Rainy Day Shots From the Backyard

I had planned to get out and try some new camera tricks. Instead I was dodging rain. I managed to experiment with hand holding the fully manual 500mm lens in low light. These shots are from the backyard of my friend's house and they are actually not too bad. I read an interesting article about HyperFocal Distance and how to calculate it. Go ahead - give it a read. Let me know if you can figure out the math.

The trees in the first photo are from about eight houses. Big lens = Big compression. The goal is to get the first and last tree in focus and all the trees in between. The theory continues to say that once you have the lens set just right you can point and shoot. There is no way I could do the math so I just used the markings on the lens and some very tiny adjustments. It's days like this I feel I may actually learn photography.