A Year in Minnesota
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the huge drop in photographic activities that occurred once we finished our trip. We spent the first six months living in Lowertown St. Paul, and if I had much interest in street or architectural photography, I might’ve been busy. As it is, I didn’t have a car to get out into the wilderness, and then for a while I didn’t really have a job and I just hunkered down in our apartment.
I eventually pulled myself out of my funk and got out into the parks and preserves. Then we moved into a northern exurb of Minneapolis that put us a little closer to nature. What I have here is the last year and change of photography, all from various parts of Minnesota.
Landscapes
Birds
Macro
New Lens
This year Sony finally released a telephoto lens to rival Canon and Nikon’s longest lenses, the Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8. I got really excited when it was announced, and then when early reviews were positive, I became extremely covetous. I’ve done nearly all of my wildlife photography (including the images above) with a 400mm lens. I’ve rented a couple lenses that reached 600mm, and I’ve found that it’s not enough extra reach to make the weight difference worth it. But 800mm was really intriguing, and it just so happened that I was recently approached to take a side project that would pay almost exactly what the lens cost, so I bought the dang thing as soon as it was in stock.
And…I love it. It’s really big and heavy, but the reach is incredible, and the low-light performance is honestly shocking. The first two images of the cowbird are at ISO10000 and still super sharp. I’m having a lot of fun with it, and spending so much money on it (I think it’s the most expensive camera equipment I own) means that I’ve been really motivated to get out and use it. All images below are from this lens paired with my Sony A7III.
