It was another quiet day in the garden. Actually it was. Very little at all happened in the garden, but it gave me the chance to practise with the new macro lens (a Sigma 105mm). It's taking a bit of getting used to as it allows very little depth of field, and with no anti-shake built in it means I have to use a fast shutter speed and get the focus spot on. And not shake! Generally it's proving easier to focus manually and wait for the target to move properly into range.
Bee-fly. It's a fly that resembles a bee, proper name Bombylius major.
I was about 12" away from that little creature for those shots. I've no idea at what distance this next one was taken, but the first shot gives an idea. These were taken at 300mm zoom (equivalent to a 480mm lens on a standard film camera). The second shot is a hefty crop. This is the second time I've spotted a Common Buzzard overhead. It was gliding across a completely clear sky, almost overhead but moving away quickly.
A closer view of the Common Buzzard[/URL]
I'm going to close this entry with one more picture. The young fox decided to do his roof top thing again today. I managed a lengthy sequence of shots (and for once he was moving around, not sleeping). Unfortunately, the sun – such as it was – was behind him which meant a fair bit of post-shooting processing to lighten the dark areas of the photos. Click the photo to view the whole series of 16 shots of "Fox on the Roof".
sanshan
10 Apr 2007Wish my camera had that range.
Love that pic of the fox on the roof. :up:
Flying Red Fox Blog
10 Apr 2007That Buzzard has a lovelly feather pattern and texture, very good shot there and the rooftop Fox looks sweet too:D
SittingFox
10 Apr 2007I'm getting very jealous of your buzzard 😉
I tend to have a high shutter speed on the Tamron for the same reason – to avoid camera shake, which as you can imagine is a quite a risk! But presumably with insects you can set it up on a tripod near some food plants or something?