12 of 12, April 2017

Today was one of those miscellaneous days where quite a few things happened but they were not always easily or appropriately photographable.

It’s nearly Easter, and so I included a toasted hot cross bun for breakfast.

I went to the movies during the morning with a friend and saw the excellent based-on-true-stories Hidden Figures, about the work of African-American women during the 1960s who were employed as “calculators” at NASA.

As you may recall, my “little camera” (a Canon compact with 20x optical zoom that was small enough to live in my go-nearly-everywhere work backpack, as opposed to my “good camera” or “big camera” (the SLR) and the “iPhone” (which I sometimes hesitate to call a camera)) experienced some damage on the recent Antarctica trip, mainly associated with dampness offending its non-waterproof sensibilities. I decided to replace it with a waterproof compact camera, and this was utilised on the Fortescue Bay kayaking trip and last month’s Regatta 12 of 12. However, the waterproof camera has a few quirks which will make it frustrating for everyday use, including a slow recovery time and only 5x zoom (since a big zoom range requires a protruding lens, and this is hard to make waterproof). So I have indulged in another little camera, similar to its predecessor, which has a 40x zoom and which will become my new “every day carry” camera. It has been fun to test it out to see just how extreme the 40x zoom is. Mind you, the slightest unsteadiness at the camera end results in a LOT of movement way off in the distance so some care is required.

So, here is the mountain.

And here is the tree in my front yard, with all four shots (two above, two below) taken from the balcony.

The macro setting also works quite well … unlike the paint on the posts of the balcony.

Late in the day I took a friend to see her son play in a high school band concert. The band sounded really good [and, over Easter, came first in their division of the national band championships].

It was Wednesday which means the evening was taken up with Scouts, with a small group of kids finalising their preparation for an Easter expedition, and the rest catching up on and doing lots of badgework.

Late in the evening I tested out the zoom on the moon, and the 1 second time exposure setting on a shot of Hobart and the bridge.

[The “12 of 12” project involves taking 12 photos on the 12th of the month. This provides the opportunity to get snapshots of different aspects of your life (or, sometimes, the same aspects of your life, but at different times!). I have been doing this since 2009.]