Upde Designs

Happy Thursday!

A couple of days ago a good friend of mine asked if I had any long lenses I would like to sell.  After asking a couple of questions I found out that they had an eagle spending a lot of time in a tree near their home and she wanted to Photograph it.

I gave her my recommendation and so she purchased the lens and then wanted to meet yesterday at the Hurstville Interpretive Center.  Jeanne and I drove down to the Center and met with her and her husband (who is a dear friend of mine.) The lens is complicated and somewhat overwhelming to a new user.  So we all drove over to the “Duck Pond” and as luck would have it there were 9 Trumpeter Swans in the water.  They were pretty far away as you can see in the above image, however it was good practice for her to get to know and get comfortable with her new lens.

As we visited and took several images of the swans I decided to put my camera and lens back in the truck.  I kept noticing that the swans were getting closer the longer we were there.  So I went back to the truck and got my camera and once again started taking some images.

Then as if they had decided among themselves it was time to leave they started taking off in unison.  I was so glad I had my camera ready for their departure.  You can click on any of the images to make a larger version of the image which contains much more detail.

I had my 600 mm lens on the Nikon D4S, which has an incredibly fast frame rate so in a sort span of a few seconds I had close to a hundred images on my card.

And then they were gone.  We said our farewells to our friends and decided to see if we could relocate the swans but they were no where to be found.  It was a fun afternoon and I hope my friend gets as much enjoyment out of her new long lens as I have with mine.

Today I am headed out to the wild life preserve at Green Island.  A photographer I know posted some great images from last weekend so I think I’ll see if I can find something interesting.

Be safe, enjoy your day and be careful.