We have a fun, challenging and productive week of bird photography planned and we’d like to invite you to join us! We’ll be highlighting shorebirds, waterfowl and fingers crossed, a morning boat trip to the Roseatte Spoonbill rockery. Many species will be nesting like the spoonbills, GBH & Wood Storkes and all will be on our target list of stops. We’ll go from lying on the beach having fun with Oystercatches and Skimmers, sandpipers to cypress forests with Pileated Woodpeckers and Owls. There are over eighty species of birds and we’re going to try to at the very least, see them all!

The price is $2350 which includes all transportation once you land in Tampa, instruction, and entertainment. And if you’re into food, well then this is the expedition for you! We’d love to have you join us. I’m limited to just 4 shooters. If you can be one of those, please give Sharon a call 406. 240. 3503 and we’ll get you all set.

I really didn’t even think of it, an email hit the inbox asking if I was curious about my top nine Instagram Posts for 2021. The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind so I went and clicked on the invitation and man, was I truly surprised at the results! The #1 was taken on a whim, taking advantage of a lull in the action of making lemonade from lemons. Who knew a 747 would be so popular? The next surprise was the photo of my dad’s B-29 crew from WWII. I don’t know who took the photo, I can’t take credit for it but very grateful it was seen and liked by so many. Then there are the last five, all big game mammals, who’d thunk it? What’s my takeaway from this?
To be honest with you, for the last couple of days, I’ve been asking myself, what does this say? I looked at our business trend for 2021 and there is no real correlation. I looked at my own personal shooting preferences and a biggie for me, birds, is not even represented here. I do love aviation and big game and that made me wonder what percentage of my IG posts are these two and found it’s a huge percentage over birds. Explaining though your reactions to my photos still has me very much stumped. I’m very grateful for your continuing support and dropping by and giving me your feedback. We can learn a lot from our own photography, it’s the best teacher in most cases. Now, to understand what I’m to learn here and put that into my future photographs, lessons from likes.

Nikon dropped Z 9 Firmware Update today. Firmware 1.10 contains at least:

• Increased the burst length for dual-format (NEF/RAW + JPEG or JPEG + JPEG) pictures taken at 20 fps in continuous high-speed release mode.
“C” firmware version 1.00:
– NEF/RAW (high-efficiency★) + JPEG basic (large): Approx. 3 seconds *
– JPEG Slot 1 – JPEG Slot 2 (Slot 1: JPEG fine (large); Slot 2: JPEG basic (small)): Approx. 3 seconds *
“C” firmware version 1.10:
– NEF/RAW (high-efficiency★) + JPEG basic (large): Approx. 8 seconds *
– JPEG Slot 1 – JPEG Slot 2 (Slot 1: JPEG fine (large); Slot 2: JPEG basic (small)): Approx. 8 seconds *

* The length of the burst that can be taken before the frame advance rate drops. Figures are reference values obtained via in-house measurements performed using a NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.8 S lens and a ProGrade Digital COBALT 1700R 325GB CFexpress memory card. Burst length will drop in some circumstances, including if:
– Backup is selected for Role played by card in Slot 2 or
– ON is selected for Auto distortion control.
• Options highlighted in the Filtered playback criteria list in the PLAYBACK MENU can now also be selected and deselected by pressing the multi selector right.
• Fixed an issue that prevented optional SB-5000 flash units synchronizing with the shutter when all the following conditions were met:
– A shutter speed faster than the flash sync speed was selected with 1/200 s (Auto FP) or 1/250 s (Auto FP) chosen for Custom Setting e1 Flash sync speed in the CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU.
– The SB-5000 was controlled via radio AWL using an optional WR-R10 or WR-R11a wireless remote controller mounted on the camera.
– The flash unit was not mounted on the camera accessory shoe.

I just posted my latest settings for the Z 9. There is a possibility that with tomorrow’s firmware update, I’ll be reposting them but that goes with the territory. Here’s one note on the settings that might have you befuddled. Many love to see through the EVF the changes they are making visually when they change exposure, white balance, and the like. If you are using my settings be alerted that you need to change Custom Setting d8 to the opposite of what I have set and to turn off d9 to see your effect on the photo in the EVF / LCD. If you are shooting a rock or stamp or something not doing much, I would highly recommend no shooting at 20fps! I’ve always thought I had a really light touch when firing off a camera but the Z 9 is so darn fast, even my finger rips off a couple of frames when I don’t need them. This is especially true of those photos of my toes. You know the ones, when your camera is on a strap on your side and you accidentally hit the shutter release. I was pushing a plane into position the other day on the ramp and did this only to find over 100 frames of my feet in the snow. On the flip side, when I want all those frames to capture the slightest of change in action, I love them 100 frames. mtc