Should I simply remove filter? TIA.

O.K. "Bokeh" may not be an effect or technique or even recognized as legit by many fellow UHH posters. I'm not sure what it is but I'm sure having fun experimenting with my 35mm 1.8 Nikkor lens with a UV filter, for protection. The picture below was taken with this lens, no flash and subject was about 3 feet from Xmas tree. There are noticable small white dots on subject's face. Easily corrected with PS but any idea what may have caused this?

I recently visited a small municipal (public) airport and was taking pictures of small planes parked on the ramp. Through a fence I may add. The airport manager approached me and asked me to stop shooting. I do know that you can enter the aircraft's tail number and Google will provide various registration/ownership information. It was no big deal and I did not want to start an argument so I stopped shooting. Was the guy out of bounds and I should have just ignored him?

I recently purchased PSE 10 and am looking for Scott Kelby's new book on the subject. You mentioned is to be released Jan 2012. Cannot find it on Amazon as suggested. Any other reliable source? I have used "Missing Manuals" in the past and would like to give Scott's book a try.

Thank you and Happy Holidays.

Yes Blacksburg was a lot of fun and I don't know how but I did graduate from VT. Football season provides quite a lot of photo opps but I have found it somewhat cumbersome to carry my D3100 along; so usually carry a small Sony P&S.

Hi Joan. Welcome and I know you will enjoy UHH. I currently live in your capitol city and spent some great years in the western part of the state in the little town of Blacksburg.

I agree with MWAC, try Aperture Priority and try f5.6 or any Stop with a number larger than you are currently using. Your current F Stop gives a very shallow depth of field and a blurred background. That is a great effect and your fast lens is an excellent piece of glass but for a longer depth of field a smaller Aperature ( Larger F-stop #) should be used. Be patient the 5100 is a Great camera. Find a fellow Nikonner and they will be happy to give you some tips. Keep the faith and be patient. You will be very happy with this camera.

That was good info Photocat. If I may add to your suggestion I would be sure that the longer lenses, 200-300mm, have image stabilization or vibration reduction. Many older used lenses may not have this feature which I have found to be very useful.

I have purchased several cameras from Ritz and have been pleased with the general knowledge of the sales associates although it does vary. As you may know Wolf out of Atlanta and Ritz out of Maryland did merge and went through some challenging financial times. That said I have found that services and even training may vary store to store. I recently purchased a DSLR from a Ritz in Virginia and was offered 4 Free seminars offered weekely that were very good and classes were very small allowing you to ask camera specific questions. Go to Ritzuniversity.com and see what is available in your area. I believe the sales person simply forgot to tell you about this benefit. As for the $99 in-store tutorial that is your choice. Personally that is a little pricey. Give this Forum a week or so and since you are flexible with travel I am certain a fellow local Photobug may offer up a few hours of camera help for the cost of a lunch at Chipolte. Good Luck.

First of all Congratulations on your retirement and Secondly, the good news is your budget will easily allow you to purchase a camera that will give you lots of enjoyment. I personally use a Nikon D3100 which has a sister model D5100 with a few more megapixels and flip out LCD and a few more $$. Both cameras usually come with a kit 18-55 lens and a 55-200 or 300 can usually be obtained for under $300. Be sure that the lens has some sort of Image Stabilization such as Nikon's VR or I believe VR2. I have seen packages with first generation long lenses that appear to be great deals from a $$ standpoint but the lens may not be IS or VR. With my less than steady hands I appreciate the VR feature. Best of luck.

I currently use AOL and it is very easy to send/attach pictures. If pictures are only going to be viewed on your computer monitor AOL uses their compression method to reduce the size but only allows 12 pictures to be sent. If you send the pictures full size for printing you are limited to 30MB total. I often like to send more than 12 for simple viewing and not have to send multiple e-mails. Any suggestions? TIA

Yep Class 10 is the ticket. I use a Lexar Pro Class 10 8GB in my Nikon 3100 and it smokes. Many of the memory cards advertised by the major office supply stores are Class 2 or 4. Sure 4-8 GB for $8-$12 sounds good but I think the difference in speed is very noticeable and you will much more enjoy the faster card.

Very nice job RockinRobin.

Google Adobe PS Elements Free Tutorials. Also check out the Adobe magazine Adobe Photoshop Elements Techniques. Each issue offers an explanation of how to use the most popular tools. There is an annual subscription but I believe the first 2 issues may be offerd online for free. Good Luck and enjoy.