Have You Ever Been Called By a Mysterious Force? And What's New on the BIRDS AS ART Blog? And What's Old?

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What’s New on the BIRDS AS ART Blog?

After 1 1/2 years or two or three months, depending on how you’re counting and your e-mail provider, our crippling post notification and blog subscription problems were solved almost instantly when we switched from Newsletter, a Word Press plugin, to ConstantContact on the advice of the incredibly talented and creative Tony Sweet.

If you ever hear the words Titan Mail, run for cover. The main reason for our success is something that nobody ever told me before: the ConstantContact servers are trusted by all e-mail providers; thus, nobody is blocked.

Anyhoo, subscribing to or un-subscribing from the BAA Blog is now easier than ever. And you will receive notice of every new post in your Inbox. If blog post notifications wind up in your Spam folder, you can either Add Sender to Contacts or get in touch with your e-mail provider for instructions.

Please understand that the blog has been here for you all the while with new posts every two or three days. Many who stopped receiving blog post notifications simply favorited the blog and visited two or three times a week to check on things. That however, is water under the bridge. Apologies to those who contacted us and were frustrated when we were unable to help.

Huge Thanks!

Huge thanks to the hundreds of folks who responded to the Just Checking In e-mail. There were so many return e-mails that I simply did not have the time to respond to each of you.

What’s Old on the BIRDS AS ART Blog?

Subscribe to the blog and you will continue to see one or more pretty darned good images in every blog post. And for those who read the whole thing, the lessons in every post will help you to become a better bird photographer. Better yet, those who opt to comment, answer the posed questions, or evaluate the images will learn the most.

In addition to bird photography, I will, on occasion, share some personal stories, some of my favorite music, and/or offer a few health, good living, and even healthy eating tips. Not infrequently, I share the work of Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) students, friends, and talented professional photographers. Most BAA IPTs are first announced on the blog. As a side note, both Homer Bald Eagle trips are sold out (by personal invitation only). If you would like early info on the 2027 Homer IPTs, please get in touch via e-mail or shoot me a text to 863-221-2372.

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.

This image was created on 11 December along the lakeshore near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Seated on the South Peninsula I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 241mm) and the Sony a-1 (now replaced by The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera). The exposure was determined by Zebras with Exposure Compensation (EC) on the thumb wheel. Multi Metering +0.3 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 800: 1/3200 second at f/8 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 5:21:41pm just before sunset. 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: Sandhill Crane grass tossing courtship display Image copyright 2025: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

A Late in the Day Visit to the Lakeshore

Napping Heatlh Tip (or Not!)

Dr. Cliff Oliver states that naps should be limited to 20 or 25 minutes at most. On Thursday afternoon, I had dinner very early at 2:45pm — I do intermittent fasting. I got in bed, read for a bit, and fell asleep quickly. I woke up at 12 minutes after five! Suddenly possessed by an urge to head down to the lake for sunset, I put on a pair of shorts, a long-sleeved shirt, and my soft blue booties and threw some of my photography gear into my X5 that had just been returned by BMW service.

There was nothing on The Perch II so I made a left turn to check out the South Peninsula. I drove by one pair of cranes and decided to work the family that I had photographed that morning. I grabbed the 200-600, positioned myself so that the birds were lined up with the sky color and the setting sun, and sat on the grass to get low in hopes of getting some color at the top of the frame.

Then, the birds began dancing right in front of the sun. I could not believe my luck. Even if you dial in -2 stops, the sun will be mega-over-exposed if it is included in the frame — I had many images that suffered that fate. If the sun is not in the frame at -2, then the images will be terribly underexposed.

Then, I got incredibly lucky with four frames. In what way did I get lucky? Another way of asking the same thing would be to query, “Where was the sun in Image #1?”

Image Question

Do you think that the dancing crane facing us or facing away? How did you know?

Have You Ever Been Called By a Mysterious Force?

I am unsure what possessed me to head down to the lake barely minutes before the 5:31pm sunset. But I sure and glad that I went. Have you ever been called by a mysterious force? If yes, what was the result?

200-600 vs. 400-800

I need to choose between these two lenses often. Since the cranes are very approachable and the 2-6 is much easier to handhold, I decided to go with the 200-600. Had I grabbed the 4-8 I would not have been able to get wide enough to avoid clipping the dancing bird in Image #1.

Contrary to popular opinion, the two lenses are quite different; there is not as much overlap as there seems to be.

Photo Mechanic Screen Capture: Sandhill Crane dancing in front of setting sun Image copyright 2025: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

What Happens When the Sun in the Frame?

Even if you work at -3 stops or set a really dark exposure manually, the sun will be drastically over-exposed if it is not muted by fog or light clouds. RawDigger showed that there are more than half a million over-exposed pixels in this frame (in all color channels). In other words, the image is hopelessly over-exposed.

Typos

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