sustain the rapidly growing chicks: the adults are often seen flying around in search of their chicks with all sorts of small baitfish as well as immature fish, large shrimps, baby crabs, and even squid in their bills. The squid will squirt ink on the terns in protest. So if you see an adult Royal Tern flying around with a black necklace you can understand why.

This image was created on 28 June at Huguenot Memorial Park east of Jacksonville, FL. Standing at full height, I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 239mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 800. 1/1000 second at f/8 in Manual Mode. AWB at 10:27:47am on a still cloudy morning. RawDigger showed the exposure to be perfect. Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #2: Royal Tern coffee klatch

Coffee Klatsch

Coffee klatsch (noun): an informal social gathering for coffee and conversation. The term comes from the German word, “kaffeeklatsch,” which translates to coffee (kaffee) + gossip (klatsch). While Royal Terns do not drink coffee, they sure like to gather in groups of from several to as many as two dozen to discuss fishing and whatever else it is that terns like to discuss. You can usually find and photograph such groups either atop the dunes, on the face of the dune, or at the base of the dune. The trick is to get as many good head angles as possible.

This image was also created on 28 June at Huguenot Memorial Park east of Jacksonville, FL. Again, standing at full height, I used the handheld 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 800. 1/3200 second at f/6.3 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 11:20:46am on a then partly sunny morning. RawDigger showed the exposure to be perfect. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #3: Adult Royal Tern calling in tight flight

Lenses for Flight Photography at Jax

While a handheld or tripod mounted 500 or 600mm f/4 lens can be quite useful for flight photography on the beach, handhold-able intermediate and zoom telephoto lenses like the Sony 200-600mm G lens, the Canon RF 100-500, and any one of the Nikon intermediate telephotos are often the ticket to success when flight shooting. I did quite well on my last visit handholding the Sony 400mm f/2.8 GM lens usually with the 1.4X teleconverter.

Note that the Sony 200-600 was used to create all three of today’s featured images.

Your Calls

Which two of today’s featured images do you like best? Why?

Of Images #3 and #4, which one is the stronger image. Why?

Picking My Keepers from a 5851 Sony a9 iii Image Folder

I did not want to fall in love with the Sony a9 iii. I had hoped that the relatively small flle size would be a deal breaker. Reality, however, got in the way. For photographing birds in flight and in action, it is, with its maximum frame rate of 120 frames per second, beyond compare. Not to mention the Bird Face/Eye autofocus is significantly better than with the Sony a1. Sit beside me as I go through 5581 images in less than 30 minutes. And if I had not been yakking when I created the video, I would have gotten the job done in less than twenty minutes. I wound up keeping 121 images after the first edit. Along the way, you will get a glimpse of what makes the best wing and head positions. And this might sound funny, but it was not a great day at Sitck Marsh.

Below are five of my favorites.

Note:Many folks feel that 120 fps is too much, that it would not be possible to pick your keepers from so many images. Using Photo Mechanic, I have found that doing so is actually easy; I go so fast that the good ones literally jump off the screen. Watch the video to see how it is done. Remember that I tag the keepers with a “T” and then select all the Untagged images and delete them all. As seen near the end of the video.

What’s Up?

I enjoyed decent morning and afternoon photo sessions on Sunday. The latter a rarity here at ILE.

Today is Monday 8 April, 2024. I fly to Bismarck, ND to photograph with BPN friend Kevin Hice for two weeks. Though I have not put a single thing in either of my checked bags, I will be heading down to the lake for a short morning session as soon as I hit “Publish.” Whatever you are doing, I hope that you also have a great day. Be sure to watch the Sony a9 iii Bird-Face/Eye Detection Autofocus video that opens this post.

Don’t look now but this blog post makes nine days in a row with a new educational post just for you.

If you plan on purchasing a Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera (or anything else for that matter), please remember to use or write for either my Bedfords discount code or my B&H affiliate link. Folks who use one of my two affiliate links to purchase the a9 III will receive my .DAT settings (the complete camera set-up) along with a Buttons and Dials Guide.

Please remember to use the B&H links that are found on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords to get 3% back on your credit card and enjoy free second-day air FedEx. Please, also, consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn!

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.

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 Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) images from the last three posts? 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 2 April 2024 at Stick Marsh, Fellsmere, FL. Crouching a bit as I was shooting down at the bird, I used the handheld Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1000: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead solid perfect. AWB at 8:04:28am on a then sunny morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to perfection. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger, sharper high-res version. Image #1: Roseate Spoonbill head portrait

A Sucker for Crimson and Powder Blue

I’ve long been in love with images that feature crimson set against a powder blue background. Using the Lumincance Targeted Adjustment Tool (L-TAT) during the raw conversion enable me to get the BLUE perfect. Instructions for using this great new Photoshop tool are a bit part of the Digital Basics III Series.

Bored, I walked away from the traditional airboat ramp spot to go exploring. This one was made just past the parking lot bathroom after stalking the bird carefully. A fisherman casting just a few feet away helped to relax the bird (if that makes sense).

This image was created on 2 April 2024 at Stick Marsh, Fellsmere, FL. Standing at full height, I used the handheld Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and the ridiculously amazing Sony a9 III Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1600: 1/1000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead solid perfect. AWB at 8:07:28am on a then sunny morning. Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to perfection. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger, sharper high-res version. Image #2: Fish Crow Calling

Photograph Me!

Apparently upset that I was concentrating on the spoonbills, this Fish Crow was calling incessantly. After a few minutes, I added a ton of light to the exposure and gave in. I wish that I had pointed the camera down just a bit so that the square crop would have been more pleasing.

This image was also created on 2 April 2024 at Stick Marsh, Fellsmere, FL. Standing at full height, I used the handheld 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 via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1600: 1/2500 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be perfect. AWB at 8:20:04am on a then cloudy morning. Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #3: Roseate Spoonbill turning in flight and struggling with a long string of nesting material.

Same Old, Same Old

With a south wind, the airboat ramp spot is not as good as it is when the wind has an easterly component. The clouds were hugely important — if it had been sunny, creating Images 3, 4, and 5 would not have been possible as they would have been glaringly sidelit. As always, understanding the relationship between the wind direction and sky conditions made the best place to be quite obvious. Join an IPT to learn more.

This image was also created on 2 April 2024 at Stick Marsh, Fellsmere, FL. Standing at full height, I used the handheld 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 via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1600: 1/2500 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be perfect. AWB at 8:20:04am on a then cloudy morning. Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #4: Roseate Spoonbill turning in flight and struggling with a long string of nesting material.

a9 iii Speed

It is very simple. When you are using the Sony a9 iii at 120 fps you will get four times as many poses and wing positions as when you are using a 30 fps camera body. The speed is addictive.

This image was also created on 2 April 2024 at Stick Marsh, Fellsmere, FL. Standing at full height, I used the handheld 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 via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 1600: 1/2500 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be perfect. AWB at 8:27:45am on a then cloudy morning. Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Roseate Spoonbill turning in flight and struggle with a long string of nesting material.

Light Always Has a Direction

It is important to understand that even when it is cloudy or heavily overcast, light is directional. As I was facing and shooting to the southwest and the birds were flying toward me, the left sides of the bird’s faces in Images 3, 4, and 5 were somewhat shaded. I did extensive work in on the bird’s heads first lightening the shadowed side and increasing the saturation.

Typos

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