Birbs

A few weeks ago I found myself at Titlow Park on the West side of Tacoma. It’s a fun, if not strange, place: it very closely straddles an active railroad line so the sounds of birds splashing and children playing are often interrupted with the blast and rumble of a passing train.

Anyway, I was there to attempt some wildlife photography using a rented A1 and the new Sony 70-200mm f2.8 OSS II. The lens is a mouthful (and a handful!)…but the combination is fantastic.

Sony A1, Sony 70-200mm f2.8

I think I followed this duck around for 20 minutes. He was probably wondering when I’d break out the bread slices. There were others present:

Sony A1, Sony 70-200mm f2.8

Once I had finished harassing the birds, I trekked farther into the woods on the north side of the park. If you follow the paths far enough it kicks you out at an overlook. I think it used to be an industrial parking lot. It has some nice views of the narrows.

Sony A1, Sony 35mm f1.4

This is my first any only experience “birding” with a camera. It’s was surprisingly physical - I was swinging the lens around trying to track the gulls in flight and was doing yoga to get low enough to shoot across the water. The A1’s animal/bird tracking made actually snapping photos easy; I can’t imagine trying to do this manually. Or on film, yikes!