tinplater,

This is a very nice snap. How much did you Post Process it, and, with what image editing software program? Also, what camera body (a Sony?) is your new, used lens on? Did you use full manual mode or one of the other 'programmed' modes on your camera?

I've been thinking about trying to get a 50 mm 1.4 prime lens for my Nikon D800. Of course, the one deterrent is the high cost. I have 3 other used lenses and only have one other lens that I actually bought brand new, so I am not fearful of purchasing used equipment. Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,
Tom

At the time the teacher let students use the desktop teachers could go to more sites than the computers for use by students, she let them have her passwords. Shortly after the teachers were locked out of so many things that often research for lesson plans was crippled. One science teacher was complaining that she couldn't research the latest on breast cancer for her lessons because the word breast was on the lock list. So people brought their own laptops, then the district locked the server itself, at least for school access, admin downtown still had full access. A few big shots got caught with lots of porn etc on their machines, so server lock down with only "cleared" people having passwords. Then they found that the service (wifi with 3 mile range on top of our tallest building on campus, other schools the same) that allowed students to access the district service from home was................hackable!!!!!! At least by teenage computer geeks and their friends and relatives. That included the so called locked admin password only services. They also tried the bright idea of checking out/assigning laptops and i-pads to students, supposedly locked out of the forbidden sites, including games. Second day of the program they found that students had gotten around the lock outs and by day three aprx 20% of the district owned i-pads and laptops were going on "forbidden" sites.

This was a HS in East Los Angeles that hovered around 5000 students plus or minus a few hundred every school year. We were a "Digital Highschool" on Federal grants. The whole campus had fiber optic access, and about a month after they finished the 3 year project they had to start digging up cables to replace them with 4X the capacity. When I retired in June 2007 there were 500+ desktop computers,and at least 300 laptops just for faculty and staff plus a hundred or so in portable "computer labs" that could be brought into a classroom for a special unit and then they started issuing ipads to all students right after I retired and checking out laptops to the students. I have no idea how many computers etc they have on campus now. But it has to be a lot.
I am willing to bet that in the "students" vs "school district" tech war the students have successfully countered every district move and are a step or two ahead of them.
I had an 11th grade boy who had passed the state certification tests but chose to stay in school who was a full time college student majoring in Computer Science in night classes with an ID using his middle name that said he was 19. He was also in partnership with one of his professors in a storefront shop that built custom made computers for artists, photographers and gamers. His cousin, also in 11th grade, worked on line nights and weekends as an IT tech and processing paperwork for a real estate company and made more money than his parents made at their jobs. He gave 50% to the family, mostly in a college fund for his little brothers and sisters and 50% for himself. He hired other students when the workload got too big.
A certain % will always fail or be content to get along, a certain % will excel no matter what barriers are put in their way.