When I purchased my D7000 I ordered the Infra-red ML-L3 and used it a few times. It's very small and fairly dependable. After a while I became interested in off camera flash and bought several Yongnuo RF-603 N3 flash triggers, which also can be used as a remote shutter release device. They appear to have greater range than the ML-L3 and no line of sight limitation. They use standard AAA batteries and the ML-L3 uses a special purpose battery. RF-603s are bulkier, but I haven't used the ML3 since acquiring the radio triggers.

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Certes, vous pouvez Coot. Il suffit d'augmenter la vitesse de 33,3 tours par minute à 78 tours par minute et vous l'avez dans facile à comprendre yankee 101. Simplement ignorer la grammaire. Je fais. (Certainly you can Coot. Just increase the speed from 33.3 rpm to 78 rpm and you have it in easy to understand yankee 101. Just ignore the grammar. I do.) And, by the way ... Google translate is a fun tool. :)

Nice photos. Yesterday I would have thought cute kittys. After watching the news tonight ... cats responsible for between 2 and 3.7 billion bird deaths and up to 20 billion mammals deaths per year... those little critters may appear just a tiny bit more menacing now. :shock:

Gary, peut-être les Français ont du mal à lire les commentaires sur ce forum. D'autant plus que nous ne semblons pas de partager un langage commun. :-D

Tim, if "missed the point" was directed at me, I was already smiling before I opened the thread.

Wendy, I find your color correction more pleasing than mine. Spent too much time isolating and masking and not enough time checking for easier solutions. Went back and adjusted hue of whole image instead of spot saturation. I continue to learn. Thanks.

take her to the vet[/quote]

For some reason I felt this would be one solution offered.

I see Tim already cloned out the twig. My results were no better than his. I could not help but notice what appeared to be oversaturated greens. I also retouched the twig area and reduced the green and yellow saturation levels on the cat and tree bark. Hope you don't mind.

Check out Low Key photography tutorials on youtube. For low key on a budget you might start with this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xGiDY9bTkk

or this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91gU93J2Q8k

There are others to watch that make it fairly easy to learn the basics.

Art or not, I find them extremely pleasing to my eyes. I really like the fuzzy little no-neck sparrow in #3. The green accent on the branch and the background colors also help to make it my personal favorite. Nice work.

Thank you all for taking the time to read, view and comment. Bill, my gratitude extends beyond the pros. I realize that most here are not earning their daily bread by pressing the shutter release, but many have professional skills, and I have learned a great deal from these fine people also in the past year. Again, I appreciate the warm welcome.

Rick

Without knowing your specific needs may I suggest you look at the following.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/768010-REG/Oben_AC_2310_3_Section_Aluminum_Tripod.html

It's fairly sturdy, not too heavy, comes with a head, it doesn't cost more than your camera, and it's on sale now.

Hello to all the hogs of the world.

Bib overalls, bare feet, and a straw hat. That’s what someone in California told me he expected to see after hearing the accent of an Alabama boy getting off the bus at his new military base in 1971.

I recently noticed that several newly registered hogs have had experiences similar to mine. Over a year ago I purchased “our” (yes, had to include the wife) first DSLR, a Nikon D7000, and I began receiving the UHH daily digest by email. I don’t even remember subscribing, but I find with each passing year there are many things my memory fails to record. I have followed along silently, and have enjoyed reading about your experiences in photography, and sometimes your experiences of life in general. I am grateful to those of you that have spent your life perfecting your craft, and are now willing to share that knowledge and expertise with those that are just beginning. Thank you also for sharing your work.

I have no professional photography background. My experience before last year was to grab a point & shoot or bridge for holidays and special events to snap a few say, “cheese” shots. My first camera was a small Kodak (either 110 or 128 film).

My real interest in becoming a better photographer is relatively new, and like many others, came after I retired. My primary interest at this point is people photography, both, candid or lifestyle, and portrait. I’m not looking for a new career, I just enjoy it at the moment, much like I also enjoy boating and fishing.

I retired in 2009, and I am lucky to live close to a beautiful lake in northeast Alabama. I retired as a Captain and Division Commander of a relatively small police agency, but the titles that I have had over the years that I cherish most are, “Husband”, “Dad”, “Brother”, and “Paw Paw”.

I am including a few recent photos. I think I’ve improved a little in the past year, but then again I don’t know too many people in this world who think their work is garbage. Don’t worry, 37 years of skin leathering makes one eagerly willing to accept constructive (and even not so constructive) critiques.

Forgot to mention that I also acquired Photoshop cs5 not long after the dslr and have spent the last year learning as much as I can about the program to help with pp. Images are pp, although I hope minimally so.

And perhaps my intro is a bit long and included photos that should have been displayed in the gallery section. But what the heck, those birds were standing so very close together, and I'm running low on stones.