What is wrong with me lately? The inner lazy chick seems to be winning.

A dear friend gave me a fantastic camera, one that she said she tried and hated. We are very different in that instead of returning the camera, she hung onto it. (I would have sent it back.) She is very generous, and I benefited.

It’s fancy and complicated and intimidating, so I understand why she hated it. However, I am not pleased with my iPhone 14, nor am I pleased with my little PHD* camera.

My almost 9 year old friend and I had a great time learning some basics with it.

I taught her that the first thing ALWAYS is to put the strap around your neck. Then we discussed zooming in and out, moving to where the things you want are visible on the screen.

We both love Crocs.

She asked to photograph Empire, I said of course, and we talked about where to stand for the clearest view.

Later when she was off running around with some people closer to her in age, I experimented with close-up shots. Focusing is a trick, so I have to put on reading glasses. This is quite annoying, but less so than giving up contact lenses and wearing bifocals.

Ever looked at sap up close? I called it pitch, and Little Friend told me it was sap. I could look it up, but I don’t care that much.

The yellowish stuff with berries is a kind of mistletoe that grows on conifers, particularly red fir trees in our part of the world.

Little Friend always wants to visit the horses and mules at the pack station, and she requested use of the camera. I complied, after reminding about the strap around the neck. I don’t know who took which photos, but these are the two I chose to keep for use here.

This is a currant. Trail Guy loves them; Little Friend agrees with me in thinking they don’t taste like much. She was happy to take this photo as we experimented with close-up shots.

A cone flower had a bee , but by the time I got the lens cap off, turned the camera on, moved the lens forward (it stores close into the body of the camera) and chose my focal length, the insect had buzzed off. It will take awhile for these tasks to become habitual.

“Meat bees” are very active at the end of the summer, along with being aggressive. When we eat outside, they appear. When we just hang around outside, they appear. They are most likely a wasp, although we all call them “meat bees”. (If you get stung, a paste of baking soda and water will take the pain away.) I took some photos hoping to be able to identify them in the book of all Sierra Nevada info by John Muir Laws. This one was sort of settled on a neighbor’s outdoor table, but instead of getting close, I used the mildly telephoto lens and then cropped out most of the tablecloth.

Bearskin on the side of Vandever Mt. is becoming more of a rooster or perhaps just a chicken. Will it make it through the summer? We never know until the end of the season.

Have another peek through the historic juniper in the parking lot.

Prolly didn’t help, but I was a little camera-happy. The verdict is that this camera is superior to the PHD in photo quality, way less convenient, very complicated and challenging, and that I am quite happy to be the recipient of such a generous and unwarranted gift and plan to get comfortable using it.

It wasn’t a complete do-nothing weekend. I had great times with Little Friend, learned some about the camera (although I didn’t take any of the extra lenses or filters along), finished a book (The Inbetween Days by Eva Woods), started and finished an Ann Patchett novel that was new to me (Run), finished knitting Little Friend’s birthday present (in May she told me that she has outgrown all the sweaters that I’ve made for her), spent time catching up with next-door-neighbor friends on their annual visit, cleared off 2 shelves in the cabin kitchen of unnecessary items, cleared more downed limb wood, and wrote a letter to an old friend.

That’s cabin life when one doesn’t feel like hiking (stupid neuropathy) and there is enough firewood split for a while.

*Press Here, Dummy