I promise you that this will not turn into a cat photo blog, despite this now making two posts in a row (half of my December output, no less) with a feline visual focus. Kathy and I fly back to LA on Tuesday and the cat stays here.

That said, I just took this shot with the cat sitting on my lap. My 50mm lens has a minimum focus distance of a little under a foot and a half, so to take the shot I had to hold the camera well off to my side and completely guess on focus and aim.

The shot was taken at f1.7, which is what accounts for the super shallow depth of field.

I fear I might be turning a bit obsessive monitoring the used lens market on eBay. I haven't found any great deals there yet, though. So far KEH has appeared to be the place to look for second-hand Minolta glass.