Thanks, I'll pass that on to him. I hate reading manuals, but he is worse than I am.

Exactly my thoughts.

Kind of like a metronome in music, you can push it and shove it however you like, but a tool or guideline none the less. You can step outside the 'rule', any time you'd like. I'm pretty sure Picasso colored outside the lines too. Fourth paragraph of the above article kind of sums it up;

"It is a sort of guideline to help you structure your composition in a balanced way that pleases the eye. Like all rules, it is made to be broken, but we’ll look at that later. Experience will give you the confidence to decide when you need to apply the rule of thirds and when you can get by without it. However, before you can make that decision, you need to understand the rule and how it works."

Try spot meter on the moon, should come somewhere close to 1/1000 shutter, f20 ISO 400-800, then bracket your shots from the meter reading. Also, if it isn't a perfect full moon, you'll get better definition of the craters as the shadows give more depth.

I still haven't gotten the shot I want, but am getting a lot closer. Just too cold on clear nights here in Michigan.

Good luck!

I don't know if this has anything to do with your situation, as you have a Nikon. I bought a couple Nikon BS-1 (hot shoe covers), one for my Nikon D5500, and I gave the other to my brother who has a fixed lens Canon (not sure what model). The BS-1 fit both of them. When I need the built in flash (I don't have an external flash), mine works great. My brother needed his built-in flash, and it would no longer operate, until he took the BS-1 cover out. Apparently his Canon thinks an external flash is attached if the BS-1 is in place.

Is there a possibility that your built-in flash is being tricked into thinking that you have an external flash attached, either a BS-1 in the slot, or something that is shorting the contact in the external flash making your built-in think an external is attached?

By the way, you can download and run a free 30 day trial of both Elements and LightRoom from Adobe.

I use Adobe Elements 15. There is a learning curve with it, just as with anything else, but for what I do with photos this works fine without what I consider (for my usage) overkill of the more expensive software. Price $70-$100, and no monthly subscription fee. If you also want to edit video, the Premiere version allows that, in addition to regular photographs. Premier is $150.00.

I have not used Lightroom, but on here at least it sounds like a lot of people are using it, which should help if you have a question.

I use Adobe Elements 15, and there are probably easier ways to do this, but this one was the way I learned to do it while playing with Elements... I am assuming that other Post Processing software works in a somewhat similar fashion. I'm by no stretch of the imagination a pro at this, and have only been using Elements for a month, so I'm sure there are shortcuts out there.

1: If you already have a logo or signature digitized, bring it into Elements, otherwise create one in Elements

2: Use the Quick Selection Tool on everything you don't want to keep (white background for instance). Use the Selection Brush to clean up any extra spots the Quick Selection tool missed. When all looks good, Choose SELECT, and then INVERSE.

3: Then choose REFINE EDGES. Another screen comes up, at the OUTPUT TO option, choose NEW LAYER.

4: At this point you should have a BACKGROUND LAYER, and a BACKGROUND COPY layer. Right click on the BACKGROUND LAYER, then click DELETE. You should now have just the image you wanted for your logo/signature (logo with a checkerboard clear background).

5: go to FILE - SAVE AS, then save the file as a .PSD, ie: LOGO.PSD You should now have your saved logo on disk.

6: When you want to put your signature or logo on a photo, drag the LOGO.PSD file into Elements, then load your photo in (You can load either first or second doesn't matter what order)

7: At the bottom of Elements, Choose LAYOUT, then choose ALL COLUMNS (This will split your screen, logo on one side, photo on the other)

8: Choose your MOVE TOOL, click on the LOGO.PSD image, and drag it to your photo side. Place it where you want, and resize as you want. Hit the check mark on logo. If it looks good to you, go to the top and choose LAYER - FLATTEN IMAGE, then FILE - SAVE AS (Save it under a different name than the original, just so you don't mess up the original photo; ie: PICTURE_SIG.JPG)

Now every time you want to embed that logo, just follow steps 6 through 8 above.

Good Luck, and Have Fun!

I bought the D5500 with the 18-55mm kit lens. I wanted something to reach out. I got an email from Nikon about their refurbished sale, I bought the 55-300 AF-S for $158.00 delivered. Very happy with this, and am looking at their macro lenses now, waiting for another 20% sale

I would like the 60mm micro f2.8 (New list $520), refurbished right now @ 10% off would be about $405. Not in a huge hurry, so I'm just waiting in the wings.

Don't forget to look for refurbished lenses from Nikon as you'll find some very nice prices, quite often better prices than used.

Lol...

Sony didn't want Minolta's business, they wanted Minolta's anti-shake technology.

When I tried multiple times from my iPad, everything stalled when I hit the submit\continue, but went right through on my PC with Firefox. May be something with cookies, as I have them restricted on my iPad, but not on my PC.

I've never entered a photo contest before, and more likely than not will be a distant also ran, but was really surprised with one of the post submission questions, basically, "What were your feelings when you composed the photo?" That seemed odd to me..

By the way, good luck with your submission!

Is it this one you were looking for:

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-426632-1.html

Was that near the dam on the exit out? We were just there last September visiting our daughter in Asheville. Nice photo by the way.