The new lens showed up Thursday and I had it out Friday, first at the bark park where I take the dogs to play and then at a park in Carmel, a little north of Indianapolis.  This is a Sigma 120 – 400 mm f/4.5-5.6 lens with optical stabilization, which means the lens can compensate to an extent for shaky hands.

The tree tops were about 80 yards away and the lens was out at 400 mm, hand held.  The lens performed beyond my expectations, I thought there would be significant blurring but there wasn’t.  This lens is going to be a lot of fun.

Here’s the moon, again with the camera and lens hand held.  I’ve never used a lens this long.  The lenses I was used to left a lot to the imagination when photographing the moon, the images were so small.

I’ve wanted to get an image of a goose in flight; our church has adopted the Celtic view of the Holy Spirit as something wild and unpredictable, a wild goose.  The first problem was finding the goose in the sky.  It’s one thing to spot it with two eyes and something else to look for it through a long lens.  Next time I’ll open the aperture up a couple of stops to get the color of the goose rather than just a silhouette.

The park in Carmel was very nice, well worth going back to.  Now if I could just remember how to get there.

It was cold enough that there was some ice on the water but it wasn’t so cold that it was uncomfortable, probably somewhere in the upper 20’s.  This was when I learned that as much as I like the performance of this lens, it sucks up a good bit of power, especially in cold weather when batteries are especially prone to fail.  A second battery was all that was needed.  I have four altogether and they will all be charged and ready to go any time I go out in cold weather with this lens.

I’ve never had a shot this good of ducks.

Again, the lens performed very well.

It’s interesting to go out with a new lens that extends capability the way this 400 mm lens did for me.  After a few shots, I start to see the world with this lens in mind and the image possibilities start to multiply.  I never would have thought of making most of the images here before I got this lens.  The world has become a bigger place.

Now, if I can just find that robin that started this whole business of a long lens.