It’s the new year and I have just a few photos to share from last weekend. I made a quick trip up into the North Fork Nooksack River valley for the first time this winter. As I suspected lower elevation snow doesn’t really exist. Conditions are completely devoid of snow up until about 1,900 feet where snow patches begin. I visited two spots along the river before heading back down valley to the Mosquito Lake Road vicinity.
A lot more bald eagles were in the area versus the middle of December. One tree near the Mosquito Lake Road bridge had about 5 eagles on various branches and several others were visible throughout the general area. I headed up the North Fork Road where I passed a few people who had stopped to watch an eagle eating a salmon. I had a few brief moments to photograph the eagle before it decided to fly away. Luckily for me, a Great Blue Heron took over the meal and I tried my best to get some photos.
This experience convinced me that my current tripod set up doesn’t work very well with my Sigma 50-500mm lens. My Manfrotto 488 ball head just can’t fully support the weight of the lens so too much vibration and sagging occurs. The end result are some less than stellar photos of the heron. I won’t be making a switch to being a full time wildlife photographer so I need to find a solution that will work but not cost an arm and a leg. I think I have it: I’ve purchased a Manfrotto 393 Gimbal Head along with a second center column for my tripod. Hopefully I’ll be able to quickly just swap center columns when I want to use my Bigma lens.
I should be getting these items in the next couple weeks so I’ll have to write up a little review at that time..
