February 2nd, 2025 What’s Up?
Friday was ducks all day. On Saturday morning at La Jolla Bob Eastman and I created some predawn blurs. Then we spent some time at Children’s Pool working the Harbor Seals. Two had newborn pups. Last we worked the gulls by The Green Patch and some cooperative shorebirds at The Crevice: a handsome Whimbrel and a very busy Spotted Sandpiper. There was an occasional fly-by group of Brown Pelicans. Bob created a really neat image of an adult Black Oystercatcher harassing a pelican that was apparently diving for fish. We spent Saturday afternoon packing for our flight to Orlando that leaves at 10:48am tomorrow. Longtime friend Patrick Sparkman (AKA Sparky Patman) and wife Robin joined Bob and me for dinner at our AirBnB on Saturday evening. Patrick co-wrote the original Sony Guides with me and was responsible for developing the Zebra setting values that are still used with great success on the a-1 and a-1 ii bodies
Today is Sunday 2 February 2025. It’s been a great trip but I am ready to get home and get ready for Homer and the Bald Eagles. Our flight is scheduled to leave at 10:48am. Jim is picking us up at MCO at about 7:00pm as we lose three hours flying west to east.
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.
Supporting My Efforts Here
If you enjoy and learn from the blog, are all set for gear, or live overseas, consider leaving a BAA Blog Thank You Gift 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 from the wrong shop.
In the Last Blog Post
In the Thrilled To Say That I Was 100% Wrong blog post here, my rankings were 4, 1, 3, 2. Colleen O’Connor, the Irish Lass, agreed. All but one of the many folks who commented went with #4 as the strongest. Many went with #2 as second best and David Pugsley, a very fine photographer picked that as his number one image. For me, #2 was boring in part because the bird is not brightly colored. I loved the dynamic flight pose of #1 and the bright breeding plumage of #3.
Thanks to all who left a comment.
Your Call?
As Mr. Bob’s spectacular Cinnamon Teal top shot, Image #7 below, is clearly the pick of today’s litter, the question for today is Which of the other six flying duck images is the strongest?
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This image was created on 10 January at Santee Lakes Regional Preserve on the Expanded San Diego 2025 IPT. Standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 326mm) and the and The Latest Greatest Flagship Body, the Sony a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering -0.3 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 1000: 1/4000 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was 2/3 stop short of being perfect. AWB at 3:27:04pm on a sunny afternoon.
Zone AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly.
Image #1: Ring-necked Duck head in flight — wings fully down
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Sony a-1 ii Does Fast and Erratic Ducks in Flight
The ducks at Santee are challenging flight subjects: but for Mallard, they are small, fast and often erratic flyers; several species flash their white wing linings when braking to land; some, like the ring-necked and Wood Duck drakes, have small slashes of white or bright silvers while others are more uniformly toned, in other words, an exposure nightmare; at times, many fly right at us at all at once so picking out the more desirable species adds to the challenge.
Throw in sometimes changing light and varying background tonalities, and you really have your work cut out for you. If you are blessed to own more than one telephoto lens, simply selecting the best one can test you. Fixed or zoom? Focal length? Tripod or hand hold? One thing that you can be sure of is that whatever way you go it will be wrong at least some of the time.
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This image was created on 29 January at Santee Lakes Regional Preserve. Seated on a dirt bank, 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 The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 1000. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering +1.7 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 4000: 1/3200 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was very close to dead solid perfect. AWB at 4:20:00pm on a then cloudy afternoon. .
Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly.
Image #2: Mallard drake braking to land
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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The Exposure Mode Challenge
For the many reasons noted above, deciding whether to work in Manual Mode or in Shutter Priority Mode with AUTO ISO is a tough choice. This year, I did the flying ducks almost exclusively working in Shutter Priority Mode with AUTO ISO and Exposure Compensation on the Thumb Dial. Bob stuck with Manual mode. Either way, one thing is for sure:
1- Your exposure will be less than perfect about half the time, often well less than perfect.
Why? You never know what’s coming at you so there is no time for most folks to make any changes in the exposure settings. In addition, the wing positions are changing constantly so you never know if the white wing linings will be revealed when the wing are full raised or hidden when the wings are fully down. For me, working in Shutter Priority mode when photographing ducks in flight gives me the greatest chance of getting it right.
When a cloud covered the sun, I immediately dialed in +1.7 stops of EC; the result was a dead solid perfect exposure.
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This image was created on 29 January at Santee Lakes Regional Preserve. Seated on a dirt bank, I used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering at zero. AUTO ISO set ISO 640: 1/4000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 3:37:45pm on mostly sunny afternoon.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version.
Image #3: Ring-necked Duck drake splash landing
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Dead Solid Perfect Exposure at Zero EC
The bright white markings on the bill and the very white breast combined with the splashing water at touchdown yielded a dead solid perfect exposure when this drake ring-necked hit the water. See the next image and remember that you never know what duck will be flying at you at high speed.
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This image was created on 29 January at Santee Lakes Regional Preserve. Seated on a dirt bank, I used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering at zero. AUTO ISO set ISO 640: 1/4000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was more than a full stop under-exposed. AWB at 4:02:07pm on mostly sunny afternoon.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version.
Image #4: Cinnamon Teal hen on final approach
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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More Than a Stop Too Dark at Zero EC
Mallards and Ring-necked Ducks are the two most common subjects at Santee Lakes. The trick is to pick out something different when as many as a dozen ducks are flying right at you. I knew that zero EC would avoid over-exposing any bright whites on a sunny afternoon unless I had a drake Wood Duck fly in against a dark green background. Anyhoo, when I got on this incoming Cinnamon Teal hen at the last second, there was simply no time to add one full stop of light for the relatively mid-toned subject. With today’s amazing mirrorless camera bodies, however, it is a lot easier to deal with significant under-exposures than it is to deal with significant over-exposures. As with film, you cannot give away the whites.
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This image was created on 31 January at La Jolla, CA. Seated on the dirt bank, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering +0.3 stops AUTO ISO set ISO 1600: 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 3:49:11pm on a sunny afternoon.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly.
Image #5: Lesser Scaup hen touching down
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Separating the Hens
Female Ring-necked Ducks and female Lesser Scaups are fairly similar. The former always show a distinct white ring around the bill while the latter always have dark, rich chocolate brown heads. At Santee, the ring-necks outnumber the scaups by at least 30 to one.
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This image was created on 31 January at La Jolla, CA. Seated on the dirt bank, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 1000. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering =0.3 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 400: 1/4000 sec. at f/2.8 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 4:22:33pm on a sunny afternoon.
Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly.
Image #6: Gadwall hen on final approach
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Fortuitous
Feeding the waterfowl at Santee is encouraged. The always pleasant volunteers who man the pay booth are happy to sell us bags of scratch, healthy duck food, for $2.00 a pop. “You want ten bags of scratch???”
AI Overview: scratch is a supplemental treat for ducks made from a mix of grains and seeds. It’s meant to encourage natural foraging behaviors and provide an energy boost.
Tossing handfuls of scratch in the right location will often result in dozens of ducks flying right at you, all in a hurry to get in on the free food. Late in the day on Friday we got very lucky. With more than a hundred ducks right in front of us, someone on the east shore of the lake began feeding directly opposite of us. They all flew away. I had been working at 1200mm with the big lens on the tripod when the ducks that had left us began flying back to us in anticipation. I quickly grabbed the a-1 ii and mounted it onto my 300mm f/2.8 that had been placed carefully on the bank. When this hen Gadwall flew in high, I was thrilled in part because like Lesser Scaup, Gadwall is uncommon at the preserve, and in part because the high flyers yield the softest, sweetest backgrounds. Especially at f/2.8.
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This image was created on 31 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA by my good friend Bob Eastman. Standing at full height, he 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. 1/3200 second at f/6.3 (wide-open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 3:54:22pm on a sunny afternoon. RawDigger showed the exposure to be within 1/2 stop of dead solid perfect.
Tracking: Spot (XS) AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #7: Cinnamon Teal drake — dorsal view, flying away
Image courtesy of and copyright 2025: Bob Eastman
Image Optimization by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Bob’s Eastman’s Trusty Sony 200-600 G Lens with the Sony a-1
It has become a standing joke. As I am deciding on which lens to use for a photo session, Bob will always chime in with, “I think I’ll take my two to six.” It is his only long telephoto lens and as you have seen here, he consistently created some fabulous images. Things were no different at Santee. More than ten years my junior, Mr. Bob is stronger, has faster reflexes, and better hand-eye coordination than I. Thus, he is better able to get on the smallest, fastest flying ducks like Cinnamon Teal. I would trade all six of my images above for Bob’s spectacular top shot of the drake cinnamon showing the sky blue greater coverts and the green feathers of the speculum.
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The Photo Mechanic screen capture shows the full frame original.
Image #6: Cinnamon Teal drake — dorsal view, flying away
Image courtesy of and copyright 2025: Bob Eastman
Image Optimization by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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The Photo Mechanic Screen Capture
The Photo Mechanic Screen capture above shows the crop I used when optimizing Bob’s fabulous image. The problem was that the light blue reflections in the lower right corner drew the viewer’s eye from the subject. I use several tools and techniques to eliminate the somewhat distracting bright reflections.
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The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II).
You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a PayPal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand. Be sure to specify Digital Basics II.
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The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)
The techniques I used to optimize all of today’s featured images and tons more great Photoshop tips and techniques — along with my complete digital workflow, Digital Eye Doctor Techniques, and all my personalized Keyboard Shortcuts — are covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.
Please note: the Divide and Conquer technique was inadvertently omitted from DB II. It is detailed in a free excerpt in the blog post here.
Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here. Note: most of the videos are now priced at an amazingly low $5.00 each.
You can learn how and why I converted all of my Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide here. More recently, I became proficient at converting my Nikon RAW (NEF) files in Adobe Camera Raw. About three years ago I began converting my Nikon and Sony RAW files in Capture One and did that for two years. You can learn more about Capture One in the Capture One Pro 12 Simplified MP4 Video here. The next step would be to get a copy of Arash Hazeghi’s “The Nikon Photographers’ Guide to Phase One Capture One Pro e-Guide” in the blog post here. Today, I convert my Sony raw files in Photoshop with Adobe Camera Raw.
You can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
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The Digital Basics III Video Series
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The Digital Basics III Video Series
I realized more than a year ago that my digital workflow had changed significantly and was toying with the idea of writing a Digital Basics III. More recently, I learned and began working with two great new Photoshop Tools, the Remove Tool and the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool. The former is like a smarter Spot Healing Brush Tool on steroids and the latter is a step up from the fabulous Color Mixer Tool. During that same time frame, I came up with a new and improved 2-step noise reduction technique. I still use Divide and Conquer, Quick Masks, Layer Masks, an expanded array of personalized keyboard shortcuts, and tons of other stuff from both versions of Digital Basics.
As soon as I realized that I did not want to take on another large writing project, I realized that by creating a series of videos I could much more easily share all the details of my current digital workflow and much more easily incorporate additional new tips, techniques, and tools as I went. And so, The Digital Basics III Video Series was born.
Save $26 by ordering the first five videos in Volume I by clicking here. The videos will be most valuable for folks using the latest version of Photoshop (2024) or Lightroom along with Topaz DeNoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
January 31st, 2025 Your Job
After clicking on each of today’s four featured images (the first four only), rate them in order with the strongest first and the weakest photo last (in your opinion.) Your comment might look something like this:
4, 1, 3, 2. I will share my ratings and reasons with you in the next blog post.
What’s Up?
We did well again on the flying ducks at Santee Lakes Preserve on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning superseded Tuesday morning as the worst session of the trip. I created a meager 1325 images and kept only 11. My abysmal keeper rate was less than 1%, an all-time low. I am having dinner tonight at the fabulous King’s Fish House in San Diego with Martin Wood, president and CEO of Delkin Devices, Scott Clarke also of Delkin, Bob Eastman, and my great friend and health advisor, Dr. Cliff Oliver and Annie, his significant other.
Today is Friday 31 January 2025. The plan is for Bob and me to head out early to Coronado Beach for a final visit — we fly back to Florida on Sunday. We’re hoping for a sunny morning filled with Marbled Godwits and Heermann’s Gulls. After seeing only a handful of the West Coast’s most beautiful gull in more than two weeks, 40 showed up in La Jolla about three days ago and for the last two mornings, there have been more than a hundred present along with several hundred Royal Terns. The handsome Heermann’s were likely wintering to the north and are beginning their southward journey to their breeding grounds in Baja, Mexico. Whatever the heck you opt to do, we hope that you too choose to have a great day and be happy.
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.
Supporting My Efforts Here
If you enjoy and learn from the blog, are all set for gear, or live overseas, consider leaving a BAA Blog Thank You Gift 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 from the wrong shop.
Thrilled To Say That I Was 100% Wrong
In the How Good is This One? Or Not? blog post here, I wrote in part:
Most impressive is the AF performance (of Vasili Chernishoff’s Canon EOS R1 Mirrorless Camera) with birds in flight at 1200mm with the RF 600m f/4 and the RF 2X teleconverter. My gut feeling that AF accuracy is better at 1200mm than the Sony a-1 ii with the 600mm f/4 GM and the 2X TC. And that, my friends, is sayin a lot. The difference however might be operator error (on my part), but I do not think so.
I was standing on the downhill sidewalk at La Jolla watching some distant pelicans flying in and landing on the low shelf when I realized that I had never tried the a-1 ii for birds in flight with the 600mm f/4 GM lens and the 2X TC. In my mind, I was comparing the a-1 AF at 1200mm to the R1 at 1200mm. Results with the a-1 at 1200mm were somewhat sporadic.
Since the opportunity presented itself, I went to work with the a-1 ii at 1200mm and when I got the images on my MacBook Pro, I was thrilled to learn that I had been 100% wrong. All of the flight shots were tack sharp on the bird’s eyes. Hooray. That makes the Sony a-1 ii even deadlier for bird photography. And with 51MP and Zebra technology, the a-1 ii versus the R1 (with 24 MP) is simply no contest.
a-1 ii AF at 1200mm
The Bird Face-Eye tracking of the Sony a-1 ii AF at 1200mm is as good as it is with the 300mm f/28 GM lens alone. And that, my friends is saying a lot. Most impressive is when Zone or Tracking: Zone grabs and tracks the eye of a bird flying away from you.
High Flyers at 1200mm
When you are fortunate enough to have some birds flying well above the water, or the ocean as with Image #3, the background detail is pleasingly smoothed out. And working with a long focal length like 1200mm heightens that effect.
Pano Crop
The full braking flight pose here made the choice of a pano crop an obvious and easy one. There is nothing in the world that says that 3X2 or 2X3 are the only acceptable proportions for an image. And the same is true for square or boxy crops. You are the artist; feel free to crop your images to maximize the artistic feel and impact of your photographs.
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The Photo Mechanic screen capture for my favorite-ever Brown Pelican Pacific race mega-breeding plumage tight flight image
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Another Creative Crop
When I saw the raw file above for the first time on my laptop, I was quite thrilled with it. But in its original form, above, it simply did not work. Just the right crop — as shown above by the marching ants, was needed. I am happy with the result, now below as in the previously linked to post.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
January 29th, 2025 Homer IPT Openings
Due to a registrant’s family illness, I have had a cancellation on both Homer IPTs. If you’ve been dreaming of eagles and are interested in joining me for one or for both IPTs, please get in touch via cell phone or text to 863-221-2372 immediately. Time is very short.
What’s Up?
Incredibly, Brown Pelicans have been relatively scarce for the past few days. On Monday morning, using mostly the 300mm f/28 GM lens with the 2X TC and my newly beloved a-1 ii, I made some lovely Western Gull images that are featured in today’s blog post. On Monday afternoon, I experimented with the tripod mounted 600mm f/4GM/2X TC/a-1 ii and had some good chances on flying pelicans. My findings will be detailed in the next post. Tuesday morning was the toughest (i.e., worst) morning of the trip. There were no pelicans at the point and not much flying at the Bridge Club. My goal was to make some nice flight shots of the newly arrived Heermann’s Gulls. I got one very nice one, a nice top shot or two of Royal Tern, and a decent image of a fly-by pair of Black Oystercatchers. On Tuesday afternoon Bob Eastman and I headed to Santee Lakes Regional Park. The ducks were in a flying mood and the wind was right. Even so, it is a very challenging situation: widely varying subject tonalities, varying lighting conditions, ducks in flight at varying distances, and at times, too many ducks in the air at once.
Today is Wednesday 29 January 2025. Bob and I will be headed back to La Jolla for what looks to be another cloudy morning. Whatever you opt to do, we hope that you too choose to have a great day.
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.
Supporting My Efforts Here
If you enjoy and learn from the blog, are all set for gear, or live overseas, consider leaving a BAA Blog Thank You Gift 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 from the wrong shop.
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Wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood Company
Ever since my two daughters sent me a big box of salmon filets and sea scallops from Wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood Company for my birthday a few years ago, I have been ordering salmon and scallops from them. Now that Junior’s Fish Market in Lake Wales is closing, I will be depending on Wild Alaska every month. I always order Sockeye filets and the Sea Scallops. The stuff comes frozen solid, is easy to prepare, and tastes pretty much as good as the fresh stuff would.
You can save $20 on your first order by clicking here. Eating wild caught seafood is about as healthy as you can go. The scallops are a real treat. When you sear them, be sure to cook them in the liquid that comes in the bag and be sure not to overcook them. I bake or broil the lightly seasoned salmon filets skin side down in olive or coconut oil.
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The stuff tastes great and is good for you. Internet orders to the continental United States are shipped from their fulfillment center in the Midwest allowing their seafood products to reach US customers in perfect condition. The flavor and texture of their salmon and other products remain fresher than fresh is because the stuff is frozen the same day it is caught.
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This image was also created on 27 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA. Standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi Metering +1.0 stop in Shutter Priority mode. AUTO ISO set ISO 200: 1/125 sec. at f/2.8 (wide open). AWB at 7:12:53am on a then cloudy morning. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect:
Tracking Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly.
Image #1: Western Gull on poop covered rock
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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The White-washed Rocks
The white-washed sandstone rocks often catch my eye. The patterns can be beautiful. For this one, I placed the bird in the upper right corner to create a poop-streaked vertical bird-scape with the patterns of the whitewash dominating the image. The gull is probably in its third year.
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iPhone 15+. JPEG from the raw file. Time: 7:10:44 AM; Model: iPhone 15 Pro Max; Focal Length: 6.8mm; ISO: 80; Aperture: 1.8; Shutter: 1/120 sec. Exp Comp +1.1 stops.
Image #2: Western Gull on poop covered ridge image
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Your Ever-present Wide Angle Lens
As I approach age 79, one of my main goals is to go lighter and lighter. I cannot remember the last time I headed out with two rigs. Nor can I remember carrying an extra lens. I have become something of a one-trick pony. I enjoy the challenge of walking around with a single lens and seeing what I can do, knowing full well that what I have in my hand will not always be the best or most appropriate focal length. Anyhoo, I never have a wide angle lens with me in the field. But I almost always have my iPhone. The result: another small-in-the-frame poop-scape.
Just as I was putting the cell phone back into my pocket, the bird executed and held a perfect wing-stretch pose. It did not, however, hold it long enough for me to get any shots with the 300mm f/2.8. Another negative: though I made sure to capture in raw, the image quality of the optimized image is quite suspect. At best.
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This image was also created on 27 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA. Standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 1000. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the Thumb Wheel; 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 7:34:53am on a then sunny morning.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly.
Image #3: Western Gull — head, neck, and upper breast portrait
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Storm Clouds on the Horizon
The morning forecast on Monday called for clouds and drizzle. By 7:20am, however, the sun broke through. There was a big storm cloud to the west so the Pacific Ocean became a stunning indigo blue black, a perfect backdrop for the breeding plumage adult Western Gulls. Pelicans would have been nice, but there weren’t any. Needless to say, I made lots of images that included a few good ones. It is hard to beat the color scheme.
Note that when you properly expose for the bright whites, the ocean is rendered at least one stop underexposed. That makes the water bluer and blacker and pleasingly increases the contrast to the dramatic levels seen in this and the following image.
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This image was also created on 27 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA. Again, standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 800. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the Thumb Wheel; 1/2500 sec. at f/6.3 (stopped down 1/3 stop — gasp!) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 7:56:59am on a then sunny morning.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly.
Image #4: Western Gull — beginning yawn
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Almost Left Too Soon. Again.
Bob and I had decided to move the car down the hill and then head over to the Bridge Club. On our way to the steps, we saw a nice adult Western Gull resting on a rock. I knew that I had the exposure set correctly for the situation so I instinctively raised my lens and framed the shot. Within a second, the bird began a tremendous yawn. I simply pushed the shutter button and continued firing until the yawn quit. I was happy. Bob, who had not raised his lens, was pissed.
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This image was also created on 27 January 2025 at La Jolla, CA. Again, standing at full height, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 800. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the Thumb Wheel; 1/2500 sec. at f/6.3 (stopped down 1/3 stop — gasp!) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 7:57:01am on a then sunny morning.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly.
Image #5: Western Gull — wide yawn
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Open Wide Please!
What began as a simple yawn quickly became cavernous. I was shocked to see that the a-1 ii lost focus for three frames mid-sequence. But was thrilled to see that the beginning and the end of the run were tack sharp on the bird’s eye, even in Image #5 where we can barely get a glimpse of the eye with the bird looking right down the lens barrel.
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Image #5A: 100% crop of the Western Gull — wide yawn image
Image copyright 2025 Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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The 100% Crop
The huge crop here yielded a spectacular, perfectly illuminated look at the inside of the gull’s mouth. I remember making a shot very much like this at La Jolla, on film, I think. That was probably close to three decades ago. The photo might be in The Art of Bird Photography.
With their stunning 51MP raw files, sharp Sony a-1 and the a-1 ii images can stand up to immense crops. The creation of Image #5A involved discarding a shade under 95% of the original pixels. In short, the crop-ability of sharp a-1 and a-1 ii images is astounding.
Flight Photography Off the Tripod
If you cannot easily hand hold a given lens for flight photography, the only solution is to put the lens on a tripod. Though I tried a monopod for a while, and found the Wimberley Mono-Gimbal Head to be great for those who use a monopod, I have given up on them. Why? If you are going to carry something in the field to stabilize your (heavy) lens you might as well go for the most stable solution. With one-point contact, all monopods move around far too much for my taste. With a Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro atop my Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod, flight photography off a tripod is an absolute pleasure. With three points of contact, stability is ensured and fatigue is eliminated. And as with most skills, the more you practice, the better the results. That goes double for flight photography.
Pre-Capture
Pre-Capture on the Sony a-1 ii was 100% responsible for the creation of this image. I keep mine set to 0.3 seconds. Always shooting at 30fps, that means that each and every time I press the shutter button to begin a new sequence that ten previously recorded raw files will be saved to the card. Interestingly enough, I have never hit the buffer with my a-1 ii. That is due in part to the fact that when doing flight photography, I cannot keep the bird in the center of the frame long enough to slow down the camera. I can, however, do that when shooting a fight or action sequence. Though such opps are rare, I have yet to hit the buffer.
Vasili Chernishoff uses his remarkable Canon EOS R1 Mirrorless Camera for bird photography. As I do, he leaves Pre-Capture on at all times. I believe that at present, the only option for him is for 0.5 seconds. Working at 40 fps, that means that 20 pre-capture images will be saved every time he presses the shutter button. In no way is that the major factor for the obscene number of images that he created last week, in excess of 80,000. He needs to learn to stop shooting specks (tiny-in-the-frame birds and quit shooting when the background becomes distracting. In short, he needs to learn to be more selective by separating the good situations from the bad situations.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
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