So what have you been up to over the holiday?

You may have guessed by the choice of topics on the Blog here, I have been out putting the Pentax through its paces.

The word is, in a word fantastic!

I had to give up my much loved Miranda FV way back in 1989 and thought that I hadn’t missed it at all. (I lost the ability to focus on a microgrid after my second cataract surgery and thought that I was through with SLR photography forever.)

I’ve used a bunch of cameras since then, mostly Fuji Super Zooms and I’ve taken some pretty good pictures.

Boy was I wrong!

I’ve been running battery tests on the Pentax, the literature promises 210 frames with normal alkaline batteries, but so far I’ve been getting more than the promised amount.

So what to shoot?

That’s never a problem; there are things all around if you just look. Fortunately I have a wide supply of critters all wanting their share of attention and all willing to put up with the camera to get it.

There’s an Anna’s hummingbird which lives in the scrub by my house. This little bird is terribly curious and always comes to have a look whenever anyone goes out on the back deck. The little devil now comes when you talk to him, so a little conversation and there’s the bird, just right for some action shots.

I’ve had some success getting him on the fly and will keep trying. There’s nothing at all wrong with the bird or the camera, just the guy behind the machine is a little slow.

Then there is the squirrel…the little tree rat gets fed by the house and now he has a whole family living there. There’s a poppa bear, momma bear and little bitty baby bear or squirrel as it were and they all come out to get the sunflower seeds the Long Sufferin tosses for the birds.

Baby bear doesn’t linger long when any human comes around and momma can be a bit shy but nothing comes between poppa bear and his lunch. He’ll let me get within twenty feet so I have a whole bunch of shots of that rat.

Of course the flowers aren’t in bloom but the dead hydrangea has some wonderful blossoms left over from last year and with a little bit of tweaking they can become almost anything.

Then there’s the fish in the Koi pond at Kumyon’s. The fishes are most cooperative and they look wonderful, amazing what you can see if you just look around.

Yesterday I went to Bandon. Now the truth is I went to check out the Creamery, but I took a detour by Face Rock and found some amazing things to capture. The mounted patrol, a runner and some girls making a permanent mark in the sand. The waves washed it out but I have the evidence!

So while I have been away from the computer I have been learning all about the new beast and getting in some quality time with the new darlin’ and here are a few of the results.