Field Trip

Ken and I played hooky yesterday or at least I guess I did since he is supposed to be retired. We decided to drive down to Santee Lakes to get some bird shots. I loaded up the van with more gear than I could ever use and we took off for east county after coffee. It was a near perfect day, meteorologically speaking anyway.

A wood duck eyeing me somewhat suspiciously

We got to the lakes mid morning and it was a lot different than the last time we were there.

There were no ospreys and few egrets, at least comparatively speaking.

We talked to some locals and they said the reason was simple, it was spring break and the place was teeming with kids and fishermen (not to mention a couple old photographers.) The birds were hiding.

I saw some nice birds, took a few decent shots. Truth be told I am still fighting with my equipment a little bit and now I know the reason why.

The Sigma 50-500mm and the 10-20mm won't work properly with the new Nikon D7200. I contacted Sigma yesterday and they confirmed it, said if I sent them back to New York they would update the chip or the firmware for free. Closeup work on the long lens has been tolerable but the long end has been blotchy and terrible and I am glad that it wasn't just a case of me and my poor technique.

Still just jpegs since Adobe has not yet offered raw support for the D7200 and Lightroom 6 might still be a million miles away...

We met some neat folks, many of whom know the birds on a first name basis.  The heron below is a juvenile, Buddy. He is said to be about a year and a half old.

Buddy's father Billy was killed last year, strangled in a heap of fishing line that some thoughtless person had carelessly left on the shore.

I shot off my Wimberly gimbal head and heavy Induro tripod for a while, panning to get birds in flight, somewhat unsuccessfully. Perhaps it is a fault of the lens not working optimally. I want to get the lens fixed and go back and try again. Got a hot tip about another lake too.

Spent a lot of time looking up duck's bums! Anyway it was a nice day with a pal, ended up at Tommy's for a burger, shot some hawks on the way back. A bad day shooting is still better than a good day working. Cheers!