What’s Up?
I slept long and well on Thursday night. I guess I was knackered from the great San Diego trip. When I left for California, the pool was 86°. When I got into the pool on Friday afternoon it was 81°. That’s the good news. I dressed warmly and enjoyed my 1/2 swim. The forecast for tomorrow morning is for a balmy 29° with a strong wind from the northwest. If that pans out, it will be my coldest ILE morning since I moved here in 1999. I will definitely not be heading out early for photography.
I did not make it down to the lake until after my swim. As I pulled up, bins in hand, both adult eagles flew from the nest in hot pursuit of a Turkey Vulture that must have gotten a bit too close. It seemed as if one of the eagles would surely take the intruder down. But it escaped, unscathed. I was wishing that I had a lens in my hand with the camera turned on.
I thought that I saw a grey head in the nest and just before I pulled away, I saw a single large grey wing flap above the edge of the nest. The single eagle chick has survived and is doing well. It seems that this pair has only one young. The tiny chick sure grew a lot in the two weeks I was gone!
Today is Saturday 29 January. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took about an hour to prepare and makes 78 days in a row with a new one.
This Just In
At 6:00am the overnight low was 42°, 13° warmer than originally forecast. It is supposed to get down to 31° on Sunday morning …
Please remember that 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.
From Blog Regular Elinor Osborne via e-mail
Thanks so much for doing handling my used gear sales. You are very helpful. The process is easy. And the Used Gear Page is the place to find the best customers.
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.
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This image was created by Greg Gulbransen on 21 January 2022. He used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens and the Nikon D850 dSLR. ISO 640: 1/2500 sec. at f/4 (stopped down one stop) in Manual mode. AWB at 3:52:44pm on a cloudy afternoon. Group AF/C performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Photo courtesy of and copyright 2022: Greg Gulbransen |
Images #1 and #2 were made with the very same lens that is for sale here:
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR Lens(with Extras)
BAA friend Greg Gulbransen is offering a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens in near-mint condition (with extras) for a very low $8496.95 (Payment by teller’s check or Long Island, NY — cash pick-up only). The sale includes the rear lens cap, the front lens cover, a RRS low foot (a $110.00 value), the original lens foot, the LensCoat (a roughly $100.00 value) that has protected the lens since Day 1, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until the money is in the bank.
Please contact Greg via e-mail.
The 400mm f/2.8 lenses are the fastest big lenses in production. This, the newest Nikon version available, is super-sharp. It is a very versatile lens for wildlife photographers, especially those doing Africa, big game, and birds in low light situation. It creates incredibly sharp images with the TC-E14. It is currently back-ordered at B&H where it sells new for $11,196.95. You can save a very handsome $2700.00 by grabbing Greg’s pretty much new lens right now. artie
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This image was created by Greg Gulbransen on 21 January 2022. He used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens and the Nikon D850 dSLR. ISO 640: 1/2500 sec. at f/4.5 (stopped down 1 1/3 stops) in Manual mode. AWB at 3:43:26 on a cloudy afternoon. Group AF/C performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Photo courtesy of and copyright 2022: Greg Gulbransen |
Your Calls
After clicking on each image to view the spectacular high-res versions, try your hand at the following:
- Which is the stronger image? Why?
- What do you like best about Image #1?
- Would you have cropped Image #1 any differently? How and Why?
- What do you like best about Image #2?
- Would you have removed the tiny bit of grass from the lower right corner of Image #2?
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Nikon D850 Users e-Guide & VideoPurchase here. |
Nikon D850 Users e-Guide & Video
$50 via download
This great guide includes 15 pages of text, a 46-image gallery, and a comprehensive camera handling video.
The text covers all of the menu item settings that I used on my two D850 bodies and each gallery image has a legendary BIRDS AS ART educational caption. The emphasis is two-fold:
1- getting your camera set-up so that it is optimized for bird photography.
2- sharing everything that I know about the Nikon AF system so that you can create consistently sharp images of static subjects, and most especially, of birds in flight and in action.
Though this guide is designed for the D850, nearly all of the info applies to the D5 and to the D500 as well. You can purchase your copy in the BAA On-line Store here. Both files are large so you will need a good internet connection to download them.
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The Nikon AF Fine-tune e-GuidePlease click here to purchase. |
The Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide: $30.00 (or free to some–see below for details on that).
by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART and Patrick Sparkman
There is lots of misinformation out there on the Nikon Automatic AF Fine-tune feature. Much of that involves vast over-simplifications. Patrick Sparkman and I developed a way of using the Automatic Fine-tune feature effectively with the D5, D500, the D7500, and the D850. Patrick, however, was on a roll and perfected a method for using the Focus Peaking feature available only on the D850 to quickly and accurately micro-adjust all lenses and TC-Es with your D-850. If you own a D850 you should be using D850 Focus Peaking AF Fine-tune rather than Nikon Automatic AF Fine-tune. It is faster and easier and more accurate. While there is some halfway decent info online with regards to Nikon Automatic Fine-tune feature, I have never seen a word about using the amazing D850 Focus Peaking capabilities to determine an accurate AF Fine-tune value. You can thank Patrick Sparkman for rectifying that situation.
With both Nikon Automatic AF Fine-tune and D850 Focus Peaking AF Fine-tune, the use of a LensAlign Mark II unit is recommended as best by far for accurate results, and thus, this guide is written reflecting that. Taping a sheet of newsprint on a wall or using the FoCal kit does not assure you of the True Parallel Alignment (TPA) that is guaranteed when you set up your LensAlign properly. Without TPA your results will be off anywhere from a little to a lot. You can purchase the LensAlign Mark II alone here. Or you can purchase the LensAlign/FocusTune combo here. If you do not own either of those we suggest that you decide which to purchase after reading this guide through once. That said, we recommend the LensAlign/FocusTune combo for reasons that will become obvious as you make your way through the guide.
Do understand that much of the set-up information included in the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide is by necessity a duplication of information included in The LensAlign/FocusTune Micro-Adjusting Tutorial e-Guide.
Please click here to purchase.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
The D850 camera guide is also very helpful for anyone using a D500. It helped me tweak a few things in my D500 and make even better photos.