Photo by Michael Siebold
This little one is a Flammulated Owl I saw on a hike in Death Valley last month. It's also a perfect example of why I love my new landscape lenses. I found the little one on the back end of a 2 mile hike in 100+ degree heat in Golden Canyon. I had decided to take the hike for some landscape photography and to walk through some of the filming spots from Star Wars: A New Hope. Loved the hike and I think I got some nice shots from it, but on the way back I saw what I knew had to be an owl I'd never seen before sitting in the shadows on the canyon wall. Normally I would have had a 70-200 as my long landscape lens and to bring a wildlife lens along I would have had to lug an 8 lb behemoth with me. Since I moved tot he R5, I picked up a 100-500 for landscapes and while I love it for those, it's also proved extremely useful as a hiking wildlife lens. There have been two or three once-in-a-long-time opportunities just like this one that I would have missed had I been limited to 200 mm. All that to say, it's been a lot of fun to be that much more ready for those unexpected gifts.
Thanks. I feel I don't explore specific subs as much these days. My habits have become quite different since focusing on creating posts instead of being a lurker. All that scrolling time is mainly finding things to share with you all now.
I'll rework my article a bit for a more general audience and get it up there. I feel it's important info as places are still pushing natural gas as a more earth friendly fuel, but it's not a pretty subject. I accidentally deleted it a few hours after I posted it, and decided to keep it deleted since it felt too dark for the vibe we have going on here.