I second that. I have a tamron 150-600mm and a big tripod with a gimbal mount and it mostly stays in the cabinet as it is way too much work to set up and use. Very sensitive to any movement at all even your heart beat. I shoot mine with remote release and can get good images with my nikon d4 but it is way too much work and I kind wish I had not invested in that size lens at all....but if you love wildlife and are patient to set up and wait...they can do good.

I spent two weeks on the coast towing and using my 16' kayak and loved it. did Cadillac Mountain, kayaked into the harbor among the Hinkley yachts at Southwest Harbor then around to Somes Sound, the only fjord east of the mississippi. I also took a day and went up to foggy Quoddy Head light...furthest E. point of the usa and looked out over the Bay of Fundy and shot that. I then went on with passport in hand over into Canada and visited the Roosevelt summer home at Campobolo which is still immaculately preserved and about two miles over the border on the island in New Brunswick. All within easy reach of the Acadia park area. I found the town near acadia to be really touristy, bar harbor I think it is...but all up and down the coast there are interesting towns. Frequent the docks and take colorful photos of the many colors of stacked lobster pots or the boats coming in with lobster. Take photos of getting a fresh steamed lobster dinner on a deck over the water or just one of the zillion and one lobster shacks that are everywhere. I have a bunch of really good photos. In Portland one day I went into an artist's coop in downtown and bought a ceramic piece from the artist who made it...if you have time Maine is fabulous. The last day I went inland to Bangor and the next day up to Baxster State Park and cruised just outside until I found a big bull moose up to his armpits in water about 20 yards from me and photographed him until he got irked and stormed away with more power than anything I've ever seen.

One day I took the ferry with my bicycle over to Vinylhaven Island, rode the island on my bike and had lunch there then returned and put the bike on the trailer with the kayak and took off to my next destination.

Don't hit one and pay attention to the moose warning signs when driving!

Reading the comments, I'd say this is what is known as a "tough room." With or without body hair is a cultural and personal preference choice unless you are entering it in a specific rules contest. Artists emphasize what they want. What do you care what any of us think about her hair? You are the artist...not us.

Thanks one and all...she is striking and with her step brother who is larger they make quite a brace in public. I am having such fun shooting legacy fd manual canon lenses via an adapter on the Sony A7. A combo I did not envision when I bought the body a couple weeks ago.

Thank you. She is our little, not so little, princess.

Your dogs are good looking...very comfortable in that shot too! My two have great noses but they run so fast like greyhounds, whippets, other sighthounds, that they hunt by seeing the prey as their running stride is from 16 to 18' each running double gaited like a cheetah step. Watching them run and hunt (quietly when they hunt) is a real treat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq_CqXXLu7Y

fortunately, my two choose not to but the big male can clear 8' fences. my back yard fence is 6'2" tall but they are never, not ever, out there without me. this is him walking in back. he is 88" long from tail tip to nose and crosses my 40 yards back yard in 1.5 seconds at full speed. Rom is as good as it gets in n. america

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she does not sing but the two have at least five different voices. the big male, Rom, is a louisiana bred of championship stock and when my phone rings the ringer is....the house of ghe rising sun...a new orleans blues song. every time the phone tings he groans the blues in time with it thru the first verse and now she joins him sometimes....I told his baton rouge breeder and Veni said...well, he's a louisana boy!

Thanks...smart, independent, can clear a six foot fence, open doors and hit 45 mph. You don't want to be a wolf around these wolfhounds (old name, modern is Borzoi)

This is Princess Liliana, a five year old Russian sire, American dam bred Borzoi, now five years old. She is quiet, affectionate and thoughtful along with loving and highly intelligent. Tonight she was in the sunroom when the little sony A7 shooting Canon fd legacy glass came out and shot her in the mood....I have another big championship American boy named Rom but tonight she made the Sony A7 work a bit to modest effect.

She's this house's sweetie pie.....unless you are a hare or a wolf then you are in deep stuff!

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Good luck with ankle. As a guy who is 73 I can say that getting older is not for sissies! I have titanium hips and new knees as of 2009 and want no more surgeries....but I do okay. If I am bothered too much by my lower back, I rest a bit. Sounds like you do okay though. Best wishes, been there, experienced twinges that just move around the body if you've lead a busy life after 60!

I've been thinking about your comments about close cropping. It seems to me the answer to that is the one I chose: it depends on how the image will be used. For example, if I were using it for a news or media shot I would want it cropped closely to emphasize an individual player or two as opposed to the flow of the game. If I were using it to show more about football as it's played as a game where the person without the ball is quite often as or more important for what happens next or explaining what led up to the current individuals in the action I'd crop it loosely. I chose to do something in between. I have two adult children who played year around from age 6 through college on their acc teams and we follow soccer so have seen a lot. It and basketball are games of movement where it is not always the person with the ball who is the most important but the one moving who does not yet have the ball. So, I'll respond with thanks for your thoughtful comments but answer that whether you crop that way or not depends on how you intend to use the shot.

In this case I was just seeing how well it did with an 80-200mm f2.8 nikkor lens...it did pretty well I thought from 30 yards away

thoughtful response....we'll call Ansel Adams who would agree with you on landscapes as well...

Interesting shots but what interests me more is why they were shot in more or less monotones rather than color? That's a choice. What was the reason for the choice if I could ask. I like how there is a depth of field to the scenes on the second and third especially and wonder if the "mood" would have been different in color. Nice compositions if darker than I would probably have liked. Still, good work at least to my non professional eye.

Nice. thanks.