Purple Martin Friday 05-06-16

Copyright 2016 AJ Horton

Hello and happy Friday.  For a little over a year now, I've been saving money to get this certain lens for my camera.  It has a long range, like 150 - 600 mm, and, when I put it on my Nikon D5300, the range is even greater  (225-900mm).  That lens arrived today!  It got here later in the day so I didn't have a lot of time to play with it before dark.  The Purple Martins were coming back in for sunset so I started photographing.  I got my chair and sat across the pond hoping not to scare them away.  It worked on at least one, as you can see.  This guy was at a focal length of 750mm, ISO 640, shutter time of 1/800 and f6.3.  I didn't take the tripod out with me so this is a hand held shot with the vibration compensation on.  He looks pretty good to me.  I think I might keep this lens and also get accustomed to using my tripod - or start lifting weights, because this lens is HEAVY!  

I hope you had a light and easy Friday.  Thank you for looking.  See you tomorrow.

Saturday Looker

Copyright AJ Horton


Hello Saturday.  Look what I found a few weeks ago when I rented a huge zoom lens.  For this little lady I didn't have to go any further than my own back yard.  Sometimes the back yard is the best place to be.  How's your back yard?  Do you enjoy it?  Do you have pretty birds like cardinals come around?  Do you have bird feeders to welcome them?  Many people do.  I have a few feeders in my yard. I also have squirrels.  There are times that I sit and watch a squirrel hang upside down on one of my bird feeders and dump the food out on the ground.  I don't much care for that, but, it is kind of fun to watch as he swings back and forth, and, the squirrels have to eat, too.

I hope you had a superb Saturday.  I hope maybe you had some fun in your own backyard.  Thanks for looking.  See you tomorrow.