thank you very much

I live in Lakeland Fl and own a d70s and now a d7000. I enjoy time at Circle B Bar Reserve and Bok Tower Gardens. I have been shooting for most of my adult life off and on but in the last 20 yrs much more. My wife and I vacationed in Arizona and were able to visit the Grand Canyon as well as Sedano and Hoover Dam. Oct 2010 we visited Southern California, mountains and ocean. We also enjoy crusin the carribean and Mexico, Myan Ruins. Since welive in the south though the Smokey Mountains are where we visit the most.
I have enjoyed the forum very much and have continued to learn a lot from everyone.

Circle B reserve near Highland City Fl

Great shots, thanks for sharing them.....

I shoot ballons each year at Sun N Fun, or try to. I'm not an expert but I am not new either. I do have a golf cart to run around in so movement for me is easy. The first thing I do is arrive as early as I can , check the wind direction. That would be ground level as it might be differant up a hundred feet or so. Another consideration is sunrise direction. Usually the ballons are inflated over a short period so you can get some ground shots. Try to get a person in front of an inflating ballon for perspective. If you can get close try to get low and behind the person running the gas inflator. The morning sunrise is always good behind your back but be ready to shoot up as they go over. Also try some shots with the ballons between you and the sunrise. As with anything else practice. And one more thing, try to hop on someones golf cart...

Thanks for the link on shutter count, my D70s has little over 10,000. I just purchased a refurbished D7000 and see that it has 1700 shots which are certain to be mine for the most part. As a note my refurbished D7000 works as advertised, it was all I could find avaible at the time.

One suggestion, come to Sun N Fun this march and photograph until you are sick for 6 straight days.