Yes, it's a great printer and the price is right! Yesterday I received a one day only email offer from Adorama offering the Pixma Pro-100 printer and a package of paper for only $49 after a rebate of $250. See: http://www.adorama.com/icapro100.html?emailprice=t&utm_source=rsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email102315Flash

Another email this morning from the "Canon Deals" website again highlighted the printer deal from Adoroma: http://www.canondeal.com/hot-deal-back-canon-pixmar-pro-100-printer-for-49-at-adorama/#more-1756

However, when any manufacturer starts selling some of its products at rock bottom prices, it means only one thing! New stuff is coming. From the DP Review (October 21) announcement on its website:
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/2995964488/canon-imageprograf-pro-1000-gets-the-l-series-red-line-treatment

It's the new flagship 17" printer from Canon. The rest of the line will soon follow! Before you willy-nilly order the Pixma-100, do some more research. By the way, the Adorama webpage states among other things "What's in the box:" "Introductory ink tanks" so you will probably sooner rather than later need a set of full size ink tanks. Don't get me wrong, I love my Canon Pixma Pro-10 (middle version) but new buyers should be leary of this great deal.

Agree with fuminous! Having shot over 175K exposures with this lens on the Nikon D800, over 3/4 of them models and portraits. I need a lens that can take full lengths as well as head and shoulders. I also use a Tokina 12-24MM F2.8 for wide angle as this lens covers full frame from 15MM and longer. A few observations: the lens sometimes hunts especially at its long end and this causes focus inaccuracies. There's noticeable more sharpness at 1/100 sec or higher even with VR as this camera/lens combo is quite a handful and this might lead to its bad rep. Perhaps my camera holding ability is going! With the D800, I have no problems shooting at high ISO's. Sometimes looking at the images on the screen, they appear too sharp and for my purposes require more post processing. I love this lens, I recently bought a D700 with only 9K actuations and a mint copy of this lens from eBay for $1400 as a backup. I'm amazed that this lens new still has the price that I paid in 2012. I've seen it occasionally on sale for $800 plus. Attached is an approximate DX crop of the full frame exposure shot at 300MM right out of the camera which I took last Saturday and have not processed yet.

As another Hogger said earlier the color balance and ghost image is the result of using a slow shutter speed with your strobe. The tent fabric is yellow which also contributes to the warmth of the image. Regardless, using Photoshop Elements 10, I was able to improve the color balance and neutralize the warmth of the image.

Using Photoshop Elements 10:
Click on "Enhance," on the Menu Bar, click on "Adjust color," click on "Hue/Saturation." In the open window, click on "Master" and again on "Reds." Adjust the "Saturation" slider to -64 and "Lightness" slider to -48.

Now, again click on "Enhance" and click on "Adjust Lighting." Click on "Levels." A window with a histogram will appear, adjust the "Midtone" slider (the grey arrowhead under the histogram) from 1.0 to .90 and your results should be similar to mine. My adjustments were made to show a difference between the "Before" and "After." You can adjust to your taste and if you don't use Adobe, your software will have similar tools.

Best wishes. Ed

Very often images lacking good composition, density, color, sharpness, over processed or other digital processes will not make the first cut.

I attended this last July the 70th Anniversary edition of New England Camera Club Council's annual conference held at Amherst, UMASS. The competition used PSA rules which are quite stingent to "Nature" and "Open" categories:

According to PSA rules on Nature category: Images entered in the digital projected image nature competition must conform to PSA’s nature definition. Eligible subjects include trees, wildflowers, weeds, grasses, fungi, ferns, mosses, animals or birds (except domesticated), reptiles, insects, fossils, weather, land/seascapes (without boats or other human evidence), geological formations, etc. Ineligible subjects include cultivated plants or flowers, domestic animals (dogs, cows, etc), scenes that show human artifacts (fences, buildings, telephone wires, etc.), mounted specimens, museum habitats or groups, or subjects no longer alive.

"Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict observations from all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archeology, in such a fashion that a well informed person will be able to identify the subject material and to certify as to its honest presentation. The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality. Human elements shall not be present, except on the rare occasion where those human elements enhance the nature story. The presence of scientific bands on wild animals is acceptable. Photographs of artificially produced hybrid plants or animals, mounted specimens, or obviously set arrangements, are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation, manual or digital, that alters the truth of the photographic statement. Authentic Wildlife is defined as one or more organisms living free and unrestrained in a natural or adopted habitat. Therefore, photographs of zoo animals or photographs of game farm animals regardless of the game farm’s use of wildlife terminology are not considered wildlife images. Makers may perform any enhancements and modifications that improve the presentation of the image that could have been done at the time the image was taken but that does not change the truth of the original nature story. Cropping and horizontal flipping (equivalent to reversing a slide) are acceptable modifications. Addition of elements, removal of elements other than by cropping, combining elements from separate images, rearranging elements or cloning elements ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE.”

Open Category: "Digital Realism" includes enhancements and modifications allowed to improve a presentation but without changing the taken truth of the original exposure. "Digital Realism" allow adjustments to exposure, contrast, sharpness, acceptable cropping, altering between horizontal and vertical, enhancement of overall color (like you do when you choose a film) but not change the color of sky, for example. Removal of elements, such as telephone wires, is permissible. "Digital Art" includes digital images that exceed the definition of "Digital Realism."

I declined to enter the competition.

Best wishes and go out and get those great images!

Ed

I just purchased PP15 and printing out the manual as I type this. I'm a long time portrait and model photographer and it has saved a great deal of time for me especially for groups of faces. A long time user from the days when the program uploaded your outlined face back to their Anthropics Technology Ltd servers and then returned the processed face back to you.

Haven't used the program yet but it has more features and seems to have a similar "look" as PP12 but not a quantum leap as PP12 was to PP11. Yes, you can download a trial version good for 30 days, I believe.

Go here, pdf manual at the bottom of the page: https://www.portraitprofessional.com/support/

Best wishes and get those great images!

I just bought a Canon a480 P&S converted to infrared to get my feet wet. Purchased from eBay, it only cost $50 and has a small file size of only 10 MP but test reviews say it has great image quality! It still beats converting one's camera for over $300 and not having the ability to shoot normally or deciding later that it's not for you! Plus, the camera is easy to resell. Initially, there were a number of options in terms of choosing wave lengths, 550, 600, 680, 850nm among others to get different color renderings. Reading and researching becomes easier if you have a camera in hand to see the effects, at least for me.

Check out both the general eBay listings for "Infrared cameras" and the listing of the camera I purchased: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1312.R1.TR11.TRC2.A0.H0.Xinfrared.TRS1&_nkw=infrared+cameras&_sacat=0
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262043399640?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Also you can get info about camera conversions using Google. Best wishes in your pursuit of great images.

At Park West Camera Club, here in NYC, our monthly competition consists of prints and projected digital images. We hire and pay an honorarium to a "professional" photographer to judge the images from A with honors (better than A) throught C with one of the "honor" A's the "print or PDI of the month." We also include several "ringers" where we track its score and comments at every competition. Before judging, the judges are given a copy of the PPA list of elements as mentioned in an earlier message to read and reference. Our experiences are similar to other hoggers and competitions in general. To further compound things, our final competition has 3 judges and members can enter up to 8 images, again prints and/or PDI's, any image regardless of its score from a previous monthly competition but must be unaltered. The previous high scorers very often become also rans and lesser images can now be A's or "Print or PDI of the year!". No accounting for judges' decisions!

Another factor in any competition is the total number and overall quality of the entries. There is the possibility that the winning images were the "best" of a small group of average entries and not necessarily memorable images.

My Nikon D700 quit around 175,000 clicks and I haven't gotten around to get it repaired yet while my current D800 just passed 174,000 clicks and is still going strong. I have a model shoot tomorrow and expect another 2500 exposures.

Depending on the camera's brand and model and whether if it's of professional or prosumer calibre, 30K clicks might be a small number or a shutter killer if it's a P&S or a bridge camera.

While I was typing this response, a thought came to me: how does shooting both in raw and jpg affect the life of a camera? Any comments?

Grillmaster!

I have always used the classic looking, long lasting, smooth writing Parker Jotter: http://www.parkerpen.com/en-US/jotter

Best wishes,

Ed

Warrior!

Check out: <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006TZ8O8U?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_bia_detailpage_o01_s00>

Here's my mini-review for Amazon after I bought it:

Q: When snapped on, does it actually get into contact with the lens surface?

A: This lens hood was bought for a Nikon P900 after reading about it in a photography forum that I follow. It is well made and when snapped on the lens by a pair of squeeze handles (at 90 and 270 degree positions), does not touch or contact it in any way, The front glass element is in a housing which has a screw thread and recessed about 3/16" below the rim of the lens. The hood can be reversed on the lens for travel or storage by the same squeeze handles and the Nikon cap that came with the camera fits within the opening. Well made, pretty solid and reasonable cost for a plastic lens hood! Ed
Edward C. Lee answered on July 22, 2015

Does the hood work at long focal lengths? Probably not so effectively but my main concern was about protecting the camera lens.

Best wishes.

Ed

Melismus!

I just sent you a PM. Thanks.

Ed

If you can for the same price or a few dollars more, get the D40X which is the same camera with 10 MP. Better yet look for the D60 which is basically a D40X with a few additional features such as sensor cleaner. These cameras are excellent performers and you must use AF-S or AF-I lenses. I started with the D50 and picked up the D40X, D60 along the way graduating to a D300 and now use a D800.

Buy one of these: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/sunpak-usb-sd-card-reader-black/1306157429.p?id=mp1306157429&skuId=1306157429

I've seen them cheaper and sometimes they are packed with the SD card as a promotion. Use them as flash drives for small files as mentioned above. I've also given small capacity cards to friends with Point & Shoots or other cameras that produce smaller file sizes. Lately I've been getting rid of 1 and 2 GB cards as I currently use 16, 32 and 64 GB cards.

Have a great Independence Day and weekend! Ed

Bob!

When I travel, very often I use Meetup.com as a resource to check out an area's photographic resources. I lead a Meetup group myself here in the NY Metro area as well as the President of Park West Camera Club, one of the city's oldest clubs. We are approaching our 80th Anniversary!

Check out this Meetup.com group which meets and holds events in the Poughkeepsie area: http://www.meetup.com/Hudson-Valley-Photo-Expedition/
You'll have to join the group but after you're approved, you can post on the message board a greeting and your request for a photo buddy while you are visiting.

Best wishes and have a great visit. I was up in Ithaca and the Finger Lakes last Fall!

Ed

MT Shooter!

Got your parcel: each piece, camera, lenses, etc. well packed with bubblewrap and individual boxed and cushioned in the larger box. Considering the age of the equipment, it was as pictured and in marvelous condition. Thanks and have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Ed