I was in need of a new area to view wildlife. There are just too many people around where I live in the metro Atlanta area. Every place I go there are always people out, which is the opposite of what I am looking for. People are rude and loud, scare off wildlife. And as much as it’s cool to meet new people who ask me about photography, it’s not why I’m out there.
So, from the heavily populated Atlanta, to the practically empty town in NC my dad lives in. I’ve been up there to shoot before, but not to this particular place. I found a nature trail on google maps and decided to go up the next Friday night so I could be outside at sunrise.
I also picked up my sister on the way, since she lives north of me. And we both hadn’t seen our dad in a while. I didn’t expect her to be willing to go on the nature walk, but she was awake and up for it at 6am. So out we went.
Canon 5D Mark II w/70-200 - 1/800 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 400
I got to play around with the 70-200 2.8, and boy it easily became my favorite lens. I didn’t even get a version with image stabilization for price reasons. But the low light capabilities from such a wide aperture was a world of difference. And the auto focus! I didn’t know a lens could be that fast and accurate. You really do get what you pay for.
We didn’t spot too many birds I could get a good shot of, but we did watch a squirrel run out on some branches of a tree. Grab a nut and bring it back for snacking.
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/400 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200
We also found an abandoned Frisbee, there was a disc golf goal somewhere along the trail. Which obviously had to lead to us goofing around and capturing this magnificent picture.
Canon 5D Mark II w/70-200 - 1/1000 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 400
It was out where the disc golf was that the woods had opened up and we had big open fields around us. I managed to take a shot of a blue jay in flight up in the sky.
It’s better than I have gotten with pointing the camera up in the sky, much much faster shutter speed than I’ve done before.
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/4000 Sec - F8 - ISO 1600
That was it for the nature walk. Unfortunately we saw most of the wildlife early in the morning, and although the 70-200 would have handled the low light better, it didn’t have the reach I was going for. So trading off between the two I really didn’t get that good of results. I wanted more reach with that wide aperture… hmm..
Back at the house I turned to the bird feeder, I’ve taken a good amount of pictures of it before. But not with this kind of setup. And I was pleasantly surprised to capture images of two new birds for me. The Carolina Chickadee and the Tufted Titmouse.
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/2000 Sec - F8 - ISO 3200
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/800 Sec - F8 - ISO 2500
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/800 Sec - F8 - ISO 2500
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/1000 Sec - F8 - ISO 2000
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/1000 Sec - F8 - ISO 2000
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/1000 Sec - F8 - ISO 2500
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600 - 1/1000 Sec - F8 - ISO 2500
Then it was on to an afternoon of yard work and being taken out for lunch before heading home. A short trip, but that’s about all I could afford with needing to be back on Sunday for groceries and meal prep for the work week.