My next purchase, I'm sure.

Nor do those companies who sell parts to reputable independent repair facilities.....but they do nonetheless.

NOW you tell me!

I believe I did say, "Lesson learned." But thanks for your sarcasm.

While I agree, I'm also disgusted with the fact that a product that can fail after two uses is not supported with sales of its components to reputable repair facilities.

Needing a wide-angle zoom lens in the 16 - 28mm range and after doing some research I purchased the Tokina 16-28. Knowing that it would be returnable if unsatisfactory I purchased it from Amazon. It proved to be quite satisfactory for my purposes both times that I used it. The third time out it failed giving me an error message at any F stop smaller than 3.5. Given the fact that it had been 3 months since purchasing it, I was unable to return it to Amazon and discovered that the Tokina warranty applied only to lenses purchased from authorized Tokina dealers. Subsequently, I took it to a highly regarded local repair shop that informed me that Tokina does not sell repair parts to independent repair facilities and so it would have to be sent to the Tokina factory for an estimate. I suspect that the estimate will be more than I care to spend for this particular lens given the fact that it failed after two shoots. Lesson learned. No more Tokina.

Great stuff! New York Voices is my favorite contemporary vocal group. A while back I caught them in concert with Paquito D' Rivera. They were the first-half group and when D'Rivera came on he invited Darmon Meader back to play with his group. I had no idea that he was a smokin' tenor player. Blew me away! Nobody should be allowed a combination of such talent.

I recall attending a clinic with Stan Kenton as the clinician when he referred to this piece as the most perfect ballad yet written. It's always been a favorite of mine as well.

The same holds true for re-ordering items. Second time around the price often increases substantially.

Is it possible to reach a live technical support person at Skylum? The Technical support website is totally useless in terms of getting a question answered.

Expression?

This was the first performing group that caught my attention musically as a very young child. Guess that early influence stuck.

Happy birthday, Bill.

With a sharp eye out for wildlife, I drove into Smoky Mountain National Park one morning. A short distance inside the entrance I noticed a number of cars parked on the side of the road. Thinking that they had spotted something I parked and walked into the woods where I encountered a number of people looking at a large bear in the distance. Camera in hand I walked toward the bear while gradually the group of onlookers dispersed to their cars. I finally got close enough that I thought I could get some nice shots with the relatively short lens I had on the camera. As I raised the camera to my eye to take the first shot the bear suddenly reared up on its hind legs, snorted loudly and began coming toward me. At that same instant I heard a scraping noise directly above me and as I turned to run I looked up and no more than about 10 feet above my head in the tree I was standing next to were two small black cubs. While I made it back to the car safely since that day I have had far more respect for the wildlife I photograph. Not to mention the fact that photography is more enjoyable when one doesn't require a change of clothes immediately following a shoot.

No other like him before or since.