Yes, my arms are 12,000 miles long.

Dan

For your first attempts, these are excellent, I'd be more than happy with them. Well done!

Dan

So they do! Neil Phillips, another contributer, is a friend of mine, didn't know some of his were on there either.

Dan

Looks right, according to this site: http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/Lygaeidae/scolopostethus_affinis.html

You're welcome. With my flash, it reduces the exposure to f/11 or f/9.5 at ISO200, so it's easier to balance the flash with daylight too, which can help reduce the number of black backgrounds.

Nice shot though, very tricky getting those tiny bugs right.

Dan

I did a double-take, then saw you are in Spain.

Otherwise, you'd get the twitchers descending on you.

Dan

Same here!

I can't wait to spend some time on some bird shots, the ones above were just for the sake of it, to see how well it focused etc. The small birds were taken handheld too, which I wouldn't have been able to do with my Tamron (well, not for long anyway ).

Hopefully I'll soon be able to try it out with the local ducks, and the blue tits and robins at home.

Cheers,
Dan

Here are a few from today, sorry if you don't have this lens yet.

First up, a Whitethroat, shot at f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO200. Uncropped image first, to show how small the bird is in the frame.




Now a crop to show the bird at 100%...




...and now a crop of the top left corner, note lack of purple fringing.




A crop of another shot, same settings...




A Goldfinch, doing a passable Santa Claus impression. Same settings, 100% crop again.




...and another...




And finally Percy the Pheasant, 1/180s, f/5.6, ISO200. Couldn't get a clear shot without the nettles in front of him...




Very few mis-focused shots, and I'm sure that was mostly me getting used to the lens. Did I mention I love it already?

Dan

Just having a quick look through the shots - I love this lens! The goldfinch shots are great, even though the birds are small in the frame - sharp and well detailed.

Will post some soon, as soon as I figure out which ones (very low rate of rejects so far ).

Dan

Had another play with it tonight after my macro workshop, spent a half hour or so taking pot-shots at Whitethroats and Goldfinches, although they were too far away really. But then had a go at 'Percy' Pheasant, which roams around by the Visitor Centre at Fingringhoe Wick. Will post results in a bit, but they looked promising at the time.

Breakfast was scrambled egg on toast with beans on the side. We did the Dawn Chorus walk today at work, although as I'd already got the workshop booked at the other end of the county, I just went in to help with the food. Still had to get up at 5.30am though, which is not my cup of tea.

Cornflakes next year may be a good idea...

Oh, and Keith, perhaps that pic may be on next years calendar, I'll be sorting that out in september so I'll see then.

Dan

The damselfly was from about minimum focus distance, which is a little over 4 feet. I may have been using my 1.4x converter with this shot, can't remember, and you can't tell from the EXIF.

By the way, the converter is the Tamron 1.4x AF, with the power contacts which allows SDM to work too, which is a bonus. Tended to hunt a bit last night, but it was a bit dark.

Anyway, gotta go, doing breakfasts for 25 people!

Dan