This is the quickest good photo I could throw up from my Florida trip. This is a burrowing owl. This guy(gal?) and his(her?) mate had a burrow in the vacant lot across the street from the condo we were staying in. I had SUCH fun with these guys. These little guys are about 10" tall full grown, these two were about that. This was taken with the B-300 attached, full zoom, handheld from about, oh, 10 feet away after about 10 minutes of taking a little step at a time whenever both of them would look away. Seems I could get as close as I wanted as long as they didn't *see* me move. They definately didn't like the tripod...I tried with it the first time and I guess they caught shininess from the aluminum legs and dove in the hole. Went back an hour later and they were out again.

This is, LITERALLY straight out the camera except for the resize and rotate. I thought the UZi + B-300 did an OUTSTANDING job in this circumstance. I have newfound respect for the camera and the lens.

I'll have a gallery of just the owls up before long (there are many of the 160 or so I shot where they look just so cute) as well as other photos from the trip...got some really nice gator photos (wild gators that is) during a half day jaunt down into the Everglades. STUPID me left the step up ring at the condo...couldn't use it for the birds. Those of you who like shooting egrets and other marsh birds....OHMIGOD would you just die in the Everglades. Amazing.