Splotchy Revisited

This young cowbird hung around the yard for a while last August. I took to calling him Splotchy.

This is the same photo as last year's 366 Snaps pic, but it's been processed a bit differently. The obvious change is that I've reduced the contrast.

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"But it's got a 'been there, done that' feel to it." So I said yesterday, in my comments on a fairly similar photograph. And that's true. But there are reasons--beyond the simple fact that I like having birds in the yard--to make these photographs with this setup.

While my 300 mm prime is certainly a capable lens for many purposes, in my kit its main roles are photographing birds and baseball players. The 80-200 mm I used for this photo works nearly as well for those uses--as this photo shows--but it's far more flexible. I'd never carry the 300 on a beach; I often take the 80-200.

Technically, this is the best lens I own. It's reasonably fast (f2.8 at every focal length), focuses quickly, and doesn't much distort the light. Moreover, it's relatively lightweight for a longer lens. It lacks VR, but I'm pretty good at hand-held--and I use a tripod or monopod when it's appropriate. I bought the lens new at closeout prices when Nikon introduced its replacement, and really haven't regretted owning it.

When I was a young photographer the performance deviations between fixed-length primes and zooms were fairly dramatic. These days there are still differences, but most of us are able to get consistently excellent photographs using modern zooms. I'm happy with the tradeoffs.

As I've mentioned before: All cameras are compromises, and all are compromised. My kit consists of compromises I've decided I can live with. Finding those took years of experimentation, and I've owned quite a few lenses. YMMV, of course, and we should both be happy about that.

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I need to point out that I've never considered selling the 300 mm. It, too, serves purposes in my kit.

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This photograph is an outtake--actually, a different version of the same photo--from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps.

Number of project photos taken: 56
Title of "roll:" Birds
Other photos taken on 8/5/2012: Joan harvested some pretty beans.