Spring In Macro And IN !COLOR! With A Leica

I stress Leica because it struck me as funny last week when, in Target, with my friend, looking at cameras for her, we bumped against a pushy salesman who clearly was obsessed with cameras himself.  She was looking at a Canon A580 and we had checked out the reviews online.  We asked to see it, he took it out, and I was having a helluva lot of trouble focusing with the macro, which should have been very EASY for me.  I've never had an issue like that before!

He grabbed the camera from me, and he was talking about HIS Canon (we were at first a little surprised at his manner of speaking).  He was adjusting the settings.  After a moment I said, "Can I have the camera back, please?"  "Just be careful with it," he said.  Uhuh.  He said, "I have that set now, all you have to do is point and shoot."  "I was hoping you could allow me to determine for myself whether it has ease of use or not, I wanted to set it myself, understand?"  My friend was looking at us both.

Call it a power struggle, I don't know.  I held the now-set-up camera to my eyes and pointed at what I wanted to shoot and realized it still wasn't quite right!  "This isn't right," I said.  I started adjusting and then I realized it wasn't even about me, it was about my friend buying the camera and what the heck do  I have to check it out for???

"Actually, woman, YOU look at it, you're the one buying it."

She took the camera.  "Jen, this camera is perfectly fine.  It's just not YOUR camera."  I stood there for a moment--I didn't understand what she meant.  "Huh?  Oh, you mean because I am accustomed to my own camera?"  "NO, JEN!  Because you have a LEICA!"  "Oh, that's right.  Wow.  I thought my Samsung was better than THAT, though.  Well maybe it isn't good for macro--you might not mind it because you shoot people anyway--take a picture of me!"  I stretched my arms out wide  toward the walls of the department store and she snapped a shot.

"Take another one, woman, that one came out good!"  She shot again.  It took a really nice portrait!  We looked at the camera sales guy and he said, "A Leica?  You have a Leica?"  "I think we want this Canon," I told him.  "Do you have a Leica?"  "Oh!  Yep, right here on my hip, 24-7!"  "Nothing can  touch a Leica," he said, deftly.   After that he wasn't so grabby for the Canon my friend was checking out.  In the end he told us Target doesn't match prices, so we left.

That story bored you, you may be eager to get to the photos.  The photos:  do you guys recall a few weeks ago when Jackie had that "Nature In Black & White" series for her Capture This theme?  I think all of those are here in color, now, and quite a few more that I've taken through the course of the Spring season.

Life keeps me busy but my camera is constantly seeing and plucking fragments of seconds in time as it passes.  Below is a plain old photo "essay" with those black and whites NOW in color...took long enough!


Narcissus, maybe Poet's Daffodil, April 2008 DO NOT COPY

Narcissus, maybe Poet's Daffodil, April 2008 DO NOT COPY

Narcissus, April 2008


Narcissus, April 2008


Narcissus, April 2008


Bud Of Rhododendron;  Leica V- Lux 1


Rhododendron, April, 2008


Bud Of Japonica camellia, April, 2008


Japonica camellia, April 2008


Creeping Phlox, white, April 2008


Creeping Phlox, late April, 2008


This should NOT be pixelated, I am puzzled, this is a mysterious bud taken in April.


Mystery shrub/tree, taken in April


Mystery shrub/tree taken in April, same as previous flower.


Budding Moss, May.


AGAIN, no idea WHY it is pixelated...LILACS in bud in May.


Moth, May

My gosh that is a pretty long photo essay, eh?  I guess I've been building up for THIS one!

Thanks for stopping by!!!