15.06.2020 Warm and humid.

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Monday 15th 69-73F, a long, warm and sunny day is forecast. The temperature has increased by 20F since I got up. Just a brisk walk to the lanes. Traffic quiet at times, Average at others. The grasses were almost glowing in the sunshine, in places. So I snapped at some with my ageing camera.

My TZ7 is over 11 years old! The zoom keeps going the wrong way and successfully downloading my latest images into Picasa is becoming a daily gamble. A 7 mile errand on the trike in the afternoon.

Tuesday 16th 60-73F. Wall to wall sunshine. No jacket today and I was still too warm plodding along the silent lanes in the bright sunshine. A bit more traffic on the main road but long gaps between the odd car. A short ride to the lake before lunch to watch the ducks and grebes.

Wednesday 17th 62-77F, bright start but much more cloudy today. A rather warm walk to the lanes. Traffic modest and mostly lady drivers. The cloud is clearing to longer periods of sunshine. While the maturing crops are really showing their differences now. Their colour and texture are quite distinct from each other.

Still being treated to birdsong in the hedgerows. There are several birds nesting in the garden. Including a busy wren borrowing a metal stand for an impregnable nest.

Thursday 18th 60-73F, another, warm and mostly sunny day is forecast. Early walk to the lanes. Saw one hare. The wren family are mobile around the garden. There are at least three young bumbling about.

Friday 19th 61-64F Dark overcast with the threat of rain, cloudbursts and thunder. It was bit damp  at times but nothing more.

A bird of prey went almost right over my head in the lanes. I lifted my new camera [after eleven years of the TZ7] and snapped away. Capturing 9 shots in only a second or two. I know the picture is crap but I was quite pleased for my second day with a completely new camera. First time out of the garden.

The long tail suggests a Red kite. Except that the bird just seemed far too small. I couldn't confirm a kite's V-tail from any of my images. Possibly a Eurasian Marsh harrier? 60/120mm, 1/500 at 5.6 ISO200. I have heavily cropped the original 8Mb images and brightened both with more gamma.

To my shame I took 465 still images on my walk this morning. All of which were rather dull and lifeless due to the heavy overcast and operator error. I should have boosted the EV but was far too used to the TZ7's automatic service on a plate. Complete with entertainment, bib and doggy bag.

That said, the TZ7 took several seconds to think between each shot. It even added a delay after pressing the shutter release. It would be difficult to take a picture of a moving car with the TZ7. The car would have long left the scene, visited the car wash, then driven home and parked in the garage.

The new camera can catch it before you press the shutter! Which sounds like time travel but isn't. The camera records earlier frames from the first, half press for metering and autofocus. Which are added to the burst of frames which follow completion of the full button depression.

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