I woke up today thinking it would be a day of full sunshine, on the east coast we have had an extended cooler spring. Although it was mostly sunny up until 10:30 a cloud cover began to form as I was just getting into a day with the 70-200.
I mounted my Nikkor 70 - 200 onto my camera and tripod and started out with the weather being mostly agreeable, but the wind was not. We had very strong gust and at most times constant 15mph breezes. As anyone using a longer lens knows this is not good if your going after a few bird shots. So, I decided to make the most of it and rolled my ISO to 500. Although the area has many species of wildlife, most often the wildlife does not like to be close to humans and scurry off at the first alert.
Being eager to take a few shots with the lens, I ran across a couple of ducks, so I took a few photos. Further down the trail were several species of birds off in the distance, i snapped up dozens of photos but only a couple were usable - too blurry. Birds are in trees and trees sway to the wind as well as my heavy camera and tripod, so the combo was not agreeable.
Along the path, I snapped a few filler shots and was taken by a nice yellow marsh flower, thus I spent several minutes trying to capture it. If you look close you can see an insect living inside, this is amazing since I was shooting it with the 70-200 lens.
My decision to walk the extra mile was well rewarded when I saw two Osprey's circling. Although I was not in position yet, I noticed one start to take a dive, I swung my camera around and right after the Osprey hit the water I hit the shutter. I managed to get off two photos. Neither is pin sharp but they both have enough detail to convey the idea. I only wish my finger was a bit faster to get a photo of the Osprey hitting the water, or better yet, I had arrived one minute earlier. If so, I would have had the complete set; Osprey diving In. coming out. and then away. I managed to get the out and away shots by being quick on the trigger.
On the way back to my car, I ran across the ducks again and a small turtle. Hope you enjoy.
TrueToad