First post, first photo: f5.6 ISO 400 @300mm = 1/1000 s
First post, second photo: f/13 ISO 200 @300mm = 1/250 s
Second post, the one I said looked grainy: f/5.6 ISO 400 @300mm = 1/3200 s
Third post: f/13 ISO 200 @300mm = 1/200 s
No pics tonight. Mother Nature isn't cooperating.
For the non-TL;DR crowd, some background (no pun intended) is in order. I haven't taken any classes in photography, so I've been winging it. Bryan Peterson's
Understanding Exposure was the book that helped me understand the relationships between all the different settings. The rest has just been experimentation on my part. Sadly, until now, I haven't heard of Sunny 16 or, according to Wikipedia, it's partner Looney 11.
Sunny 16
Looney 11
The good thing about those rules is that the math does faze me at all. That's what I loved about
Understanding Exposure, in fact.
I was shooting Aperture mode with spot metering and autofocus. The remote control was set to Mirror Up mode to eliminate as much vibration as possible. The lens is the Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5 - 5.6G IF-ED. I have a 67mm B+W Clear UV Haze filter on the lens.
More links
Nikon lens info
Ken Rockwell lens info
B+W filter at Amazon