Well I love Lowepro products but I don't think I understand this vest. All I see are loops. Are there no pockets?

It also says it should be used with their belt system. I don't get that either but I can enthusiastically recommend their utility belts. They make two. I use the lighter one.

I wish I had also said that I use the Scene modes as a fall back to Manual. Especially on sunsets scenes. The Scene mode is often better and often doesn't require any additional PP.

I'd'd like to second these comments. I start in Manual but I often move to other modes depending what I want. I even use the "Scene" modes. I have a friend who is an incredible, professional photographer and he uses whatever mode he thinks suits his needs at the time. He knows his camera so well he knows in advance whether or not he should try to adjust all of the parameters in Manual or just switch to a "Scene" mode. With this approach he's done sunset photos that could go on the wall.

We've had squirrels tear up a lot of property around our place as well. Not once but twice. Still we like them. We cut a big tree away form our house originally to protect the house from pushing the tree toppling over in a storm but that also removed the access that the squirrels used to get to the roof. Now, when they start getting to close to the house we just go out and fire a couple of shots in the air and they head for the woods and get real cautious for awhile. When they start getting courageous enough to start hanging around the house again two more shotgun blasts into the air and there gone again for awhile.

Other than that you photos are very lovely. Incredible detail, wonderful colors and the expressions on the faces of the squirrels are excellent. True keepers.

John,

I am not an expert or a critic and I want to encourage you as much as I can but I have to agree with this comment. In looking at number 2 my eye just couldn't settle on what the intended focus point was in this otherwise beautiful photograph. When I first started learning photography I spent all of my time learning how to manually operate the camera and learn all of its features only to finally come to the conclusion that getting the camera to focus on exactly what I wanted it to might be the most important skill of all. With "Auto-Focus" being so sophisticated these days I think it is easy to assume that the camera knows best most of the time but in my experience that isn't always true. As I understand it now when you are in some of the "Auto-Focus" modes your camera has to choose between what is the brightest object and what is the closest object in the image you want to photograph and sometimes it chooses something different than what you intended. Even with "Auto-Focus" you still have to make sure it is focusing precisely on the part of the image you want to feature. I think it will benefit your photography greatly to study up on all of the focusing modes on your camera. Choosing between Multi, Center and Spot can make a huge difference in controlling the focus to suit your needs. Also using "Flexible Spot" can be a huge advantage as well. When I first bought my A6000 it was the first full featured camera I ever owned and it has taken me a couple of years to learn how to use it. In fact, I am still learning.

Otherwise I think your photos are generally excellent. I am impressed at how much you seem to have learned so quickly. Judging from the results you are getting already you should be able to learn to use your camera fully in a fraction of the time it took me.

I wish you much success. You're already off to a great start.

I'd like to see the results as well.

The Rokinon lens at 12mm and 14mm are both thought to be superior wide angle lenses for the Sony e-mount cameras. Both are affordable.

The reason you see Canon's at sporting events is that Canon (I rarely see anyone using a Nikon at sporting events) still has a lead in the long, telephoto lenses needed for that.

But there's another reason and, maybe a more important reason for professional. I read an interview with a rather successful event and wedding photographer that said he preferred to use his Sony A6000 to his DSLR and did as a second camera but said if you charged the kind of money he gets and show up with a camera that looks like a $200.00 point and shoot you are going to have a hard time collecting your fee no matter what the pictures look like.

Both Nikon and Canon have released mirrorless cameras. They sucked. Canon just released their third mirrorless effort which is supposed to be pretty good. Time will tell.

There may be a third reason. I don't think that Canon or Nikon wants to be seen as chasing Sony in the mirrorless design. With mirrorless cameras being simpler and cheaper to manufacture that would put their DSLR business in a a rut pretty quickly.

The basic trouble with mirrored designs is that in the near future it is going to be more and more difficult to get consumers to pay extra for a component that is completely unnecessary. In fact, it is actually detrimental to the process.

The new Sony RX100 V has shutter speeds and and auto-focusing speeds that are probably impossible to accomplish with a mirrored camera since it is mechanical. At least not at the price of a mirrorless design.

I don't consider an optical viewer superior. The limitations of an optical viewfinder compared to an electronic viewfinder are huge. Worse yet is the fact that the inferior optical viewfinder just adds unnecessary weight and cost to the camera. In a few more years optical viewfinders will most likely be history.

I don't know where you heard this but Sony uses both focusing systems in unison. They also have more focusing points than any other camera as far as I know.

In all the years I have dealt with Amazon.com they have done nothing but prove that they are deservedly the number one online retailer in the entire world. I get whatever I order on time, every time. Nothing is late. Nothing is screwed up. If I don't like the product I ordered when I get it I return it without any problems. My money is refunded as soon as the return package is checked in at UPS. You can't do any better than that.

I just can't understand the 10 to 12 days it takes a package to arrive. Otherwise, I am good with all of this. Though I am not a religious person I admire those that are and who are willing to follow their own religious practices even though they may be difficult. These practices are not just difficult for their customers they are difficult for the those that follow these traditions a teachings.

I like doing business with B&H and generally choose them first but if it was inconvenient to use them I would just go to Adorama or Amazon.com. They're are others as well.

Incredibly I just tried to open my Flickr account and it won't recognize my password either. I had them send me a code to access my account and when I put that in it said that the site is unavailable.

A few moths ago I tried to access my account and several of my "Friend" were no longer available.

Along the same line I'd like to know what other sights people are using and happy with besides Flickr.

Nice photo actually.