TriX is really something! States the recent administration was friendly with the Russians, then when he gets a response, he says the usual attic dwellers would use any topic TO START THE USUAL DIVISIVE POLITICAL CRAP.
He starts the whole thing then calls out those who disagree with him. How would you like TriX in your foxhole looking out for your back?

"Recent administration that was very friendly with the Russians"....You Dems just cant get over Trump. The Russians considered Trump a hard ass, and there was no f___king with him. Lets see, the Dems drew a line in the sand about chemical weapons and did nothing, they gave the ok to a pipeline that Russia desperately needs, they closed a similar pipeline of our own, leading to vast loss of employment and reliance on oil rich non democratic countries, leading to high prices that will just get higher. We now have a military that includes wokeism...and now you want us to concentrate on, "Aggression by the Russians"....Well, it's because Putin knows we have a senile, weak, old man in the White House who leaves the decisions to Susan Rice, et al...and he knows he will get away with it. Where have you been?

Short zoom lenses and monopods should be sold together.

#2 then #3 then#1

That's actually kinda fun to do..thanks for the post.

Your second shot begs the question of metering using a telephoto. There
is an awful lot of sky with it's brightness...
Looks to me like you could've used a small spot meter if you wanted the
front of the house to be sharp, or more of an averaging setting if you
wanted a snapshot. I don't shoot big telephotos, so have never thought of
exposure being a problem at large magnification...but it's there to see. We
have a great many birders on this site, so I've never noticed exposure..the
birds usually fill the frame, do averaging or spot...either would do the trick.

Sorry, I cant make good data out of bad data, you're on your own.

How old is that? Death rate is probably less that half of the stated figure (0.04%)...but no one knows for sure because of the, "bad data in, bad data out" truth. How many, "cases" are there in the country right now? By "case" do we mean people who have Covid, or people who have just tested positive and therefore are, "cases".
In any other reportable disease, "cases" means you are describing those who have the disease. In Covid, "cases" just means those who have tested positive. A high percentage of these (40%) either do not remember having any symptoms at all, or just had something unremarkable, and they could have had the disease months ago, and are just now testing positive (counting against today's total cases, not past months) because this is their first test. So that article desperately need updating, and will still be inaccurate, because we are still not differentiating "test positivity" from "cases". Also, we are very obviously over estimating deaths from Covid...If you are admitted to a hospital with Covid, and you pass away, you are listed as a Covid death....There must be a subset of these folks who die from our usual problems..strokes, heart attacks, metastatic cancer...etc. Unless there is an autopsy, these deaths are all, "Covid"...and there are very few autopsies.

Your first photo is so soft as to be blurred...right on the edge.
So, if you shot it that way you can never really alter it...
If you shot it sharp, then you can do what you want in the processing.

Just another thing to consider in the battle of portraiture.

Also, years ago everyone was using 135mm...then 100mm became THE size...now it seems 85mm is what flips skirts. I'm a tweeter at 100mm, and shoot the subject sharp...the background can be handled when you shoot by aperture, or when you process.

First thing I notice is that there is very little depth of field in the first pic. That can't be f11-13.
I would have Sigma take a look for sure. Good Luck!

That, I think, is my learning moment. I assume, 1) The photos were taken seconds apart, or,
2) The photos were taken moments apart.
I like 2), because her right leg has somehow become eversomuch closer to the wide angle lens, which
allows all of us to see what a small amount of camera or subject movement can do to a photo taken with a wide angle lens, the subject being fairly close.

Someone making a living out of taking portraits with short angle lenses must be really good, have
comatose models, and anchor their tripod in cement.

Thanks for posting!

The photos are interesting to me for technical reasons. I would bet the window you were shooting through is double paned. The photos are all slightly out of focus. They were shot with the aperture probably as open as it could be, because there is noticeable lack of depth of field, and if shot in midday, with plenty of sunshine, the aperture should (you would think) have been more closed, giving better depth of field. Or, you could have programed the aperture to be as open as could be, but I don't know why you would do that...I think the window interfered here too. This is exactly why all of us know not to shoot through auto windows..focus problems...but I didn't think the f-stop was so influenced...imagine what you would get shooting through a tinted window glass! Thanks for posting the photos..we all learn 'cause you took the time to do so..

There may be a problem with TeamViewer on Catalina. Lots of folks use it, so be warned. Also, when Catalina is ready, it prompts you for a, "new" Apple ID,
think long and hard. If you have used, "JoeBlow@me.com" for your past Apple ID, Catalina won't let you use, "@me.com" for some reason. So I changed to something fictitious, after all, it's just an ID, right? Now,I think I may have to do more than simply reload....DONT UPGRADE TO CATALINA RIGHT NOW..WAIT UNTIL ?????? Everyone is having different problems, my local Mac shop is not thrilled.

I used a set for awhile, but found out I really didn't know what in hell I was doing, and the use of these items did not improve my photos one iota.

"But for the utmost quality and detail, most pros still rely on the good old film!"

Does anyone agree with this statement?

I never see film cameras anymore....not weddings, sporting events, boudoir photography (friend of a friend), people walking the streets shooting the sights, cruise ships, document photography...where are this film cameras in use?

Thanks! I sent that on!!!