A new toy

 A few days ago I bought a Canon Powershot SX40HS with 40X optical telephoto.  The above is one of my test shots.  Just a short zoom to show the lichens on my plum tree.  This looks like bokeh orbs are going to be easy with this new lens.

 This is what I thought was a macro, but I need more practice with this mode.  I later found that the lever to the left goes into wide angle .. so it has a 24mm wide angle as well as the telephoto.  This is moss in a pot that is on the deck table. 

 This is the telephoto plus the digital for 140X it says.  This crow was a long long way away.

 A fisheye effect of the rose buds that I have pruned off the iceberg rose.  The curtains and table are a bit wonky. 

 This is fish eye effect. 

 Changed the toy camera effect to black and white to try for the holga look.

 The bear with the color toy camera effect.  Its quite a lot of fun.

The whole users guide did not come in the box but I found a good pdf of it on the web and keep a copy on my desktop.  This is a shot that talks about how to access the fish eye effect.  I have lots to learn about it yet. 

I have been out in the garden today and a couple of days ago, for a couple of hours each day.  It has been warmish.  I have managed to get two of the roses pruned,  pruned the buddliea back to about a foot high, raked the leaves off of the rock plants, and the thyme circle, clipped back some of the perennials, cleaned up the patio and the deck.  Did a bit of clean up in the moss garden. So, things are starting to look better.  There are some crocus in bloom, that were under some of the leaves I raked up.

I deleted the spam out of the spam folder on this blog and since then I have been getting hoards of spam.  So, I think I will just let that spam pile up in its folder.