Little Red Camera/Olympus Tough TG6

First an update on Sven.

I've taken a warm soapy washcloth in a baggy now each morning and have gently cleaned Sven's ears. He drinks his warmed water and stands quietly while I wash his ears.

So, who would have ever thought I'd be washing little elfin goat ears as part of my morning chores?

However, as we started our walk, I noticed that Sven would stop and shake his head. So I peered at his ears and the left ear was gooped up again. I cleaned it gently with my glove and then gently massaged it. More runny goop came out. It was not green or smelly. He shook his head again and loose goop flew. 

He then settled down to walking with me and browsing.

We ended up in the creek of course and the boys had some fun.

Apparently Charlie believes that Sven drops magic pellets of smart pills and I happened to catch him putting his nose up Sven's rear end.

That is part of the fun of having a pocket camera. You point and shoot and don't miss the goofy stuff.

We got to the frozen 'falls' and I thought I'd set up the toys that the boys from Missouri left me to hike with.  Every once in a while I take them on an 'adventure' and send the photos to the Doe Story page on FB so they can follow the adventures that their toys have in Wisconsin.
I thought this would make a nice Christmas Card for them.

Charlie ran over the ice and somehow made it to the leaves on the other side. Poor Sven, he tried to follow but ended up losing his footing and slid down this ice and into the creek bottom where he landed on his feet.

He stood up and shook his whole body then gave Charlie a look. I think the expression on Sven's face was 'YOU tricked me!'

I coaxed him to join us once more with a doggy biscuit. I had no idea that a goat would adore a dog biscuit so much! Good thing to know. Both Charlie and Sven love dog biscuits.

And then the two of them decided to help me rummage through my backpack.

I decided to do some experimenting with the Tough camera. Could I fool it into taking a 'longer' exposure? Indeed I could. I did this without a tripod, but it took me 3 tries. It is slightly harder to take a steady shot when a goat decides to taste test the straps on your backpack.

But I got the job done. I went to aperture mode bumped it up to f9 and lowered the ISO to 100 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/6th of a second. Just enough to get a little flow blur. If it hadn't been overcast, this wouldn't have worked.

I was happy with the result.

Then I tried out the macro modes.

Macro mode:

In camera focus stacking mode:

Pretty good considering I didn't have this on a tripod. And I am sure my hand moved. I'll have to really try this with a timer and a tripod to get a proper idea of how good it can be.

However, I did one last shot with Sven at my elbow.

I want to go back and try this one again...without a goat nibbling on my hat.
[Same mushrooms on 12-3!]

By the end of our walk, Sven's ears were clean. He was tired but more himself than he has been in a while.
I know he needs the walks just as much as Charlie and I do. He is such a character.

If I have to wash his ears daily in the winter, so be it.

He is a very sweet animal.

And there it is. A first outing with the tiny pocket camera. I did take a short video of Charlie running but it is nothing worth writing home about.

Now I need to get back to writing out some cards and searching high and low for my address book that I put in such a safe place that I cannot find it!