It's hard to get a green heron in flight. As opposed to the great blue, they are speedy little herons. These are all good shots, but that one impresses me the most. Well done.

There are many excellent recommendations for you in the above posts. I have lived in Seattle for 30 years and have spent some of that time photographing the city. I love the recommendation for visiting Fisherman's Terminal. Most visitors don't find that spot. If the weather is decent, pay the cost to get to the top of the space needle for the best 360 degree view of the city. The Japanese Garden in the Washington Park Arboretum might be full of fall colors when you visit. A ferry ride to Bremerton as a "walk-on" passenger is also a good suggestion. The ride on the ferry alone is worth the price of a walk-on fare. If you like, take a quick look at my "Seattle Scenes" gallery for other ideas. It can be found here: http://www.pbase.com/saxman/seattle_scenes

I have lived in WA my entire life and live in Seattle now. Smoke in the air from forest fires at the end of summer has become the new normal here. I think your best chance of smoke free images would be on the Olympic Peninsula. You can drive SR 101 around the entire Peninsula. I would make the Port Angeles/Sequim area my base. Places to see with reasonably short driving distances are: The Dungeness Spit, Cape Flattery (the western most point in the continental US), Shi Shi Beach (national park pass and short hike required), Rialto Beach, Second Beach and Third Beach (near the small Indian village La Push) and the Hoh River Rain Forest if you still have time. These locations, all within a driving time of a hour or two from the base location, would easily fill up an entire week of exploring and shooting. Some hiking is required at each location I have listed but if you are reasonably fit they are not difficult hikes.

I live in Seattle. If you have the time while in western Washington, take a day drive around the Olympic Peninsula. Assuming the weather cooperates, the drive will be beautiful in early October. Don't miss the Hoh River Rain Forest, Rialto Beach, Ruby Beach, Lake Crescent and Lake Quinault. The rain forest, in particular, should be absolutely stunning.

My two cents worth. I purchased a D7100 new when the camera was first introduced. It was meant to be a replacement for my D300. While I have been pleased with the photographic results in general (portraits, still life, macros, etc.), I soon went back to my D300 for bird photography. Why? Because the buffer in the D7100 is very limited, particularly if you are shooting RAW images. I was missing my best shot opportunities because the buffer was full way too soon and the camera had to take a little rest before it was ready to go again. This really frustrated me and I went back to my D300 for birds/wildlife until the D500 came out. I snatched one of those up and have been very pleased with its performance. So, IMHO, it depends on what you intend to use the D7100 for.

I know that spot near Othello. The broken concrete gutter is the giveaway. Happy to see another brood of owls there. Very nice shots. Great work.

I still use CS5 and have had this issue with both my D7100 and D500. The DNG converting tool (latest version) works for both cameras and allows me to work in CS5. Adobe claims the process is "lossless" but the DNG file size is reduced with the new DNG file being a few less MBs in size from that of the original RAW file. So I have always wondered if the conversion is truly lossless.

Yes. That's where it was.

Great pics. I have been to this very spot near Othello (I recognize the broken concrete gutter they burrow under). That was two years ago and they were very cooperative for me as well. Happy to see they continue to return and thrive. I am curious, were you alone or is getting crowded with photographers. If you and I both know about his spot, so do many others. Again, wonderful photos. Congratulations.

I have been using two web site hosts for many years now and am satisfied with the look and resulting "hits" I get. They are pbase and 500px. They both have hundreds of thousand if not millions of users world wide. I like pbase best as it allows you a great deal of leeway in how you want your site to look. Since I really have no personal friends who are all that interested in viewing my daily photo work, I'm relying on other pbase and 500px users to take a look at my recent images. The price for each has been around $25/year but they are making changes at 500px which will probably result in a price increase. BTW - I do sell an image every so often but that's not a factor in my choices for web hosts. I simply like the ease and low price of using these web site hosts. I would be happy to have you take a look at my two sites should you have the time and inclination: www.pbase.com/saxman and www.500px.com/saxman71.

Since I rarely travel outside Washington State, I try to get my foreign cultural photographic opportunities in other ways. The City of Seattle and the Seattle Center put on a number of great cultural festivals featuring performances from various ethnic groups throughout the year. Here's a small sampling of the most recent festival entitled "A Glimpse Of China". These shots were all taken with a Nikon D7100 coupled with a Nikon 80x400MM lens. The event is indoors and the lighting is a challenge. A shutter speed of 1/400, f/6.3, and ISO between 1600 and 2500 were used for these shots. I have my greatest difficulty achieving something resembling the correct skin color.

Terrific shots. Usually the nests are up in the tops of tall trees. What a treat to get such good look at this active nest.

This forum sometimes makes me feel like a novice. I have owned a D7100 for many years and did not know there was a built in level indicator. But sure enough, I fumbled around in the manual for a while and found it. While the author of the original post did not specify the camera being used, I wonder how many different cameras have this feature. I believe I will find it quite useful in the future as I tend to take a lot of crooked images that need crop straightening and I sometimes lose some image features I would prefer not to crop out.

Both my Nikon D300 and my D7100 work the same way. The buttons on the back left perform different functions in playback mode than they do in shooting mode. In the case of the D7100, in playback mode the "Qual" button zooms in on the image and the "ISO" button zooms out. You simply had the camera set to show multiple images at the same time so you can scroll through them more quickly. It seems you have already figured out that depressing the "Qual" button several times will get the image back to full screen. But I wasn't certain you understood why.

Thanks for all the kind comments. I've taken note of the downloadable comment. I'll check that box next time.