Tamron 16-300mm for Nikon This lens sells everywhere for $600 and that is what I paid for it on May 22, 2018. Includes instruction sheet and aftermarket items (lens cap and 2 hoods). $400 shipped.

Very nice.

Very nice. are we looking at both black and white rhinos? How are they told apart? What about the one that's mostly white with a lot of black spots?

During the 50s I used Kodak Brownies or equivalents, then bought a Honeywell Pentax H-3 in 1961. It was an excellent camera but I hated its lack of an exposure meter and the need to use a handheld meter. It was a thrill to ditch that Gossen Pilot after buying a Minolta 570 in 1984.

I don't know but did some Googling. The purpose is unknown, but there are a couple of possibilities discussed here, in the 3rd paragraph under the Habitat section:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia

Yes, Black and Yellow Garden Spider, AKA B&Y Argiope (Argiope Aurantis). The zigzag pattern is often called a zipper.

I'm a dragonfly fan and that's one I've never seen. Probably a Needham's Skimmer, possibly a Golden-winged Skimmer, both of which are uncommon to rare in my area.

Nice pic.

At 65, you've potentially got a lot of good photography ahead of you if your health allows it. I hope it works out for you.

Ravi,

May I ask where you're located? Your cuckoo picture is very nice, as others have noted. The reason I'm curious about your location is that the bird is not an American cuckoo.

Some miscellaneous comments

"their must be a way to have a single auto focus point at the center of frame , that way no issue " There is, on my bridge camera

" I used the DUMMIES book about my camera"

I also have the Dummies book. I'm dependent on it, as the information from Nikon (including the online manual) is woefully inadequate

"How much was this image cropped, Marty" I can't quantify it, but it's significant and probably excessive by the standards of many people here.

"do you have a "protection" filter on the lens?"

No filter.

Here is a picture with a lack of sharpness

(Download)

Nice pictures, Doc. If you're really interested in dragonflies take a look at the Facebook group, Northeast Odonata. We have some very knowledgeable members from DE.

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Thank you for the replies.I will try and answer some of the questions

I do not wear glasses

The VC switch is always on.
I alternate between shutter and aperture priority. Shutter priority when sunny, set at 1/1000, and aperture otherwise, set at the maximum.

I think I'm getting the focus right most of the time. It drives me crazy to have to screw around and waste time finding the active focus point, but I don't shoot unless I've found it. Most of my subjects are large enough to hit with the focus point, but I may miss with smaller subjects. I don't understand this: " Assure your camera release priority is set on focus so it won’t fire if out of focus. "

The picture I've posted is very typical of my results. The spider is more than clear enough for I.D. purposes but lacking the sharpness that I want.

My new purchase is an unmitigated disaster. After 9 years with a bridge camera, I decided it was time for an SLR to get the better quality images that can be gotten with an SLR. I bought a Nikon D3400 and a Tamron 16-300mm lens.

The camera has 11 focus points which are 10 too many. I'm an old man and my eyesight isn't getting any better. The focus points in the viewfinder are dim, as are the sides of the rectangles that surround some of the points. I've selected single point focusing and I have trouble finding that point. It seems like I press the shutter button halfway a half-dozen times before every shot. It's much worse when there's a busy background against those dim points.

Do you have any suggestions for how I can deal with this focusing system?

Next problem. Back to age, my hands aren't getting any steadier, just like my eyesight isn't improving. I am unable to get sharp pictures when shooting at my lens' longer focal lengths. By the way, I shoot small critters such as butterflies and dragonflies, other insects, spiders, frogs and anything else that moves except people.

I did some reading about getting sharp pictures and tried doing some new things. 1) supporting the lens with my left hand and 2) pressing the shutter button with the flat fleshy part of my fingertip rather than pressing down with my fingernail. I also try to keep my elbows against my body when shooting position permits. I'v also tried pressing the shutter while holding my breath and exhaling.These changes made -0- improvement. Of course, being human, my degree of steadiness or lack of same isn't consistent and varies from shot to shot. What doesn't vary is that on every shot the mirror flies up. Might that be my problem?

I am pessimistic and don't see a way out. I don't know what to do differently. My lens' maximum focal length is 450mm equivalent. For what it's worth, I get a reasonable number of acceptably sharp pictures with my bridge camera at its maximum of 486mm equivalent. I know that sharpness can be had based on the many pictures I see on my photo group, with successful handholding at 600 on a Sigma 150-600 and >1000 with the Canon SX.

I know this is a long post with more than one subject and I thank you for and appreciate your patience.

Marty

I recently ordered a camera and lens from Abe's . Got the camera OK. The lens was $135 cheaper than anyone else but was on backorder. They canceled the order immediately upon my request and didn't try and sell me another one. I also bought a camera there about seven years ago.

I use a PC with Windows 10. I use Google Photos to upload to so others can view the pics. If it can crop, email and edit images, that has escaped me. Unfortunately, it is less intuitive and user-friendly than what it replaced, Picasa Web Albums, which was discontinued. I will happily take a look at Luminar and Photo Editor.