Photography as a hobby and equipment
March 3, 2007 – 12:05 am
Beeing as new as I am, and with a VERY limited budget, until now I have settled on using the kit 18-55mm lens. Looking at myself as an aspiring wildlife photographer, I know I need focal length, and quality lenses. This is a bit into the future for me, but I had to get something I could use. A bit of research and advice from other people, I ended up getting the Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 DG APO Macro.
I’m an avid surfer (not that kind of waves), and one of the sites I visit every day to look for new stuff, is PhotoCritic.org. There’s so much information on that site, you can get stuck reading for hours on end. The latest piece: You need a prime lens; get’s “back to basic”. When I first got into photography years ago (before my hiatus), zooms were all the rage, and we hardly learnt about primes. Only that they were there. As I’m now re-educating myself, I’ve started seeing the “real” picture. I love the range of the zoom, but my next purchase is the nifty-fifty. It’s just to cheap, not to have in your kit.
As stated, I just got this wonderful new lens. Yes, it’s a zoom, but I can’t afford a big prime so a zoom will have to do. Lousy weather until today, but I finally got the chance to test it outside. And boy what a test I got. For some reason I decided to swing by a stream that’s not usually running at this time of year, and during summer we have 2, sometimes more, herons nesting here. I’ve never seen them during winter, as they are migrating birds. Anyway, here’s the shot I got:
I know it’s not perfect, but take this into consideration:
I’m very new to this.
Not a steady hand.. Not one bit.
Shot from a roadside.
New lens, I’m trying to get used to.
As I’ve said previously, my PostProcessing skills are very basic. I was very lucky with this shot, as I got it almost right on the camera. Shot in RAW and I only adjusted the exposure-bar when importing. I also cropped the bird and reduced size for web. The image is a link to a Flickr page with all Exif info.
Also got some other shots today, but I haven’t had a chance to go through them yet. Just had to see this one, and I’m sure glad I did.
2 Responses to “Photography as a hobby and equipment”
Hi Geir,
I’ve got that Sigma 70-300mm lens you’re talking about and it’s excellent value for money.
I use it for slightly abstract portraits - if you have a look on my site link the one on the front page
is one of those. It takes a bit of getting used to but I’ve used it for shooting F1 cars, animals, macro
photos of flowers and all sorts of other things - it’s a really lovely lens and incredibly versatile.
I wish you many hours of fun with it!
By Anna on Mar 3, 2007
Even the short time I’ve had it, I’m certain I made the right choice. A bit short on wildlife this time of year, and weather prohibits me from walking with the camera. Can’t wait for some of the snow to go, and being able to shoot in the forest.
Swung by your site Anna, and what a gallery you have. You have some stunning shots there. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
By Geir Andersen on Mar 3, 2007