Yesterday I went out to a local garden with the monster Mamiya 500mm telephoto lens mated to a Nikon D300 to see if I could get some reasonably focused shots. A few days ago I did a posting outlining my initial difficulties in mastering the requirements of shooting in a totally manual mode and I wanted to see if things would be a little easier for me.
It was once again a lot of fun experimenting and I tried taking shots of a wide variety of subjects, including soccer-playing kids, flowers (yes, flowers with a 500mm lens), and a rabbit. Other than the rabbit, I had only limited success. The real test for me, though, was whether I could capture some shots of birds. I noticed a couple of birds perched high up in a tree in a relatively open area and I was able to set up my tripod on the grass and began to make a few exposures. The birds were far enough away that they were not distracted by the sound of the shutter and they stayed in place as I made adjustments. Here are some of my best shots of a crow (I cropped him so you can see the details, including the catch light in his eye) and a mourning dove. I am also including a shot of a bird that almost got away. He flew away just as I tripped the shutter and ended up in the lower left hand corner of the image in an unusual position. I decided also to post a shot of a rabbit that seems to have some personality. In this garden setting, it was the wildest animal to be found.
I have satisfied myself that it is possible to get some good images with this setup, although it requires both patiience and persistence. Is it worth the additional aggravation? My friend, Cindy Dyer, for whom I am testing this configuration will have to make that call for herself.
Close-up of a crow
Mourning dove
The one that almost got away
Rabbit on the grass
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I find shooting on a tripod incredibly inhibiting, as I can never get the thing pointed where I want it when I want it there. Kudos to you for your patience. Love the rabbit photo, and am jealous of how green that grass is. Ours is all dried up.
Believe it or not, I tried shooting with that mega-lens handheld when my friend needed to use the tripod. Suffice it to say that it’s really tough to hold that lens steady. Even with the tripod I probably should be using a shutter release to further reduce any movement. I too love the rabbit photo. Somehow I was able to capture a good deal of the texture of the fur and I think his eye is even in focus. Thanks for all your encouragement.
It’s fun to experiment but I have become particularly fond of autofocus when it comes to photographing things that move!