The cheap kit lens...and the twins

Sometimes I pine away for a nice pricey prime zoom. You know, the one that causes lens envy?
The kind you see pros walking around with? Those monstrous long lenses that weigh so much and are so big that they need a monopod or a handle on them? I'd need a pack mule just to carry one. Yet, in the back of my mind I keep thinking...

wouldn't that be fun???

And then I think about how I hike through the woods and my goal is to carry much less than much more.

I brushed the 'dust' off a lens I hadn't used in quite a while. I got it with my old Olympus camera, the one that is dying a slow but sure death. I purchased the lens over 7 years ago. It's the cheap $99 zoom kit lens. It works 40-150mm which translates to 80-300mm on a 3/4 mirrorless Olympus.

I had at one time in my life visions of becoming a famous wildlife photographer.
Okay, not visions really, just a passing moment.
I don't have the patience to sit for hours to photograph a trophy buck, awesome turkeys, or even regular wildlife. Sure, they interest me, but I'm not one to sit still for too long.

I walked out with some hot coffee in my little travel cup and started towards the blind I'd set up just after sunrise. I'd fed the mules, the dog, and set things up for hubby. As I came over the rise I could see a doe and her fawn far off in the meadow. Too far off to photograph. See?

I needed the pack Llama and that super big lens! Nah....

I got in the blind and got comfy. I sat on an overturned bucket that I'd placed one of those miraculous warming seats. You know the kind you sit on and it warms up? I guess they work as my rear end got toasty warm.

What can I say about that morning sunlight? Just.
Wow.

What could be more perfect than to have a couple of beautiful deer walk into the scene? So this was the cheap kit lens. 

Okay, not too bad right?

Then a cardinal did the most awesome thing. It landed on one of my favorite trees as I was sipping some hot coffee.

I shot through the blind window, tipping the open coffee onto my knee. 

I got a bird! I got it! I was so tickled that I didn't curse at my now wet coveralls with coffee seeping into my clothes under my old coveralls.

Wow!

I sat with a warm bum, and hot coffee seeping through my clothes and thought to myself. Perhaps I could do with this ol' lens after all. There are drawbacks to it. But the good thing is, it is a fair lens for the cheap price. It isn't fast in low light. 

I was sitting there just daydreaming a bit and watching the meadow when I heard a 4 wheeler in the distance. The meadow belongs to the absentee landowner. For several years we used the meadow to graze our large herd of donkeys and a few mares. The deal was, we kept the meadow grazed and mowed for the dude that owned the land so he could walk through the meadow come gun deer season. We'd reduced our herd drastically after Rich's cancer and stroke so we no longer maintained the meadow.

Without going into a long explanation, I'll say this. People I don't know now show up on this remote land. Especially during bow season. 

Well my morning of waiting to see deer in the meadow was done. 

The dude on the 4 wheeler would scare off critters. I must admit, he was not like the 4 wheelers that trespassed earlier this year. His machine was fairly quiet.

I was done anyway. I decided to come back about an hour before sunset to see if there was any action. 

I had plenty of things to do in the house.

~~~~~

I came back after doing chores.

The late afternoon light was as beautiful as the early morning light. The red oak really was showing off.  

Those yellow leaves are from birch trees. How they are still on the branches is beyond me, but they sure added color to a dull landscape.

OH!

There they were ...! The Twins! I'd seen them off and on all summer in my woods via my Trail Camera. Look at them with no spots! 

I crept into the blind and was able to take my time in grabbing a few shots of them.

Nothing to show off in any magazine or anything, but they were a joy to observe as they ate apples on the other side of the gate.

And after about 20 minutes, they were gone.

I was happy. The lens proved to work just fine. It got me close and personal to the twins.

I'd photographed a bird, I'd taken some nice late season shots of the meadow.
I'd say it was all good.

Sunday? We are supposed to get snow. I may have to take out one of the weather proof lenses and enjoy some more fun.