By those rules Ansel Adam's Moon rise, Hernandez NM would have been tossed. Along with many others like "clearing winter storm"

Possibly the pines are invested by bark beetles. In particular the mountain pine beetle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_beetle

Is ah-so similar to what you call your lest favorite politician?

Fungus can be a hard issue to deal with. Depending on the extent of the incursion it can make the element that it has invaded useless with replacement parts being the only option. That could be pricey. In your example, right now that lens is selling new on Amazon for $659.00 and it might be the better way to go. Bottom line it depends on the extent of the damage. FYI I recently borrowed a Nikon 80-200 f2.8 that was infected. The fungus had minimal effect on the IQ at the time. If the lens had been mine I would have been sick because fungus unless totally removed will continue to grow. It must be dealt with and that is usually costly.

I hope "your" was intentional, then the line is funny.

8-)

A S A

Thanks to all of you for your kind words.
sleepy51 “Is that a railroad museum or a working rail line?” That is a tourist railroad (narrow gauge), a museum and a National Historic site. Located in the Rocky Mountains between New Mexico and Colorado it’s 64 miles of mountain railroading. http://cumbrestoltec.com/

I took this photo in New Mexico this past summer and decided that considering the subject that it would present best as an old faded black and white photo.

Chama,NM august 2014

(Download)

A pure image as the camera captured it was still subject to the short comings of the camera, lens, and dark room processing. Think of a revered photographer and you find that that photographer almost always "tweaked' their images. It is a very rare capture that doesn't need some fine tuning. To me if I were to only use the image as it is captured, I would feel like I belong in the same category as a stenographer. All that my photos would tell me is that I was at a certain place at a certain time and here is the proof.

Wonderful photos of a wonderful area. (it's been too long, must get back)
If you don't mind my asking, what were your "weapons of choice"?

Color settings: Shift+CTRL+K

This will get you to your color settings

There are several steam operations in the us my favorite is the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. This is an all steam (5 operating steam engines) narrow gauge railroad that runs from May to Oct. in the Colorado and New Mexico Rockies. 64 miles of incredible mountain and high desert scenery between Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado. http://cumbrestoltec.com/

:thumbup: :thumbup:

They really are there to deflect the smoke upwards and were used extensively (mainly on larger, high speed engines)around the world and yes, here in this country too. Smoke was a real problem for the engine crews. The steam component not so much. These engines also released steam periodically from the cylinders. The crew would "blow down" the cylinders to clear them of any build up of mineral deposits and/or crude from bad water. Not a big deal as far as people getting caught in it.

Sometimes called elephant ears, they direct the air flow upwards so hopefully the smoke and steam from the stack will be directed away from the engine's crew.