Happy Monday!
I have three images for you today. First of all thank you for the wonderful sentiments and congratulatory greetings for our 40th anniversary. The Queen deserves all the credit for sure, but thank you Kathy for your thoughtful comment. 🙂
Jeanne and I drove to Green Island Wildlife Preserve on Saturday. I really didn’t expect to find much considering it’s still hunting season and the main area of the preserve is closed, but Jeanne hadn’t been there in over a year and wanted to go. We enjoyed the time together.
We stopped in Bellevue for Lunch and this large barge was getting ready to lock through. I’m not an expert on the locking process but South bound barges must need this little tug boat to keep them lined up to the lock. Perhaps because of strong currents but each time I’ve seen a South bound barge lock through the tug gets towards the front of the barge and pushes in a Westerly direction.
Heading home I saw this Red-tailed Hawk sitting on the power line next to the highway. I turned around and drove on the shoulder until I could get this shot. I was still pretty far away but they have a pretty wide level of sensitivity and when you reach their boundaries they’re gone.
So I kept inching up as slowly as I could but as you can see I broke his boundary line and he took off.
Just a word about the lens used for this shot. I purchased it about a year ago. I’ve had a love / hate relationship with Sigma lens for several years. There are some who say it’s just me and my lack of ability and I’ll not argue that, but there was one time that I bought 5 Sigma 500 mm lenses (not all at once) and put them through a series of tests only to determine that whatever particular combination of f-stop, shutter speed, and finger crossing that was required for a sharp image was just beyond my ability. So I would send it back (within the 30 day limit) and order another. I finally found a 500 mm that I could get pretty decent results with and so I kept it.
Then Sigma released the 150 – 600 mm “Sports” lens and I of course had to have it. I struggled with it for almost a year. I got some good shots but the ratio of keepers to throw aways was not good. I finally sold that lens to a company that buys used equipment and decided to try the Sigma 150 – 600 mm “Contemporary” version, which by the was half the price of the Sports lens. Right out of the box on the way home the day I got it I had wonderfully sharp images. I have to say that it is my favorite lens of all time and it has given me some wonderful wildlife images.
Call it the luck of the draw or that Sigma got their act together doesn’t really matter to me. I just love this lens. By the way the full name of the lens is Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary Lens.
Okay that’s my “photography talk” for awhile. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your “rainy” day and be careful.
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