Hard to Believe. A New Record: 86 Years Young!

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Supporting My Efforts 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.

What’s Up?

Yesterday I ordered a second Sony a9 iii from Steve Elkins at Bedfords. While I still use my remaining a1 to photograph static avian subjects, the Bird-eye autofocus with the a9 iii is so much faster and far more reliable than the a1 that I wanted a second a9 iii for those times when I am working two different lenses and the possibility of flight or action exists.

After months with zero interest, three folks inquired about the Jacksonville IPT yesterday. Two have already signed up, IPT vet Joe Barranco for the 3 1/2 day IPT, and IPT vet Steve Shore, another recent convert to Sony, will be sharing my AirBnB and photographing with me for six full days. Hooray.

It has been an expensive week here in hot, sunny, central Florida. Several panels of screen fell off the pool cage last week. As my beloved lap pool is 13 years old, I decided to have all the screening replaced to the tune of $6,266.00!

Today is Thursday 6 June 2024. This blog post took five hours to prepare. I went down to the lake early on this sunny, smokey morning — there was a big wildfire near ILE yesterday afternoon. Many folks say that a south wind is great for bird photography. But in summer, with the sun rising well to the northeast, a south wind finds the birds flying, facing, and landing away from the light. So, I turned around and was home by 7:15am. Whatever you are doing, I hope that you too choose to have a wonderful day.

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.

Pat and Stokes Fishburne’s (formal) wedding ceremony

A Strikingly Beautiful Image From 67 Years Ago

I think that even if you have never met Stokes and Pat, this image would touch you deeply. So much tradition. So much beauty. They eloped on Dec. 31, 1956, but when Stokes graduated in June 1957, they had a formal wedding at the Citadel Chapel. The Citadel — The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a military college in Charleston, South Carolina.

Learn lots more about Pat and Stokes and their family in the Ordinary People; Extraordinary Lives blog post here.

Pat and Stokes enjoyed a wonderful marriage for 66 years, from 1956 until Stoke’s peaceful, somewhat merciful death in 2022. In the In Memoriam: Stokes Fishburne, a kind and gentle man blog post here, I wrote,

When Stokes went into work on the morning after the Apollo 13 problem occurred, NASA called to say they had three hours to help figure out how to bring the astronauts back to earth. Stokes and his partner, Dick Oman, used slide rulers (not computers!) to do the needed calculations.

Extraordinary indeed.

With the handheld Sony 300mm f/2.8 and the a9 iii with Human Face-Eye enabled at f/8. Pat at 86, always smiling still

Pat at 86

Pat did not photograph for some time after Stoke’s death. A few months ago, she e-mailed telling me that she was beginning to do some bird photography again. I had previously suggested that she consider either a Canon mirrorless body or better yet, switching to Sony. I told her that a Sony a1 and a 200-600 would change her life and that I could teach her to use the Sony gear in five minutes. Pat was concerned about the large a1 file sizes. And about learning to use a new system.

Anyhoo, Pat came by on Tuesday past for an afternoon of Sony instruction, a pool deck dinner, a bit of photography, and a morning of photo instruction.
After familiarizing her with getting the right exposure with Sony Zebras, the AF system, and camera controls and handing, we headed down to the lake. It was then that I learned that despite having been on more than 10 IPTs she was still using Aperture Priority mode :-(. Stokes has listened to me all those years ago and switched to Manual mode. But Pat was stubborn. That made my job much harder There were zero cranes around and sunset was a washout when a big cloud spoiled our potential fun. Pat asked if she could take my a1 and my 70-200 to her hotel in Lake Wales and practice with the camera buttons and dials. I answered in the affirmative.

She got back to ILE at 6:45am as planned on Wednesday, now completely familiar with the button and dials. After hearing that the a9 iii files were half the size of a1 raw files and that the AF was much better, Pat wanted to try my a9 iii. I had already mentioned the 300mm f/2.8 to Pat so I let her use that with a 2X TC. That gave her a hand-holdable 600mm f/5.6 lens. Did I mention that Pat, after decades of water aerobics, is strong and fit. We got in position on our milk crates. I talked her through getting the right exposure for subjects of different tonalities. It was not a great morning as far as action but we did have a few good chances. And Pat cashed in on those very nicely.

I would be remiss not to mention that more than a few tears were shed by both us during our sessions as we discussed beloved lost spouses. The tears were both sad and happy at the same time.

When Pat got home, she placed this order with Bedfords using the BIRDSASART discount code:

Sony a9 III
Sony 70-200mm f.2.8 II lens
Sony 300mm f/2.8
Two Sony batteries
One Sony FE 1.4X Teleconverter
One Sony FE 2X Teleconverter

From BIRDS AS ART she ordered three Delkin Devices 160GB BLACK CFexpress Type A Memory Cards and a Delkin Devices CFexpress Type A & UHS-II SDXC Memory Card Reader.

She went home with my rarely used Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS lens that she purchased for half the price of a new one.

She is looking forward to practicing with her new Sony gear for her trip to Iceland this June.

This image was created by Pat Fishburne on 5 June 2024 down by the lake near my home in Indian Lake Estates, FL. Seated on a pillow on a milk crate, Pat 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: 1/4000 sec. at f/7.1 (stopped down 2/3 stop in error) in Manual mode. AWB at 7:59:59am on a clear sunny morning. Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to perfection. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #1: Juvenile Osprey calling in purposeful flight Image courtesy of and copyright 2024: Patricia Fishburne

Learning Sony

The word on the street is that Sony Alpha is a difficult system to learn because the Menus are so complex. For folks who have my settings on their Sony cameras and a bit of instruction, nothing could be further from the truth. By Wednesday morning, Pat was good to go. Hand-holding the 300 f/2.8 lens as a 600mm f/5.6 rig she created two images that I would be very proud of. Kudos to Pat for trusting me and for being such a good student. I was photographing birds for more than 35 years before I made a flight image as good as either of these. Yes, the gear is better but without having your camera set up correctly and a bit of instruction, you will be dead in the water.

While I had taught at least two folks over 80 years old to use a Sony a-1in “five minutes,” Pat shattered that record by eight years by learning to use her a9 iii in a short afternoon. Thanks, Pat!

This image was also created by Pat Fishburne on 5 June 2024 down by the lake near my home in Indian Lake Estates, FL. Seated on a pillow atop a milk crate, Pat again 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 1250: 1/4000 sec. at f/7.1 (stopped down 2/3 stop in error) in Manual mode. AWB at 8:04:47am on a clear sunny morning. Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to perfection. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #2: Black-bellied Whistling Duck braking to land pano Image courtesy of and copyright 2024: Patricia Fishburne

Flight Photography at Any Age

Flight photography at any age is a challenging endeavor. At 86, using a relatively heavy rig, a new exposure mode (Manual), and a completely new system, Pat’s two images presented in this blog post represent some sort of miracle.

Your Call?

Which of Pat’s two featured images is your favorite? Why?

a9 iii E-mail Set-up and Info Guide

a9 iii E-mail Set-up and Info Guide

For those who think that my comments on the a9 iii are pure hype, know that I sold the second of my three a1 bodies last week. And on June 5th, I purchased a second a9 iii body! Lots more on the switch coming soon.

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 (and an INFO Sheet — white paper — is going soon.

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 (or Pat’s) Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) images? 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.

Typos

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