Trip to Runde, day 2

On the first day we were late back from the puffin colony. Then we spent half the night chimping, chaffing over canned beer, and enjoying an over-late dinner. Those activities put a bit of a clamp of the next day's activities, but the weather was against us anyway. We took it easy and had a long, noon-ish breakfast before strolling over to one of the fulmar colonies. Fulmars are very charming birds, displaying various kinds of both benign and hostile social behaviour. Curiously, I was not always able to decide which was what. Fulmars are also, relatively speaking, predictable in their flight paths. So they are excellent subjects for practicing birds-in-flight shots.

I ended up shooting most of the social interaction with the FA* 600/4, and flight shots with the DA*300/4. The autofocus of both cameras (K10D and K20D) performed very well, and my success rate was higher than I had ever hoped for with the flight shots.

After the fulmars, we proceeded over to the lighthouse to spend the night there. A good night, as far as sleep is concerned.

Here are some of the fulmar shots:

Trip to Runde, day 1

This is the first in a series of 3 posts.

Reverting to old sins, AlunFoto has traveled far to photograph.

Runde is about 10 hours drive from Oslo, and yet the nearest seabird colony. Which was the first reason for going there. Second, it is almost in the backyard (relative to Oslo, at least) of fellow Pentax photographers Tim Øsleby and Øyvind Hopland. And third, I needed some real-life experience of lugging the FA*600/4 around, to get the full appreciation of its size.

As it turned out, I've come to appreciate both its weight and its optical properties, but the week-end started off with and adventure without it. The first thing we did was to take a guided boat trip around the island. The 600mm was just too large for wielding in a small boat packed with birding tourists. So instead, I opted for the DA*300/4, which also turned out to be a stretch on my capabilities for hand-holding long lenses. The constantly rocking boat confused both the "predictive" autofocus and my balance organs, and peering through the viewfinder all the time didn't make things any better... Fortunately, the birds were quite unafraid and studied us as much as we did them. Without their cooperation I don't think I'd have any successful shots at all. Here are a few pics from the boat trip:

Pentax K20D, DA*300/4
f/8, 1/250, ISO 400

Pentax K20D, DA*300/4
f/8, 1/250, ISO 400

Pentax K20D, DA*300/4
f/8, 1/180s, ISO 400

Pentax K20D, DA*300/4
f/8, 1/250s, ISO 400

After a late lunch we headed for the puffin colony. The ascent from the camping grounds were about 1,5 km long and 250 m up from sea level, and provided the first real appreciation of the weight of the 600mm. But bringing it turned out to be very worthwhile. We had a good time while waiting for the furballs, who didn't find time to return to their nests until sundown at around 10:00 PM. A fog came rolling in from behind the cliffs at that point, and made us some spectacular light for a short while.

Pentax ruled the grounds that night. :-)
Pentax K10D, DA*16-50/2.8

Pentax K20D, FA*600/4
f/5.6, 1/180s, ISO 400

Some people challenging their fear of heights on a
neighbouring outcrop, with the sunset fog rolling over
the cliffs behind them.
Pentax K10D, Sigma EX 70-200/2.8

The fog acted like a huge softbox, giving extremely warm
tones to the highlights. This one seemed to enjoy the last
rays of light as much as we did.
Pentax K10D, DA*300/4
f/8, 1/500s, ISO 400