Pushing the boundaries?

I was fiddling around with one of my cameras this morning, just seeing how it felt in my hand really and trying a few things out. I hadn't had a DSLR in my hands for at least 12 months

It was just after 8:00am, windy, spitting rain. The skies were dark with heavy cloud cover, consequently the light was very flat so not ideal conditions for natural light photography at all. Undaunted, I ventured out into the garden and shot this:

ISO 2000, aperture f5.6, shutter speed 1/400 sec, focal length 300mm, flash did not fire

The camera was hand-held and I tried to focus on the stamen - not too easy given the flower heads were waving about in the wind. Here's another effort:

ISO 2000, aperture f5.6, shutter speed 1/400 sec, focal length 300mm, flash did not fire

The camera settings are a bit extreme for me, I rarely shoot with a film rating above ISO 400 and in the available light conditions I would normally use a tripod or some other form of camera support with a 300mm lens. However this morning's experiment was to see whether I could handle a camera again and I think the answer to that question is a resounding yes! Happy bunny. 😃