New Zoom

I think I love this new lens.

It's a monster! Way too heavy to lift casually.

And I made a blunder, but I think I have to live with it. I went to Ritz camera (because I couldn't find a parking space ANYWHERE near my favourite little local mom-and-pop camera store) and bought the only reasonably-priced monopod, and it is a POS! But I desperately need to have support under this lens when I use it for the Whole ENtire Day tomorrow at the Special Olympics Sports Day. But suffice it to say that the Quantaray by Sunpak Monopod is not cut out for DSLR use. Or rather, it SAYS it'll support 3 pounds, but it doesn't include 3 pounds of camera with a feather-weight of my hand stabilizing the lens.

Oh well. Shake it off. I just couldn't justify spending over a hundred bucks on a monopod, when I know a perfectly wonderful one can be had on amazon.com for under $30. Boo. Live and Learn.

I will suck it up and take this trick monopod (the trick? It collapses when you press the shutter! Whee!) with me tomorrow. And then I will whine, and decide if it really is not for me, and if I can screw up the nerve, I will return it.

But what about today?

Look what I saw!

See that? I was ACROSS THE POND from him. I had to shout "Hey Nate! Look over here!"

Same with herself:

And then Skip finished working at his tutoring job, and hiked down to join us.

(too cool, dude. Too cool)

There wasn't a lot of wildlife. We did have some duck action.

And then Kelly caught a frog!

Now Laurie, I need you to skip this next paragraph.

No. I mean it. Just scroll down to the next photo.

OK, now that Laurie, the frog-phobe isn't reading, I have to tell you the funniest thing...

While Kelly and the boys were looking at the frog, I crouched down to adjust the camera, so I could take a closer photo, and...

THAT BLOODY FROG JUMPED OUT OF KELLY'S HANDS, AND LANDED ON MY HEAD!!!!!!!!!

I completely screamed like a girl, which is very much unlike me, and then I screamed "Get it off! Get it off!" and "Get it before it LAYS EGGS IN MY PONY TAIL!!!!!"

Yes, because I am all mature like that. I disgust myself. Of course, the kids were laughing like loons, and left it on my neck for a while, just to watch me squirm.

OK, now I have to let Laurie know that it is safe to read again. So I'm going to put a little photo here. And I'm not going to talk about frogs again.

Well, except to say that Kelly let it go, and it hopped out of her hand, and I've got a great photo of that, but I did tell Laurie that the next photo would be like the Safe Word.

So here's a shot of one of the birds on the trail. I can get SO CLOSE!

The kids had a good time. And so did I.