Welcome and good luck you will do well

Welcome . Have friends in Lighting Ridge.

If you want to see wildlife go to Estes Park in Colorado. Enter the Rocky Mountain National Park there .The elk will be in rut and you will have many opportunities for great photos. If you have a 300+ MM lens you will get super shots of the elk fighting each other for favors of the female. Also Mesa Verde is great .Take the tour where you climb down to the ruins. Plan on spending a day there. And if you have time take the million dollar hwy to Silverton and Ouray out of Durango. Have fun.

I will be waiting

I have been in the jewelry manufacturing business for 35 years and one of the hardest things to photograph is jewelry. In my experience amethyst photographs true to form. What your problem may be is that what you trying photograph is a synthetic which will not react the same as a genuine. I have had it happen to me with other gems including amethyst. If I can help you in verifying your stones ,let me know.

Thanks for the info. Will forward it to my brother in Portland.

I was in the area you describe in 2010 and my question is how did you get rid of the haze in your photo. I have problems getting landscapes as clear as yours. Can you give me any advise?

Forgot to say I cut these this morning.

Where is the festival ? I have a brother in Portland that would to go.

You are lucky to have a place like that near you. The yellow dahlia was 7 inches across.

Just cut

The canyon pic is great .Where at the canyon was it taken

Thanks for the welcome. Will post soon.

I have been reading the forum for months and have decided to join. I like photographing landscapes, wildlife and sports. Will be posting pictures and asking questions. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.