Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Among other activities today, I tooled out to the lake for one of my random house checks, making sure there had been no storm damage. I also took the camera because, if I remember correctly, January is when the Canada geese come sailing in to take up residence for a few months, hatching babies and raising them and just being their picturesque selves.

There was a mild smoke haze over the lake. Folks tend to burn brush and windfall during the wet season. At first I was afraid my geese friends were elsewhere on the lake but, as I sat on the steps by the sliding glass door, just soaking up the sunshine, I finally spotted a few geese couples serenely gliding about. The above shot, taken from the steps, includes one such pair. It's hard to tell they're there so I helped you out a bit by drawing a red circle around them. Trust me. There really are two geese inside that circle. I just wanted to show you the difference in the regular shot and what happens when you fire up the 10x zoom.

I'm sure the photo would have been a bit sharper with the use of a tripod but hand-held works out pretty good with the aid of the Image Stabilizer. Anyway, the above is taken at full zoom from the edge of the yard and I didn't do anything to the photo except crop and skinny the jpeg.

Here is where I really had fun. Once I got the previous picture on the computer, I zoomed in even further with PSP and cropped some more. Then I hit it with the unsharp function and put it on a diet for uploading to the blog. I love it! The upper goose was busy primping for the shot but the lower goose thoughtfully presented its handsome profile and this child is happy. Armed with this kind of zoom power, maybe I'll be able to get some really special shots before the Canada goose season is over. Something to look forward to!