just hanging around

I’m waiting in for a delivery; all day. Anniemay’s out and so I make a list of jobs and useful things to do within the confines of the house.

I’m loading the dishwasher when I notice this leaf through the back door window. It’s just stuck in mid-air, not going anywhere. “That’s me” I think. Then “that’s my blip”. Tick.

And what starts out as a quick and dirty blip turns into something far more involved. The leaf is stuck on the outside of a thick double-glazed window. Autofocus is having none of it. The motor hunts like a Strictly Come Dancing hokey-cokey competion; in out, in out, shake it all about. I try a shot; the result, a brown blob on a filthy window. I’m going to have to try manual focus. And clean the window.

I haven’t used manual focus since the last century. Anniemay is the undisputed queen in our house and so …. I’m going to have to …. do it myself!. I find MF easily enough, but twiddling the lens back and forth simply goes from hazy to slightly less hazy, back to vague and finally, big brown blob.

From time to time I have looked over Anniemay’s shoulder when she’s been engaged in similar twiddling and I recall that she will often tap the screen. So there’s clearly a bit more to it. I wade through the menus and eventually find manual focus assist. It’s turned OFF. No surprise there. I turn it ON and try again.

OK - the big brown blob is now even bigger - 10x in fact and disappears in and out of frame. I should have used a tripod. Eventually I get a reasonable facsimile of a sharp(ish) edge and fire. Result. Of sorts. I have to fiddle with the exposure because MF assist appears to have turn Image-Stabilisation off. And my hands aren’t that steady in dull light.

The basic idea works but the image is a bit dim and a bit ‘so what’. “That’s me” I think. I resort once again to software to cheer the image (and myself) up. And realise that two hours have passed. The Fedex man has still not been, so I start work on the Christmas Cards.