More shots from the weekend!

Day two of the lens rental started with a quick jaunt down to the park at the end of my street, a trip to the local conservatory, and a drive into the country for pumpkins. All the following shots were taken with the 70-200 even if it wasn't the 'best' lens for the job. Consider it my attempt to get my money's worth.

The first stop was just a half block away. We live near a man-made lake and at this time of the year that means migrating geese. Lots of migrating geese. I have been using them to practice my panning, and I got a few shots that I thought were worth keeping. I should brought my shutter speed up a bit, so there is some light motion blur at the wing tips.

Not much to say about each specific shot so here they are as a group:







The second stop was the local conservatory for the 'finch and canary show'. Big waste of time, unfortunately. Small birds, lots of small wires on the cages, too close to focus through... No bird shots at all, but I got a few nice shots in the conservatory itself. The flowers themselves were not labeled so I dont know the names of all of the flowers, so once again here they are as a group:









I was happy enough with the lens, but shooting flowers with a telephoto is limiting. As soon as the 60mm Macro arrives, we are going back! There is a sharpness missing from the 70-200 for this application.

There is one more shot from the conservatory, the 'Hobbit Door' which is tucked away in the heart of the conservatory. It's a charming little touch, and I tried to get some interesting framing for it. I know I can do better, I'll be sure to try and re-shoot it on our next visit.



Finally, our afternoon took us on a drive into the country in search of pumpkins for Halloween. We bought our gourds at a little roadside wagon, and it turns out the farmer there buys and restores antique tractors. Can you say photo op?!



I have seen a lot of 'abandoned rusty tractor in a field' shots, so this is a bit of a riff on that. My tractor is clean and shiny. Take that, all you other photo jerks!

Finally, on the way home, I saw a tree. An evil tree. The devil's own damn tree. This tree is sitting, on it's own, in a large field. There are hardly any other trees around, and none within a few hundred feet. So, of course, I pull over and walk out there.

As I get closer, I realize that there are a dozen or so crows sitting in the murder tree looking at me. Damn things wanted to eat my eyeballs. I could feel them desiring my tasty, tasty eye meats. I snapped a shot, and left before the bloodletting could begin.



I think the shot is suitable darkened and monochromed to let you know just how sinister this tree was. Damn thing is probably hiding in my back yard waiting for me to sleep.