I woke up with all the good intentions of going out and photographing the birds on The Ranch this morning especially with the Goshawk so busy picking off flickers. But when I saw it was -8, yeah …… no. I still wanted to shoot so I thought for a moment and said I really want to do some aviation shooting and then it dawned on me. Brent & Katt added to my plane Christmas ornament collection last year a cool racer I hadn’t photographed yet. I gathered up the Z 9, the Z50f1.2, Profoto A10 with snoot and went about making a click. I went with the Z50f1.2 because I just love, love, what it does with backgrounds at f1.2. I mean, why would you buy such a lens to shoot it at anything but, f1.2. The lights you see in the background are a mere four inches away from the ornament. The LED lights have a color cast I don’t really like and I wanted a little directional light on the plane. The Profoto A10 was on a SmallRig stand with the snoot clicked in plane. The modeling light was used for placement and then I just went, click! There are two problems with the photo. It was way too easy to do so I was done in a flash still itching to shoot more. And then Sharon had to point one out. She said, “what about the prop blur?” There’s always one in the crowd :-)

Z 9 firmware updates

• The MC-N10 remote grip can now be used for synchronized release on cameras connected via a ten-pin remote terminal.
• Improved focus tracking in focus mode AF-C when [Wide-area AF (S)], [Wide-area AF (L)], [Wide-area AF (C1)], or [Wide-area AF (C2)] is selected for [AF-area mode].
• Fixed the following issues:
– If an option other than [Subject detection off] was chosen for [AF subject detection options] with [Wide-area AF (S)], [Wide-area AF (L)], [Wide-area AF (C1)], or [Wide-area AF (C2)] selected for [AF-area mode], autofocus would sometimes fail when subjects were detected outside the focus point.
– If [AF-area mode], [AF-area mode + AF-ON], [Recall shooting functions], or [Recall shooting functions (hold)] was assigned to a control using Custom Setting f2 [Custom controls (shooting)] with [3D-tracking] selected for [AF-area mode] in the stored settings, the camera would sometimes fail either to focus or to track the desired subject when autofocus was initiated by pressing the chosen control in focus mode AF-C.
– When [AF-area mode], [AF-area mode + AF-ON], [Recall shooting functions], or [Recall shooting functions (hold)] was assigned to a control using Custom Setting f2 [Custom controls (shooting)], the camera would in rare cases stop responding if the chosen control was pressed immediately before or after shooting while [Pinpoint AF] or [Single-point AF] was selected for [AF-area mode].
– FTP errors would sometimes occur during connection to FTP servers.
– Upload to certain FTP servers would continue indefinitely with no pictures being uploaded.
– Once added to [MY MENU] or [RECENT SETTINGS], Custom setting d14 [Release timing indicator] could not be selected in either menu, nor removed from [MY MENU] using [Remove items].

Z1.8 Lenses update
• Added support for linear manual focus control via the lens control ring. When an option other than [Non-linear] is selected for Custom Setting f9 [Focus ring rotation range] in the camera [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU], rotating the lens control ring through the selected range will take focus from the minimum focus distance to infinity, regardless of how fast the ring is rotated. As of December 2022, [Focus ring rotation range] is available with the Z 9 (“C” firmware version 2.00 or later) and the Z 7II/Z 6II (“C” firmware version 1.40 or later).

Z20f1.8 update
Z24f1.8 Update
Z35f1.8 Update
Z85f1.8 Update

Sharon & I have been traveling down to AZ, specifically the southern part for decades. First decades were for birds of the feathered nature and then the last decade birds with metal skins. We never came down that we can remember just because, with no plans. We came down for the annual hangar Christmas party and thought we would extend the trip a few days, “just because.” Having breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants in Mesa, we discussed what we’d do for the morning. I pulled out the iPhone, clicked on the eBird app, clicked on Explore, and five miles away was Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch. We looked at what was being seen there and decided we’d check it out. We’d never heard of it all these years so it would be some place new. We like new!

When we pulled up to the Water Ranch, we saw a lot of cement and blacktop and wondered if we made a good choice. Looked at the map and saw there was a floating boardwalk. That seemed novel so we headed there first. We’d taken just a couple of steps on it and we were mobbed by Ring-necked Ducks! If you know anything about these ducks, they are normally one of the first to fly away, not mob you! Soon, there are nine species of ducks right in front of us, many too close to focus on. I did have my Z 9 / Z400f4.5 w/Z1.4x on my shoulder and instantly needed to take the Z1.4x off but had left the caps in the car. Well, this was quite the greeting and soon we’d seen over twenty species of birds in the town of Gilbert, a suburb of Phoenix which is all cement and blacktop! We spent over two hours walking the Preserve seeing 71 species of birds and photographing 37! This is a treasure for the nature lover, bird watcher, and bird photographer and if you ever find yourself in Gilbert, you gotta spend time at this oasis in the desert, water ranch!