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Day’s Verse:
Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.”
Luke 13:18-19
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Today I started playing around with my camera, zooming in or out while taking a picture. This resulted in a number of rather bizarre images, which I won’t show (out of consideration for the subjects), but here are a few attempts that turned out OK:

Carmel held still for 1/3 of a second, long enough for me to take the picture — unlike my attempts while she was chewing a stick. Apparently chewing a stick requires a lot of readjusting your head. Now I know.

This seems fitting to put after the dog. She gets all excited about tennis balls, not fetching them, per se, but more dashing around the back yard with one or two in her mouth, playing keep-away with the person.

While I was outside chasing the dog around the yard, Mom was inside calling financial institutions to obtain missing statements pertaining to Grandpa and Grandma Sullivan’s taxes, and the taxes on the estate. Loads of fun.

Dog toys just fit the bill so well for trying out the zoom thing. I guess it’s because they are mostly round. Carmel likes this one for just carrying around the house, not chewing on; it squeaks, but she doesn’t usually make it squeak. She just picks it up and puts it down wherever she ends up laying down. Nobody can fathom a dog’s brain.

Last but not least, one that I think actually turned out OK. By the time I took this picture I had learned to use a tripod and that the speed you zoom with is important. Zooming faster than the shutter speed time results in an image with one dominant subject with a bit of a blur (like the squeaky toy); zooming for the entire shot results in an image more like the cross.