The lighting is really nice. Soft glow to the fluffy fibers. Really sharp too.

Xanadu,

Nice shot. Wonder what it would look like as an HDR?

Google turned up nothing on a "string monopod". Is there another name for it? I've been a photographer since graduating from Photo School in 1957 and I've never heard of it either.

I did a short cruise on the Iowa when I was in the navy in the fifties. Can't find any of the photos I took. Quite a boat!

Great shots. That is one of my bucket list places to go to.

They spelled it wrong. Should have been Seasonal Insanity. Funny. Loved it.

Good stuff. It would be cool to have a full day of shots with the single tree when you see what a difference the time of day make is the two you have. The terrain reminds me of NW Australia except no mountains.

Absolutely one of the best winter Cardinal shots by anybody. And a Merry Christmas to you as well.

Your macros are great! Thank you. Have a great christmas.

Nice work. I agree with most of the comments. Photographing people is much different than landscapes you have more things to think about and mostly you pay attention to what the subjects are doing but paying attention to the background is equally important. One thing to alway remember is to keep it simple. Cluttered backgrounds distract from the people you are filming. Shoot as wide an aperture as you can and move them away from the background is usually a good practice to use. The idea with the boy and the wreath in the fence is a good idea for a Christmas shot but the busy background is a problem. Still a nice shot however, but you get the idea.

As to the landscapes, the Bodie Island Light has several more interesting angles to shoot. The gazebo you see in the left side of the shot is one of them. The sunset from there is really a nice shot, especially this time of the year when the sun is further south. Correcting the perspective of the lighthouse would help as well. I really like the shot of the island in Lake Mattamuskeet. It captures the feeling of the place perfectly. Of course you have to be familiar with the lake to understand this. I would agree that they all would be better if shot with sun at a lower angle. I’ve never been around to the back of the Mattamuskeet light to see the reflection so I like that too. It is out of focus however. You have a nice eye. Keep it up. You live in an area that has a lot to photograph.

I did the film in the Estuarium by the way, so I have filmed a bunch there.

Nice shot. We all wished Ft. Bragg, NC looked like that.

Great colors. Pays to be ready when it opens up for you.

Actually this temple is not white. It was just re-dedicated at the begining of Nov. after the previous one had interior mold and had to be remodeled. The old one was white. There are several temples that are not white. Salt Lake and Logan Utah are ones that come to mind.

I could have done all the color and exposure stuff I did in the second one but I felt I had to take out the snags because we have had a hemlock disease that has wiped out most of our native Hemlocks and I have been so distressed about that that I am reminded of the problem every time I see one. That's just me. And once you start down that road might as well go whole hog.

I've done a few on metal at MPIX.com. Really turned out well. Mostly now I get them printed on metal paper. You get that depth on that as well.

Thanks Sam. I am using an Apple iMac Mid 2011 model 27in with High Sierra OS and I haven't had a problem. Locked up once when I exported the mountain shot. I guessed because I had so many changes to the original it chugged on export. But that only happened once.