We have hit the serious rainy season here—flood warnings, continuous rain for days, dark clouds, all the joys of a Seattle winter. Nevertheless, I often bring along my camera just in case there’s something to take a picture of.
I stopped along the Carbon River north of Orting, WA, mostly to take a walk but I brought along my 300mm telephoto and a tripod because…I’m an optimist, I guess.
I was casually taking some shots of the river—water is up, but not yet dramatically, so the pictures were not great. And then something caught my eye; a Great Blue Heron about a quarter mile away. I took a few shots, then walked closer, took a few more shots, and then got this close:
I got off one shot at that distance, and then looked to see if I could maybe get even closer, when he spread his wings and took off. I had no idea if the bird was still in focus, I just clicked and hoped for the best—and got the shot at the top of the page.
Really made my day, to say the least. Sony A1 with an antique 300mm Canon telephoto, the nFD 300mm f/2.8.
I had bought this lens recently for a very low price, and when it arrived the reasons for that were quite clear: I couldn’t even attach my camera to it using the correct adapters. It took a few days of trial and error to find all the things that were wrong with the lens and correct them, including picking pieces of plastic out of the mounting, adjusting clearances, changing the infinity focus to the correct location, analyzing problems with the internal filter, and so on.
So good timing all around, and a wonderful lens for about half price…rescued from the scrap heap.
They are skittish and tough to get close to, for sure.