Three amigos

These are meerkats at sunset in Namibia. Every once in a while everything comes together to make an image work -- the subject matter, the light, the background, and the composition. I took this with a Canon 300mm f/2.8 lens before I sold it. I loved the tack sharp lens, but for most wildlife and birds it just wasn't long enough. One time -- only once -- I brought two large lenses with me to Africa, a 500mm f/4 and the 300mm f/2.8, but that was way too much weight and volume to handle on a daily basis. In the end, I sold both lenses and now use the 100-500mm telephoto zoom. I love the flexibility of a zoom lens with composition, and although the maximum aperture is f/7.1 at 500mm, the ability to raise the ISO to unheard of heights and still maintain image quality makes the super fast, expensive, and heavy lenses less important than they once were.