How about it runneth over?

...and is puddling up all over the place... WOO!

I am big believer in shooting for the moon.Why? Because as Les Brown says; "...even if you miss, you'll land among the stars". Speaking of missing, in case anyone missed the digital drama of last week's post, it's here (you'll want the background to keep confusion to a minimum :o) Re-researching cameras led me to discover my digital dream; the Canon SX30 IS. The reason this camera caught my Googling eye is because it boasts a 35x optical zoom; virtually unheard of in a mid-range camera. Translation? Not only could I have photographed the cowboys more closely at the rodeo last weekend, I probably could have brought their nose hair into focus... cooool. Well eew actually, but you get the idea, right? The "IS" stands for Image Stabilization, and is something that Canon excels at. It's a definite selling point for someone like me who has unsteady hands (and a large part of the reason I'm such a diehard Canon fan). So, armed with my list of covered holidays I went off to plead my case to DH.

One thing you should know is that my husband is so tight, he squeaks. While I find this generally annoying, I will admit he is the perfect counter-balance for me. Because I funnel most of my paycheck straight into the non-profit, without his financial frugality we would probably be living in a tent in the middle of the pasture with the horses by now (and is that actually a bad thing?). Anyway, in spite of my campaign readiness I fully expected him to laugh himself silly over my high-end technological request. All I can say is that he must have felt far sorrier for me than I thought; would you believe he said yes? While I admit that my justification speech would have done any [cheesing up for their own car] teenager proud, I didn't even get to finish reciting the full list of covered holidays before he told me to just go ahead and get it. Really? Do you mean it??? Hot DAWG! I shot out the door faster than you could say 35x Optical ZOOM, (on the off chance he thought about it some more and changed his mind).

Of course post purchase, I realized that my alter ego (Techno-Twit) was likely to become a major factor as I struggled to understand what the heck all this hi-tech mumbo jumbo stuff meant. Things like bracketing, aperture, AWB, ISO, M, Tv, Av, and MF (I was pretty sure that last one was not what popped into my head; although I suppose if you get frustrated enough... well, never mind). I decided to just play around with it and see what we got; and quickly too, before I ran out of daylight. I thought I'd start with something simple, like the zoom. Of course first I needed a willing victim. Aha! Found one...

Let's see what this 35x bad boy can do, shall we? I did not crop these either; the first shot shows you where I was standing before I zoomed in...

Holy cow! I can even see the strands on the wire. Awesome :oD Let's see what else we can blow up *grin*...

My apologies for shooting into the sun (I know it's a picture taking no-no, but I kind of forgot about that in all the excitement). Woo!

Since I had such great [albeit amateur] success with the zoom, I thought I try out  the sports setting for some action shots...that part didn't work out so well:

Hmmmm, man that's bad; YUCK. Would have been a nice action shot if I knew what I was doing *sigh*. I kept tweaking and shooting, but when you don't have a clue it doesn't do you much good. I have to tell you a funny, though. Bella is my protector; if any horseplay gets too close to me, she will put herself between me and whoever gets too near  (I have some video of her "running interference" that I will share when I get a chance to edit it). Anyway, when this particular exuberant episode started, Bella was at the top of the hill. She came flying down (running to the rescue - that's my girl :o) and I belatedly thought to raise the camera and get a shot of her charging towards me, but wasn't quite quick enough. I snapped her picture right about the time she slammed on the brakes and gave me a rather frantic "Are you okay?" look. So this is what I got: Equus Dementius Ha.

Needless to say, the rest of my action shots were terrible too, though they all sported the official Bella safety theme...I sure do love those Arabians; they're SO cool!

Well, I guess it's time to check out the manual that came with this cool - yet complicated - technological toy. Here's hoping I can finally find my focus! :o)