Dear Brenda, I have quite a lot of lenses for different things. My latest one that Sarah got me is a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II. It is small very compact and light, it is mostly used to do portraits but is good for taking smaller pictures when you do not want or need to carry round a large heavy lens plus the clarity and colour is amazing when set up right. It is the most sold lens Canon make and is very popular with professional photographers. I also have a fairly new 28 mm wide angle that I love and that is more expensive than the big lenses you see. I do have a small macro lens but it is not a Canon and is not perfect for my camera so I want to get a 100mm Canon macro lens and that is very expensive indeed. I also have a 55mm by 200mm amd it is very light so is ideal for flower shows and going out whereas my 70mm by 300mm is very heavy and is a pain to carry around and you need a mono-pod or a tripod to use it properly so that is more to carry. the most commonly used lens is my 18mm by 55mm which is good for most jobs!
Magga the lenses do not come with instructions and the manual does not tell you how to use them! The manual tells you the auto settings as there a`re a lot of them but that is all. With a camera like this they expect you to know what lenses do what and how to use it!

Neil.
+ Phoenix.

Nice, Neil. I have a Nikon D200, and also have several lenses for it, but as you say there are certain lenses you seem to use all the time. I do love my macro lens, though! I need to get out and take more pictures this year... I didn't take that many 'beauty shots' last year. I like to use them to make a calendar (with www.shutterfly.com), but I don't think I have enough really good shots this year.

I got Tony a Canon Powershot SX 150 for Christmas, and it is quite awesome for a point and shoot camera under $200! We use the small camera for things like pictures from the back of the motorcycle or skiing... you can't carry the big camera for those kind of shots!

I hope everyone is having a lovely Monday, and that you are continuing to feel better, Neil!

Dear Brenda, I had a Canon 450D fror some time but then Sarah liked it so she has that now! So I got myself the new 600D which is awesome to say the least and I love it. The low light capability has to be seen to be believed and it can be set at more mega pixels than the the 21.8 I run it at normally. The 450D was excellent as a first DSLR and I suppose that is why Sarah likes it so much plus as she has no massive lenses it is light compared to mine, although she would have preferred a pink one or so she claims! Sarah likes to take pictures of her cats and her nieces and then send them to her work to put on her desktop on the computer. Although when we do go out in the summer she does like to help me with plant pictures as well for me, although she loves taking pictures of castles and old houses which as you know we have a lot of here. When I took her to Edinburgh she went mad taking pictures as she fell in love with the place and the Highlands of Scotland as well. Luckily all Canon lenses on DSLR are interchangeable so she can and does use mine especially the 55 by 200 as it is powerful and very light for her to use.
At first she was scared of it but after half an hour she was happy using it as it is quite easy to use when set on automatic. The funny thing was she was trying to learn what the symbols meant on the control button that you turn for different jobs like close, automatic definition, night shot, motion etc., until I showed her when you turn the dial it comes up in the digital display and tells you what it is set on!
I have a Nikon coolpix and that is a handy little camera although it is getting on now it is still good.

Neil.
+ Phoenix

Six weeks and six days till Spring. Just saying..........................................

Awesome! I hope we get a spring this year... we sometimes go from winter to summer on June 1st...

My Birthday is the day after the offical first day of spring here not that it matters anymore. march can be a troublesome month here as the saying goes it comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. but sometimes it does not do that and we get evil weather at the end of March. We have nasty weather now so I am hoping for a good March and plenty of spring pictures!
Hope you are well and warm.

Neil.
+ Phoenix.

March birthdays (2) in this house as well.

Just wanted to say HI to all.


Hugs and Kisses,

Nancy

Read about the cold and snow hitting your area, Neil. Hope it moves out very soon.

Thje rain then the wind and now the snow and ice hgas broken all the trellis on the back wall and brought my big Clematis with it which is a shame. There is nothing I can do about it as it is frozen and looks like it is wrecked for good.
Seems like a never ending list of things to do in the garden in the spring as the damage is worse than I first thought for I as not well enough to get out to have a look at it all. Still not well enough and it has upset me which I don't need at the moment. Still it will soon be spring and I can do a bit at a time to get it done I hope! Fed up with these dark cold days and long to get out of the house and not to the Doctors or the Hospital for once.
Hope you are all well? Keep warm and safe.

Neil.
+ Phoenix.

This day is almost gone for you so it will be 43 days till Spring. Sorry to hear about your trellis and clematis. I'm sure the clematis will be fine though. Mine was on an oblisk that fell apart one year. Stuck some big tomato ladders in its place for just a bit and they grew up it so nice and fulland pretty that I left them just the way they are. So take heart. Clematis seem to be tough little things.

I agree with Cece, Neil... my clemies get buried in snow, lots of it, and still come back every year. Sometimes I cut them back in the fall, sometimes I don't, and still... they come back. Stay warm... we are getting dumped on with snow right now!

Oh Brenda I have seen on t.v. I really really feel for you.

Oh but please, PLEASE do not send it my way. Please?

Nope, not sending it your way. I kind of like it (as long as everyone stays safe in it).

Still no snow here. It is the anniversary of the 'Blizzard of '78' where cares got snowed under on the highway around Boston & a good deal of ocean flooding. That was a Mon. night. by Thursday Jumper 2 & her father used cross country skis along the snow on top of the river ice to get food.

The Clematis is an evergreen and a bit tender in that it is not supposed to be fully hardy in the UK! The leaves are quite large and waxy and usually they protect it from our winters when put up a south facing wall but ti fell over when the trellis came don and then it stopped snowing. The result being in that there was just bare soil and no protection for the roots so the frosts soon got through the soil and I am afraid killed the plant! It really stood no chance to the cold nights we have been having but all is not lost! As it is easy to layer this Clematis and to take cuttings off it as it is very vigorous my mothers neighbour has one I gave her, so when the weather gets better I will ask her to take a cutting of her one I gave her if she does not have any she has not grown from it anyway. It is a shame as it covered all of the back wall and it flowered very early in the spring with thousands of highly scented flowers plus in the Autumn as well which is a bonus.

Neil.
+ Phoenix.

Evidently I have gotten lost.. What has happened the "ask" me thread?

Hugs,

Miss you

Nancy

Dear Nancy, there has never been an ask me thread on here! On Cubits there is a "Have your say" thread but ALL THINGS PLANTS is a gardening site and that is why I moved all my gar5dening stuff from cubits here.
However as you are a wonderful petal if you so wish I can put one on here if you think anyone would use it. I will always do what my friends and readers want if it helps them. I cannot wait for the spring get loads of pictures and hopefully to do an Article to cheer everyone up with the wondrous spring colours that we have.
Just hang on in there Nancy as the Daffodils and Tulips will be out soon.

Neil.
+ Phoenix.