Again for the first time, I took pictures in the botanic garden, first the orchid garden (which I can go for $1 only as a senior citizen)

This may look ordinary, since you must have seen many photos from there, but actually, not many cameras can get this wide angle from close up giving both big scene and small detail- this was reduced 6 times; see the unreduced

and the 4x zoom (I could get better picture putting camera on tripod but this was not the objective)

some other orchid later though in the same location, taken with a different camera

 In the cool house, I had poor result with the Lumix at 4x zoom (I think because of poor light)

 but the 20x zoom Kodak turned out much better - the zooming in on a dark detail seems to have caused the camera to adjust

 Then saw several visitors (both tourist and local) with expensive SLR cameras and big telescopic lenses by the lake patiently trying to shoot two ducks on a small island - didnt look very interesting to me, but decided to see whether I can get reasonable picture with my cheap equipment

 taken from about 20 feet away at 4x zoom; now 20x zoom