More Learning

Taken with my 40-150 mm lens at 150 mm (effectively 300 mm) on my morning walk. Look closely and you can see the green worm in the robin’s beak

Monday I finished buying new camera equipment (for a long while, I hope). Selecting a longer zoom lens for my new Olympus camera was a hard decision. Though I would have loved the reach of the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm f/5-6.3 IS Lens, it’s size and weight was more than I wanted to carry and the price was also more than I wanted to spend at this time.

I ended up buying an Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150 mm F4.0 PRO lens. It has an effective reach of 80-300 mm, giving me coverage of 24 – 300 mm between my two lenses.

Now it’s time for

with both lenses.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Figuring out the strengths and weaknesses of each lens as well as when each one will work best is going to take lots of experimentation and time. I took out my new camera with the 40-150 mm lens this morning on my walk. The weight of camera and lens hanging from a strap around my neck was not bothersome at all.

I also have a lot to learn about the features of my new camera and expect that I’ll be reading the online manual and then trying various features out to figure out which ones I might use regularly in my photography.

This afternoon I also experimented a bit with extension tubes that I bought with the camera to see how well I liked using the camera for close-up photography. So far, my old Canon 5D Mark III with 50 mm f/1.8 lens is still my preferred close-up flower photography camera. But that’s not a problem since I do almost all of my close-up flower photography in my dining room with the camera on a tripod. I may discover as I learn to use the features of my new camera better that I like it for flower close-ups also.

Brain Training

I look on my new learning as great brain training. Anything we can do to keep learning as we get older helps keep our brains healthier. With today’s heat outside it was a perfect day for staying inside this afternoon with some flowers and my camera, seeing what I can learn.