Mad Photographer

Now that I have that fancy camera I always feel obliged to shoot somewhat halfway decent pictures.  There have been prophecies that once I have that magnificent photographic jewel that I will have to leave the canines at home and separate my excursions into a doggy outing and a photography outing. So I've been contemplating as to how I could manage to merge two prophecies into one and I think I finally found the solution.........sort of.

Initially I would roam around in the woods with two camera bags. One for the cam and one for the lenses. Gone are the days where I would casually draw my little pocket cam and shoot at some unsuspecting bird flying by on full zoom. The results were usually very grainy and blurred and even some editing wouldn't help improve the result very much. As long as my "victims" would hold still patiently, it was okay. Once they started moving it was a different ballgame. Now with this camera I can't just draw, point and shoot. No - now different subjects and themes require different lenses. Have you ever tried to handle three dogs and change a highly delicate lens in the middle of the woods ? It's adventurous ! Three leashes looped loosely around my left wrist, with one lens in left hand and cam with other lens in the right, I'm trying to exchange the two as quickly as possible without dropping one. So far, so good. :) The furgang has been exceptionally cooperative and I've been extremely lucky that during one of these lens changes no deer, bunny, squirrel or other distraction has popped up on the horizon. That would be the end of the lens I'm afraid...........

Back to the bags. It's getting hotter and hauling several bags around with me are not really fun. Now I put the lens I don't need in a fanny pack and the cam I am slinging around my neck and off we go. That set-up works pretty well and thus we ventured out to the woods to take pictures of insects........or so I thought. I found out, that the world's most effective bug repellent is - you guessed it - a camera ! Not a bug in sight ! At least none would sit still long enough for me to take a halfway decent picture of it.  What we did find was a couple of ducks in love. They were so kind to sit still long enough for me to take a few pictures. Praise to my canine gang - they waited with barking and making fools out themselves until I was done with my photo session. Aren't they great ? :-))

Here are the ducks:

Not too bad, considering the circumstances. Even met a serious photographer, who looked like a papparazzi that got lost. He had about three different cameras, a tripod, all kinds of gadgets and a backpack. He looked at me as if I had lost my marbles. Three dogs in one hand, one camera with tele lens around my neck and a fanny pack to put some spare lenses. What can I say ..........us amateurs.