I keep a supply of 17 x 25 sheets on hand. I really like it for some landscapes - it seems to restore some of the "pop" or luminosity that often gets lost between the monitor and the paper.

Ricoh makes very good small cameras for the serious enthusiast. Their lenses, features and build quality are excellent.

I am looking forward to what they come up with now that they own Pentax.

I just gave my Ricoh GX200 to a friend who wanted to progress above a point and shoot. I shot a gazillion images with that little camera and it still works as new.

How is what you are describing any simpler than using manual exposure? Since any decent modern camera with Manual settings capability will have a "Light Meter" in the viewfinder, it is no more difficult to set up a full manual exposure than it is to use Aperture preferred with Exposure Compensation. Either way, you are adjusting two controls. Except only ONE of those ways will give you absolute, predictable exposure settings every time.

And, as someone else already pointed out; Aperture preferred, Shutter preferred and Auto ISO are ALL AUTO settings where the camera is making the final decision about exposure, NOT YOU. Unless you are shooting a static subject with your camera on a tripod, you cannot expect shot to shot uniformity in exposure unless you are on full Manual, since even slight shifting of the camera between shots can result in the camera changing exposure settings.

The only reason I ever use Auto anything is when I am just out doing casual photography ("grab shots") where I can't expect to have the time to set up the exposure and/or focus. In that situation, I will almost always use Aperture preferred and auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed setting if the camera allows it.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

If you mean the Rock 'n' Roll pioneer Little Richard Penniman, not likely - he played sax during his school years, and didn't play piano until the early 50's, when he would have been 20 or so. And, as far as I know, his first film appearance was in "The Girl Can't Help It" from 1956, when he would have been about 24.

That kid there with Van Johnson was awesome for his age - I would love to know more about him.

I am looking at your photo on a calibrated monitor, and agree with Dave - you need a calibrated display - your image has too much red in it.

The Myrtle Beach city fathers made it very clear several years ago that biker gatherings would no longer be welcome in their fair city. We much prefer the Outer Banks or the many beach communities south of there.

Well, Jim, I hope you are wrong about that, because in about 50 years of taking pictures, I have yet to drop or bang my camera against anything hard enough to hurt either a camera or a lens!

No, it isn't.

Every one of my Nikons have come with a big fat printed manual.

However, I always download the PDFs from Nikon - it is a lot easier to find stuff and to read it on the computer.

I use a polarizer a lot - I never use lens hoods, I use my hand on those rare occasions when I am worried about flare. I find it very easy to avoid the need for a hood. Of course, if you are trying to shoot with long lenses without using a tripod, I can see where it might be hard to free up a hand to shade the lens.

Ambient light never adequately illuminates a room bigger than a small bathroom. And, if you try to use lamp light, the lamps and the windows will be blown out due to the relatively long exposures needed to properly expose the room interior. Using flash gives good illumination and allows you to preserve the windows. The incandescent lamps around the room then just give a nice warm glow to the exposures.

Dropbox is not just for image files - it is for any kind of data that you can store on a computer.

Red River paper sells a beautiful metallic luster paper if you have access to a photo inkjet printer.

When shooting hand-held, I set the camera's metering mode to central spot, and check the exposure around the image area just as I would with a stand-alone meter. I still have a couple of hand-held meters, but rarely find a need for them, especially since the camera's histogram on playback makes it so quick and easy to fine-tune exposure for critical shots. About the only time I still use a hand held meter is when setting up a studio shot with flash.

The D700 has one as well.