New Telephoto Lens!

I've been working some overtime the past couple of weeks to pay for one of the new toys I required. I did a lot of searching around, and DSLR lenses are not cheap by any means. In fact, the one that I got is the base base base model all things considered. No IS, cheap construction and kind of heavy, but I wanted to try one out to see if it was something that I would actually need/enjoy before spending an arm and a leg for one. The good thing about this lens is that when it comes time to upgrade (if there is such a day) it has a high resale value, so theoretically I will be able to get most of my money back. :) So this telephoto lens has really opened up my distance since it is a 70-300mm. I rarely use my kit lens outside anymore. The only downside to this lens is a tripod is almost mandatory if it's not sunny out, but that rarely happens here so its all good! Here are some shots that I took while we were in Santa Monica and Venice Beach last weekend. Most of them were using manual focus, just so I could get used to playing with it and figuring out the mechanics.

It's great to be able to get those long shots now. I look forward to using it more on our cruise in a few weeks!