The Long Lens Landscape

About 10 days ago, I was hiking in Illinois Canyon at Starved Rock State Park, IL.  It was late afternoon when I came upon the den site of a family of red fox, (Vulpes fulva).  There were five pups around the den site.  I was carrying only one lens, my 70-200 f 2.8 and no tripod.  The light was low but with vibration reduction and an ISO of 1600 I was able to get a few decent shots.  Still, I wanted more from this find.  So, 2 days later, I returned with my tripod and 500 mm lens along with a 1.4 extender.  This time there were only 2 pups out and during the three hours I waited, they were asleep for all but about 5 minutes.  Next, I resolved to get there early morning for better light and, hopefully, more action.  I arrived at 7 A.M., this time my 3 hour stint yielded no fox images, either the den had been abandoned or they were off with Mom learning to hunt.  Finally, thinking my luck would change I came back again a fourth time, returning again in late afternoon when I had first seen them.  Another 3 hour observation with the foxes again deciding not to show.

So, what does a landscape/ wildlife photographer do with all that time in one place, a single camera with a long telephoto lens and with no little critters to shoot?  This one decided to use the lens  to experiment with some landscape shooting, not what one usually uses a 500 mm lens for.  Remembering that this location is nearly always devoid of direct sunlight because of the canyon walls and the solid overhang of large trees, I ended up with slow shutter speeds, and relatively high ISO settings.  I also tried to get as much depth of field as possible, therefore using shutter speeds of f8 and f11.  Even on a solid tripod and with the best long lens technique I know of, my shutter speeds were down around 1/15 to 1/50 of a second, far from optimal with a long lens.  I threw out at least half of all my shots; the most minimal of camera shake on the tripod is amplified due to the weight of the rig and the magnification of the 500 mm lens.  Still, I ended up with a few that I like.

Here is an example, a shot of a large mushroom/lichen growing out of a dead log.  The shot was taken at a distance of about 50 yards, at ISO 400, f8 with a shutter speed of 1/50 of a second.  Note that even with an f8 setting, only the center of the target is in focus with both front and back edges being soft.  By getting closer with a shorter focal length lens, it would have been easy  to have the whole target in sharp focus.  Not having that option in this case, I kind of like the resulting image with only the center being sharp.  Making lemonade from lemons.