I think you can order it from B&H, Adorama or directly from their web site--cottoncarrier.com. The also have a nice hand strap for the camera along with some other camera gooodies.

A friend of mine uses the Cotton Carrier system with the camera on the chest. When he wants to shoot, he just un-clips the camera and is ready to go. This leaves his hands free for walking around, carrying the tripod or climbing over rocks.

Pat:

I do have lots of images of the Gallup festival. We were doing an article for a magazine about the event so I took lots of photos. Fortunately there was very little wind so when time came to land, the pilot landed us withing 10 feet of where we took off. However, when my wife went up for her ride, the pilot landed in some back yard surrounded by a chain link fence and barbed wire. Everyone was ok but it was thrilling for her and me watching.

Hi Glasskey"

You will enjoy your balloon outing a lot. Some ballon events allow the visitors to help set up the balloons and then get rides in that balloon. That is what we did at the Gallup Balloon Festival several years ago. I was using 24-135 and a 100-300 zoom on my then Canon original Rebel. Here are a few photos from the camera without any PP. Enjoy

You might look into a couple of books by Arthur Morris, noted bird photographer.

You might consider the Hoodman RAVF. I have one for my 50D and it works great. Not too expensive.

You might want to look at your close up attachment. Some are single element lenses and some, like the Canon 250D and 500D are double element lenses and do a much better job with focus. I use the 500D with my 100-300 zoom lens and get very nice photos with it. I believe the two element variety from Canon or Nikon's 5T and 6T will also screw onto any lens with the compatible filter size. I have used these filters on my original Rebel and my 50D and both autofocus very well at a working distance of about 20 inches. You might give them a try. Good luck.

Taken with 100-300 Zoom and 500D close up filter

The book I have for Elements 10 which I find very useful and clearly written is Photoshop Elements 10 All in One for Dummies---9 books in one.

I have two other PSE 10 books and they are not as easy to use as the one above.

I have the Kelby book on Lightroom and find it very difficult to use. May be the same for his book on PSE 10.

My suggestion is to go to the book store and look at a number of books on the topic and see which one is written in a way that you like to read and use

Cheers

I am starting to play around with HDR using NIK HDR Efex Pro. The three photos for this truck was exposed at -2, 0, and +2 and combined in the software.

HDR Power Wagon

I will go through the pictures I have of Hummers and post a couple of more later.

Thanks Johnny, I appreciate the comment.

I looked at the Canon SX40 HS and was impressed. Its optical zoom range is from 24-840 (35mm equivalent), also takes video, no need to change lenses and is only about $450. A really fine starter camera in my opinion.

Here is a photo of Anna's Hummingbird taken by a feeder. I used a Canon 50D, 100-300 zoom at about 200, reduced the 580 EX flash power to 1/8 and used ISO 400 at f/16 as I recall.

Anna's Hummingbird

Thanks for the welcome. I will post several more in the photo section. Hope they meet the criteria for the forum

Hi Catgirl:

The two kitties look a lot alike. Ours is a male and is one of four cats we rescued from the shelter. The others range from four years to 6 months. Also thanks for the welcome.