I'm Paul, from Tucson, Arizona. I've been lurking here for a little while, and thought I'd better do the neighborly thing and introduce myself. I've been taking pictures for a long time, starting with a Konica range-finder and later an Olympus OM-2 hand-me-down from my father. Got into dSLRs with a Canon Rebel XT, and progressed to a 7D about a year ago. I have loved nature for as long as I can remember, although I feel quite ignorant about birds when I'm out in the field listening to people around me identifying every bird sound that I can't even hear.
My budget, unfortunately, has not kept up very well with my enthusiasm. Up to now, my main lens has been a Canon 70-200mm f/4 with 1.4x extender (with lots of cropping and processing in Lightroom). But I'm really excited! Yesterday I did my wife a huge favor and bought my x-mas present from her : a Canon 400mm f/5.6 lens! It's on the UPS truck now.
Here's a photo I took last weekend of a bird you might not expect to find in the middle of Tucson and the Sonoran Desert--a Solitary Sandpiper.
This is a terrific forum! I've already learned a lot here, and have lots more to learn. I hope that maybe I'll even be able to help others. Nice to be here!
Hi, Paul, and welcome to BPN! Even as a beginner, you can help others by critiquing their images, and it will help you learn even more too! Looking forward to your participation.
Hi Paul, welcome to BPN!! As bird photographers we're always longing for more reach...but you'll have a killer combo with the 7D and 400f5.6. Looking forward to your results with it!
Thanks for the warm welcome, Christopher and Daniel. I took that 400mm out for it's first real test drive yesterday. Wow—what a lens! It's an unbelievable improvement over what I was using before. Here are some pictures I just posted at SmugMug. I'm really excited to learn how to take this lens to its fullest potential.
Hi from Paul in Tucson
: a Canon 400mm f/5.6 lens! It's on the UPS truck now.
Reply With Quote
