Chasewater Red Deer

Yah, clear skies and the chance of a sunrise.  It had me heading out of the house before dawn.  It was only as I pulled off the main road into the countryside that I realised that the road conditions were 'challenging'.  The thawing snow combined with freezing temperatures had turned some sections of road into an ice rink.  Fortunately I realised straight away and took additional care.  When I parked up and got out of the car, underfoot conditions were similar, so I donned some spikes to make sure I didn't repeat my nose dive of last year.

I got some pleasing shots of sunrise over the canal feeder, but I'd also noticed some red deer grazing on the edge of the canal.  I swapped lenses and enjoyed a few minutes watching and photographing the deer as they meandered along a path.  One of the beauties of the Olympus lenses is their portability.  Had I been using my Nikon equipment I'd not have even carried a lens with the reach to create this image, which is a full frame image (as is the extra) with the 300mm lens (600mm) equivalent.  What's more I hand held the shot, something I'd struggle to do with the equivalent Nikon combination.  It's one of the reasons I am actively considering just having the one system.  March will be exclusively shot with the Olympus (or smaller) to see how I feel about this.

I know many have already made a similar decision and I've yet to hear from anybody that regretted the decision.  I'll share my thoughts as I continue my testing.  For example, the photography at the indoor athletics last week was definitely compromised by the relatively low ISO ceiling I was willing to accept with the Olympus sensor.  I'd be a lot happier if noise was better controlled up to 6400 iso.