Scattered Thoughts . . .

I'm still waiting to get in to see my doctor (appointment is tomorrow) so I was still just hanging around doing nothing but hoping to find something to do. As I was boiling an egg for breakfast, I noticed a Nuthatch outside our kitchen window... "Hmmmm... I haven't seen these guys since last year!"  I quickly decided that I'd grab a camera and a lens and try to capture a few photos.   Last week when doing the same, I grabbed my smallest camera and longest lens. Since my smallest camera was plugged-in to recharge its battery this morning, I decided to use my larger Sony camera body. Once again, I grabbed my longest lens. I haven't really used this combo yet so this would be a good test while giving me an opportunity to practice on these jumpy fast moving birds.  None of these birds outside our kitchen window ever sit still for longer than about three seconds so you need to be quick if you want to capture a crisp photo. This morning was no different. It...

I've spent almost all of the past eight or nine days split between the couch and the bathroom due to multiple health issues. This morning, however, I felt halfway decent... I was still overwhelmingly exhausted but I felt halfway decent. I was itching to accomplish something... anything... It just so happens that this morning was warm and sunny. Combine this type of weather with feeling halfway decent for the first time in well over a week and it is safe to say that I was going to wander outdoors.  I still didn't feel well enough to work on the yard or house so I decided to attempt some photography in the backyard. I grabbed my camera and decided to test out my newly acquired Canon FD 135mm f2.0 all-manual lens (no auto-focus, no auto-exposure). I mounted this hefty lens on my camera and headed outdoors. This lens is more appropriate as a portrait lens and I was immediately reminded of this fact when I tried to shoot a photo of some dried up autumn flowers... I couldn...

The second of two used Canon lenses I had purchased arrived the other night and I had a chance to wander outside this morning to see how well it works on my Sony camera body.  Unfortunately, this second Canon lens is not nearly as fast at autofocusing as the first Canon lens I had purchased a few days ago so I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping this lens would help resolve some of my longer telephoto woes but now I'm not so sure.  I'm definitely keeping that first lens that I played with the other day to use for landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, and maybe even some indoor wide angle photography. This telephoto lens... I don't know... I'm still undecided. The photos are contrasty and sharp which is quite impressive for such an inexpensive lens but the autofocus is so slow on my Sony camera body that I know it would be too slow for its intended purpose... wildlife photos. I don't need blazingly fast autofocus but I do need reasonably fast... acceptable.....