Critters in the Yard

zackiedawg

zackiedawg

Member
Staff member
I'm usually out shooting the wildlife in wetlands and swamps, but I also sometimes like just hanging in the backyard and seeing what Florida critters show up. ; I did some shooting on Saturday with the Minolta 300mm F4 APO lens of some of my yard buddies, so I thought I'd share some regular yard visitors that we South Floridians typically see during the summer (as always, each direct-posted shot has a link to the 1024x original under it):

Grackles - this is the male:
127288916.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/127288916/original.jpg

And this is the female grackle:
127288921.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/127288921/original.jpg

The ubiquitous blue jay, waiting for a peanut handout:
127288919.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/127288919/original.jpg

grey squirrel, with her peanut:
127288922.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/127288922/original.jpg

And another squirrel, saying 'where's my peanut?':
127288924.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/127288924/original.jpg

A male cardinal enjoying a bird feeder:
127288939.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/127288939/original.jpg

Happily, the green iguanas didn't all die during the cold snap this winter...this 3-footer was shedding his skin and enjoying the shade:
127288908.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/127288908/original.jpg

Then there's this critter, which likes to position itself in the windowsill to watch the outside critters (Sigma 30mm F1.4 at F2.2 and ISO3200):
126685538.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/126685538/original.jpg

Comments, questions, critique welcomed.
 
I 2nd the iguana shot. very sharp. the squirrel with the nut is nice too. how ya liking that lens Justin ?
 
Thanks all. ; The lens is a beauty...I've really taken to it, and despite the loss of some telephoto range compared to the 200-500, when there are birds within the 300mm range, I much prefer to have this lens with me. ; The sharpness even wide open is what's really stunning...it really retains awesome detail. ; The posted shots above which are downsized to 800x don't really show it well - the 1024x originals give some idea of the sharpness and detail retention. ; In fact, on the cardinal shot, the original res photo (4592x 3056) was cropped to 2000x1340 - 2.68 MP out of the original 14MP, about an 81% crop! ; Still pretty decent detail for that much cropping, and being about 30 feet from the subject.
 
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