The other day – or evening, rather – my oldest kiddo and I headed out to do a few shots in order to show someone in the Lensbaby Unplugged group how the Twist 60 performs on a crop sensor camera. I have this silly project where I plan on taking portraits of a group of sheep grassing nearby where I live – they look absolutely magnificent in the low evening sun. Even with those silly pupils, yes, they do. Magnificent, I tell you! So, well, what better subject than those sheep to demonstrate the Twist 60, right?

As it turned out, we were _just_ a little too late to catch the final rays of sun over the field. I still took a few aimless shots, turned around to see if the horses on the neighbouring field would be better models, then turned back again – and then it happened. A growing noise – was it bird chirps? Yes, indeed birds! Lots and lots and LOTS of them! They came from nowhere, it seemed, but most probably they’d been resting in the trees surrounding the field. All of a sudden, the entire flock lifted from the tree, and gave a ballet like performance in the air, right before our eyes. I’ve since read about the phenomenon, and it’s described as “the closest you’ll get to a real-life (but less scary) reenactment of Hitchcock’s The Birds” – to which I have to completely agree.

The Twist 60, as you may know, is a fully manual lens, which made it quite challenging taking pictures of the constantly and fast moving flock. Note, if you can, how the sheep are totally unfazed by the whole spectacle! (And also how that evening sun reflects beautifully in the bird wings in some of the photos.)

I headed back to the car, reaching for my iPhone just in case the black sun would rise again, and indeed! (Please excuse the jump caused by not being able to decide whether to use the 2x zoom or not…)