The neighbor’s herd increased by one this spring. The calf hangs out in the main pasture with mom and the rest of the herd.
As you can see above, it is shy and awkward and loves to hang out near mom.
I took these photos with the 300mm Canon lens to give me some distance so I didn’t scare off the kid.
Technical info: there was some challenge in getting focused and frames shots. The cows are more active right now—maybe it’s the calf; maybe it spring. But a moving cow is a tough shot with a long telephoto lens that weighs about 8 pounds.
I was mostly able to shoot with a wide open aperture, but for some shots there wasn’t enough depth of focus so I had to reshoot some at f/4 or f/5.6 instead of f/2.8. That meant slower shutter speeds, so any cud-chewing, eye-blinking, or walking messed up those shots. You can’t win; photography is a balancing act and one hopes for the best.
The calf didn’t notice me much, but mom sure did. When the calf went to mom for milk (below) I was suddenly persona non grata, and headed for home after documenting the cool reception.
Darling baby. Protective mama.