The weather hasn't been great as of late, but I decided to walk around my backyard anyway with my newly acquired D7000 and 300 f/4 AF-S. Surprisingly, the birds were singing loudly and fluttering about, the squirrels were on a quest for food, and the dragonflies for buzzing around erratically in the sky.
The first photo opportunity presented itself as I walked down our flagstone path. I noticed a squirrel on the fence eating what looked to be a peanut. The distance was approximately 20 feet, but the squirrel seemed more interested in the food than me. With the D7000 + 300 f/4, I had a field-of-view of 450 mm. Not bad! It doesn't have vibration reduction but that is what a tripod is for (more affordable VR). I was able to snap a few photos before the furry little guy (he was actually pretty large) scurried away. The first three squirrel shots were actually taken as he moved farther down fence, where I had to jump into our raised flower beds to get the shots. Don't worry, no flowers were damaged during the taking of these photos.
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| D7000 + 300 f/4 |
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| D7000 + 300 f/4 |
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| D7000 + 300 f/4 |
After the squirrel scurried away into the brush, I walked back into our regular flower garden near the flagstone path closer to our house. The roses were in full bloom and a vibrant pink, with a hint of yellow in the centers. The soft light really made the colors pop. Taking pictures of flowers with a longer focal length really compress the background nicely (bokeh!). Buttery smooth!
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| D7000 + 300 f/4 |
Since the lighting was cooperating, I decided to add my 1.7x converter which created a field of view of 750 mm, and it was a good thing I did!
As I came back outside, I heard some rustling in a nearby tree. I quietly meandered to the back of our property and saw the same squirrel up in a small tree eating leaves. He was constantly moving around and I was able to snap one photo of him munching. After a few seconds, he moved away into the brush.
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| D7000 + 300 f/4 + 1.7x |
Just as I thought things had settled down, some birds were jumping around on the fence about 20 feet behind me. I am not sure what kind of birds, but they gave me some nice poses. Since the background was about 40 feet behind the birds, it melted away. Cute little critters!
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| D7000 + 300 f/4 + 1.7x |
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| D7000 + 300 f/4 + 1.7x |
I was ready to head inside and call it a day when I noticed a dragonfly in a nearby tree. Finally, one had stopped moving! The markings and colors were beautiful! I was able to setup the best shot I could considering the background wasn't very pleasing. I had to shoot at ISO 3200 because of the darker background, but the D7000 did very well.
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| D7000 + 300 f/4 + 1.7x |
Wow....it was an eventful 30 minutes! The animals sure kept me busy. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!
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