At the time of posting this message, this image was only about 24 hours old. It's a Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep photographed near Georgetown Colorado. I was on my way to Denver and I decided to pull off the road and shoot photos for 30 minutes. Normally I would photograph wildlife with my Sigma 50-500 and a tripod, unfortunately the lens was in the shop being repaired and the tripod was at home. Instead I was using a hand-held 70-300 Tamron. This photo is a glowing recommendation for that lens. The 70-300 is a relatively cheap lens (Sub $200) yet as you can see it delivered rich saturated colors, and a good sharp image. No filters were used, the Nikon D100 was set to 400 ISO because of the cloudy conditions and low light level. Lens was set at 270MM, F/5.7, 1/200th, no tripod. If there's one lesson to learn from this image it's that wildlife photography doesn't have to be a big budget operation. I produced a nice image using a very cheap piece of glass, taking photos of a herd of animals along an interstate. There was no guide, no trip to a far away land, no 600mm F/4 lens. Just a camera, modest lens, and the patience to work the problem with the tools I had available. When taking wildlife photos remember that they are WILD ANIMALS. That means, leave your dog and kids at home, keep your distance, and have a plan of retreat in case you get charged. For this photo I was sticking close to a mining shack. It acted as a blind, and was also a place to retreat to if the animals tried to charge me. If you're interested in learning how to shoot wildlife, consider one of my digital workshops. As with all images appearing on this site, they are the property of Loren French, and they are protected by copyright. Any images can be purchased as prints, or right to use can be purchased for any use.
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