the good, the bad and the ugly...

 ...more or less.

                                                         

                                                  sunrise

I love Tofino...summer winter and fall.  The expansive South Chesterman Beach, the peacefulness and the exquisite beauty; we are so very fortunate to live on this beautiful Island. We arrived back in Victoria yesterday after a peaceful and exhilarating 4 1/2 days; the piles of laundry and the square glass plate heaped with shells and other bits from the sea, remind me. Otherwise, this day, filled with business and traffic, would have me forget.

The weather was October-beautiful and my frantic Victoria search for rain pants proved unnecessary. Even I saw humour in the rain gear hunt: first searching MEC, Capital Iron and Robinson's and finally buying a kids size 14 at Patagonia, overpriced and way too big.  The next day, while buying some hats and scarves for people living on the street,  I literally bumped into a pair of like-new MEC rain pants at a thrift store. Half-price, reduced from $4 to $2! (I returned the others)

I spent the days in Tofino doing just what I love best: walking on the sandy beach.   Gum boots instead of bare feet.  Smelling the ocean, and seeing the patterns in the water and in the sky.

                        Taking photographs and gathering shells.

Enter the more or less 'bad'. Because my attention was divided between shell-collecting and photography, my fingers dropped a grain or two of damp sand onto the lens of my most favourite Panasonic DMCZS30.  I didn't realize at first, until the automatic lens wouldn't close completely.  Nor would it open fully. The sand was truly imbedded. I warned Brian that I would be in deep mourning and severe upset for at least a day, so to be prepared.

I have said before, how my camera helps me see more clearly, to find texture and intricate detail.  To notice the soul in things. Without it, I seemed to see less, not more.

Moving towards 'ugly', this morning I spent over an hour at London Drugs looking for a new camera.  As is the way with technology, every year when a new model comes out, the old is discontinued.  Never mind that the ZS35 is inferior to its predecessor in every way and that the brand new ZS40 has some serious limitations. The small cameras I saw with better lenses had less zoom capability.  Not suitable for me. So, in the end, I took a camera home on a 15 day trial. (Panasonic DMCFZ200)  It takes beautiful photos.  Absolutely. It is heavy and definitely not pocket or purse size. The really ugly bit is that my arthritic thumb is aching from just holding it at the store.

I will go on a photo shoot trial tomorrow-  ironically just after an early morning appointment at the Arthritis Centre with an occupational therapist, who will fit me for a thumb brace!

These photographs are from our first morning in Tofino

If anyone has a used Panasonic DMCZS30 for sale please let me know!