Well, I had a couple of errands to run today so made a nice little 225 mile loop out of it and snagged these two murals in Vega, TX near old Route 66.

I'll just say, I lean toward as little post shot processing as possible. Maybe a tweek in brightness, contrast or color balance and an occasional cropping or straightening. Otherwise, I like to see and let others see what I shot as close as possible to the image as it was viewed live.

I just set my phone to block all calls not coming from my list of contacts. I go in occasionally and take a look at what numbers were blocked and add each one to my reject list. The number of calls per week is gradually decreasing. I guess once they don't get an answer enough times, they quit trying.

PM sent.

thanks
klc

Nice shots. I wish I were closer to there. Even though I am still in Texas, it's almost 800 miles from home to Harlingen by the shortest route possible.

Here's one we shot Friday on the way home from the Texas hill country trip.

The Rebel is working fine. I wasn't trying to diss you, that's why I didn't mention any names. Since I have other lenses, the lag time on this isn't nearly as critical as when we were without the camera for so long (and we now have the 80D). I'll make further contact once we finish a shoot next Saturday where we are planning on using the lens in question and just shooting above 35mm.

We don't have a photo shop of any kind near here that does repairs. Two years ago I sent the Rebel XSi to a guy in Colorado that was recommended here on UH. It took him three months to get it back to us then I had to remind him I had also sent the battery charger on his request as he did not originally return it with the camera. I don't mind sending it off somewhere, I just need some kind of assurance it will get fixed properly and in a timely manner and at a fair price.

Who do you recommend for the repair? I'm a little concerned Canon may be grossly over priced.

Where are you located? I'm guessing central TX. If you want to see my bluebonnet pics, they are posted on the Texas Nature Lovers Facebook page. 5 days worth-1730 miles and 1900 images captured, but only posted about 140.

Thanks for the response on the lens issue.

I appreciate the "serious" and "helpful" comments so far. I have sent an E-mail to the Canon help center since their 800 help line is not staffed on weekends. In that E-mail, I did mention this seemed to be a known issue and asked if there might be a recall or discounted repair with that knowledge in mind. I will update with that response which-ever way it goes so maybe others can benefit from it.

We just returned from the Texas Hill Country where the bluebonnets were spectacular this year. About half way through the 5-day shoot, the Canon 80D with 17-85 (less than 2 years old) started throwing the error code 01 "Communication between the camera and lens is faulty." I cleaned the contacts on both a couple of times to no avail. We tried the lens on the Rebel XSi and got the same code. Here's the odd thing; it only happens from 17mm to 35mm. When zoomed beyond 35, the lens and cameras work perfectly.

Just wondering if anyone has seen this same problem and if there is a DIY fix outside of cleaning contacts.

thanks all.

In the event you are on a tighter budget than a professional level set up requires, there is a way to set up wireless studio lights without the expense. My wife had shot professionally for several years when she was younger. When we met, she was pretty much done with that phase of her work, then we started getting requests from some of her daughters' friends to do shoots of weddings, kensinettas, graduations, Christmas parties, etc. By that time, her studio lighting equipment was getting pretty old and starting have problems. It got to a point that the unit would flash multiple times at random before a shot then not fire when she wanted it to. I looked into replacing the flash system and we decided it was just far to expensive to buy a new system since we weren't really doing it for income. I did, however, do some research on ways to use camera-top flashes mounted to the umbrella poles and an infrared trigger to fire them. I bought the adapters needed to mount the flashes on the poles and the infrared unit and an extra flash so we would have at least two. The range of the infrared unit is about 50' and we can now easily set up studio lights that are totally wireless. This allows us to move the umbrellas more easily and since our flash units have intensity control, we pretty much have unlimited lighting abilities with positioning and flash control. The entire set-up, infrared, extra flash, and adaptors only set us back about $400.

I'm usually up at sunrise, I just have trouble getting motivated to drive along way then get out in the cold wind only to get nothing. I will definitely be checking out everyones' suggestions.

THANKS Y'ALL

Thank you.

I find it kind of humorous that I recieved a private message from someone scolding me for posting pictures on the main discussion board. If that's a rule I have forgotten since I first signed up--my bad. That person went to make comments about this set of pictures being out of focus and the horizons are not level and how it would effect my reputation here. That's fine as I do not pretend or aspire to be a professional. I take and share pictures because I enjoy it and most of the folks I share them with enjoy them as well--that's really all that matters to me. So, if my pics are less than professional level perfection--OH WELL; worse things have happened in my life.