Vindication!

Wild Tom out strolling

On Monday I went on a photo trek with co-worker Terry, whose passion is wildlife photography. He has the same lens I just returned and his lens worked just dandy with my camera. It was not my imagination/ineptitude/stupidity or malfunctioning camera that were the cause of the new canon lens screwing up. Hurrah!
Here are a few shots I took with my camera and Terry’s lens a few days ago.

Mama Great-horned Owl at home with her 3 fluffy chicks

Different nest, different Mama Keeping the kids warm

See? See! Perfectly perfect operation of my camera with Terry’s lens.
Enough gloating. Terry gave me some great photography pointers and now once again, I am capable of shooting pics on manual in the manner of "stand back, a very nearly professional photographer working here!" as opposed to shooting on automatic, in the manner of “help me I’m so inept I can’t read a meter or bracket to save my life." geeze, that was the longest sentence I've written in quite a while.Aside from putting my camera/lens fears in the toilet, Terry had great advice finding critters, for example how to locate coyote dens and such. His motto is 'if you can find and photograph animals and leave them doing what you found them doing, that is the goal.' In other words, don't scare the crap out of the critters.

Learn to Leave 'em Browsing

It is my belief that some day Terry’s going to wake up and discover he’s been channeling Steve Irwin. Honestly, he’s that good.

Anyway, we had fun hiking up hill over dale, photographing deer, birds and of course, two families of Great Horned Owls. I learned a ton of good useful information. I told Terry he really ought to hire himself out as an experienced wildlife photography guide. Hope he gives it a go because I mean, he managed to teach an old bat new tricks (me = old bat) and he might as well get paid and finance his hobby/photography addiction. The end of a great outing was a twilight view of a River Otter floating downstream. No photos of the otter, it was too far off and the light was spent - bugger! Oh well, maybe next time.