After discovering a passion for animal photography, I have finally bought a proper telephoto lens. With a 70-300 mm lens, an optional 1.4x converter and an APS-C camera, I get up to 630 mm full frame equivalence. That's more than enough for my amateur ambitions.
Soon after, I took my new lense for a test drive at a nearby lake. I've spotted a perfect place with PhotoPills to frame the lake at sundown. I tried to keep my expectations low, but I also hoped to get some good shots. After arriving at the lake, the reality inevitably caught up with me: a hazy sky and a handful of far away birds didn't promise anything useful. Many test photos later, I was getting ready to call it a day, when suddenly a duck appeared before me and swam right through the sundown reflection. After a few seconds it was gone, but I've been lucky: among all the blurry and out-of-focus shots, there was the one I was hoping for!