This image was created on Thursday 27 August 2020 at Indian Lake Estates. Working from my SUV, I used the Levered Clamp FlexShooter Pro/Induro/GIT 204-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 1.4x teleconverter, and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital Camera Body.ISO 400. Exposure determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/800 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. The exposure was confirmed as perfect by RawDigger. ABW at 79am on a mostly sunny morning. Upper Right Zone Continuous AF was active at the moment of exposure and performed miraculously well.
All comments are welcome and appreciated. I will post the complete and relevant info from the Spray and Pray and Get Lucky blog post here in the next Pane. There is always a ton to learn on the blog no matter what system you use :)
with love, arite
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In Avian Moderator Gail Bisson’s BPN Semipalmated Plover preening post here, she wrote, I love this particular pose and always “spray and pray” when I see them do this. She got a wonderful frame with the bird preening a tiny feather in its tiny bill. It is a fine image and well worth a click.
Her spray and pray comment got me thinking. I have written here often that when unexpected action occurs, folks should press and hold the shutter button. Spray and pray is pretty much the same idea. With both Gail’s image and my image there was no time to decide which is the best pose when you are in the moment. The human eye cannot see the individual poses and even if we could discern the ideal pose, our reaction-time is so slow that we would miss it be a mile every time. So the best option is to press the shutter button and hold it down while hoping that you get lucky with a great pose (assuming sharp focus and a perfect exposure) …
Learning from the Composite
I was creating some simple vertical head and shoulders portraits. The first frame in the sequence, 5466 suffers because the bird’s head is turned ever-so-slightly away from us. When the bird began to flap I fired off seven quick frames. The key was to trust the AF system and press and hold the shutter button down until the bird quit flapping. I adjust the silver knob on my a href=”https://birdsasart-shop.com/levered-...xshooter-pro/” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Levered Clamp FlexShooter Pro so that I am able to move the lens fairly easily to re-compose as needed. Part of the beauty of the FlexShooter Pro heads is that because of the counter-balanced spring tension, you can do without having to worry about the big lens flopping down; it stays where you point it. But despite the ease of re-framing, note that the last three frames in the sequence — 5471, 5472, and 5473 were mis-framed with the back of the bird’s head and neck cut off by the frame-edge.
Amazingly, the eye was sharp in every single image. You gotta love a9 ii autofocus.
Which of the other frames would you keep? Why?
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
As fate would have it, frame 5470, which featured the perfect orchestra-conductor pose, was the Family Jewel of the series. I wouldn’t change a single pixel and I even love the degree of blurring in the flapping wings. Note: the image as presented above is full frame. Again, it is important to understand that it would not have been possible to pre-visualize or even imagine the pose that would result in the winning image. In the same vein it would have been close to impossible to think that the autofocus system would have ignored those flapping wings and stay glued to the crane’s eye. Upper Right Zone Continuous AF was the key! Those who use SONY and own and have studied The Sony Camera User’s e-Guide (and Video for one body) will be well versed as to which SONY AF Area Modes to activate and use in this or that situation. Those who do not own the guide might be amazed to learn at how Patrick Sparkman and I set Animal Eye AF with both our a9 and a7r series bodies for bird photography …
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of headshots, and I think the wings really lend a lot to this frame. He could be conducting, praying, or plotting the demise of the world; it's really up to the viewer to use his/her imagination. Lighting and details are perfect. I could see a version which looses the body (i.e. the bottom 1/4 of the frame) and just shows the head and wings. Might clone out the second/weak catchlight in eye.
Artie, appears you certainly picked the right one! And yes, the a9 crushed it getting them all in focus, congrast.
This is a very unique frame with wing position I haven't personally seen much of. The sublime green bkg is awesome and hard to hate the red head and eye.
Thanks for sharing and for the spray-and-pray anecdote!
Like how the bird is framed by the flapping action so to say. Here is a question for you why do you get the two smily faces high fiving when you do this? 72
This is really nice Artie! Killer light and love the crop.It really is an unusual frame -in a good way.
The BG is a great counterfoil to the crane.
Well done,
Gail
Like how the bird is framed by the flapping action so to say. Here is a question for you why do you get the two smily faces high fiving when you do this? 72
Wish I knew :)
a
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,