We headed out to the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge for a little bird photography and hiking session. Kim wanted to do a little hiking, and I wanted to do a little bird and insect photography. I got a new Canon 6D DSLR Camera with 24-105mm f/4L Lens that I was itching to use now that I added full frame camera in my arsenal. My Canon 7D DSLR Camera is a crop sensor camera which is good for birds, but I wanted a full frame for doing macro work and wide angle shots.
I set Kim up with the Canon 6D DSLR Camera for the day along with a Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM APO Macro Lens for doing all the macro shots while we were there at the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge. Kim shot a great photograph of a Monarch butterfly in a field of yellow daisies that was great. The photograph was perfect! She shot the right depth of field and the bokeh was perfect, pretty good for her first time doing this type of photography.
We traveled around to several different locations inside the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge during the day seeing some incredible sights. At one point, while standing by a huge pond, Kim spotted two little tree frogs on some Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) right by the pond. So as I am fiddling to get the camera settings right in the view finder, Kim says, "There is a humming bird right in front of you." I thought surely she's pulling my leg because I see no humming bird in my cameras view finder, so I pop up over my camera, and a foot and a half from my face, eye to eye, is a humming bird staring at me. It was hovering right above a little branch from a bush growing by the lake there in the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge. I tried to focus as quick as I could, but I moved too fast, and the humming bird zipped off before I could get a shot. I told Kim the Lord has a funny sense of humor. I was just saying to her, "Where are all the birds?" Then, the Lord sends one right in my face, too close for me to photograph with all my new fan-dangled equipment. Over all we had a great time shooting photography at the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge
