Black-headed Gulls in flight

Adult Black-headed Gulls at Swanpool

Something different

Wild animal images seldom appear on this blog but I took these two at the weekend.  The fox was seen at the cut-off hide at Stithians and the rat was taken at Swanpool yesterday.  They are fairly small subjects in a wide scenery setting.  The are once again taken at F2 with the focus directly on the eyes.

Drake Gadwall on Helston boating lake

This drake Gadwall was very confiding as it dabbled close to the perimeter path.  The shots were taken with the 200mm F2 wide open at F2.  They have been cropped approx 33%.

Nikon 200mm F2 wide open

I went to Par beach pool today with a new lens.  It's one which I have been waiting a while for to come my way.  The 200 F2 is world renowned as a sports lens but I have also wanted to try it on wildlife.  I wasn't disappointed.  In good light today, I used it at F2 (ie. aperture wide open at the maximum) ensuring fastest possible shutter speed and lowest depth of field.  The first results are below and I am pleased.  The main downside is the lack of reach though coupled to a 2x teleconverter, I'm not anticipating any real headaches.  Shutter speed by the way, was 1/5000s !