I headed out to the Bull Wall at high tide today to see what I could get with my current camera setup 40D and 70-200 2.8 with 2xTC and also to see where the birds were at during high tide. It was very rushed. I just happened to look up the net to see what time high tide was. It was 20 minutes away from when I looked. I quickly grabbed the camera bag and jumped in the car. I got down in about 30 minutes. I saw some little egret and grey heron on the right hand side of the causeway road. I think there were some lapwing too. They were far too far away to photograph. I decided I’d walk down along the reserve on the left hand side of the causeway road. Again I saw some little egret, some black tailed Godwit, redshank, curlew and always lots of evil gulls. Everything was too far away to photograph :(. I need to work on my field technique I think. I did get a nice surprise though while scanning the marsh with my binoculars. I spotted a hare a good distance off. I kept watching him and after about 20 minutes he decided to make a run for it. I tried to catch him on camera. Unfortunately the 70-200 with 2x tc is as slow as F*** to auto focus :(. The following are two shots but they are not sharp. If I had had a prime I am sure I could have got a better shot…
I’ve been looking into purchasing a new lens for bird photography. I’ve been reading lens reviews from various internet forums and have cut it down to three options the Canon 100-400L, Canon 400mm f5.6 and Canon 300mm f4 and 1.4TC. I’ve felt the weight off a 500m f4 and it’s way to heavy never mind the very nice price tag that comes attached. I briefly contemplated the 300mm f2.8 for use with my 2xTC. I can’t justify spending that much on a lens at the moment when I don’t even know if bird photography is for me..
Got a text from my mate today to tell me she has an easy 5km walk ahead of her tomorrow to finish the Camino de Santiago walk. It’s about 1 million kilometers long.. well 800km to be exact. Some days she had 40km to complete. It got me thinking about my biggest feat of endurance. Coming a close 2nd was the all you can eat sushi night on Parns’ last weekend in Dublin. Team Louise won that challenge and I couldn’t eat for the next day due to all the sushi consumed. Coming in 1st place for me was the Tongariro Crossing this year. At a mere 18.5km it’s no Camino de Santiago but it felt like 800km when I had finished it. I went back over my photos from the walk and processed two I didn’t do before. It brought back some good if not painful memories.. Well done parns and see you soon..
The boards.ie lads had organised a trip to the zoo. I turned up late after my morning of wrestling a dog (yes I won but my car smells of dog now). I have been extremely lazy with the camera lately. Not sure why, but I thought a trip to the zoo would give me an excuse to take some shots. I’ve gotten interested in bird photography lately. Probably since my trip to the Saltees this year. I was actually looking forward to going to the zoo to see the grey herons that setup camp near the sea lions exclosure. I ended up taking the most shots of them. I’d say people thought I was a complete loon. They are correct in thinking that. It’s rare you can get so close to these birds and I was enjoying shooting them at such a close distance and seeing them cleaning their feathers etc. One of my fav shots of the day is of a squirrel. It’s not a special type of squirrel, just a normal grey one who happened to be sitting on a fence as I walked by. I had the 70-200 2.8 and I love the bokeh from it. Here are some of the heron shots and the squirrel shot and my favourite “zoo” animal shot.
