My favorite is the 18-200 3.5-5.6 DX.

You should never, ever, ever touch the mirror with any thing. I was taught this years ago during my training a the military photography and film school. If you want to know why just do a google search there are hundreds of references as to why.

I think "bridge" cameras are DSLRs that do not have interchangeable lenses. They are a bridge between P&S and DSLR. Point and shoots do not incorporate a reflex system.

DSLR comes from the original SLR which was a way to describe a camera which used the same opening for framing, focusing and exposing. This distinguished it from the TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) which used separate lenses for framing and exposing. Technically most MF cameras today are DSLRs and View cameras are Single Lens Cameras utilizing the same lens for framing and exposing but do not have a mirror or penta prism for viewing through a separate viewfinder.

Our town has a local Memorial Park which grew into disrepair. A group of private citizen got together and cleaned up the park, planted flowers and raised money to buy benches and repair the fountain.

I took some photos to share with people so they could see the results.

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Back in my days of film I used the zone system for my exposures. Basically this was exposing for the area of the photographer where you wanted the most detail. We use to say, "Shoot for the shadows and print for the highlights." Today we call this shooting to the right. Expose for the dark areas and darken in pp, this will give less noise. Just be careful not to blow out the highlights.

Also, because the angle of view does not change whether it is full frame or crop frame, the handheld "rule" applies to both. 600mm is 600 mm. A crop sensor only does the same as cropping the frame in pp.

Most of my training and experience comes from the days of film. In those days, on 35mm, the things that changed with each lens was compression, distortion, depth of field and angle of view. None of these change when using a "FX" lens on a DX sensor. All that changes is we see a smaller portion of the angle of view. Those simulators only show the angle of view and not the other optical changes.

All Pros are being paid by someone. That's why they are pros. I did my first "pro" gig at age 16, for a local radio station. When they called me I said I wasn't a pro. They asked me if I wanted the gig. When I said yes the manager said, "Now you're a pro."

[quote=pdsdville] I'm a GWC and have 60 or so awards at local, state, and international levels. I guess I'm an advanced GWC. I study photography for my own pleasure, taking classes, seminars, and reading in my spare time. I'm out shooting several times a week to hone my skills. I probably have 10K worth of equipment, none really fancy but the best quality I could afford.quote]

I would not call you a GWC. A GWC is some person who gets a DSLR or a bridge camera and on the first day they use it, on automatic, see that their pictures are exposed properly and in focus says to him self, "I can make some money at this." You are an amateur photographer, the operative word being "photographer". Whether you are a pro or an amateur a PHOTOGRAPHER is a person who creates photographs, they do not take photographs. A PHOTOGRAPHER can shoot 10 frames and gets 10 good photographs and says I can do better the next time. A GWC shoots 1000 frames, gets maybe 10 good ones and thinks I got this down pat.

Here is how I see the difference. The pro must practice to produce good images on demand. An amateur practices to be able to produce good images when they desire. A GWC (or MWAC) don't need to practice because they think they are good enough.

Experienced this in St. John's, Newfoundland. Pretty unnerving.

When I visited my son in Calgary, I went there. The service is fantastic. I window shopped until my ride threatened to leave me there. It's a good thing my family know I am a gear nut or they would have thought my rambling for hours about the place was a sign of a psychological disorder. Probably be my first destination if I win the lottery.

Another idea to control perspective is to back up far enough so that the film plane can be parallel to the vertical planes of the building. Simply crop the image during post processing. This basically what shift lenses do, they actually have a wider field of view than the marked focal length, a the field of view is shifted to allow the film plane to be vertical. Personally i do not like the results in post processing.

Check out this site
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Learn-And-Explore/Article/g588ouey/the-dx-and-fx-formats.html

I have found that in some situations you can get a fine mist passing over the rocks can appear a an almost soft focus.

Does your camera have a panorama mode? It looks as if is trying to stitch the frames together. Look closely at the left side where the images meet. The only thing I can figure is you shot several shots of the same scene in panorama mode and st least one was in the wrong orientation. The software just did the best it could.