Greenhill Farm: Small, Far Away

Last week I treated myself to a late birthday present of a Sigma 150-600mm lens so I could get some better shots of all of those little lambs in the fields. On the day of its arrival I took it out to test it. The first thing that I noticed was that it was very heavy, and over the course of the following hour as I battled to keep the lens steady in strong winds, my arms did ache, but it was worth it, because of shots like these:

This ewe looks like she's standing in front of a coloured studio background!

Because I was further away than my Canon 70-300mm usually allowed me, the ewes and lambs were so much more relaxed which was great to see.

Someone needs a bath.

So relaxed. The sun was coming and going from behind big, puffy clouds.

Two small lambs, very far away.

Of course I was still spotted by the vigilant mothers, but they remained relatively undisturbed.

This lamb's mother seems to have shrunk in the wash.

Using mum as a head rest.

This was taken with the lens at full zoom, still handheld remember, and just look at the hairs on this lamb's head!

This was another great thing about this lens - lambs often gather to run along the walls - hopefully I'll be able to get some decent shots of this with my new lens. The lambs only play like this when they are 100% relaxed, and so my old lens could never get me close enough.

Nova and her stunning, gorgeous and handsome lamb.

I turned around to take photos of this lamb...

...and when I looked at Nova again she was standing right behind me with her lovely lamb.

Nova is a proud parent, and I am a proud godparent.

Good girl, Nova!

Over the winter we had a handful of men from the roads service to fix this wall as the vibrations from passing traffic kept knocking it down. The men did leave a bit of a mess behind, and it's a job on the to-do list to pick this rubbish up.