Motivated by the spectacular wildlife photos posted by John Brash on the Peebles in Pictures Facebook page, I woke early this morning to go to the Country Club to take photos of the early birds. I packed my tripod, my new Nikon Z6 II mirrorless camera and my spectacular 400 mm f2.8 telephoto lens. Nikon’s new generation of mirrorless cameras has a new Z mount for its latest lenses. Fortunately, Nikon sells an adapter to be able to use older lenses, like my 400 mm, on the Z mount. I have one of these.
I was amongst the first members to enter the Country Club at 7 am. Most were in the gym, but there were already a couple of golfers on the first tee getting ready to hit. They warned me that they weren’t very good and to watch my head. One of them shook a Topflight at me theatrically. I smiled and headed for the lake between the 3rd and 7th holes.
There were a few interesting specimens stretching and creeping out of the bushes. A couple of waders caught my eye in particular. I set up my tripod and hefted the 400 mm lens out from its carrying case. This thing weighs close to 6 kg. I fixed it to the tripod and prepared to attach the camera.
A few years ago, Fernando Morales invited me to his stables to take photos of his purebred Arabian horses for his yearly catalogue. I was still fairly new to photography, but I had plenty of gear. I loaded all this into the back of my SUV – the tripod, 400 mm f2.8 telephoto, 24 – 70 mm f2.8 zoom, 70 – 200 mm f2.8 zoom, Sekonic handheld light meter – I had everything… well almost everything. The only thing I was missing was the Nikon D3s camera.
This morning I was missing the Z mount adapter. I couldn’t attach the camera to the lens. I packed everything up and went home. When I got back home, I thought, “Shall I go back, or shall I go back to bed?” I decided to go back, with the Z mount adapter. I’m glad I did.
