Scenes from a Bike - Edition 7 - Goats, Birds and Whatnot

Welcome to The Seventh Edition of the series - Scenes from a bike

The concept is simple, I've bought an electric bike, on this bike I explore my hometown, Melbourne Australia and take photos, Priority 1 - Finding new places in Melbourne, Priority 2 - taking better photos, Bonus - Earn back the cost of the bike by creating content and getting paid for it on HIVE.

This Edition facts:

Location: I'm in Royal Park which is a large park just north of where I live in North Melbourne, Australia. I had a new lens to test and I knew I would find birds there as there is a smallish wetland tucked into on of the many corners of the park.

Date & Weather: Saturday the 06 of August, late morning (which means to many of you these are shots from the future - aren't timezones weird) It's still Winter here, it's a nothing day with flat light, not the best for photos, but have to make do.

Equipment: My Fujifilm X-T3, and more importantly my brand new 70-300mm XF Fujinon telephoto Zoom lens, thats 105-450mm in full frame equivalent (which is replacing my 50-200mm). What will I generally use it for - animals when we are on holiday and maybe some sports stuff but I'm keen to see what it does

Finances: The bike cost $1,100 USD. So far I've earned $37.32 from the previous 5 posts (with one pay-out still pending) meaning I've paid for 3.4% of the bike and I have $1,063 to go.

Other stuff: I thought I would see birds, I didn't think I would see goats, the one above and his two friends we in a little fenced off area with a sign saying 'Experimental weed control using goats' Royal park is a strange place.

Let's see what else we found.

7.1f, 1000ISO, 1/250, 185mm
It's another goat, I liked his curly hair. Len analysis - sharpness is pretty darn good, nice texture in the hair - impressed.

6.4f, 1000ISO, 1/250, 450mm

I'm going to attempt to name the birds, but my knowledge isn't great so correct me if you think I'm wrong - This is a white faced heron, the lens is at full extension and again nice and sharp.

7.1f, 1000ISO, 1/250, 450mm
It was becoming evident there weren't many birds around - these Ducks where asleep which was about the pace of this whole thing.

13f, 800ISO, 1/125, 450mm
I believe these are Dusky Moorhens, I shot as Jpegs - this is starting to look a little overcorrected in camera - maybe it's image stabilisation.

5.6f, 800ISO, 1/500, 450mm
I had run out of birds, so it was time to see if this lens could do close-up flora type photos, it was searching for focus a little but I think this photo of wattle works.

F5, 800ISO, 1/125, 248mm
This isn't isn't a great shot but I can see some potential here with that detail

16f, 800ISO, 1/125, 418mm
Out of the wetlands and I found a group of Rose Breasted Cockatoo (as known as Galahs which is their aboriginal name) playing in one of the sporting fields, there is a game of Softball going on just out of frame. I thought about photographing it - but I have another idea for testing that