I had the 18-200 lens before my camera was stolen. Now I have a kit lens and a 55-300mm lens. I was just trying it out for the first time. I was sitting on the beach hand holding the camera with the lens zoomed all the way to 300mm, aperture 6.3, vibration reduction on, shooting at this chick 6-8 feet away. While I'm disappointed with the softness of the eagle photo (which I shot from a tripod at optimal aperture), for a more close up subject like this it seems pretty sharp. I think I'll be able to do some fun things with this lens.

Deception Pass, Washington

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Love these purple tulips!

I was going to get a shot of both of us but the tulip mafia came over and yelled at us for being in the rows.

Tags:   Skagit Valley Tulips Robin Mount Vernon Washington

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Skagit Valley Tulip Farmers

Tags:   Skagit Valley Tulip Festival Mount Vernon Washington tulips workers David Hogan Skagit Valley

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Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

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So the night we were robbed the cops apprehended a car in Rainier Valley full of gang bangers smoking pot. One of them was on parole which gave the police the authority to search him. They found he had Robin’s drivers license and a couple of her credit cards and they booked him in jail. When they looked through his phone they found a video he had accidentally recorded while robbing our house. You can hear several others in our house with him. They were gang bangers and the cops think they rode the bus up to my neighborhood looking for places to rob and they must have seen us leave the house. There was probably a lookout outside the house ready to call in case we came back, and this is why he was holding his phone the whole time. His shoes show in the video for a split second and they are the same shoes he was wearing when arrested. This should hopefully be enough evidence to place him at the scene of the crime. He will be prosecuted soon for residential burglary and possession of stolen property. We haven’t heard any word about his accomplices and we haven’t recovered any of our possessions.

Insurance covered some of the losses but we’re out a couple grand. I’ve spent the last month dealing with the aftermath. Lots and lots of paperwork and other unpleasantries. I’ve been bidding for used gear on ebay and have finally replaced some of my camera equipment. We went up to the Skagit valley on Friday and I was able to take some pictures for the first time since the robbery.

I want to thank everyone for their kind words and generous offers of support. Sorry I haven’t been able to respond to everyone, but I haven’t been on Flickr. I’ve had too much other crap to deal with, and I had to get some gear for an upcoming trip to the Southwest we had booked before we were robbed.


Wow, this is the only picture I've had on Explore all year. I think I was banned there for a while.

Tags:   Skagit Valley Tulips Mount Vernon reflection sunny David Hogan

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