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CL XXVIII: Bigger Glass

Tim Bray Posted by Tim Bray | Thu, 17 Apr 2014
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We did an opening-up overnighter; another year of Cottage Life has begun! Attentive readers will have noticed that Ive become a Fujifilm fanboi, but at the cabin Im still a proud Pentaxian, because my longest Fuji lens only goes to 55mm and things on the island are further away. So lets see what you can do with bigger glass.

First of all, you can point the mighty Pentax DA* 50-135 f/2.8 (which, objectively speaking, is still probably the best lens Ive ever owned) at sharp-looking boats.

Sharp-looking boat on Howe Sound Sharp-looking boat on Howe Sound

Another option is to wait for the sun to get low  I find that a bottle of good white wine helps  then prop a ridiculous antique like the Tokina SL-400 f5.6 on your knee and point it at faraway objects, large and small.

Faraway mountains across Howe Sound A buoy in the Howe Sound

By the way, big news: After a couple years absence, our eagle neighbors are back! Brought to mind by this lens, the only one Ive ever used successfully for bald-eagle photography. I observed behavior suggesting the arrival of little eagles before too long, so stand by.

And while on the subject of living things, heres my daughter walking a mossy log. The next picture has her face-up in the ferns after she fell off, yelling Its not funny!  its great, but I dont do my kids faces here.

Girl walks on mossy log on Keats Island

That was on a walk in the woods, during which I pointed the D-FA 100mm f/2.8 at surround bits, both grim and verdant.

Tree growing on the corpse of another on Keats Island Moss on Keats Island

Thats the shadow of an early fern frond on the moss.

Im glad we got the trip in, because now the weather forecast has nothing but rain.


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