Santee Lakes

65mm 1/640th f10 iso 500

Ken and I were planning on shooting at the heron rookery in Oceanside sunday morning but we had a last minute change of plans. We decided to drive down to Santee Lakes instead, a series of seven lakes teeming with waterfowl. Tom Shearer joined us on our early morning run.

210mm 1/8000th f9 iso 1000

We paid our five bucks and entered the beautiful preserve.

There were countless egrets and ducks ever-present but the scene was dominated by a large osprey in a tree, the stately sea eagle the apparent king of the entire domain.

500mm 1/400th f10, iso 800

I took a lot of shots and put the Sigma 50-500mm through all of its paces.

Here I show a bit of old school grain - 95mm, 1/2000 f10 iso 800

I had heard that you need to shoot five hundred or so shots before you figure out this lens. I think that is about right, although I far exceeded that. Starting to get the hang of it.

Because the Bigma is a full frame lens on the APS sensor on my Nikon d-7000dx rig, all millimeter focal ranges actually increase by fifty percent so 500mm is in reality 750mm.

500mm 1/400th f8 iso 800

The lens likes light, lots of it. I pushed the iso and the shutter speed. I usually shoot aperture priority but found that shutter priority was better for this lens, anything as slow as 1/250th had problems.

High speed means noise but there are ways of dealing with noise. This lens is a F4.5, the last version was 4.0, but I have to assume that there was a good reason for the switch.

Watched Casey here catch and release a nice five lb. plus bass.

I have always enjoyed long legged birds and I took a lot of shots that I am very pleased with. The reflections were wonderful!

380mm, 1/400th f8, iso 800

270mm 1/2000 f8 iso - 1000

The lens was sharper than I expected once I dialed it in. I think that it is going to be a valuable tool as I learn to use it. I have a lot of good material to process already. I hope that you enjoy the shots.

280mm, 1/1250th f8 - iso 640 

380mm 1/4000th F7.1 iso 1000

240mm 1/4000th f7.1 iso 1000

I shot handheld all day, The lens is heavy as hell. But the optical stablilization doesn't work optimally on a monopod or tripod so I kept it in hand.  Thanks Wild Bill for loaning me the sling!