Playing with the new lens
You know that old saying about the difference between men and boys being the price of their toys? I suppose it’s true.
I don’t have, or particularly want, a $20,000 wristwatch r $100,000 car. I get to wear nice shirts, but not $10,000 Brioni suits. But I do have some pretty high class photo equipment, which i justify by needing to have great illustrations for this blog. Yeah, right.
Preparatory to our trip to Antarctica in the new year, I’ve added a super telephoto lens to the arsenal, a Tamron 150-600 mm.. Can’t wait to get shots of the penguins whiskers (do they have whiskers? I guess I’ll find out).
Gail and I went to Santa Cruz last week so she could play cards with her cousin Mary. Her sister usually scrapes up a partner for me, but nobody drew the short straw this time, and I had no one to play with. That seemed like a sign from God that I should take the new big gun and the dog and go walking around practicing. It wouldn’t do to get 11,000 miles away from here and not know how to work the thing.
The plan was to walk around Neary Lagoon, listed online as a great birding site. Sadly for us, one of the ways they protect the wildlife is to prohibit dogs, even cute red ones, even on leash.
Google to the rescue, and we found the duck pond in riverside park, then walked a mile or so up and down the river, noticing the enormous homeless encampments. Modern day Hoovervilles for people who wouldn’t know that name.
Later, we went to the Crow’s Nest, on the beach, to meet with Gail and the rest of the family for a drink and appetizer. When the sun went down I rushed out for the sunset photo above, and the seagulls were a bonus.
I have to say I’m stunned with this new lens. It’s more than I would ever have imagined. It had just been released when we went to Africa a few years ago, and I could not lay my hands on it at that time. Can’t wait to see what I can do with it in Antarctica.
Totally Unauthorized 
Fabulous. I can’t wait for the Antarctic pix.
Beautiful photos. Chris, so you have any photos of Mike? Our kids want to do a slide show. Could you email them to me and then I’ll send them on.
Thanks, Linda
Sent from my iPad
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