Put the lens and extender on before you leave the dock so you are ready. Make sure you are on the fastest continuous shooting. Be patient and watch for the start of a breech and then aim and push the trigger. At least one of your shots will be very good. If you are shooting manual make sure you have settings set as you suspect you need before you are actively shooting--at that point you want to be ready. You can make any adjustments after this breech and before the next (hopefully there will be a next).

I am having a problem with Adobe that does not involve the software--rather a charge that appeared on my bill, on a credit card other than the one I get my monthly Adobe charge. I called and the people from wherever united understand what I was asking about. After the gal on the third call put me on hold "for a minute" and hadn't returned in 30 I hung up. Shortly thereafter I received and email about an open case with instructions how to get my case resolved. I responded as asked last Saturday. Since then I have received the same email every day but no one has responded to my issue. So I send them the same emai about the issue and never get a response. I call that really bad service. When they finally close the case I will repeat my request and case number. I have had good support on various technical issues over the years but they clearly don't know how to deal with this kind of issue. Any advice?

I want to address the problem with the computer hard drive getting too full as I have recently experienced it. With the help or Apple techs by phone, I learned how to analyze my hard drive and found that various photo files had it full. I work in Lightroom and download pictures from my camera cards right into LR. My LR photo files are and have always been on exterior derives. My instruction files (most recent update) are stored in three locations: in the pictures file on my mac HD, on my backup to the original exterior LR drive and in Dropbox. Every time I turn LR off it stores the instruction update to each of these locations, although I do have to go and delete older backups every week or so. But these files don't require much space anyway.

The big issue is with my mac picture files. I have done a terrible job of eliminating redundancies. For some reason several groups have shown up in my pictures file and not in the photos file in pictures, but elsewhere. I do transfer several pictures into Photos which I might want to share with others when out and about and that works well. To address this problem I now do several things: first, make sure to eliminate redundant pictures in "pictures"; second, limit the pictures I enter into Photos to a few representative shoots to keep the Photos file in pictures smaller: finally, I have signed up for Apple's iCloud storage plan (as opposed to LR's) which will store as much of my "Photos" files on the cloud as necessary when the HD nears capacity and recall them whenever I want to use them, which is normally only when I want them on Apple TV.

Finally, I have learned to clear out my trash file on the HD very regularly. I was amazed at how many pictures-normally in DNG content form-are in there. Even in thrash they will count just as much against your available capacity.

A full HD will mess up your ability to do anything, not just LR editing. This is why I use Apple's cloud rather than LR's--I can keep many none photo apps in there.

I have the fortunate opportunity to frequently go on photo trips with Nat Geo photographers and know several of them pretty well, although none of the ones readers of the magazine recognize as the superstars. There has been a lot of incorrect info in this stream. Nat Geo goes have strict editorial guidelines which could be summed up as not allowing any more than the basic "editing" capabilities as were possible back in the film days. The equipment that they shoot with is pretty much the same as the more serious who I read regularly on this site. I was surprised to see on a trip last month that three of them were using mirrorless-each a different brand. Two of them were just trying them out. And they were getting great pictures. They do get equipment support from the manufacturer of equipment they use, but normally this amounts to use of new cameras or lenses--which they can purchase at a discount after the shoot.

What they do better than us which leads to so many excellent shots is practice. I have heard one say that he will be playing with the controls on his camera every day when he is relaxing over tv, etc, so that he will be very familiar with every control on his camera when he is shooting--not having to think about how to adjust something, but just doing it. They all say they shoot daily, even if they don't have an assignment. For the most part they use our equipment and glass and get better results because they do this for a living and they have a great eye for what they want to get in a picture. I have been challenged by these people as I try to get pictures they might be proud of. My first such shot occurred in the Arctic shooting a polar bear on sea ice. She was jumping from one ice flow to another and I caught it perfectly--all four feet off of the ice, sharp, great light, etc. (the picture is on the dust cover of my book of the trip). One of the Nat Geo people has become a good friend and he was taking pictures of the same activity. He told me that none of his got the scene like mine--the proudest photo experience in my life! By the way, that hasn't happened since then.

Abner, sorry about the misspelling of your moniker...and, of course, I met the 24-70.

abler, I hope you have as much fun as I have with the 850. It is far superior to the 800 I used to use (which was good itself). My walk around lens is the same 34-70 and I wouldn't give it up for a little weight. If it were 5 lbs, even 4, maybe I could agree. But it is also very good. You have a great camera, but the glass is still the most important component besides the photographer. My suggestion is a bit different but I noted a difference when I bought a 1 3/4" Peak Design camera strap. Great strap from a really solid company and it did feel better for me than the standard Nikon strap. I've since taken two three week trips to France and Japan with quite a bit of walking and, in Japan especially, bird and animal shooting and never felt uncomfortable with the camera--even with the 70-200 VR with an extender.

Great pictures--isn't it fun to shot nature in action!

I just returned from Japan where I saw thousands of cranes in two very different locations, the white-napped and the hooded cranes at the Araski Crane Reserve on Kyushu Island and red hooded cranes at Tsuri-Muro on Hakkaido. The first is the southern most and the second the northern most of the major islands of Japan. The red hooded cranes also did a lot of dancing-either just one crane or a couple, but we saw none in the southern island. We even had a couple of sightings of a lone sandhill there along with one sighting of a common(or Eurasian) crane. Apparently they got lost and stuck with the next large group they came upon. What a beautiful photo opportunity!

I am confused by the terms being used in the discussions about L/R. There is now L/R Classic CC and L/R CC. Based on some of the comments I believe some relate to L/R CC. I use both-Classic CC on my desktops and CC with my iPad and iPhone(which has really too small a screen for this editing). I suggest the CCrangle be careful with these comments. His/her question was focused on either CC or Classic, correctly.

Two years ago I bought this lens and took it on a safari in Africa. Most of my shooting was done from a safari vehicle, both standing and sitting, and all freehand. It performed great— made my trip much more pleasing. I was 73 at the time and still use it a lot at 75. I’m in decent shape. GO FOR IT!

The purpose of requiring tickets is to address the lack of parking, but I'm not sure about the mobs, because their are a lot of tour operators that take groups up there for as much as $100. Must apply at 60 days in advance during busy times or you are probably out of luck. I did not make it on 12/23 or anytime that week this year. By the way the park remained accessible and the rangers worked the gates for tickets even through the govt shutdown, even though the park facilities were not opened. Definitely take a tripod if you want quality pictures and be there at least an hour before sunrise for the best pictures. If there are too many spectators that you can't get a good view from a tripod I would be surprised--they are all there for the same reason and will probably respect your space. Good luck on getting a day when sunrise is not constrained by clouds--that is often the case--but the views are with it if you do get a nice day.

I just switched to Peak Design when I got my N850. It was a great choice for me-comfotable; easy to install clips; a variety of methods you can use to carry camera-neck strap, wrist strap, clip to your body, and several other interesting features you can get. It is more a system than a single strap. Took it to Europe for a month (two actually as they have straps for mirrorless also that are narrower and just as comfortable) and we got along very well.

For Richard--I hope you noted the middle finger on the hand holding the drink. I think she was trying to tell you something, but it may simply have been related to what she is drinking.

Linda, thanks for getting this started. It is a helpful reminder on many facets of our complex love for photography.

Aye. But only recently and it's normally the way to go.

I have both a Nikon D800 and a Sony A7Rii (which I received as a gift). I was disappointed to find that the Sony will give mme its best if I use my best Nikon lenses with the adaptor so the mirrorless option isn't really a smaller lighter choice. That is changing as many very nice lenses are being introduced regularly that are designed to be more compact. However I have not changed and find myself using Nikon DSLR 90% and Sony mirrorless 8% ( the balance is my iPhone when I don't have a camera but do see a shot). I love the Nikons and am considering the 850, but realize that the mirrorless will eventually be the camera of choice. It is a very personal decision and the best piece of advise I have seen so far is to rent one of each and try them simultaneously. Don't worry because there isn't a bad choice. I know pros who have switched to mirrorless completely and pros who wouldn't think about changing.

If you decide to go mirrorless look at Fuji and Sony as they take different approaches. Sony is more like a computer with many adjustments in the program files whereas Fuji has more controls on the camera and feels more like a traditional SLR in the field. Again, a personal choice between two very good options.

I am confused about why so many people recommend these big cruise ships for photo and nature trips. Go on a smaller ship that will carry anywhere from 30-150 passengers. Go with a really reputable company--our favorite is Lindblad National Geographic. You will be accompanied by very excellent nature guides familiar with the animals and nature of the region and will always have at least one person on board who is a certified photo instructor...and often up to three serious professional photographers. You will be able to go where the bigger ships can not. In Alaska, for instance, that means getting close to the whales and the ice calving off of glaciers. The cruise ships will be at a distance and will have nice shows in their theater (like you can see on several cable networks from your easy chair at home). If you are not scheduled to be off the ship and either on land or in smaller boats (eg., zodiacs) at least twice a day, it is not as fulfilling a trip as it could be.

Without knowing anything about you, I would strongly recommend you (or anyone) check out this alternative. We have been to South Georgia Island and the Falklands, Alaska, the Galapagos and the Arctic as well as on two great sailing trips in the Caribbean and the Adriatic Seas and a river trip in Northeast Peru on the rivers that form the Amazon (great birding trip). Great for photography.