I wanted to play with my new zoom lens so here are some photos of my day. I am so not used to the extra weight of the lens - I felt like I was lifting weights after awhile.

I took most of these photos from a long distance to the subject and loved how the zoom worked. I need to remember to bring a tripod next time though as the camera shake was annoying. The statue of the Civil War looking soldier, I took that from 3 streets away. I could see right up its nose... not that I wanted a photo of that.

There were an abundance of birds and hawks out and I got quite a few but these were the best. Note, the bird sitting on Jesus's head and also on the really white statue's head. Also weird? A skywriter - which I haven't seen in a long time. It spelled out Crunch Fitness and a flag symbol over Forest Lawn... not really their prime market? Or maybe to get the visitors to think about their own mortality?

That last photo is a symbol I haven't seen yet on a grave marker so I wanted to get a close-up so I could look it up. And happy to see some Bees on the flowers. All in all a good trip!

I love visiting Forest Lawn - mostly because it is lovely and quiet. It was also very very windy and I took a ton of photos of pinwheels to practice with shutter and aperture settings. I will post those later this week along with the markers I found that stood out.

Another visitor was telling me he saw several hawks, coyotes and prairie dogs so I need to come back early and or later.  No snakes thank goodness. Although in the field with the bird and concrete vaults there probably were several. I chose to not go there.

I have never actually gone down to this area so I need to go back and look at the markers more closely, I did find a few though that were just gorgeous. This is also the older section, where a lot of the dates start with 1860. I am glad I ventured over today.

The first 2 photos got me good. I mean, tears people!  

I also got a zoom lens today, I should have it tomorrow! Right now I have 18 to 55 and the zoom is 75 to 300. So, I will be able to see up that birds beak next time and not have to go into snake grass!

 1977. Christmas. My parents gifted me my very first camera and as Sally Mann said, "It was an instant love affair.*)

I still remember that Instamatic and how the flash bulb smelled after I took a picture. I loved that camera to bits and I am thankful that my parents thought to gift me this treasure.

Then, on my 21st birthday, my parents gifted me another Kodak, this one the Disc.  Another easy to use, but incredibly fun camera to play with.

I took pictures of EVERYTHING. I seriously still have a large box of negatives from all the photos I took. Developing film became very expensive! But there was just something about capturing a moment in time that I loved.

 Since then, I have used disposable cameras and lovely point and shoot cameras and most often, my Android phone.  And I enjoy using them all. BUT!

For the very first time, thanks to many Amazon gift cards, I was able to afford a brand new Canon EOS Rebel T6 kit.
And I am IN HEAVEN!  It arrived today and I am still playing with it. So much to learn as I usually just use the auto features. But now I have the opportunity to really dig in and see how it all works! So very exciting. I am thinking of  taking a class as well to cover more topics.

One day, I will have my very own dark room and the old time 5 x 7 inch large format cameras, thinking about that makes me grin. In the meantime, I have my new toy to keep me busy!

I may never be the next Sally Mann or Ansel Adams or Alfred Stiglitz, but then again, I may just surprise myself!