Second outing with new camera

Steve and I took Emma for a walk this evening so that I could continue to put my new camera through a test. We first went to the OSU wetlands park with the hope of seeing the green heron again. We saw a pair of them tonight. Most of the photos in this post were taken with my 300 mm lens without a tripod. I have to shoot at a fast shutter speed and take a lot of extra photos to get a few to turn out. I'll have to try a photoshoot with my tripod for comparison, but if I can get the pictures to work without having to haul the tripod around I would be much happier about things.





Here's another Great Blue Heron that was perching on the boardwalk in the wetlands park.















Here's the elusive Green Heron, which is much smaller than the GBH. The other one wasn't quite as brilliantly colored as was this one. I'm going to have to try another photo shoot where I get a bit closer, but I'm pretty happy with this first snapshot.







After trying out the camera with the heron pictures, I wanted to see if I could do some pollination photography. Here are some bees working on these yellow composite flowers.












Here's a closer view of one of the bees.
















The monarch butterly migration is underway. Most of the ones I spotted this evening are looking pretty ragged from this season.












This one looks a little better than most.














After visiting the wetlands park we drove up to Northmoor Park to walk up to the Whetstone Prairie. This is along the Olentangy bike path and it makes a nice walk. Emma is always hoping to find another water snake along the river. A bunny or muskrat would do as nicely, though.








When we came up to the Whetstone Prairie we saw a raptor fly into a tree at the north edge. Several people had gathered there to watch it eat what it had caught. It was just finishing its meal when we caught up to the site, and what a great opportunity for trying out my 300 mm zoom lens! The hawk seems to be saying, "are you looking at me?"













Well, I'll look at you, too. . .

















Hmmm, that miniature dachshund looks like dessert.













And the final test picture of the day is of this orb weaver spider. This critter was about 3 inches long.