In praise of tripods

The Canada Domain pond at the Metro Zoo is one of my favourite places to try tripod photography, as long-suffering readers of Dubious Prospects are probably already well aware. This has a lot to do with the elevated observation platform with roof. The wood floor does bounce up and down as particularly enthusiastic people pass by, but still; the basically dry, basically flat, and definitely shaded spot is a most helpful thing to have.

This time of year, the frogs have just started chorusing, the male trumpeter swan is wildly territorial (actually launched after the geese yesterday, of course while I didn't have a sufficiently short lens on the camera to attempt to record the event), and the red-winged black birds are quite mad with spring and the prospect of nesting.

So mad that I could actually photograph a female, complete with the traditional "is that some sort of giant sparrow?" moment, without a mess of reeds in front of it. I'm quite pleased with these, and glad I took the tripod and the cable release.

Rokinon 800mm/f8, ISO 200, 1/80
Rokinon 800mm/f8, ISO 200, 1/100
Rokinon 800mm/f8, ISO 200, 1/100
Rokinon 800mm/f8, ISO 200, 1/40

The tripod is a real help. Have to go try for some ducks down by the lake sometime soon.