A short trip to Pagham

On a sunny day in June, a friend and I went for a short walk around Pagham Harbour Nature Reserve, mostly to photograph some wildlife around the area but also to give her new lens it's first walk in the country. (a Canon 100-400 L which is VERY nice http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-100-400mm-f-4.5-5.6-L-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx)

It was also a chance for me to have a go at using my relatively new Sigma 10-20 EX (http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/sigma_10-20_4-5p6_n15/), I've been very keen to properly get to grips with this lens for a while since buying it and this felt like a great chance to have a good play.

The weather was amazing, but I found it difficult to take landscape photos that I was genuinely happy with. I think the cloudless sky took some of the drama out of the photos so I kept swapping lens over and using the Tamron 70-300 Di (http://www.photozone.de/pentax/281-tamron-af-70-300mm-f4-56-ld-di-macro-pentax-k-review--lab-test-report) which clearly isn't a patch on the Canon glass but copes well enough on such a bright day.

The advantage of such bright sun can be seen above, the swan's paddling around in some fairly murky estuary water which manages to look inviting here. The sea was a fantastic colour and remarkably clear, especially when we wandered further round the coast and away from the muddy bits. The tide was coming as well which must help.

I was surprised by the photo above, I took a few photos of this bird (which is NOT a Reed Bunting but er, something else) and most of them were pretty soft and not great. This one came out fairly in focus and although it wouldn't crop in any further it surprised me that the lens managed to get as sharp as it did.

Obviously this photo doesn't come under the definition of 'wildlife' but after taking some photos of pigs a while back (http://edwardbryanphotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/visiting-pigs-at-funtington.html) I think that taking the odd photo of livestock is just fine. I'm quite happy with it as well, the zoom isn't a bad portrait lens when all's said and done.

The Sigma 10-20 did get an outing during the afternoon for the photo above, I thought the rotten lumps of wood were interesting and the water's a great colour. With a little more going on in the sky this picture would certainly have more interest but it's a lens that I need to keep working with to get the best out of. Viewed big, it's not a bad picture.

It's a nice touch that the Tamron has a macro setting and I thought that the dandelion would make an interesting (if not that unusual!) subject. It's come out pretty well, although a specialist macro lens would be a little sharper.