The last one is fabulous! Not usually a fan of these dramatic filters but this one looks like it was done by an incredibly talented artist. Bravo!

Agree. Stunning. Great job capturing that and perfect focus.

I wonder if having a glimpse of her face in the mirror of shot #3 would have enhanced that shot? Really like the composition and feel of shot #4 - bravo!

Is she meant to be out of focus? I think contrast against black background lost with this soft focus

I'm sure that rock has been wedged there for many years but... yikes!

Great - I've had mixed results hand held but haven't had strong light - appreciate the feedback. Love watching hummers!

fantastic shots - any idea what lens, speed, etc you used to shoot them?

Girl next door! :)

Yes, have to agree. Nice series but the soft focus on face/eyes doesn't work for me... always a challenge in low/natural light

With the M1 chip architecture, things are not the same - 16GB should serve you well - see this article if interested in more in-depth explanation - https://www.macworld.com/article/234843/m1-macs-memory-isnt-what-it-used-to-be.html

I have a Mini w/M1 and running the beta Adobe products with native coding - they are blazing fast. I have not done much more than play around in Photoshop, as that's not my primary editing tool - others might be able to better comment on heavy duty edit - but from what I can see you'll not be disappointed in a move to M1 once Adobe releases their production version with native M1 support...

I also heartily endorse Serif Affinity products. They are great, and non-subscription and half-off during COVID. Publisher is fantastic and you'll wonder how you ever put up with MS-Publisher. :)

I stopped reading all the wandering posts, so apologies if others answered but I would most certainly take the portable drive back and either get another of the same in hopes you had something defective (good strategy if on sale, great price) or pick something else (in case it's a true compatibility issue).

Pointless to discuss merits of this versus that when talking about hard drives. The point of an external backup is to have a second copy of valuable data elsewhere when a hardware failure does occur, or data is otherwise lost. Always have at least two (2) copies of your valuable data somewhere, ideally with one copy "off site" i.e. not where a physical loss (think fire, flood) will affect it.

Hope this helps and good luck!

+2 for NordVPN - it's a great choice

I bought one - 16gb w/512GB SSD. It is great. Very fast. I've been diligent in only installing software that is native or universal binaries. Adobe products are still beta code and some bugs observed. Affinity toolset is awesome on the M1.

Not a huge fan of Big Sur... but I've been that way all along as Apple moves us closer and closer to a flat mobile experience. :)

should have cross-hairs... lol