Caspian Tern

It just seems like with one thing and another I haven't been able to get out and take pictures very much lately. And the really frustrating part is I got a new lens for Fathers' Day.  Wendy, who must read this or something, got me the Sigma 150-500mm super-telephoto I'd been eyeing, and man oh man is it a thing of beauty.  I think it weighs more than Maxine.  You can't use a lens like that without a proper base to support it, of course, so I had to get a tripod and head to go with it.  Now I feel complete.  I don't know how to use it or what I'm doing, but I feel good having it.

So the first real opportunity I've had to use it came along, I loaded that bad boy into the bike trailer, and rode over to the park.  It was like the birds were on vacation.  There was just nothing interesting to point it at.  I got excited by a tree full of chirping and it turned out to be just a bunch of House Finches. Finally I saw this great big white bird swooping around the lagoon in Area II right by the Spring Street entrance.  I set up the tripod, dropped the ball head into gimbal mode (see the fancy words this new lens is making me learn?) and started trying to take pictures.

As you can see from the picture above - which was half way across the pond - I might have started with an easier subject than a Caspian Tern.  That bird was zooming and swooping like a fighter jet - making it very hard to track, focus on and shoot.

He'd soar by, see something, swing around upside down (as above) and plunge into the water to nab another fish.  He never missed.  Every dive resulted in a catch.  In that first picture up there you can see him whipping by with another fresh catch.

I didn't crop or adjust any of these except that last one, which is just slightly cropped, in order to give a sense of what I was able to do with the lens on my first outing with it.  A little out of focus, but able to get in pretty darn close to a fast moving bird a fair distance away.  And I got a new bird for the blog! I have a feeling I'm going to like this new lens.

Caspian Tern, July 27, 2010 in Area II of the Regional Park with my Nikon D5000 and Sigma 150-500mm HUGE telephoto lens.