Zoom zoom

I bought myself a new camera a few weeks ago. There was nothing wrong with my other one, but I wanted something with a little more oomph to it. Since my mother is lacking a camera right now, I will probably give it to her once I clear off the card. I was kicking around the idea of a fancy schmancy DSLR, but decided against it once I started looking into lenses and all that jazz. So I went with a point and shoot that isn't exactly compact but that I won't need a suitcase to tote around. I guess you could say it's right on the cusp of point-and-shoot and DSLR. I searched for a while to make sure I got a good deal, and Amazon had an incredible bundle package. That, combined with the money I received from the parents for my birthday, made this an easy bill to swallow.

UPDATE: you can see more details here.

My favorite thing about this camera is it's incredible zoom. I think I could totally be a spy now if I wanted to. I might start that as a side job, but the Harriet the Spy kind, not the Mata Hari/Tokyo Rose kind. I limited myself to the porch and did a few clickety-clicks, and now you get to see. Stop chair dancing; it's not that exciting :)

OK, so here's the regular view from where I'm standing:

If you look to the right of the shed (with the pitching box the nephew chalked onto it - and I must remind my dad that he needs to get the swings out of the shed and onto the swing set frame) you can see a little gray thing. Let's see what it is....

That would be the bird bath waiting for its first fill. Pretty cool, huh? And the resolution didn't drop any noticeable amount. In the other direction across the street are some bee-yoo-tiful pink flowers. I didn't want to walk over like a weirdo just for a picture, so I zoomed in (because that's not weird)--

Then I started taking pictures of stuff on the porch, seeing how close I could zoom--

The other half of that sign says 'holidays.' It's one of those reversible things that says 'Welcome' on the back, and hangs from one of those big tin stars. I think we usually remember to turn it back around in the area of Memorial Day. If you're wondering why I didn't put the camera down and turn it, I'd be forced to tell you that I'm only noticing now as I'm typing this.

In one of the trees along the back fence (see the first pic up top) there is a cardinal that has his nest in there. He's lived there for a fairly long while. One year around Christmas I noticed him sitting there from the kitchen table. I grabbed my camera and went outside. He scuttled back inside the tree. I turned around and went back in, and he came back out. So I went out. In he went. Repeat a few more times. But I saw him hopping around the other night back behind where the pool used to be and with my spy zoom I got him--

My sister has always said that cardinals remind her of my grandfather, long passed on now. After I snapped this next shot where he looks a little like he's a little annoyed--

--I promptly went back inside and told my dad "Grandpa wants to know what the hell you did to his swimming pool." My mom got it. My dad shook his head and said "What???"

For those of you who read this post about the pool coming down, here's what it looks like now:

All that's left to do is to wait for the grass to take and to repair that old picnic table leaning against the tree. I don't feel sad like I thought I would--I actually like seeing the big green space when I look outside.

I'm hoping that now I'll be able to take much better photos to share with you. But I can't promise anything--let's not forget that it will be me actually holding the camera.

OK, I'm coming down the home stretch of my not-yet-here nephew's baby blanket, so I'm going to try and get that finished. Bye for now.