Every now and then one of my readers will ask me to post photos of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, my favorite local wildlife photography spot. Usually I have either a telephoto or macro lens on my camera, neither of which is all that suitable for landscape-type shots. If I thought about it, I could switch to a wider lens and generally have one with me in my backpack, but it is kind of a hassle to do so.
This past week I have been finally shooting with my Tamron 18-400mm zoom lens, which I bought months and months ago, but had rarely used. This lens gives me good all-round capability in terms of focal length, but I wasn’t sure how it would handle the kinds of shots that I like to take. Could it handle macro-style shots of dragonflies? How would it handle birds, especially birds in flight?
I am still working on the answering those questions, but so far the results look promising. The dragonfly photos in my past two postings were taken with this lens, as were the landscape photos in this posting. One of the challenges of using this kind of all-in-one lens is that I have to retrain my eyes to look everywhere—when I have a long telephoto lens on my camera, I look mostly into the distance and when I use a macro lens, I look mostly at areas that are close to me.
As you can see in these photos, water is one of the features of this wildlife refuge. Sometimes I search for subjects near the ponds and streams and at other times I focus my attention on the wider waters of the bay. At this time of the year, the vegetation is green and lush. Fortunately the foliage on the trees provides some respite from the oppressive heat that is common here in the summers.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
It’s interesting how these photos differ from the mental image I had of ‘your’ refuge. I think it’s seeing the water that makes the difference. Obviously, some had to be around, or you’d have far fewer dragonflies, but it’s fun seeing the water’s expanse, and the plant life.
Of course, there are quite a number of different habitats at the refuge, which encompasses 644 acres, half of which is wetlands. There are a little over four miles of trails, some of which run parallel to the water and some of which go through fields and woods. I am pretty familiar with almost all of the trails by now. 🙂
I love your refuge, Mike!
I think you will find that Tamron 18-400 better than you would expect, but once in a while a great frustration. I have used it for years, and will complain bitterly when I try to push it for a fast flying critter, or very low light. And yet it is always attached to one of my 7d2’s. Every focal length when I need it, I can get close to the tiny lizards, a bit of extra post and things are good.
Your 180 prime, with the flat glass, is certainly better for the macro work you do. However you can get closer than most other lens with 18-400, just expect the edges to be soft.
All this IMHO of course 😂😂😂
Thanks for sharing your experience, Ted. I am going out with the 18-400mm today (with the Tamron 180mm macro in my backpack) to continue my experiments. I have learned to live with the limitations of my Tamron 150-600mm, so I am used to accepting some compromises, which are certainly inevitable with lens with as wide a zoom range as the 18-400mm. I am getting ready to go on a trip and am thinking of bringing along this new lens, rather than the longer zoom lens. I’ll continue to share my experience as I learn to use this lens.
Good luck today. My last trip to NC I only used the Tamron.
Very nice Mike! Looks like a Great Refuge to photograph!
There are few spots that I visit where I rarely if ever see anyone else so I guess I could follow your example and consider them mine as well. Some places do see rather “homeish” and we get comfortable there. And, of course, familiarity with a location is to our benefit. You’ve mentioned Occoquan often so it’s nice to see what your refuge looks like.