Sheep shearing

Just as it is for the oxen, the sheep need regular maintenance and a hair cut is long overdue in the spring time. The young baby ewes are the most frisky and put up the most fight, it can't be THAT bad can it? D40 and 70-300mm VR.

Shoeing an ox

There are still many people in the area who own a set of oxen, thus the need for a skilled blacksmith (such as Carmen) to change their shoes. In the 1800's, the only way to do so was to place the beast in a large saddle and strap him in to remove the worn-out shoes and install new ones. Sometimes, the whole assembly rocks as the ox thrashes around, who would be happy having a small nail poked into their foot?

It makes for some interesting images. I had to use the D40 @ ISO 800 since I could not bounce nor did I want direct flash. The 12-24mm was the right lens for the job.

School groups at the Farm

I was lucky enough to stumble on a couple of school groups visiting the Farm, yesterday. It was my birthday, so I was away from the usual rat race and wanted to explore what was going on at my favorite photo venue.

The Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 is a wonderful little lens - it's fast and sharp, I have no idea why the camera maker's 17-55mm f/2.8's are so darn huge - plus the Tamron is half the cost of the Nikon equivalent. The built-in AF motor is a bit chattery but that's no big deal most of the time.

The beauty of using the humble SB-600 with the 17-50 is that I can use wider apertures for better flash range, as opposed to f/8 or so with the 16-85mm VR. It's a great mid-priced flash for the money, fill-flash exposures are perfect.

I can't say enough about how useful 1/500th second flash sync is, too bad there wasn't an ISO 100 option on the D40.