The lens returns

Recently, my Canon extender just gave in and dropped the 70-200 lens to the ground. In my impulse to stop the lens from hitting the ground, I put my foot out to "catch" it. It was a painful mistake. First the foot took a few days to heal. The lens was not broken but just dented. 

Sent the lens and extender to Canon service to get fixed. The lens came back and it would mount on the camera body okay. The extender which was supposedly fixed, had the same problem. Canon made me send it back again to be checked out by a "senior technician".  The whole ordeal cost 500$ for a problem caused by a Canon part malfunction. Unfortunately, the warranty on the extender expires in 3 years and this was year 4. Even if it was valid, it would not cover the more expensive lens that goes on the extender.

Finally got a chance this evening to put the lens on the extender and see if the whole assembly worked like before.

Looks like it .. 

This little one went for the same flowers every ten minutes or so. 

Got it on the third cycle. 1/1600 th of a second, f5.6, ISO 3200 and still cannot catch the wings. 

Will try 1/4000 or 1/8000 tomorrow and see how it goes. Hopefully the bird will visit when it is brighter outside.

Warning to folks like me who buy 300 dollar extenders in an attempt to not spend on a 400mm zoom lens. Bad idea. The extender fails, your lens is toast! 

Just talk to the CFO at home, use my painful example and get yourself that 400mm lens!

Backyard critters

Now that the flu has come and gone, went back to do Yoga after a week. It was one of those classes where your body knows it has been there before, as does your mind, but things have become rusty. You think you are lifting your leg up 45 degrees and the mirror and all those images of your 4th grade math teachers tell you.. "are you kidding?"

Anyways, as usual I meander away from the topic. Things will get better again over time, till the next set of germs come.

Decided that some time will be spent just sitting in one place, camera in hand, to photograph the things that move around in the backyard. Was not disappointed..  

These two are raising a family on that tree. 

This fellow makes quite a racket on the bushes.. 

 These baby robins were playing around. It was a treat to watch.

 I have no idea what this bird is... but he visited us for a very short time.

Then came the bunny.. our new neighbors need to be warned about this guy. 

He has quite a reach!

Sat there for a good hour trying to capture this hummingbird in flight. Not a single shot came out okay. Need to put a bird feeder in the backyard. There are at least 8 hummingbirds in our backyard. Their acrobatics are amazing. Will try to take pictures of them.. has to be easier with a bird feeder.

The bumble bee was too fast to capture too..

While all this was going on in the backyard, my wife calls and says, we saw a deer in our front yard.. come take a picture of that.. It was like all the animals knew that I was ready with the camera!

This one was posing for me!

Feel much better today.. sometimes all it takes is to do yoga, have a good lunch, nap with the little one and sit in one place in the backyard and see (and mostly hear) nature sounds. 

Have put water in a bucket for the critters. The ground is parched because we had shut off the sprinkers. Today, I turned on the sprinklers for some time. The worms are out and the birds are now on the ground. 

The drought is probably hitting them a lot more than it is hitting us. Dry lawns, less flowers, no veggie garden this year to attack for the bunnies.. 

Everything said and done, an afternoon of peace.

Revisiting the Tulips

Roosengarde near Seattle is famous for its Tulips. Three years ago, we visited the place but were too late to the Tulip fields. They had topped it off. 

This year we got a chance to go there. We miscalculated on multiple fronts. We had 5 hours in the afternoon to go and come back, before we had to drive to the airport to catch our flight back.

It was probably the first sunny weekend in Seattle area. The entire population was out on the freeway. The traffic made a 90 minute ride into a 3 hour ride. Also given we were in two cars and were using the iPhone as a GPS, the phone battery drained in the middle of the drive. That meant that we could not communicate between cars. We were thinking of turning back multiple times but given the communication gap, decided to go all the way and meet at the Tulip place. 

We spent 20 minutes there. Ran to the fields, took pictures and raced back to the parking lot. That was when some of the kids in the group said "pee pee". The attendant in the fields pointed us to a restroom that was half a mile away, or what seemed half a mile away. So we told the kids to hold it and started on our drive back. 

Made it back in a lot less than 90 minutes after some fast driving and we also made it to our flight as it was boarding!

Here are some pictures.. 

It is quite a sight. If you are in the seattle area in Mid April, don't miss it.

Loved this color.. 

This was my favorite strip.. bright yellow!

Finally a photograph that my mom will appreciate! She always complains that I am not in the pictures.. 

Next time we go, we will plan an extra day in Seattle instead of a Friday evening to Sunday evening trip and spend a day here.  That way I can go crazy with the photography.