My backyard has been full of horses for a decade and I have no secret other than shooting a LOT, but here's the best I've done. These are pure bred Tennessee Walkers.

No, there is not.

I get really irritated when I set up a shot and a hoard of other photographers come and shoot my set over my shoulder. Create your own stuff. That's one of my peeves about group shoots. One photographer will make the set, pose the model if one is involved and everyone else shoots the set and claims it as their work, and often their cameras are set to auto, so they didn't even make that decision. While I enjoy meetups and group shoots, I will NEVER claim that an image I took on a set someone else arranged is my work. I learn from them, but that is my only reason for attending. I'll use my own creativity, sink or swim. It's one of the reasons I refuse to book weddings.

If the front of your lens takes a hit hard enough to break the filter, you just pushed glass into the front element which will do more damage that anything. Add the degradation of image you get by imposing another element in front of your lens and "protective" filters are a really bad idea. Lens hoods work.

I use Easy Release. It's on my Galaxy and on my iPad, so I'm sure it's available for an iPhone. You enter the model information, use the phone of iPad to take a photo of the model holding their drivers license next to their face, have them sign it with their finger and the app will email copied to you and to the model. Cool app!

I shoot two D4 bodies now along with a D800. I have no need for more than 16mp on the 4. noise is excellent to 12,800 and usable for another stop and I could use more AF sensors, particularly cross sensors. Good point. Video is of little to no interest to me.

I'm a people shooter, so I'm never alone. But I prefer to be the only shooter.

I believe the improvements in the D4s are almost all video tweeks. I cannot imagine what else might be improved in this beast!

I believe the improvements in the D4s are almost all video tweeks. I cannot imagine what else might be improved in this beast!

It's my understanding that the D4s improvements are mainly video. I can;t imagine what else they could improve on this beast!

I always carry business cards and at least a Nikon D4 with a spare battery and the 24-70mm f/2.8. Close by, I always have the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR2, a monopod, a sandbag for the car window and at least two SB-800's.I only shoot in RAW. Model release is an app on my smart phone.

I have been a Nikon shooter for 56 years back when all they made were rangefinders and I believe their gear is superb and I would not change for anything. The latest, best gear Nikon makes lives in my bag.
HOWEVER...
Canon makes excellent gear and while right now, Nikon has a technology edge if you aren't interested in video, that will change and then Canon will be ahead. Master what you have.

Yes. I had two 2TB Lacie drives fail at once. And I don;t trust the cloud, so all my images are spread over four 4TB Seagate drives. I can have two fail simultaneously and I don't even shut down, just hot swap our the bad drives and keep going. I lose no data and I don't have to stop work.

What I spent to recover images on two failed external drives was almost three times what a more secure backup system cost me. I prefer to spend money on the same thing only once if I can help it. It is never a question of if a drive will fail, only of when it will fail.

Actually, your original images should be on a more sophisticated backup plan than simply an external drive. I've spent more than $1,500 to recover images from failed single external drives. Now, I run a 4 drive DROBO system and I don;t have to worry about drive failures. Drobo or a raid system will give you enormous peace of mind and your images will be safe.