I took this on my trusty 75-300mm lens. I love small birds, and I especially love blue jays and cardinals. I've never gotten a picture of a blue jay, though. I have plenty of slightly-not-publishable pictures of cardinals. This is one of my favorites, for a couple reasons. One, it had better have been worth lying in the ice for an hour and a half. All of my joints hurt. Two, it captures tons of detail, and also that adorable moment when a small bird is shaped like a tennis ball in hopes of keeping warm in the winter. I have a huge issue with my 75-300mm lens not capturing shots as sharply as I'd like. So many come out slightly soft, and unusable, but I can't afford to replace it. So I was VERY happy this one came out.
Virginia is a Great Horned Owl who was hit by a car. She is incapable of using her talons to hold prey, but that didn't stop her from looking absolutely regal in the presence of her audience at a charity event. She was an amazingly cooperative model, allowing me to cut in close with my 60mm f/2.8 macro for this shot of her eye. I am glad the sky and weather were cooperative in providing copious amounts of light for my use.
The running joke between Josh and the rest of us is that the North Carolina zoo needs to fund an expedition to locate their animals. Indeed, many were missing or sleeping somewhere hidden throughout the day. This ostrich, however, was more than happy to pose right up against the barrier for us, looking for all the world like she was smiling. Yeah, I know, her beak can't change shape, but it looked like it. I captured this with my 75-300 lens and a relatively high ISO of 1600. I'm glad the noise on this shot stayed down, as it is a quick way to ruin detail shots.
