Purity, the Tern Antennae Moustache, & the 82% Crop!

What’s Up?

The tern chicks are beginning to move down to the beach and it is a record year for the production of young Royal Terns. And photography continues to be excellent. On a cloudy Sunday afternoon, Vasili went off on his own to try for “blue water Backgrounds” while I opted to remain at the south colony ropes to try for jumping chicks. Vasili got jumping chicks exercising their wings with the gorgeous blue water backgrounds he had envisioned. So, a bad decision by me. Vasili made so many wonderful images that I will do a YouTube video of his great afternoon. Monday afternoon was sunny with a southwest wind and we did well.

On Tuesday morning we were joined by Abe Curland of B&H, one of their original affiliate managers. He is using OM gear — the OM SYSTEM M. Zuiko 150-400mm f/4.5 TC 1.25 IS PRO Lens with the OM SYSTEM OM-1 Mark II Mirrorless Camera (Body Only). He could not believe how many chicks there were or how much he learned. He now lives in Ormond Beach, FL. He made some nice images of the chicks that morning. Tuesday afternoon began sunny with a south wind (bad) but when the clouds came (great!) the three of us enjoyed an afternoon of nonstop flight photography.

On the afternoon of June 30 and the full day on July 1 Vasili outdid himself; he created exactly 41,977 images. Ladies and gentleman, that is not a typo: forty-one thousand, nine hundred, seventy seven.

It is just after 9:00am on Wednesday 2 July 2025. We had a good morning with the chicks but with a brisk west wind we decided to head back early. We are hoping for another cloudy afternoon with a W/SW wind. Whatever you opt to do, I hope that you too choose to have a wonderful and productive day and that you have fun too. Do remember that happiness is a choice — Byron Katie, The Work.Com.

If an item — a Delkin flash card, a Levered-clamp FlexShooter Pro, or a Wimberley lens plate — 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.

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. And the same is true in spades when ordering new camera bodies or lenses. My advice will often save you some serious money and may help you avoid making a seriously bad choice. Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. If you are desperate, you can try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.

Don’t Just Shoot: Learn

If you are interested in changing your life and becoming a better photographer by joining me on an Extended IPT at Sebastian Inlet for Ospreys and more (SEPT 25 to NOV 24, 2025) in San Diego for Pacific-race Brown Pelicans and more (JAN 6 to FEB 2, 2026), for Roseate Spoonbills at Stick Marsh mid-March 2026, please e-mail for dates, rates, terms, and additional information. Or shoot me a text to 863-221-2372. All offerings include options for shared AirBnB lodging. Ground transportation during your stay is a possibility.

This image was created on 30 June 2025 at Huguenot Memorial Park, Jacksonville, FL on a BIRDS AS ART Extended IPT. Seated on dry sand using the toe pod technique I used the handheld Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS lens (Sony E) (at 800mm) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel — ISO 1000: 1/1250 second at f/11 (stopped down one stop) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 7:50:17am on sunny morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #1: Royal Tern chick on berm Image copyright 2025: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Purity

This image epitomizes the BIRDS AS ART style: clean, tight, and graphic. Atypically, I stopped down one full stop because I was relatively close to the chick, perhaps 16 feet. (Note: the MFD of the 400-800 is an impressive 11.5 feet at 800mm.) The photo was the result of seeing a new situation, planning a strategy, and executing it perfectly. There is a small sand cliff, caused by erosion, about two feet high. Staying well back from the birds atop the berm, I got down on the ground and butt crawled up the slope closer and closer, moving side to side as needed to get right on sun angle. Bingo on this cute little white one.

This image was created on 27 June 2025 at Huguenot Memorial Park, Jacksonville, FL on a BIRDS AS ART Extended IPT. Seated on dry sand using the toe pod technique I used the handheld Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS lens (Sony E) (at 800mm) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel — ISO 1000: 1/3200 second at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 7:56:43am on sunny morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #2: Royal Tern chick with shrimp antennae sticking out of bill Image copyright 2025: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

The Tern Antennae Moustache

The Royal Terns at Huguenot are putting a hurting on the Mayport River shrimp quota this year. More than half the terns carrying prey back to the colony have had a shrimp in their bills. Most of the time when the prey is swallowed by the chicks — usually in about one second flat, one or both of the long antennae are left protruding from the chick’s bill. Shrimp have two long and two short antennae — the long ones are used for orientation, the short ones for finding food.

This image was also created on 28 June 2025 at Huguenot Memorial Park, Jacksonville, FL. Standing at full height, I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 474mm) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel — ISO 1000: 1/4000 second at f/6.3 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was 1/2. stop short of perfect. AWB at 8:08:18am on a mostly sunny morning. Wide/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #3: Royal Tern with (bug-eyed!) shrimp for chick Image copyright 2025: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

How Large a Crop?

In the previous blog post, I asked, “What percentage of the original frame do you think is depicted in Image #3?” Scroll down to see the original frame.

Image #3A: Royal Tern with (bug-eyed!) shrimp for chick Image copyright 2025: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

The 82% Crop

My original plan for this image was a tight vertical crop. But I could not control myself and because of the incredible quality of the a–1 ii sensor and sharpness of the raw file, I eventually went for a huge crop — only 18% of the original pixels persisted to the final image. In a comment at the original post Cliff Beittel wrote, “Given the quality of today’s photographers, autofocus, sensors, and processing, could be 10% of the original frame or 100%.” You might say he hit the nail on the head.

Typos

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