Took the Pentax outside this afternoon while Amber took a nap. Put on the cheap-ass 80-200 mm consumer lens because (a) I am a consumer and (b) I’ve heard it said that 99% of lenses are better than 100% of photographers, so I really doubt it’s going to hamstring my photography. I don’t make very good photographs anyway, but I’ve really only recently begun thinking about photography in more than point-and-shoot terms.
I took passable photos of a bird or two, which is really only possible with a long lens and with 200mm at the far end of this zoom, that’s the best I can do. Still had to crop way down so the little guy didn’t get lost in a sea of green or stone or whatever.
A couple of photos of vertical objects around the outside of the house — an oil torch; a lamp; the electrical hookup on the roof — ended up as unremarkable object studies but compositionally instructive.
A few photos turned out considerably worse than I’d have liked, but I can go back out and try them again, because I think the subjects are interesting and if I can get composition and focus correct I can make some good photographs out of them.
Also, Adobe Lightroom is awesome. See the pics I’m talking about on my gallery.