Gear Dilemmas

Over the years my subject interests in photography change, change back and change again. Some of this is because of what my opportunities are, sports, concerts, landscapes, wildlife, etc. Some of it has to do with what gear do I own to do what kind of jobs at a particular time. The gear required to effectively shoot sports, wildlife, events and landscapes are quite different. There is some overlap but not much.

Sometimes, the opportunities are out of synch with the gear. I'm not capable of maintaining a collection of gear that's capable of doing each type of photography at the highest level possible. A lot of photographers aren't but when they've got paying jobs they can rent what they need, especially if they're located in a big city.

At one time I had some long Canon L series telephoto lenses I used for bird and wildlife photography. I sold them to upgrade to full frame camera bodies which are more suited for events, landscapes, etc. I've now got a nice set of gear for that type of photography with the occasional sporting event thrown in.

Then, along comes a Bald Eagle nest I can walk to from my home. Until the leaves come out in May this will be an amazing opportunity to document the nesting pair and eventually the young birds. All I need now is the gear.

I'm working on it, although what I end up with won't be at the level I previously had at my disposal. At present, I'm using a Canon 7D body with an EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens. The 7D is fine but ideally I need both longer focal length and better image quality. I can probably pull off one or the other.

In any case, here some 100% crops from yesterday morning with the setup I described. Eggs should be present really soon, which I'll know when the nest is never left unattended. Yesterday, they were both off the nest quite a bit.

Remember, to see the full size image, click on it and then click on it again.