Sunday, December 11, 2011

According to Plan


Thank you everyone for your wonderful birthday wishes, I had a great day!  It started with lovely cards from my family and a special gift from Mr. Tide.  He bought me a teleconverter for my big lens.  It is a special piece of equipment that can give your lens even more range, so it's great for trying to capture wildlife or things that are far, far away.




I slapped that puppy on just as soon as I could unwrap it and get it out of the box.  But there was a slight problem, it wouldn't work unless you were using manual focus.  This particular teleconverter overrides the auto focus feature on my camera.  Now that wouldn't be a problem except that the whole point of extending my telephoto lens was so that I could capture better shots of wildlife, like eagles, swans, herons, etc. 

All of those feathered friends I just mentioned aren't too keen on just sitting still and posing for portraits.  They are constantly moving, even if it's just a tiny head movement, so trying to use manual focus on something that is forever in motion just doesn't work.  And on today's digital cameras there isn't even a really great way to make sure you have sharp focus.  Remember on old film cameras when you could line up the two halves of the circle to make sure you were in focus...well those days are gone!  I would like to say that I can see as well as I did 20 years ago, especially for distance stuff, but the truth is I can't, so even on things that were sitting stock still I couldn't get a nice sharp photo. 




That meant that the only present Mr. Tide had gotten me for my birthday was heading back from whence it came.  I was fine with it, but he was really bummed.  It all worked out in the end though, and I ended up getting a few other lovelies to make up for it which I will show you soon.  In the meantime, I am back to long distance shots of eagles...these two were in my neighbor's tree today and I'm pretty sure I overheard them snickering about my eyesight and the fact that my teleconverter didn't work according to plan.

And another little hiccup of late, the winners of my last giveaway, I know you think I have forgotten you and left you in the lurch.  While I was sitting here thinking your photos were winging their way to your respective homes I got a little shock on Saturday when the mail was delivered.  I had carefully entered your addresses into the website of the place where I get prints made, only to have forgotten to click the "drop ship" button on each one.  So that means that it defers to my address as the default address...huge sigh!  So, your photos are all at my house and not with you...another huge sigh!  I braved Walmart (have I mentioned how much I hate Walmart?!) and bought some photo mailers so that I can get them in the mail by early this week.

Sometimes life just doesn't go according to plan I tell ya!  But hey, no one died, so it's all good in the end!

11 comments:

  1. WOW! Eagles are so great to see! We have been seeing them about once a week around here now but I don't have a good camera to zoom in and they are usually flying high in the sky. I had wondered about the photos...but didn't want to bother you. I know what a busy time it is! Happy holidays! Hugs, Diane ♥♥♥

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  2. Great shots of the eagles and bummer on the new gift. Don't worry about the photos. Gets here when it gets here!

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  3. Happy belated Birthday!

    Stil sounds like a great day even with the hiccup :D
    xx
    z

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  4. Aw - sorry the lens didn't work out. Geez. I'd need autofocus too. Works better when it's on because of my eyesight. Great photos of the eagle, though!

    And belated Happy Birthday wishes!

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  5. He had great intentions. Happy birthday! andrea@townandprairie

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  6. I don't know a thing about manual anything. But with my zoom lens, I can capture a bird from pretty far away. Then crop it, and sometimes I have a gem!
    Brenda

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  7. The eagle in that last shot is definitely checking you out Kat! xo ~Lili

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  8. Happy Belated birthday! We celebrated my husbands birthday this weekend, his birthday was on the 8th!

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  9. Happy belated birthday... :)
    Your photos are just beautiful! I was admiring them from your previous post as well...
    LOVE your decor!
    Wishing you a wonderful holiday~
    Lisa

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  10. Kat,
    Happy Belated B-Day!!! I just scanned through your previos posts...looking so good at your house!!! Love all the little vignettes, the Santa one made me smile!
    xo,
    ~R

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  11. Kat, I love those eagle shots! Sorry about the gift from Mr. Tide. I had to smile about the eagles snickering at your eye sight.....!! You crack me up Kat!

    Don't worry about the photos from the giveaway, but I can feel your pain about having to mail them out again!

    Happy Holidays!!

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