I recently posted a poll on my Youtube channel asking all of you a very serious question. I witnessed an osprey pull something amazing from the ocean and I thought I would ask everyone what they thought it was. A lot of people participated in the poll and that’s awesome. 17% of you thought the osprey grabbed a piece of pizza. 46% thought is was an octopus. 18% thought it was a shark and 19% thought it was a shoe.
And the totally unconventional object the osprey plucked from the mighty Atlantic Ocean is….. A half eaten slice of pizza.
That’s right, this bird grabbed a slice of pie that was adrift in the currents of the inlet. I only know this because a couple of kids next to me tossed a half eaten piece of pizza into the ocean.
And at this point, the osprey is wondering exactly what it has and the moment it realizes, it drops the pizza. Confirmed with photographic evidence, osprey don’t like pizza. Maybe if this slice had anchovies things would have been different and don’t worry about that pizza going to waste either. A couple of gulls made quick work of its remains.
Okay, let’s move on and put both the A9 and the D500 to the test in a low light situation with some amazing black skimmers.
Photographing Black Skimmers can be quite challenging. They are fast and they spend most of their time skimming right along the surface of the water which often confuses the camera’s auto focus. Let’s start with the A9 because I think it handles high ISO shooting a little better.
On its first pass, the skimmer really lived up to its name. It came in skimming super fast and very low. A huge cloud bank was blocking the early morning light forcing me to shoot at shutter speeds that were a little to slow but the A9 had no issues locking and keeping focus in this burst. The smooth glass like surface of the water is a big help here. Ripples tend to confuse most camera’s auto focus systems.
On its second pass the skimmer decided to really put the A9’s auto focus to the test by coming right at me and the shots are nothing short of awesome. The Sony A9 had no issues here either. In fact, I’m only showing a couple of the shots I captured on this pass.
The Sony A9 brings up a very interesting problem. At 20 frames per second, you often wind up with far more in focus shots than you need. This is a good thing because you can really “cherry pick” your shots.
You have to be very conservative with this camera or you wind up spending half your day trying to determine which shots to keep and which ones you should delete. Let’s see how the Nikon D500 handles these fast birds.
Old faithful (My Nikon D500) was up to the challenge here. It had no problems locking on to the skimmer as it came screaming by and it seemed to handle the action quite well but I was feeling the pain of shooting a fixed 500mm lens which on the D500 is the equivalent of a 750mm lens. I was a little too close and my shutter speed was too slow and my aperture to wide to get great shots. In this instance, I preferred using the A9. Let’s see how the A9 handles the magnificent Reddish Egret.
Generally, the Reddish Egret likes to dance like no one is watching but this beautiful bird decided to help me test the A9 with a nice series of in flight shots. The light was a little stronger at this point so I could use a much faster shutter speed to freeze the movement of this incredible bird as it flew past.
The Sony A9 had no problems keeping focus on the bird as it flew past me. Again, the only real problem here was choosing which shots to keep. I ended up with 15 shots in this short but totally awesome fly-by and as luck would have it, this amazing bird decided to land close by and dance its way right towards me. Let’s see how the D500 handles the dancing Reddish Egret.
The D500 is definitely showing its true colors now. There is no doubt that Nikon cameras render colors in a much more natural way and the benefit of the extra reach is really paying off with this incredible dancing bird.
At an effective focal length of 750mm I can put more pixels on my subject and capture more detail. The fact that I’m using a 500mm prime lens is also a huge advantage here. At the time of this video, Sony didn’t have any 500mm glass on the market. That puts the Sony ecosystem at a real disadvantage and I’m sure that will change soon.
And these last two shots are my favorite from the Reddish Egret on this morning. Look at that pose.
Absolutely incredible and look at the size of that wing span. Simply amazing! it makes this beautiful bird seem much larger than it really is.
In my opinion, the D500 is the clear winner here and even though it is only 10 frames per second it still responds very quickly because I had a beautiful roseate spoonbill show up and give me this amazing shot.
Look at the color on this bird. A small cloud bank was helping filter out any harsh light and gave me an nice even exposure on this bird’s wings. Simply incredible detail, color, clarity and speed coming from the D500. Let’s move to another location early in the morning and test both cameras on some Roseate Spoonbills in some beautiful early morning light.
This is exactly what we are looking for. Beautiful birds in beautiful light. Look at the size of the stick that bird has managed to bring with it. This bird must be building a nice big nest.
The A9 did a great job here but let’s add some more pleasing color to the shot like this.
Look at that light. It is amazing what good light does for a photograph and for the last shot, let’s get a nice close-up. There we go. That looks great.
It looks like the A9 did one heck of a job here. No problems with speed or focus. Let’s see how the D500 does in the same situation.
Now that is a beautiful shot full of life and color but you can’t see the bird’s eye. It’s partially blocked by the branch.
That’s much better. Look at the color on this bird’s eye but the entire shot is full of color. Again, that early morning light means a world of difference here.
Now that’s a big stick and I love the dark colored hole in the foliage behind the bird. I also love the shots of these birds when they have their eyes closed. They always appear to be flying in a total state of zen like bliss. Amazing animals. And there is something really beautiful about these next two shots. The colors are so earthy and warm. That golden light so vibrant and I really like the irony at play here.
This bird is carrying a freshly plucked piece of grass to the nest. This piece of grass will die but its death will help support new life. We are Groot. If you don’t understand the Groot reference, no worries. And speaking of Groot, check out the size of the branch this spoony is bring back to the nest.
That is amazing and beautiful all in one. Again, that golden light is just incredible. Let’s have one more gorgeous shot of a spoonbill emerging from the deep dark cover of the palm trees in a nice flying v pose while carrying a water plant so fresh that it is still dripping with water.
I love everything about this shot but talk about contrast. This shot is the very definition of the word. Awesome birds and no real clear winner here with the cameras. I like the images from the D500 more but each camera performed flawlessly here. Let’s try one more test where my favorite bird is the center of attention, the Osprey.
The osprey, this is one incredible bird that seems to defy the odds on a daily basis. Even though there were a few weeds in the way, the A9 had no issues keeping up with this bird as it dragged a massive tilapia out of the water. The camera did an amazing job. The bird did an amazing job but here’s the truly amazing thing that is happening in this series of images and one of the reasons I love this type of photography.
If you haven’t noticed yet, the fish appears to be losing its lunch but that is not what’s going on here. Let’s zoom in a little bit so I can show you.
Those are baby tilapia and if you look very closely you can actually see a few that are frozen in mid-air in this shot. Tilapia carry their young in their mouth in order to protect them. The adult knowing its time is up, is now releasing the next generation of fish back into the water. Absolutely incredible. I had no idea this was happening while I was taking these shots and that is what makes photography so awesome. You get to capture moments in time that happen far too fast for us to comprehend and then stand back and check them out.
This was the first time I actually let the A9 just rip through the shots. I never once released my finger from the shutter button and the end result is an amazing series of images to choose from. Was I lucky enough to get another series of osprey fishing with the A9, You better believe it.
In this second set of images, a second osprey landed a little further out and it too managed to wrangle a large tilapia out of the water and once again the Sony A9 handled the entire series of images like a champ.
Because of wind conditions, the bird flew right at me giving me some simply amazing moments in time and that all important eye contact. Again, I had the same problem of having a ridiculous amount of shots. The A9 is an amazing camera. It just needs a nice 500 mm prime lens!
And the final shot in this series was a nice profile shot of the bird and the fish. Talk about a couple of amazing osprey runs but guess what? It isn’t over yet. Two more very hungry birds appeared overhead. Time to see how the D500 handles some close-up osprey diving mayhem.
On this dive, the bird started to struggle on the surface of the water. When this happens, it can only mean one thing. There is a huge catch in the bird’s talons and it is yet another massive tilapia. I’m really liking the extra reach on the D500. This osprey dove about the same distance away as the previous one did and the extra reach helps me put more pixels on the bird. You can really see it in the minute details in the face and all those water drops.
Check out that right talon. I think this is just a coincidence but this bird is making sure this tilapia isn’t about to open its mouth. The osprey is using its talon to keep the fishes mouth shut. Again, I think this is just a coincidence but still a very chilling thing to witness.
The D500 had no issues tracking this bird as it got real close, in fact I think this is the closest an osprey has ever come by with its fish. What an amazing sight to behold, capture and share with all of you but remember, there was one more hungry osprey in the sky and this one came down into the water a few meters in front of me.
This bird was so close, I could barely get the entire thing in the shot. What an insane moment frozen in time and check out those eyes. This bird has lowered its nictitating membranes in order to protect its eyes during the splash but did it grab anything on this dive?
You bet it did and you can see a small portion of the fish coming out of the water right there but there is a problem here. This fish is just too big! The osprey is trying to pull it out of the water but as you can see from this shot, just the head of the fish is almost as large as the bird.
I’ve had people tell me that osprey’s can’t physically let go of their prey. This is not true. I’ve seen them let go of fish or pizza on several occasions including this one. The osprey took to the skies panting after the struggle on the water’s surface and it didn’t come back. The D500 performed flawlessly here.
I have one more series of awesome bird photography images to share with you. This super cute little Sandhill Crane who appears to have very big shoes to fill. I love how the feet of the chick are in the same exact position as the adult.
That is until it starts jumping around waving its tiny little wings in the air. So cute but this little fuzzball isn’t alone. It has a sibling who is eager to see what all this pecking is about.
This last shot is one of my favorites. It tells such a powerful story and it symbolizes The road to life. The baby crane in the middle is ready to jump right in. The crane on the right is a little more hesitant but they both have the guidance of an experienced adult.
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