There are programs out there that will run your printer at specified intervals, that you choose, while you are not home. I cannot remember a name for one, but I am sure some of kind people here know of it.
Ohio politicians are beginning to salivate about hybrids and all electrics. The governor recently signed a bill that included a law, piggybacked on the bill, to charge the owners of environmentally friendly vehicles hundreds more usage taxes every year when we renew our plates. They feel those vehicles cause the enough wear and tear on our roads to warrant it, and since such vehicles like hybrids and all electrics get such good mileage the owners were not paying enough road tax because they use less, or no gasoline, the price of gasoline includes a road tax on a per gallon basis. For those of us that own a hybrid but are low mileage per year drivers, retired, we are really getting screwed. The fees go into place in July of this year. I wonder how much road wear is caused by big pickups? Yeah they use more gasoline, but does that really compensate for the road wear? And to think we used to get federal tax advantages to buy fuel efficient vehicles! Then some politico figures out a new way to dip into our pockets.
You may try adding a flash to your toolkit? A little bit of fill flash will bring up the shadow areas on the lovely ladies face and bring the dynamic range of the picture to fit the sensor better. You will also add a twinkle to the eyes which is very pleasant. You may notice that a pro shooting weddings outdoors still uses his flash. Also if not using a flash why not turn down the ISO to the camera's lowest to increase the dynamic range? A digital camera records a wider range with lower ISO settings.
Is not the auto focus motor of all new generation AFS lenses inside the lens, not the camera?
A friend of mine owned a camera store here in NE Ohio, it was in his family for over forty years. He closed his doors eventually because of customers that not only looked at products in his store, then purchased online, but had the nerve to come back to his store with their internet purchases and demand that he show them how to use their new cameras. Some argued that as a dealer he had a responsibility to teach them how to use their new cameras! He offered to give them instruction for a nominal per hour fee, and they stormed out, vowing to never come back! True story!
I agree with twice shooter. I would never consider using a battery with a surface voltage of less than 1.4! The alkaline batteries are only used to power the flash electronics when the Quantum is used. The Quantum provides all the power to the flash tube itself. Just the trigger and brain use the alkalines. I would never go out on a shoot without brand new batteries, not worth your reputation as a photographer to save pennies on batteries.
Someone asked how to clean electrical contacts inside the flash compartment. Purchase a contact cleaning pen. I used to get mine from Radio Shack. They look like a pen but they have a bundle of glass fiber inside that you allow only the tip of that to protrude, and wipe across contacts, the sharp glass tips clean very effectively! Then carefully wipe and blow out the chamber. I have used the same pen for over 30 years and it is far from exhausted.
Torque sticks are good and a torque wrench is best, "IF" they are tested periodically. That is the caveat with either device. Accurate test benches are not easily available. With repeated use, either device can fail. In another life I was an ASE Master auto mechanic. So have plenty of real life experience. The wheel loosening and/or falling off was due to lug nuts run up by hand and never tightened at all! Even the best mechanics are human and can get distracted then forget where he left off I suppose?
I have had several experiences with E-Bay where I required a replacement or refund, or partial refund. I believe over six times in the past few years. Always first try to resolve with the vendor. Open a case with E-Bay if you get no help from vendor. Even after opening a case, it may take a month of back and forth if the vendor is in China. The vendor may wiggle and twist like a feisty fish on the line, but before the time limit set by E-Bay to close the case: be prepared to ask E-Bay for help, and logically plead your case with a short message to them. They will have the whole history of your emails to look at if you opened a case. I have never received a less than satisfactory result, ever! Always make sure that the seller needs to send you the appropriate mailing label and pay for shipping back to them, never ship yourself without that!!! It is very cheap for them to ship to USA, and expensive for you to ship back to them, and you must include tracking! Otherwise it may be claimed that you never sent it back. I had that happen once, and pleaded my case to E-Bay and won! I had sent the item back without the tracking and signature as it would have cost more than the selling price to do more than simple shipping, and I felt bad for the merchant, he really made me feel sorry for him! WRONG ! But E-Bay still helped me as they saw I really tried to resolve all this with the seller. SO maybe I am just extremely lucky? But I know that if you are not frustrated into giving up, you will win! Just need to follow the tedious procedures. E-Bay sides with the buyer not the seller, as long as you can show you are earnest, and honest.
Consider getting an additional rack and clean-relube it with a much thinner lubricant for winter use. One lube may never really fit all climatic conditions?
If you want to know how a particular image will look best when framed, then first narrow down the matt choices to those colors you think you prefer. Next ask the framer to sell you some L-shaped cuts of each of those colors so you can cover one corner of the image and lay it against your wall with your own room lighting to illuminate it. Further, an L shaped piece of frame can also be used to further envision the framed print ahead of time, before you get it framed. Sometimes framers will loan out those L cuts at no fee if you are a repeat customer?
I got it immediately, it was cute, you just forgot to add: Ba-da Boom!
Sometimes a fuzzy edged blur brush along a highlighted subject edge can make the pasted composite look more natural? The brush needs to be dialed down a lot, just experiment until you get the best results. Less like a cutout doll? Cute image!
Just a few questions: What is going to happen to perspective when you travel along a rail with camera and keep shooting a macro lens at the same ratio? Seems like you will end up with far less than a realistic interpretation of what the product looks like, and the only focus rails that long are those maybe made for studio or video work? . Might be better to get further back and use a longer lens, frame the subject with the angle that pleases you, and while shooting the subject, without moving the camera at all, just adjust the focus so you can get the whole length of the object in focus. Only need to stack a handful of shots that way if a smaller F stop is used. If there is still too much negative space in the image why not shoot several of these same products together so as to better fill the frame? Or just fill the frame at a pleasing diagonal? Just some ideas for thought. In the old studio days one would use a view camera change the plane of focus so that you need only take one shot and the entire face of the product will stay in focus while still retaining perspective. Good luck.
One of the most petty issues that often creeps into forums like this involves the brands debate. Canon is better than Nikon, Nikon is better than Canon, both correct, yet both wrong! It is the photographer that is the pivotal point not his equipment! The moderators should just delete any comments that makes petty brand related jabs like that, and make the forum better for it! Please fellow members do not promote your favorite brand of equipment when the original question already indicates which brand the poster is using. The original post is not asking about switching brands. Geez !
Back to the original post, that mirror lens suggestion should provide a lot of reach for a small investment, but non zoom is only best if you have a good idea of the distance to your subject and how much the subject will fill the frame? A Celestron C-90 can give you a lot more reach than a 500mm, and often can be had for as little as $100, maybe $200 for a rubber armored with the "special coatings". Yeah the special coating is better. But all those options require you to manually focus quickly, unless far enough away from the subject to shoot at infinity. Also on a sunny day the highlights glistening off the water will look like loads of donuts are floating about.
The best answers are for a zoom like the Sigma Sport(weather sealed), and the Tamron G2. They are both of excellent quality for the investment and will focus faster than you can manually.