Colorado Bird Photography: Canon 50mm f1.8 II

Recently I have been researching inexpensive macro photography options for my Dad. I guess i'm the only one in the family that likes to spend lots of money on camera equipment. I have Canon's excellent 100mm f2.8 lens so I know that macro lenses are expensive. Still, I thought that there would be an inexpensive option from Sigma etc. that would give decent results. As it turns out there are some quality offerings from Sigma but they are still surprisingly expensive. My next thought was to go with a 50mm lens coupled with an extension tube. Canon offers a really inexpensive 50mm lens for around $90. The 50mm f1.8 II lens is known to be very fast, sharp and cheaply built. After looking at several reviews I decided to buy the lens and try it out. Yesterday I purchased the lens and had it in my car on the 40D. I was heading back from the
store when I noticed some strange clouds over Pikes Peak.

Storm Clouds
1/400, f5.3, iso 200, +2/3 exposure compensation, 50mm, handheld

I decided I would do a quick loop through the Garden of the Gods park to see if I could get some good storm photos. Off of the main loop there is a short road that goes to a parking lot for a trailhead. I pulled into the parking lot but all the parking spaces were full so I head back to the main loop. On the way out I saw a Mule deer nursing two fawns. I took a couple pictures from the car when a group of noisy tourists came walking down the road causing the meal to be cut short. Even with the crowd of tourist standing around yelling at each other the fawns lingered in the area for a couple minutes and I was able to get a few more shots. Considering the bad lighting the fast 50mm lens performed well. A few of the shots were taken wide open at f1.8. With my wildlife lens (f5.6) I would have had to go to a much higher ISO setting.