Pre(bear)ed for anything
Postponed
For the last few years I’ve been hoping to wedge another bear watching trip into my calendar. These trips, either back to Finland, or to Slovenia have so far been postponed four times, once due to work, once due to funds, and twice due to Covid.
A few weeks ago I made my second trip to the Wild Place Project near Bristol. I wanted to show the intern some bears, (and to get a bear fix for myself).
Big Zoom
I also wanted to give my Sigma 150-600mm a day out. It hasn’t seen much action in the last 18 months or so, and I was starting to feel guilty.
Long lenses aren’t something that I use much for clients, and they don’t figure particularly highly in my personal practice. Aside from very occasional motorsport and even rarer wildlife stuff, I just don’t need 200mm+ all that often.
Overkill
When I went to Finland in 2016 I bought a 300mm f/2.8 and some teleconverters for the trip, which was lovely, but overkill for my occasional needs.
When I got back I decided to part with the 300mm and in it’s place I bought the Sigma. Because it isn’t a Canon L lens, and because I’m a snob, and because I rarely make these kinds of photographs, I have always had low expectations of the Sigma, and it has out performed them every time I’ve taken it out.
Quite aside from being far more flexible than the Canon, even factoring in the teleconverters, it is significantly cheaper and only slightly heavier. (It weighs 2.8kg, as opposed to the Canon’s 2.5kg; I bought the Sport version of the Sigma).
At 600mm it offers an aperture of f/6.3, only a third of a stop slower than the 300mm with a 2x converter, and with out the pfaff of changing everything when the bear moves, or you want to shoot a different corner of the racetrack.
Bear with me
Our visit to Wild Place Project was ace. Even with the pandemic related limitations we saw a lynx, some wolves, some gelada baboons, and some wolverines.
On our first walk along the skyway we saw some bears asleep in the distance, but on a second walk-through we saw them climbing, wrestling and taking a dip too.
I use my digital cameras for personal work so rarely, it was odd to be able to review images immediately, and I felt self-conscious waving a bazooka around while everyone else used their phones.
Whilst it wasn’t the same as heading out to the hides and getting comfy for the night, it was really good fun, and great to see the intern pointing excitedly at the bears as they tussled, or at the wolverine’s lollopy run.
Maybe next year I’ll get back into the woods with the wild bears, I’m excited to see what the Sigma and I can make if I do.
