I tried a variety of photographs yesterday morning as I was experimenting with what I can do with the 55-300mm lens.  It looks like I will be able to make most of my outdoor images with this lens, providing I find anything worth photographing.  Since I am not photographing indoor activities at Homewood while we are locked down, it means that I can do all of my photography with my Pentax KP DSLR camera.  It seems to have taken a major calamity to enable me to finally do everything with one camera, and not with a mirrorless camera at that.  Since I’m not photographing close to people, I don’t need the silence of a mirrorless camera, and the Pentax DSLR system has smaller lighter lenses that cover the range from 18 – 300mm (effective 28 – 450mm with its APS size sensor).

Notice that I said I can do all of my photography with a Pentax DSLR.  I like to have the flexibility to document whatever I see that might be of interest to the residents of Homewood.  In addition, I can make images like those above with the same setup; but, a DSLR and a long zoom lens are not what I would prefer to use.  If I could do what I prefer, I would be using a mirrorless rangefinder like camera with just an equivalent 35 or 50mm prime lens.  If I were still traveling, I would like to use just a prime lens to photograph different country scenes as well as people in their daily environments … no zoom lenses, and no camera bag.  I would like to use that setup to make long-form documentaries about issues of interest to me.

But, there is a wide gap between what subjects there are to photograph that I can make, and what I would like to do; but, I am OK with using my Pentax DSLR and documenting things around Homewood as well as making images similar to those above which are fun to process.  I can, at times, even use my 35mm macro lens on the KP along with my zoom lenses and be happy with my Pentax camera.  I don’t know yet, but maybe my “new normal” mode of photography after we get the virus under control will continue to be just using a Pentax setup; i.e., my one and only “back to the future” camera system.