My weekends usually looked like this. Saturday I did very little productive and played games all day. Unless I went out in the morning or evening for photography. Sunday morning was always the grocery run. Then meal prep and more video games on Sunday afternoon. Or make a big meal, eat too much and nap. But this Sunday I must have gotten that out of the way early and felt up to go look for wildlife. So back up to the top of the mountain that I had gone to a few weeks before.
Only thing time I was testing out a new piece of equipment that I had used my credit card reward points to pick up. I knew with the big lens I needed a better tripod head, the basic ball head that came with the tripod I had was not great. I needed a gimbal. But the best one by Wimberley was five to six hundred dollars. There’s no way I could afford that right now. So I, like most of my purchases for this hobby, picked out the cheapest one by Neewer. Gotta say I’m pretty happy with it at that cost. I still use it to this day, which isn’t even a year later so don’t think that speaks much yet.
I did read a lot of reviews about needed to re-grease it, I have yet to do that to mine as it would require some tools I don’t have to get it dissembled. But it does work, and after owning for a while I would learn about balancing it so it would float and freely move. I didn’t know about this when I first got it, and to be honest I would give up trying when I owned the Tamron zoom lens. It doesn’t make much sense to balance it out when you’re going to be moving the lens and shifting the weight throwing it out of balance again. I would just get used to keeping a hand on it and locking it down when I needed to. For $90 instead of $600. I’m happy.
So, up the mountain with my camera, tripod and new head.
As I mentioned this particular place is busy, very busy. And on the way up the mountain trail I obviously didn’t see anything. But once I was at the top there was a spot where no one was at that moment, and there I found two subjects I could photograph.
The first being this squirrel that was going out on the branches to grab some food, then bringing it back to a safe spot for eating.
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @329 - 1/500 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 800
And the second animal I found was this Mourning Dove. A solid unit of a Mourning Dove I may add. When he puffed up as he preened, he looked even bigger.
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @273 - 1/400 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 100
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @273 - 1/400 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 100
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @273 - 1/400 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 100
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 200
And before I left the top of the mountain I turned my attention back to the squirrel, who was heading onto a branch for food. Although he moved quickly and the photo is a little blurry because of that, it’s still interesting to me.
Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @150 - 1/200 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 800
And that was it for that day. Or at least all that I photographed. I do remember being up at the top of the mountain away from the people and hearing something rustle in the woods. The opposite of the trail that I used to come up. Which I then head down, turned out to be not a trail but how the park rangers get to the top in an emergency. A cleared path big enough for a vehicle. Not easily, but doable.
Since there were signs about it not being a path, not having access back to the trail and otherwise being not a part of the park, I obviously turned around and headed back the right way. So as not to disturb anything or anyone. I never did find out what made that rustle, but I assume it was a deer. As I had seen them before on the mountain.