It Doesn't Take Much to Make Me Happy!

I had another outing with the Raynox telephoto lens today. You know what? I think I'm getting the hang of this thing! Even though it was a bright, sunny day, I still got great, detailed shots with little or no haloing. Of course, I also shot everything at f/8.0. LOL!!!

Down on Hazard Rd. in Gooseneck Cove the Mallards were standing off pretty far out, but they started swimming in a little when I showed up. Not all the way in, mind you; just close enough to see if I was one of the people who brought food. I hadn't planned to use the Raynox until I got to the Cliff Walk, but these guys stayed far enough offshore for me to figure I'd get some practise. Well, it worked. This male and female pair of Mallards came out really well.


About 30 feet down Hazard Rd. I found this Mockingbird in the briar patches lining the road. I didn't need to use the Raynox for this one - he let me walk up pretty close. Mockingbirds are pretty cocky, and the fear nothing. They can even be aggressive - they used to terrorize our poor cat when I was a kid, dive-bombing him any time he came into the back yard. But this one was content to eat Bittersweet berries while keeping an eye on me.


Okay, on to the really good stuff. To the Cliff Walk and ocean waters we go! All of the following were shot with the Raynox at a very small aperture. There's some haloing, but very, very little.

Just off Ledge Rd. there were a bunch of Loons in their Winter plumage hanging out. I shot a bunch, but this is the best shot:


Farther along near Rough Point I came across this American Black Duck:


I was getting near Sheep Point and mourning the fact that it looked like the Harlequins were away again when lo and behold, there was one of two pairs hanging around and diving near some offshore rocks:




Near the Harlequins were some more American Blacks. I got this shot and included it just so you can get an idea of the variety within the species. There are noticeable differences between the two Blacks I have here, but you can see that they're still the same duck:


Much farther along the cliff Walk, in the more "civilized" section (it's paved in asphalt here) along the grounds of Salve Regina University, I looked over the cliff and saw this Horned Grebe in Winter plumage swimming around:


So I'm a lot less frustrated with this telephoto lens, and I'm getting much more successful shots with it. Practise makes perfect, I guess!