In the Last Blog Post
In the last blog post I asked folks to rank the four featured images with their favorite image first. Here is my list: 4, 1, 3, 2. Apparently John Storjohann is my long lost twin brother as our preferences were identical. Image #4 really grew on me over the past few days.
What’s Up?
Tuesday morning was the worst of my trip with clear skies and a brisk NW wind. The research team was out early for their big annual chick capture (party) and banding program. If you care about the birds, it is tough to watch. Several dozen humans traipse through a large portion of the West Colony with huge four-foot tall nets on poles herding the skimmer chicks that cannot fly into what eventually becomes a relatively small enclosure where they are grabbed and processed. I stand by my statement that in just five minutes of the several hour long project the disturbance of the birds far exceeds the total disturbance caused by the hundreds of bird photographers who visit Nickerson Beach for four months each nesting season.
Afternoon bird photography sessions have been and continue to be excellent with strong winds from the west and mostly clear skies. Huge flocks of Common Terns (including large numbers of southbound migrants) have been blasting off every evening down the beach to the west just before and after sunset. Unfortunately, the next few mornings at least are all looking like the last two mornings — wind-against-sun 🙁 I may make a wiggle and visit Jones Beach on Thursday for a look around. Today is Wednesday 27 August 2025. One of the key lessons in the two recent blog posts detailing how to succeed with west winds on sunny mornings is to arrive very early to take advantage of sunrise color and a variety of backlit situations. You can visit them here and here. I followed my own advice this morning and was reward with some skimmers in spectacular color in a coastal flooding pool. On sunny mornings I have been working exclusively with my now beloved 400-800 zoom lens. Steve Elkins has several in stock and one of them has your name on it. Anyhoo, once the sun came out it was pretty much game over.
Whatever you opt to do today, I hope that you chose to have fun and be happy.
If an item — a Delkin flash card or reader, a Levered-clamp FlexShooter Pro, or a Wimberley lens plate or low foot — 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 or beat any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedford 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 BirdPhotographer’s.Net, 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 the 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), or for Roseate Spoonbills at Stick Marsh (March 2026), please e-mail for dates, rates, terms, and additional information. Or shoot me a text to 863-221-2372. Some offerings include options for shared AirBnB lodging and meals. Ground transportation during your stay is a possibility at times.
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Bedfords Amazing BAA Discount Policy
Folks who have fallen in love with Bedfords can always use the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout to enjoy a post-purchase, 3% off-statement credit (excluding taxes and shipping charges) on orders paid with a credit card. The 3% credit will be refunded to the card you used for your purchase when your product ships. Be sure, also, to check the box for free shipping to enjoy free Second Day Air Fed-Ex. This offer does not apply to purchases of Classes, Gift Cards, or prior purchases.
You can visit the Bedfords website here, shoot Steve Elkins an e-mail, or text him on his cell phone at (479) 381-2592.
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Wide/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Screen Capture #1: Black Skimmer chick with small snapper (baby Bluefish) just after getting fed by one of its parents |
What to Do?
Would you have deleted this one because it is too cluttered?
I was set up for flight and doing OK when an adult skimmer with a baby Bluefish flew in just to the right of sun angle and fed its
youngster. There was no shot of the handoff as the chick was facing away but when it turned toward me and separated from the adult I made a few images. The raw file for the best of those few frames is depicted in the screen capture above. As images of skimmer chicks with anything but silversides or Striped Killifish are rare, I decided to do some serious Photoshop on the image. See the results of my effort below.
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This image was created on 25 August 2025 at Nickerson Beach. Seated on dry sand I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 600mm) and The Latest Greatest Flagship Body, the Sony a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: ISO 1600: 1/4000 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 6:52:10pm on a sunny afternoon. Wide/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #1: Black Skimmer chick with small snapper (baby Bluefish) just after getting fed by one of its parents |
The Image Optimization
As the image was made late in the day, it was a bit too yellow for my taste so the first thing that I did was lower the color temperature. Next I moved the adult bird in the background left in the frame to improve the compositional balance. I used the Patch Tool set to destination to move the bird left and down a bit and then used Content-Aware Fill to eliminate the original bird. I did the same thing to remove the other adult and its shadow. Removing the adult bird on the right frame edge required a bit more work. I used the Divide and Conquer technique to cut the bird into manageable sections; each of those was removed using Content-Aware Fill and fine-tuning was done with the Remove Tool. Then I executed the pano crop that I had envisioned from the get-go. Last was minimal beach cleanup. As noted previously, last week’s coastal flooding left many areas of nearly pristine beach.
The resulting photo illustration pleases me and is a lot easier on the eye than the cluttered original. The natural history of the moment has been persevered to some degree– a young skimmer received a small Bluefish from one of its parents.
Feel free to share your thoughts …
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The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II).You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a PayPal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand. Be sure to specify Digital Basics II. |
The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)
The techniques mentioned above and tons more great Photoshop tips and techniques — along with my complete digital workflow, Digital Eye Doctor Techniques, and all of my personalized Keyboard Shortcuts — are covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.
Please note: the Divide and Conquer technique was inadvertently omitted from DB II. It is detailed in a free excerpt in the blog post here.
Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here. Note: most of the videos are now priced at an amazingly low $5.00 each.
You can learn how and why I converted all of my Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide here. More recently, I became proficient at converting my Nikon RAW (NEF) files in Adobe Camera Raw. About three years ago I began converting my Nikon and Sony RAW files in Capture One and did that for two years. You can learn more about Capture One in the Capture One Pro 12 Simplified MP4 Video here. The next step would be to get a copy of Arash Hazeghi’s “The Nikon Photographers’ Guide to Phase One Capture One Pro e-Guide” in the blog post here. Today, I convert my Sony raw files in Photoshop with Adobe Camera Raw.
You can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.
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The Digital Basics III Video Series |
The Digital Basics III Video Series
I realized two years ago that my digital workflow had changed significantly and was toying with the idea of writing a Digital Basics III. More recently, I learned and begun working with two great new Photoshop Tools, the Remove Tool and the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool. The former is like a smarter Spot Healing Brush Tool on steroids and the latter is a step up from the fabulous Color Mixer Tool. During that same time frame, I came up with a new and improved 2-step noise reduction technique. I still use Divide and Conquer, Quick Masks, Layer Masks, an expanded array of personalized keyboard shortcuts, and tons of other stuff from both versions of Digital Basics.
As soon as I realized that I did not want to take on another large writing project, I realized that by creating a series of videos I could much more easily share all the details of my current digital workflow and much more easily incorporate additional new tips, techniques, and tools as I went. And so, The Digital Basics III Video Series was born.
You can order your copy here. The videos will be most valuable for folks using the latest version of Photoshop (2024) or Lightroom along with Topaz DeNoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Very nice photo “illustration!” I’ve been thinking about getting your digital workflow instructions for a while now, but this photo makes me really want to do it.