Musically: And a Great Blue Heron in a pine tree … Image design, image processing, and depth-of-field questions. « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Musically: And a Great Blue Heron in a pine tree ... Image design, image processing, and depth-of-field questions.

What’s Up?

Friday morning was way dark. It started off slower than slow so I went to my favorite grassy rise and put out some salmon skins, four eggshells, a ribeye bone, and a pork chop bone. I set up the 600 on the tripod with the a9 II in hopes of some vulture flight. Impatient as I am, I had brought down my laptop. So I got back in my car and went to work on the SONY guide. I worked for one hour fifteen minutes. Not a single vulture came.

By 9:45am, it was getting brighter (but not sunny) and I was tired of waiting for vultures. I almost headed home but decided to check out each of the three big fields once more. As I made a left turn onto the North Peninsula I saw an Osprey disappear behind a large bush in the marsh on my right. I moved forward and saw that it had landed in the lake and was bathing. I set up the smaller, lighter Induro 20l with the FlexShooter Mini in my SUV and mounted the 600 GM with the 2X and the a7r iv. I repositioned the vehicle and went to work. What a show. I had as many as six Ospreys flying around and landing in the lake. I had as many as four in the water bathing at once. I had never seen even one Osprey bathing in the lake before. I did not get home for breakfast until 11am.

After I ate, I went for gas at the station on SSR 60 five minutes from my home. I stopped on the way back to pick up a huge just-killed freshwater turtle, possibly a Florida Red-bellied Cooter. I keep some heavy-duty plastic bags in my vehicle. If the wind and sky conditions are good this morning — Saturday 18 APR 2020 — I will put the turtle out and hope that the vultures are hungrier today than they were yesterday.

Last night I watched another blockbuster on TIVO — Apollo 13. What a story, with amazing acting by Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, and others. Incredible film-making, sound, and music. And lots of tears of joy.

I was glad to learn yesterday that multiple IPT veteran Larry Master sold his Canon 200-400 f/4L IS USM lens with internal 1.4X Extender in excellent condition for $4,999.00 (was $5999.00) and that Blog regular Fred Innamorato sold his Sony A9 in excellent condition for a BAA record-low $2349.00.

I will be headed down to the lake at about 7:30am in spite of more clouds in the forecast along with SW winds …

Have fun and be safe.

Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The SONY e-Guide by Patrick Sparkman and Arthur Morris

The Sony Camera Videos and Pre-publication e-Guide Costs and Discount Info

The cost of the SONY e-Guide is $100.00 US and will include one of the four different camera set-up videos — we offer one video each for the a7r iii, the a7r iv, the a9, and the a9 ii — and the written guide with the galleries. The guide is now 98% done and you will — of course, receive the final version when it is completed. I sent out the third draft today to those who have purchased the Guide with or without the discount.

Folks who have used my B&H links or purchased their SONY gear from Bedfords will receive said discount based exactly on how much they spent. If you spent more than $10,000 you will receive one free video and the e-Guide. Additional camera videos are $25.00 each. If you spent $2400, you will receive a 24% discount, and so on and so forth. And again, additional camera videos will be $25.00 each.

I will need time to verify your B&H purchases so folks will need to send their receipts and then be a bit patient. It is much easier to verify Bedfords’ purchases but I need those receipts as well.

If you have not used BAA links, please do so in the future. If that is the case and you would like the e-Guide now, please send a Paypal for $100 US to birdsasart@verizon.net and be sure to include the words “SONY Pre-publication Guide” in the Paypal e-mail along with the name of your camera or cameras so that you can receive the correct video or videos. Please add $25 for each additional camera video. Be sure to send a copy of the Paypal transaction to me via e-mail.

Folks who have used BAA links to purchase their SONY gear should send their receipts to me via e-mail asap and let me know which camera videos they need. I will verify their purchases as quickly as possible and send a quote to be paid via Paypal as above.

Thanks to all who have properly used my B&H links or gone through the fabulous Steve Elkins at Bedfords, and thanks to everyone for having faith in the information that I provide, knowing that it will be the best available anywhere.

This image was created on the morning of 16 APR 2020 at Indian Lake Estates. On foot, I used the Induro GIT 404L/FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital Camera Body. ISO 2000. Exposure determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/500 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode was about +1 2/3 stops on the analog scale. AWB at 7:53:17am on a cloudy/very-dark morning.

Tracking Flexible Spot (M) was active at the moment of exposure and performed to perfection. Click the image to see a larger sharper version.

Image #1: Adult Great Blue Heron atop pine tree

The Situation

For the past several weeks there have been lots more Great Blue Herons around the lakefront at ILE than there have been in years. Last week I saw one — likely the same bird as pictured here today, displaying from the top of the very same pine tree. I was photographing not much at the vulture tree at the north end of the North Field when I saw the heron land well to my right. Since I was out of my vehicle with the big lens on the tripod, I decided to walk rather than drive. No worries, the nearest folks were two fishermen about a quarter-mile away. I’ve been using the larger 404L when I get out of the car since I rarely walk very far; I stow it in the back with the legs fully extended topped by a FlexShooter Pro while the 204 with a Mini on top stays in the front seat with me to be set up when I worked from the car.

Tracking Flexible Spot (M) is simply amazing. Many of the captions that I wrote yesterday went a lot like this: Focus on the bird’s face, re-compose, and push the shutter button. The AF area stays on the bird’s face as you move the lens. Nothing could be simpler or more effective than using Tracking Flexible Spot to create pleasing compositions.

Image Design Question

In image #1, why did I place the bird on the right side of the frame looking out?

This image was also created on the morning of 16 APR 2020 at Indian Lake Estates. On foot, I used the Induro GIT 404L/FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital Camera Body. ISO 2000. Exposure determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/500 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode was about +1 2/3 stops on the analog scale. AWB at 7:54:27am on a cloudy/very-dark morning.

Tracking Flexible Spot (M) was active at the moment of exposure and performed to perfection. Click the image to see a larger sharper version.

Image #2: Adult Great Blue Heron atop pine tree

The Stronger Image?

Today’s two featured images were created exactly one minute ten seconds apart. In that short time, I moved to my right and angled a bit closer to the bird thus creating a slightly different perspective. When the bird looked back to its left, Tracking Flexible Spot (M) continued to perform perfectly. Which of today’s two featured images is your favorite? Be sure to let us know why you made your choice.

Image Processing Question

One of today’s two featured images was optimized in Photoshop with great care. The other is pretty much right out of camera (after being converted in Capture One with identical settings). Be sure to enlarge each image and let us know if you see any differences and what they are. This exercise is for eagle-eyed readers only.

Depth-of-field Question

How might f/8 (or even f/11) have improved both of today’s featured images?

9 comments to Musically: And a Great Blue Heron in a pine tree … Image design, image processing, and depth-of-field questions.

  • avatar Steve

    Wading ospreys and herons perching in trees! We are truly living in unusual times.

  • Good morning Guru. Hope you are fine and in good health.

    Wonderful images of Great Blue Heron. FYI, perhaps the same bird is known as Grey Heron in South Asia. If you have time to click my site on Flickr, you’ll view one right now.

    Guru, at this moment we miss our birding opportunities very much as those spots are nowhere near our homes.

    Take care Guru and stay safe.

    Best regards.

  • avatar Richard Curtin

    Would vote for #1. The flow seems to be to the right – tree-heron-space to the right. The pose in #2 hurts my neck

  • avatar David J Policansky

    I like #1 better. The mass of the tree behind it provides a nice balance. I’d have to see what things would have looked like if you’d put the bird to the left but it might have felt unbalanced. Maybe something else in the background would have been problematic. I don’t like the way the tree looks or the bird’s pose in #2 as much as in #1. I have no idea which image was Photoshopped and which is as shot.

  • avatar Pat Fishburne

    I like the first one best (even though he is looking out of the picture) because it shows the whole body of the bird, including the feathers from the crown of the head.

  • #2 for me. I do like the more full pine canopy in #1 but it has the OOF nearest branches. I also like seeing more of the heron’s body and it’s head with the long feathers separated from its head in #1. In #2 I like the heron looking into the frame better. I might try cropping #1 from the left and a bit from the bottom for a square composition.But there would still be one OOF tuft of needles. I really like #1 if the needles in front had been in focus. Would f8 or 11 have done it?
    Probably for #1 you wanted to get a photo before the bird might fly, which was a risk since you were on foot.
    #2 is a bit lighter. Can’t find any other difference.

  • avatar Tim

    I prefer the first image as I like the bird’s profile with the S shaped neck. You put him on the right to include the pine tree canopy. Stopping down to f8 or f11 would have given you more dof to make the tree branches sharper, but your iso would be sky high. Missing spring bird photography in the UK, all the reserves are shut!

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