Head-hunting Fun with Sony! And Guess the Focal Length. « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Head-hunting Fun with Sony! And Guess the Focal Length.

What’s Up?

The SONY gang had a great time on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning with tons of learning going on along with some great chances. See below for some of those. The Spoonbill Boat IPT group is all headed for our Meet and Greet dinner in Brandon. We will be getting up very early and everyone is excited!

Please leave a comment and let us know which of today’s featured images you wish was yours and why. Tanks!

IPT Updates

I still need three or four folks for the Galapagos trip, and the UK Puffins and Gannets trip is wide open with only a single registrant. Please shoot me an e-mail to learn about the huge late registration discount on the Galapagos trip.

  • The 2019 Fort DeSoto Spring IPT/THURS 18 APRIL through the morning session on SUNDAY APRIL 21, 2019: 3 1/2 DAYS: $1549. Limit 8/Openings: 4. Meet and greet at 7PM on the evening of WED 17 APRIL.
  • The New, Expanded 2019 UK Puffins, Gannets, & Red Kites IPT. Thursday June 27 (from EDI) through Tuesday, July 9, 2019 (on the ground; fly home on Wednesday July 10.): $9,999. Limit 10 photographers/Openings: 9. This trip needs four to run. Co-leader: Peter Kes.
  • The GALAPAGOS Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience. July 23 to August 6, 2019 on the boat. 13 FULL and two half-days of photography: $14,499. Limit: 12 photographers/Openings: 4. Please e-mail to learn about the huge late registration discount for this trip.


BIRDS AS ART

BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Orlando Camera Club Program Sponsored By Bedford Camera

On February 25, 2019, I will be presenting “Lessons from the Field – BIRDS AS ART Style” for the Orlando Camera Club. They told me that they did not want to see beautiful images as they would rather learn. I told them that I would need to show them lots of beautiful images during the course of the lessons. 🙂 I will be working hard on this brand new program for the next three weeks. The program is scheduled for 6:15 – 8:00pm at the Marks Senior Center, 99 E Marks Street, Orlando, FL 32803. The meeting is free and open to the public. If you learned about the program through the blog be sure to come up for a hug.

Huge thanks to Steve Elkins at Bedford Camera for sponsoring my appearance and to Holly Manus for the invitation. Click on the logo-link above or check out the Money Saving Reminder feature immediately below to get acquainted with Bedford.

From the OCC website here:

Arthur Morris will present “Lessons from the Field – BIRDS AS ART Style”. This slide-illustrated lecture will feature hundred’s of Artie’s spectacular photographs. As he shares images from his favorite locations around the globe he will be telling us about the birds and other creatures that he photographs and about the equipment and techniques that he uses to create his images. Topics to be covered include getting close to free and wild birds, flight photography, getting the right exposure, and image design. A selection of books and CDs will be available.

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. 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%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. Most recently the price of used Canon 600mm f/L IS II lenses have been dropping like a rock with the introduction of the 600 III. 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.

Money Saving Reminder

If you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H, would enjoy free overnight shipping, and would like a $50 discount on your first purchase, click here to order and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If you are looking to strike a deal on Canon or Nikon gear (including the big telephotos) or on a multiple item order, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time) and be sure to mention your BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve currently has several D850s in stock along with a Nikon 600mm f/4 VR. He is taking pre-orders for the new Nikon 500 P and the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera body.


Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

This image was created on February 15, 2019 with my SONY gear in Lakeland,FL. Sony A9. ISO 500: 1/500 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. As always, the exposure was fine-tuned using the Zebra feature.

Image #1: Limpkin calling/head portrait

Head-hunting Fun with Sony!

Thanks again to BPN friend Joe Przybyla for sharing his Lakeland hotspots with me last month. The SONY group joined Anita and I for a great morning of learning exposure with SONY, using the best Focus Area, working on getting on sun angle, and on getting close. The Anhinga below kept us photographing until after 11am on a sunny morning. You can bet that we made sure to stay right on sun angle 🙂

This image was created on February 15, 2019 with my SONY gear in Lakeland,FL. ISO 400: 1/800 sec. at f/14 in Manual mode. As always, the exposure was fine-tuned using the Zebra feature.

Image #2: Female Anhinga in breeding plumage

More Questions

Consider that both of these images are razor sharp and try to figure out the lens, the teleconverter used, and the focal length for each image. Not easy but worth a try. The SONY or Nikon question from the SONY or Nikon? Can you judge the Image Quality? blog post here will be answered on Monday. There has been a whole lot of good thinking put into the comments and there will be a whole lot of learning on Monday …

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To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

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Typos

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15 comments to Head-hunting Fun with Sony! And Guess the Focal Length.

  • avatar Gordon Lindsay

    Hi Artie
    Off Topic if I may through your pages:-

    I have found a precautioary warning on Sony (at least my A7m3) Watch out with the Firmware update BULB setting has vanished and of course it cannot be reverted. I’ve read somewhere that Sony are going to produce another firmware update sometime in April 2019 it would be nice if it restored BULB is very useful to landscape photographers.
    Thanks Gordon

  • avatar Joel Eade

    I’m gonna guess both were made with the Sony 100-400mm + 2X teleconverter and both were at or near 800mm

  • avatar Jack Goodman

    Artie, Does the image of the Limpkin look razor sharp to you?

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      The image of the Limpkin is razor sharp. Have you clicked on the image to see the larger “inexplicably sharper” version?

      with love, artie

      • avatar Phil Thach

        I noticed they both look sharper when viewing the larger version.

        • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

          Yes Phil. I am not sure why that is, that is why I recommend clicking on each image to see the inexplicably sharper larger version.

          with love, artie

          • avatar Phil Thach

            Good advice. Odd that they are certainly sharper without being too noticeably larger once clicked on. I’ll certainly take the time to click on each image on your blog moving forward. Thanks.

            best,

  • avatar Phil Thach

    I’m thinking you probably used the 100-400 and 2.0 Teleconverter and you were probably at or near the full 800mm for both of these beautiful images. Sunny days are the best days for the 2.0 teleconverter.

    best,

  • avatar gregory asnis

    Hi Artie,
    Love your new Sony images in general. Can you describe exactly how you use the Zebra features in the Sony system to fine tune exposure. Thanks so much/Greg Asnis

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      Using the amazing Zebra feature will be covered in the new guide. Did you use my affiliate link to purchase your SONY stuff?

      with love, artie

  • avatar Paul Burdett

    Hi Artie. I’ll have a go…First image: Sony 100-400 @400mm+1.4x TC. Second image: A9 with 100-400@400mm. Thinking that in the first image iso is 500@f11, and so you needed 1.4x TC. as the bird was some distance away. Second image @f14 and 1/800th sec. You were able to stop down to f14 to get max d.o.f. Of course I could (and probably are) wrong and maybe it’s the other way around. Great shots anyway.