Retraining my mind

Ok, so the people shots didn't happen. My family is not the most interesting subjects for pictures. So I turned to my old stand by - animals.

I used my new Sigma lens yesterday and took some pictures of my uncle's animals. Goats mostly, but I had to get some shots in of Flicka, his wonderful appaloosa mare. I love that horse. I just wish her pictures had come out better. The focus is much softer than I wanted. I'm trying to learn how to get that focus right with this new long lens. Also, the zoom is not as smooth as I'm used to. It may just take me a little time and work to get used to that as well, but when I'm shooting close to the edge of the range, especially when my subject is moving, I don't get the clarity I want.

For example, Flicka was walking as I took some shots of her head. She's got such a pretty head, and I wanted to capture that. So, as she's walking at a fairly leisurely pace, I was snapping away. There's only a couple pictures where the focus is even decent. The rest are really soft. I was using autofocus, but I was fairly sure I had the focus captured on a good spot.

Pictures will be posted later to show you what I mean.