Ducklings

After spending most of this year developing my skills in the studio it was really nice to go out on Saturday and get back to what I enjoy most. That's going out with the camera with a rough idea of what I want to get and seeing what happens. With that in mind I decided to call into where I work, the Police HQ in Portishead and try to get a few shots of some ducklings which are currently being reared on a small pond we have set in amongst a group of offices.

I got lucky when we got there as mum and the ducklings were sat out of the pond and resting in the warm sunshine. Using my 2xSigma converter on my 70-200 lens I was able to get in quite close without upsetting them, they're quite used to people but still wary. I tried to sell the converter last year as at this time it was manual focus only on all my lenses. In fact the only Canon lens it will autofocus with is my new 70-200. I'm really glad I hung on to it now, especially for this sort of stuff. It makes for a heavy combination on the end of the camera but combined with a higher iso in reasonable light it works really well.

There's still quite a few ducklings in the group. Most of these will be taken by crows in the next few weeks, sad but just the way it is.