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Your Call?
Which of today’s three featured images do you like best? Why?
In the Last Blog Post
In the last blog post, my favorite photo was #3 for the swirly, orange/gold water. Only a single reader, John Johnson, commented; he like the two golden silhouettes. Nobody took a crack at the Beginner’s Mistake question so I will not bother to provide the answer.
Summary
I was following two whistling ducks in flight when a Red-winged Blackbird began harassing the front duck. I struggled to stay on the action and wound up making two fairly spectacular photos. Keep reading to learn a lot about flight photography.
Souped Up Super-Fast MacBook Pro M2 For Sale: Price Reduced $200.00 on 18 June
First Offer Is In Place
I have a firm offer for $2300.00 and am hoping to hear from someone who will top that offer as this item is priced extremely low. You have till early July to act.
Yours truly is offering a used, 100% souped up, 2023 MacBook Pro M2 Max in excellent plus condition that was recently refurbished by Apple with a new Logic Board (motherboard) and a new Touch ID Board (track pad). The screen is also in excellent plus condition. Space Gray. Memory: 96GB. macOS Tahoe 26.4.1. Built in Liquid Retina XDR display. — 16-in (3456 X 2234). 8TB Solid State Hard Drive. Apple M2 Max with 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU (MAX Option). I pay the insured Fed-Ex ground shipping. Price: $2,800.00 (was #3,000) or the best offer by 10 July 2026. $2300 minimum offer. Buy it today for $3100.00. Pay by Zelle and we will ship it the next day.
You can see all the technical specifications here.
Virtually the same machine is being offered here for $3999.00. Plus the shipping.
Please contact artie via e-mail or by text to 863-221-2372.
What’s Up?
Monday and Tuesday mornings were quite similar — clear skies from the get-go with the flag hanging limp until after 8:00am. The juvenile Osprey opportunities have – for the most part –disappeared. I had very few good chances both mornings with the whistling ducks in flight. On Monday I went with the 300 and the 2X TC, on Tuesday with the 200-600. I made about 500 images on Sunday, 1400 on Monday. I did get a few good ones. It was pouring rain with thunder and lightning from 4-5pm but at 7:00pm, the sun was back out so I headed down to the lake for a 1.6 mile walk and a short sunset photo session. I made a few nice images including on very special silhouette. I will share that one with you hear soon.
Thanks to long-ago IPT veteran Keith Kennedy for using my Bedford’s affiliate link to purchase his Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5 GM OSS Lens. He received it last week! I am trying to get my hands on one so that I can create a lens guide.
Today is Wednesday 24 June 2026. The forecast is calling for partly cloudy with a light breeze from the SW. I will head down and give it the old college try. Whatever you opt to do, I hope that you too choose to have fun and enjoy life. Please remember that happiness is a choice — Byron Katie, The Work.Com
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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.
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These two raw files were created on 21 June 2026 by yours truly down by the pier at Indian Lake Estates. Standing at full height, I used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera in APS-C crop mode. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 640: 1/4000 second at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. AWB at : 7:35:18am on a sunny morning. Wide/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Photo Mechanic screen capture |
Universal Advice For Better Flight Photography
Pan faster! Matching your panning rate with the speed of a bird in flight is the biggest challenge of flight photography. And that is true whether you are hand holding or working on a tripod. It is of course, provided that you are not struggling to hold a heavy lens, easier to keep the bird in the middle of the frame while hand holding than it is when using a lens on a tripod. Either way, the best route to improvement is to practice, practice, practice. As the two raw files above show, panning too slowly is usually the biggest problem.
Note: These two images, the only ones I kept, were part of a 17-frame sequence (all created in the same second).
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This image was created on 21 June 2026 by yours truly down by the pier at Indian Lake Estates. Standing at full height, I used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera in APS-C crop mode. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 640: 1/4000 second at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. AWB at : 7:35:18am on a sunny morning. Wide/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #1: Red-winged Blackbird harassing Black Bellied Whistling Duck in flight
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Crop and Expand Canvas
In this frame, _DSC8239, both birds are completely in the frame and both are sharp (even at the wide open aperture). Why are both tack sharp? The birds were very close to being on the same plane and depth of field increases sa the distance to the subject increases. Note that the dof is identical whether you are in APS-C crop mode or full frame mode.
A vertical crop was fairly obvious. I expanded the canvas as needed using Content Aware Crop. Just pull the boundaries out to taste and make sure that Content Aware is checked in the dropdown menu at the top center of your screen. This menu is right below the words Adobe Photoshop 2026. This technique is most effective when the backgrounds are totally out of focus. If there is detail in the backgrounds at the frame edges, great care is needed to avoid creating obvious and distracting duplications.
In this frame, the attacking pose of the blackbird with its wings swept back and feet extended is beyond perfect.
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This image was created on 21 June 2026 by yours truly down by the pier at Indian Lake Estates. Standing at full height, I used the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera in APS-C crop mode. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 640: 1/4000 second at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. AWB at : 7:35:18am on a sunny morning. Wide/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #2: Red-winged Blackbird harassing Black Bellied Whistling Duck in flight (two clipped wing tips repaired)
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Clipped Wingtip Repairs
In the next frame, _DSC8240, it is the duck that is stunning; its arced wings offer a spectacular view of the dorsal surfaces resulting in an incredible flight pose. Bummer that I clipped the tips of the first two primary feathers. I repaired both using by creating Quick Masks of the fourth primary and then re-positioning and refining each once it was moved roughly into position. The final step was to clean things up as needed with the Clone Stamp Tool and the Remove Tool.
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This image was created by combining elements from the two optimized .TUF files above. Image #3: Composite: Red-winged Blackbird harassing Black Bellied Whistling Duck in flight (photo illustration)
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The Best of Both Worlds
Painting a Quick Mask of the attacking blackbird (along with some sky) from the first frame, _DSC8239, and moving it into place in the second frame, _DSC8240 was relative child’s play. There will almost always be a tonality mismatch in the sky, slightly lighter or slightly darker. To eliminate that, hit Command > M, Curves on the layer, and pull the curve up or down slowly until the sky matches perfectly.
My Only Question
Should I have positioned the blackbird differently in Image #3? If yes, where might I have put it?
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
#2 for me. I like the position of the feet of the blackbird as it attacks the duck. #1 seems too crowded and the duck’s wings look awkward. In #3, the blackbird looks like it’s easing off its attack.
Yes closer to the tail feathers of the Whistling Duck like the blackbird in image number 2.
Beautiful capture!
Pretty cool! The combination of the two makes for a spectacular image. Re the crop, I would prefer a bit more of a squared image, but not square, to bring the vision toward the viewer, just a bit. I don’t think the top and bottom as presented add much. Just my opinion. Top notch stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Neat!!! I don’t think it matters where you place the blackbird. I like your #3 creation the best because there is more radiated color in the blackbird’s wing position as well as it appears to be more menacing.