So nice--has the appearance of a hundred sunstars. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Rich!

It seems your original conundrum concerned packing the waist pack amid the other items. I’m in this position a couple of times a year and have found loading the pack with luggage items allows it to use the space those items would have. Just a suggestion.

I “leaned” the image to the left, and shadowed her face at camera right. We were constantly told in college to paint with the lights. During a shoot I have a hard time seeing it, so I generally depend on getting things right in post. Probably why I was better at news & sports photography, lol.

I definitely won’t argue your point—I love mine. However, the OP never suggested he has this lens; only a wide-to-Tele zoom.

Thanks for posting though—makes me feel better about mine!

Still in the learning stages...
This is a five-shot stitch. Gene51 helped get me going, and I used this sunset for practice. Each of the five shots were part of a 3-bracket HDR. My tired, old "film mind" has a tough time gripping 15-shots folded into one!

D750; Nikkor Af-s 50 1.4; B&W CP; B&W Nd-3

Shot about three weeks ago 15-miles east of Mena, Ar. I'm still learning how to use ND filters, and visualize in color. Until one hour before shooting there was a large gathering of clouds breaking up throughout the horizon. And, just like that, they were gone.

D750; Nikkor Af-s 24-85; B&W CP; B&W ND-3

Having been a basic PS user since the mid-'90s, and still an old film-guy at heart, I'm finally getting a chance to explore various stand alone software that can be incorporated as a plugin to PS. The first image below was shot 10-years ago for an employee's daughter as part of her senior portrait mix I did. She was stiff (known her all her life--not good sometimes), and I was trying for a leaning shot. The background was going to be blurred, and vignetted in post, so I wasn't worried about the extraneous "uglies" created by the sheets. Unfortunately I couldn't get her to relax, so after a few shots I gathered my equipment, and we went on to the outdoor shots around town. I never produced this shot for the family because I couldn't find the right perspective/presentation.

Soooo, last night I'm searching through a harddrive for a particular shot, and I come across this one. After finding the other shot I came back to this one, and couldn't resist loading it back into PS, adjusting the temp and shadows a bit, and then sent it to the latest version of Portrait Pro. WOW! In 25-minutes a dead-shot was transformed into a useable portrait. Just to make sure I wasn't tad overly impressed with myself, I emailed it to her mom who replied with a request this morning for four 8x10's--TEN YEARS after the initial shot.

Portrait Pro has become a oft-used tool over the past three months. The learning curve isn't too rough; it has a number of pre-sets, and automatic suggestions, so I was up and using it without help after about 20-minutes. After learning the nuts-and-bolts I'm really having fun with it.

In fact after last night, I'm wondering how much "gold" I have on my other archived hard drives.

Original--Olympus E-1, Oly Zuiko 14-54


After Portrait Pro

Unless you are bound by a "straight out of the camera" (SOOC) post production is going to be your best friend given the constraints in your original post. You already have a zoom which will allow you to go as wide, or narrow as possible. By controlling the blur in post, you can use whatever f-stop is necessary to make sure all the faces are in focus. I'm guessing the subjects requested the setting, and thus you're bound by the constraints. Also, play with your lighting a bit to paint some darkness around the edges. Don't forget, burning/vignetting the edges of the shot complements the lack of blur. Most importantly...have some fun while learning how to work in difficult settings.

Whoa—they worked fast. Your shots give the water a nice clarity.

I was over in Potters Point last month, and even with the high water the weeds covered the boat ramp area. I didn’t check closely, but it didn’t appear to be hydrilla. Go weevils!

Nice shots with a really blue sky. Glad to see a ”salvinia-free” area exists along the north end.

Yeah, I didn’t believe my roommate until I spent a week traveling through the Dakotas—wow. We now have the Tiger Mosquito from the Gulf Coast, a daytime biter, so we’re getting a taste of what the northern folk have long experienced.

Thanks for the kudos on my grandson’s shots. I’ll be losing him in a week as his dad was transferred to Arizona. We had nothing but rain from Feb-Apr, so I spent a lot of indoor time teaching him photo basics. I took him down to Caddo since Spring brings a multitude of diverse shot offerings. I literally gave him the camera, and said, “shoot.” Obviously I had the camera set on program—but I was more concerned with composition. The trees were after my request for, “something that says ‘three.’” There is minimal pp on each shot—we discussed cropping, an I let him determine which looked best. He’s hooked.

A fun day...he can’t wait to shoot in the Az area he will be living. And yes, a camera is on the Christmas list along with a pp app for his tablet!

I can vouch for the Cottages on the "house bug"-front...on a professional basis. How well I know about your "State Birds." My roommate in college was from Minnesota City/Winona, and was quick to say we Texans had no understanding of real mosquitos.

Hello ashriverguy--I hope you get to visit our neck of the woods!

I grew up on Caddo Lake, had a cabin on the actual lake up until a few years ago, and still live about an hour away. Three weeks ago I took my 7-year old grandson on his first "camera tour," (some shots below.) I'm going to list a couple of links to a fishing guide, and an on-lake cabin rental. However, you mentioned bug-free. Uh, the lake is a true swamp--bugs are a way of life down here. Not sure where you live, but just know you'll become best friends with a can of Deep Woods Off, or something similar during your stay. That said, you may want to consider staying about 16-miles west in Jefferson, Texas. It's a true historical city built during the mid-1800's, and it maintains much of that era. Bed & Breakfasts abound throughout the town, and there's plenty of places to eat.

Once you get on, or near the lake I have a feeling your camera will be clicking almost immediately. I've stopped fishing the lake simply because I have too much fun shooting it. Mornings with the water lillies, and hanging Spanish moss will get your creative juices flowing just enough to ease you into the evening sunsets. I'd almost suggest fishing the first day just to get a taste of the area, and then spend the rest of the time shooting. The trees are tall enough that shadows abound even at midday back on the banks. A car trip will take you into some abandoned areas where you'll find plenty of "old South"-type shots.

Please feel free to contact me concerning the lake, or the area, or even photographing it--I'll be happy to help.

http://www.caddolakefishing.com/
http://www.hodgepodgecottages.com/directions.htm

All shots were by my grandson...Olympus E520, Oly and Tamron lenses. (He only gets to use the old stuff for a while!)

For those of us with a film background certain elements of the “auto’s” in today’s digital camera world can be confusing. My first DSLR’s weren’t so great after 800 ISO, and did not have auto ISO. So, when I moved to the D750, I struggled a bit on the auto ISO learning curve. For me, it’s a tool I use in situations where I’m moving through varying light levels, and don’t have time to negotiate manual settings. Purists may cry foul over this method, but sometimes getting the shot trumps my pride, lol.