I have noticed the same effect as the OP in ideal conditions (blue, blue sky, no haze or clouds, etc.). No matter, the effect is nowhere near as dramatic as in the old days with linearly polarized filters. Yes, I always shoot at or near 90 deg from the Sun, and my filters are the best.

Amen to getting tickets to Vatican and Colosseum online while you're still at home. THEN, use your Vatican visit to get into St. Peter's. If you don't, you will likely be faced with an hours-long wait in the longest line you have even seen, depending on when you go. That was the situation for us in November a few years ago and it's likely to be worse now. Here's how you do it. Use your Vatican ticket (order your ticket for admission NOT at the end of the day) first. The route you take ends at the Sistine Chapel (of course). Instead of following the arrows back out the door you used to enter by chapel to the exit, go to the end of the chapel opposite where you entered. You will notice some people exiting there...these are the tour groups whose guides know the ropes. Blend in with them and exit there and you will find yourself magically in St. Peter's. It is just about the best travel tip I've ever heard of. Saves you HOURS. At least this was the deal the last time we were there a few years ago. The tip was in Rick Steves' books so you could check a current version to see whether this still works. Or maybe someone here has more recent experience.

No one has mentioned it so I assume Luminar does NOT have the ability to import edits from LR. Right?

It was in Yosemite and the speaker was a photographer hired by Kodak to visit the national parks and give slide shows of his photos. They were spectacular, of course. Someone asked him what his secret was...he asked rhetorically if the audience knew the difference between an amateur and pro photographer. His answer: "A professional shows you only his good photos."

Which immediately and forever helped me become brutal in sifting though my pics.

This is the BEST! Outstanding. Your hard work shows.

Hikers on the Sonheimajokull tongue of the Myrdarsjokull glacier in (as you no doubt guessed from the names) Iceland.
I was struck by how the pic seemed to be a montage of the hikers superimposed on an etching of the glacier.

(Download)

The situation with a telescope with a tube is different in a couple of ways from a camera/lens. Yes, optics can fog up in either case, but a problem with telescopes is that even a fairly small temperature change can produce air currents within the tube until the scope comes to its equilibrium temperature. The currents consist of air at different densities and therefore different refraction indices and this plays havoc with your fine optics. Also as the temperature of the optics change, the optics distort because of differential expansion/contraction, and this is much more important in the telescope because of the high magnifications and the fact that you are often working at the limit of resolution.

In this case, Linda, it probably was not a misspelling, but was a play on "gator" as in alligator or Florida Gators.

First, congratulations!
Second, I haven't seen your photos, but the clerk's reaction is probably a commentary on the sad quality of the typical pics they see.
Third, re your quoted comment above and in support of my comment immediately above, a photographer hired by Kodak to travel to national parks, take pics and show them in slide shows asked the audience if they knew the difference between a professional and amateur (this was in response to people saying how wonderful his pics were). His answer: the pro shows you only his GOOD shots!

For me, it was a lesson learned.

I suppose next we can expect "Let them eat cake."

Why does Burkphoto even care whether Adobe continues to offer LR w/o subscription? How does Adobe's offering it affect him, negatively or any other way? This is beyond sad.

And then he goes on to say: "If you are an amateur, maybe a retiree on a fixed income, I get it. $120/year could be significant. So go find Software you can afford. There are plenty of reasonably priced options. Some, such as GIMP, are even free."

More cake, I suppose. So what about those of us in the lower class - that would be amateurs - who have years and terabytes invested in LR. Just give it up? Come on, Burkphoto, your Marie is showing.

I am amused at the paper, cable, electricity analogies. Really poor analogs. A paper and cable are lousy because you are getting additional value - more papers, more programs - whereas with LR you pay month after month for mostly the same program whether they change the program at all. Electricity is no good because you are NOT paying a monthly fee...you are paying monthly for the electricity you used, big difference. No, LR is more like buying a car. How many would like to HAVE to lease a car, not be allowed to buy one and keep it as long as you want before buying the next model? Not me. Not the vast majority of you.

I agree with those who are waiting to see what the weather will be like. No help to have a motel reservation for a socked-in location. The other time I have been to a total eclipse was in Bavaria in 1999. The night before we slept 50 miles from the path, then drove where the forecast looked best. Even that was touch and go. It was partly cloudy so even though we found a place that was clear 10 minutes before the eclipse, within 5 minutes clouds moved in. We needed to get to another clear area FAST. Fortunately, that's what the autobahn is made for. We exited at another clear area just a couple of minutes beforehand, found a place to park on the shoulder of the sideroad like hundreds of others. Success. I'm hoping it's not as breath-catching this time, but the lesson is that making a hotel reservation is a huge act of faith, unwarranted I would say. I will make one but it will not be in the path (because all will be taken)...it will be within reasonable driving distance from Little Rock to a place where the forecast is most promising, then a strike into the heart of the path the next morning.