Squirrel Madness
Yes, a play on the title of my first computer book. Yes, they are, quite crazy.
I am testing the new camera, the Sony a1, to see what I can do with it. It’s a pro-level camera, with too many cool features to even count at this stage. It’s just very clear using it that it is, indeed, a professional tool.
I am learning how to use autofocus all over again. My most recent camera, the Sony a7R IV, was no slouch at focusing but I was frustrated with it for nature photography. Little animals move fast, and I just couldn’t keep up, not even with autofocus. Enter the a1.
All of the things that were too slow on the a7R IV are suddenly fast and competent and more versatile. The difference is amazing. It’s taking some practice to get good with the new tools—they are just so darn fast, it’s the difference between picking your nose and doing a Bartók pizzicato on a Stradivarius.
I never thought I’d get back to feeling that operating a camera is thrilling. When I used my first Nikon—that solid shutter thunk, the heavy smoothness of advancing the shutter, the solid feel of lenses going on and off, the anticipation of the right light, the right movement—it was thrilling. It is a marvel to hold something in your hands that multiplies your creative power. This is that, again.
Squirrels are fast little critters, so having all this fast thunking power in my hands was useful. Here are four photos taken in a very short time (about one second) with that marvelous autofocus, that speedy acquisition, that imagination-boosting clarity of a no-blackout viewfinder.
(Donna would not be happy that I did not immediately chase him; he’s after the bird food. But he was doing this cute shaking-off-the-rain thing, and I wanted to capture it. Why didn’t I do a video? I never remember to do a video; I always seem to default to photographs.)