Oh .... Hai.

Oh look who it is! Three Woofs And A Woo!!

Okay, don't get too excited - my camera is not yet back. I still feel like I am missing an arm. In desperation, today I borrowed the camera from work and ran home with it giggling like a schoolgirl. I really REALLY needed to take some pictures.

The camera I borrowed is something called a Canon Elph, or a Powershot SD700 IS. It's a "point-and-shoot" camera, and it's really lots different from my 300D, which looks, feels and acts like a regular camera.

It's so tiny
I don't really have giant man hands - I swear, it's just the angle!

It's difficult to explain the difference between shooting with my DSLR and shooting with a point and shoot. It's kind of like if you had always driven a sports car and you woke up one day to find a Yugo parked in your garage. It puts me in mind of an article I read in a car magazine advice column one time (what? yeah I know). Someone wrote in and said "Is there any way I can make my Yugo faster?" and the columnist said "Absolutely. You can drop it out of an airplane."

It's kind of like that. I still can't get a feel of where the camera is looking and what I'm trying to frame by looking at the LCD screen, and the camera is the size of a deck of cards so I feel awkward when (with my apparently giant man hands) I put the eyepiece up to my orb. I don't have that symbiosis with the camera that I have with my 300D so either ir or I are slow to track the action.

I ended up with an awful lot of shots like this:

The Wootie smackdown was really funny, by the way. I've never seen a dog SLAP another dog, but this little terrier was like the angriest ex-girlfriend you ever had:

The camera is so small and it takes photos from angles previously unknown to me. Like this one, which actually makes me feel physically nauseous when I look at it:
But doG, do I love those ears :)

So we tootled off to Kits Dog Beach this evening. What is neat about this camera is how much stuff you can get in one shot when you zoom out. I don't like to change lenses at the beach, because of the wind and sand, so when I shoot with my zoom lens my frame is quite small. With this little peanut, I can show you more of where were we hang:

AND such CUTE puppies!!

"Okay, listen ... this beach isn't big enough for this much cuteness. One of us is going to have to grow up, FAST."


Cookie Uncle (aka Adrian) was playing "Grab The Flamboyance" and Woo was getting mighty pissed off. He finally stood back and sassed Cookie Uncle. I think he was cussing him out.

Meanwhile, Lars was trying to figure out how he felt about a Mastiff.

And Red Dog, well, he just really did not understand why the ball was just sitting there. But where are his hind legs? And his chest?

There were lots of Mad Teeth (tm) but I didn't get any of them, because of the tracking action problem. But when Dogs Collide, you get this:

"oof"

"Seriously. Dude. That camera is lame. Put it down and throw the ball."

Anyway.

So I'm doing my best folks! I will continue to borrow the "Elph" from time to time and try and keep you sated with photos, even if they aren't the quality you're used to. And I'll try to think of other ways to keep you amused as well. I really appreciate all the emails you've sent to tell me how you lurk on the blog and how much you enjoy and miss it, and I'm really glad that I can help you enjoy my woofs as much as I do :) Seriously, it gives me the warm fuzzies. I'm trying to respond to you all as quickly as I can.

Jane, this one's for you.