Thank you for the compliment; that is one of my 27 Siberian Huskies. I wholeheartedly agree with you about doing it for the challenge, but I've seen people get upset about the silliest things, and I would hate for something that started out for fun to be tarnished by pettiness. Like I said in my post, I was just sharing my thoughts on the matter.

I think that is a great idea. I think that it would be a good way to get our creative juices going, as long as everyone understands that there is bound to be some subjectivity involved and not to take the results personally. If you had some guidelines to follow, it would be less likely to play a major part, and would be easier for participants to understand what the selection is based on, unless you want the "winning" image to be chosen simply because the judge liked it better than the others, and that could be in the guidelines as well. Just my thoughts on the matter.

I suggest trying it bi-monthly, and then asking the participants whether that is long enough, or whether it should be once a month.

You are welcome. Based on my experience, I think that you will find Lightroom3 much easier to learn. I had CS3 before I got Lightroom2, and had some difficulty figuring out how to get my images to look the way I wanted them too. PS has so many ways of doing things and everyone has their way that it can be confusing. Lightroom2 made a big difference, and Lightroom3 is a big improvement over Lightroom2.

You can download a free 30-day trial of Lightroom3 if you want to try it before you buy it, but I would recommend it to anyone who wants to work with digital images. I would also recommend Scott Kelby's book "the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom3 book for digital photographers" which is currently $39.99 at www.kelbytraining.com. It is set up as a how-to book that takes you step by step through the various modules of Lightroom3. Rob Sheppard also has an excellent book on Lightroom.

BTW I love your Iguana. I had one when I was in high school, but had to sell it when we moved to the U.P. (in February). When I got it, it was less than a foot long, and was over 3 feet long when I sold him. He was a lot of fun. His favorite food was tomato worms (big green caterpillars); if he saw one he would dive across his cage for it.

I have both CS5 and Lightroom3, and use Lightroom almost exclusively. As far as editing goes, there isn't much that you can do in Lightroom that you can't do in Photoshop, often 2 or 3 different ways. It is just set up with photographers in mind, and the workflow is more logical with how digital images are processed. Lightroom is divided into several modules, each covering a different aspect of digital image processing and management. The Library module is used for getting images available to edit, but actually creates a card catalog of sorts so the program knows where to find the images. You can add keywords, group images from different folders into collections, and can sort through your files and show you all images shot with a certain attribute, a specific lens for example. The Library module is also used for exporting images as TIFF, jpeg, PSD files, etc., and you can add copyright watermarks, and set the image size and quality. Overall, it is a very powerful tool for cataloging and finding images, as well as outputting edited images.

The Develop module is for processing images. The main controls are almost identical to the ACR controls, with some additional controls added. One of the main advantages to Lightroom is that you can edit an image, and Lightroom only adds the processing instructions to the image file; they don't get applied until you export the image out of Lightroom. Since you are only generating editing instructions, you can make as many virtual copies (basically separate editing instructions) as you can keep track of, and they don't take up additional hard drive space.

There are also modules for printing, slideshow and web functions.

This is just a quick overview, and would require a more detailed explanation than what is reasonable for this forum to explain all that Lightroom can do. If you are very proficient at Photoshop, you may not need Lightroom, but many pros have switched to Lightroom for the majority of their editing because it is set up so intelligently. You may find that Lightroom doesn't fit your workflow, but I know it makes mine much easier.

You are welcome. I refer to it regularly.

It is my understanding that wide angle lenses are the most difficult to design without softness at the edge due to how much the light has to bend to get to the sensor. Like anything else, to a large extent you get what you pay for, and the better the lens the less problems you will have. I did a quick check of the reviews of the Sigma 10-20 at B & H Photo, and out of 145 reviews, only 7 gave the lens less than 4 stars. You might check around for other reviews to see how that lens rates, but I don't think I would have a problem purchasing one; it is roughly 1/2 the cost of my Canon 10-22, and seems to be well liked by people that bought one from B&H. The new lens correction option in Lightroom and ACR may remove some of the distortion; I have yet to try it with my lens.

It depends on which camera I'm using. On my 5D MkII, I use my 24-105L, usually at 24mm, but sometimes up to 28mm, depending on the subject. On my 40D, I use my EF-s 10-22, usually around 15mm (equivalent to 24mm on my 5DII). Much wider than that causes more distortion than I like. I have shot at 10mm with my 40D as a compositional challenge, but that isn't my favorite perspective.

Thanks, Rachel. I just finished a quick run through, which is all the time I can afford right now. It is nice to see so many excellent wildlife images; I wish I could comment on them all, but a "Well done" to all will have to do, I'm afraid. Thank you for starting this thread; wildlife is obviously a favorite of many photographers and there are a lot of great shots posted here. :thumbup:

Thank you. That is a young Phoebe that grew up in my pole barn; it was the first time out of the nest.

Thank you, Perry. I just got back from a photography workshop, and this is the first chance I've had to go through this thread.

The book is set up in a step by step format (actually says 'Step One, Step Two, etc.) for specific subjects, starting with the Library Module and going through each module in order. I found it very beneficial, with a lot of tips on how to do things in Lightroom thrown in at the end of each chapter.

I have been using Lightroom 3 for the past year, and used Lightroom 2 for several years before that, so I've had a fair amount of experience with the program. It is the main program that I use for processing my RAW images, and I would be glad to help you out with your questions, if I can. I would also recommend that you buy Scott Kelby's book 'the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom3 book for digital photographers'. It is a very valuable reference book for anything you need to do in Lightroom. It is currently $39.99 at www.kelbytraining.com.

Yes, I got home on Wednesday afternoon. Now I somehow have to find time to go through the 1200+ images I captured during the workshop. My wife will be home for a visit for a little over a week starting next Friday evening (best birthday present, ever!) so I need to at least get them off the cards so I can photograph when she is home.

They may not be red, but the yellow and gold leaves really stand out. Each area of the country has its own color scheme, and it is nice to see what other regions look like. Thanks for sharing these.

This one was held in Newberry and Grand Marais, and was more of a photography tour than a workshop, with the leader (Rod Planck) acting as a guide to take us to beautiful places at the right time of day and in the right conditions and light. While he is available for questions during the workshop, this type of workshop is geared toward people who have a good understanding of composition and how camera settings affect an image, so there is less emphasis on training than at a typical workshop. They plan on having a similar tour the last week of September next year in the Porcupine Mountains and Western Upper Peninsula, which would be very close to you, and which I am already signed up for. Rod Planck is from McMillan, and has been a professional photographer here in the U.P. for 25 years. He also leads workshops for less experienced photographers here in the U.P., as well as tours out West and to places like Iceland. If you are interested, his website is http://www.rodplanck.com/. He is a very friendly, knowledgeable, helpful teacher, and I wholeheartedly recommend him.