marmesto; Thanks for mentioning the remote control trick. I'd forgotten to say something about that. If your using a live view camera you can just look at the LCD but if your using TTL viewfinder you'll have to actually take a photo. I usually recommend taking one of the "business end" of the remote with no buttons pressed and then one WITH a button pressed and comparing them. The "with" shot will show a white light from the IR port if your camera's filter will pass enough IR to work with an IR filter.

I always shoot RAW, so white balance is not an issue until post. Daylight would seem correct but you do have a lot of atmosphere to shoot through so I'm not sure where to go. I think some others have posted suggestions which may help.

If I was close enough to the station, sure. OK at least I'd try it.

Can't say about the T3i, I've used a point and shoot with an IR filter and a 30 sec exposure. I've also used my Nikon D100 with the same filter and exposure. Then I got a D200. The IR blocking filter is more effective and not recommended for IR photos, so.... I had my D100 modified. The IR blocking filter replaced by a visible light blocking filter and now exposures are nearly the same as usual and shots are hand held. I used a Kodak gel filter which I got for about $30. It's worth a try. I did a brief search for the Canon and didn't find any info on that camera.
In either case your photos will likely turn out pink and require conversion to B&W. False color can be fun by swapping color channels in Photoshop.

We usually think of the moon as being a night subject, but it's not night on the moon a full moon is a subject sitting out there in full sun. An exposure of ISO 100, shutter speed 125th, and start about f/11. f/16 would be the sunny 16 rule but the moon usually takes a little more you can open up more if you need it but I think that will be a good start. Don't use automatic modes as the big black sky will fool the camera.

Do remember that HDR photography requires multiple exposures. I usually set my Nikon D200 to auto bracket 5 shots and then set it for continuous high speed. I can hand hold the 5 shot sequence in less than 2 seconds. Photomatix will process single exposures with what they call tone mapping, but the whole idea of HDR is to combine more than one exposure into a single image that will show details that cannot be seen in a single image.

Also check community colleges "continuing ed" courses. They are non credit and less expensive than regular credit courses. Being able to ask questions is important for some folks. And forum's like this will help with particular problems.

Can you post a link to these devices. Much of what you describe sounds like a simple flash detector on a flash. BUT, I don't know what the S1-2-3-4 refers to and don't know how it knows the power setting of the cameras flash since the distance from the camera make that look very different from spot to spot. Bottom line here is I spend a lot of time looking at photography gear and this is new to me.

I've done the learning curve for Photoshop, Elements, and Lightroom. I've downloaded GIMP (it's FREE) and looked at it. It is reported to do most of what Photoshop does. If I didn't have the other 3 programs GIMP would be irresistible. I love Lightroom, Photoshop is my "next step" when Lightroom runs out of steam and I teach Elements and think I could use it for most everything I need but I'm just so used to Lightroom and Photoshop.

photocat mentions a tripod, mirror lockup, and wireless remote. Sounds like a great method but Photomatix and Photoshop align shots automatically. I usually use a 5 shot automatic bracket and "continuous high" on my Nikon D200. The continuous shooting links to bracketing so that I hold down the shutter release and it stops after my 5 shots. I have not had an alignment problem yet. (These are hand-held) I love Photomatix, my Photoshop is CS4 and I don't think much of the way it handles HDR. I do think I should try photocat's method; I might get even better results.

Most of your filters will have a similar effect on a digital camera. However colored filters, yellow, orange, red, and green were for use with black & white film. Now many photo editors will create a monochrome image from your digital color image "as though" it was shot through a color filter. The filters that have effects that cannot be duplicated in the computer include a polarizer (modern cameras require a circular polarizer)which kills reflections, graduated neutral density filters which allow you to maintain detail in the sky without underexposing the land(yeah, you can do this to some extent in the computer), and a neutral density (non-graduated) to allow longer exposures when necessary. Star filters and other special effect filters will still work and you won't have to learn how to do the effect in the computer. Hope this helps.

I don't think anyone suggested Photoshopping the branch, but that would be pretty easy to do. I like the shot, and to shahryar; you may just be over exposing a little, I usually have to under expose a stop or two from the meter reading when shooting waterfalls.

That's right. I posted elsewhere that if you take 10 photos and erase them or format the card, the next 10 photos will go in positions 11 to 20. The card automatically tries to use all memory locations to spread the wear evenly.

Format replaces the FAT, Erase clears the FAT, neither erases the photos. I just tested that about an hour ago and after formatting retrieval software brings them back.

The "peace of mind" was for KennyKodak. (Sorry)