I was never really enthusiastic about telephotography because I thought I was not going to spend early mornings in the forest waiting for deer or other wild animals where I would need a long focal lens. Professional animal photographers would do that much better than I ever could, I believed.
However, the lock down forces us to spend a lot of time at home. So eventually I tried out an old telephoto lens from my parents to shoot the variety of birds flying in for some müsli grains. The old Canon 75-300 mm fitted perfectly on my mirrowless EOS R. The autofocus is slow, but in my set up with a tripod and manual focus on a determined spot, this did not matter too much. Although you have to readjust to keep the image sharp and of course those birds would just always sit on the branch beside the one I had chosen for the photograph !
Nevertheless, a few really lovely images came out of it. Not that nobody ever took a good (and better) picture of tits and robins, but the winter atmosphere around gives them an almost poetic look. And I already have an idea what to do with them - since photographs should not stay in your computer, but should be printed and go out into the world ! They will be perfect folded sqare postcards for neighbours and friends - probably for next winter's season.
Enjoy and say good-bye to winter !
Petra
