All things considered

Considering I was stuck in Alpine today, I had a good time. Found this interesting bug (shot with my Canon). No idea what it is. The flower is mallow.

When I first went trolling for odes and butterflies today I took my new camera (Panasonic Lumix). And I photographed a butterfly that, because I left my binoculars behind, didn't get ID'd until I downloaded it. Turned out it was a Cyna Blue, an uncommon species that I've been wanting a better photo of.  Well, I've decided the new camera isn't the one for that task. After I put a strap on my Canon, since my arms won't carry it anymore, I didn't see the Cyna again. Going to keep looking though. The strap hurts my neck, so after my husband gets over the Visa bill for the camera, I'm going to buy a camera harness. I'm still glad to have the new camera for several reasons: (1) it takes video. (2) if my Canon breaks it's a good backup. (3) I need a scenery camera. Since I got rid of my Kodak Easyshare, I was always having to change lenses on the Canon. A big pain. And I haven't given up on macro pics. Just have to learn how. As it stands now, I can get 3 feet from the subject, as promised, but can't zoom in and fill the screen. It won't focus. With my Canon I can get about 6 feet from the subject, but I can zoom in and fill the screen with a sharp photo. So here's the Cyna Blue shot with the Lumix and considerably cropped.

And here's an Acmon Blue I photographed with my Canon while trying to relocate the Cyna.

And here's a cell phone shot of me with my cameras.

UPDATE: Late this afternoon I took one more stroll around the ponds looking for the Cyna, and found it just as I was getting ready to quit for the day. It dove into some pretty thick grasses, so I wasn't able to focus on it without doing it manually. Here's what I got with my Canon. Really no better, if as good, but my vision is not very good at manual focus, plus this is cropped a lot. This species is almost invisible, it's so small. About the size of a fingernail.