I'm starting to really enjoy the Sony 100mm macro

When shooting wild birds, photographers tend to grab the longest lens they can carry. We've all seem photos of them in action with 600mm and 800mm lens sitting in their blind while mosquitos munch on them. It takes a very dedicated photographer to do it.

I'm not one of those people.

Sony invited a group of shooters to the Mountsberg Raptor Centre to photograph the birds of prey and try out the latest cameras and lens. This was a great chance to try gear that you rarely get your hands on like the 300mm f2.8 and 70-400G lens.

I've been enjoying the Sony 100mm macro on the A33 for the past few weeks and used this lens for most of the day. Since you can walk right up to the birds at Mountsberg the focal length worked fine and the close focus was useful a couple times. Each of these photos was taken wide open at f2.8. For the most part the camera was on "Aperture Priority". You can see from the first photo the working distance if you wanted to walk right up.

This is a very small bird, right out of the bath. Farther behind it was an old barn. I love how the subject jumps off the frame while the out of focus area becomes just tone. It's a result of the shallow depth of field from f2.8, the smallness of the subject and the distance from the background.This small owl is about the size of two tennis balls on top of each other. No issues with the close focus though since the macro goes much tighter.Rob Skeoch

My retail store for traditional photo supplies is www.bigcameraworkshops.com