As with any purchase, look at how you use your current phone. Do you find yourself thinking, I wish my phone did[whatever].” Spend 2 weeks saying. “If I had a better phone I could...” nowadays a phone is a complex tool. Are you going to be willing to spend the time learning how to use it fully? I help a lot of retired folks with their Tech stuff. Many of them can’t figure it out without someone to help them practice. What is like breathing to the younger generations is (and may remain) a mystery to some older people. Don’t buy it because your family wants you to have it. Buy it because you want a pocket computer to read your email, text, surf the web, watch short videos, and yes- take pictures and phone calls. Otherwise, consider buying a good camera that fits in your pocket or purse.

thank you

When it noticed me at the window it flew off and left the rabbit flopping around. It came back once, but when it saw I was still there it didn’t pick up the rabbit. Some crows came later and ate the rest of it. Not the pretty side of life in the wild.

Thank you. I know the feeling. I always say my best shots are95% luck

[quote=Retired CPO]That behavior is called mantling. Nice shots.[/quotes
Thank you. I like to learn new words

Thank you

I was too busy shooting to look. I figured that when it noticed me it would fly away- which it did

That too! 😆

A young Coopers Hawk caught dinner just outside my kitchen window. Protective, almost like a mother protecting her baby.

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Women’s clothes often lack enough pockets, and what pockets I have are in use. I like the elastic bands that go around the lens. good when I’m in a hurry to catch a shot like BIF. It avoids dropping the lens cover, or having it fall out of my pocket. I lost a lens cover from my binoculars some years ago. The shape was not round, and Swift doesn’t seem to offer replacements. I ended up having to jerryrig something.

I trim my trail camera videos in windows 10 and then stitch them in movieCreator, which is free (for the version with ads) and fast and easy

I was asked by the activities director of the nursing home section of my retirement community to do portraits of a specific size. She had the residents decorate a frame to give their family for Christmas. On the back of each photo I put a sticker offering an electronic copy. Because I have a volunteer (unpaid staff) relationship and the copies were given only to staff they did not require model releases beyond what residents sign at entering.
Another project I did was portraits of residents in the independent living section (houses and apartments) for a guessing game. We covered up all but the eyes to see who could identify the most people, then later revealed the full portraits. I gave each person their portrait when we took them down.
I love photographing older faces because they show more personality. I usually have a helper who engages them in conversation to get the expressions I want in the eyes and to get them to relax and be more natural. If possible I pose them with a window by their side to get a softer light that gently shows the character lines (AKA wrinkles) they have earned. I have learned to clean their glasses befor shooting or I have to spent a lot of time cleaning up the spots in PP.
Often when a resident dies the family uses a portrait I’ve taken in the memorial, which I think means they like my work.

I had a printer problem after the last update which was solved by removing the printer and reinstalling.

Having worked on emergency preparedness for many years I believe everyone should have a powerbank for power outages, so you can charge your cell phone (modern landline phones don’t work when the electric system is down. Would not hurt to have one with you, as well as extra batteries.

To give you a sense of the size: My niece left New Zealand yesterday in one of those, as one of 6 passengers. The rest of the plane held 4 (medium-sized) helicopters. Headed to McMurdo Station, Antarctica where she is the National Science Foundation Science Rep.