A Young Photographer

While, like everyone else of her age, the younger of our two grand-daughters has a smart phone which she uses for most of her photography, she also has a Panasonic Lumix bridge camera.  There's no telling her that she has to take it with her when we go walking but, on the occasions she does, the results can be dramatic.

Unlike us of the (much) older generation, she's very willing to experiment.  Not that she fires off hundreds of pictures - she doesn't - but she's quick to exploit an opportunity, like this rather grey cloudscape taken from the slopes of Druim na Gearr Leacain on Monday....

....or, during our return from scaling Beinn na Seilg, spotting the possibilities in the shimmering waters around the Clansman as the ferry passed a small tug towing fish farm pens.

She's fully aware that trying to focus on something that's close, like the back of her sister's head, and a distant view means that, with the limitations of her camera, one or the other is going to be out of focus, but she'll still try the shot - with some success.

Sometimes her projects are chosen for her, like when she was 'commissioned' to record her parents' annual early swim in waters where the temperature is still below 8C.

This is another opportunity seized because, while the pied wagtail was prepared to pose for a moment or two, his attentions were concentrated on another pied wagtail and he wasn't hanging around.

But this young lady's best pictures, and the ones which she seems most to enjoy, are her close-ups, here of one of the first dandelions of the year.  She's coped with the depth of field, and managed to capture the detail wonderfully, yet she's self-taught.

Her generation is growing up with this technology and, while they enjoy it, they have little of the reverence in which we hold it.  So her camera is slung around her neck without its case and, if it bashes against a rock, well.... it'll probably be okay.  The priority is that, when it's needed, it's readily to hand.

Many thanks to Hebe for allowing me to use her pictures.