Tony, these are truly amazing for an inexpensive camera. Surely, you used tripod and time-release. These are a testament to the high quality of digital photography and the skill of a professional. Congrats all around!

Joking aside, is it not possible for such a lens to be jointly owned and shared like a condo by this group or just professional photographers of this group?

Yes, it would be an easy way to test the sharpness of the lens. It really looks as though you have a winner.

Great first posting on these ground feeders.
The lens is obviously very sharp, even the nearby grass remained sharp. Have you tried the 200X magnification on this lens?

Wonderful pictures. The river is almost like a lake at this point and this explains the trees in it. you should return with a real camera for a panoramic picture.

Nikon shooters will wait until the 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8 P IF-ED is up for sale.

Nikon has been more interested in teaching and helping people become better photographers. The Mentor series is a very successful and useful program. Nikon also provides a wide range of accessories for all sorts of photography. Their manuals are also uniformly excellent.

Though a Nikon user, I have great admiration for Canon and other great companies like Leica, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Sony, to name a few (whatever happened to the best pro-camera Linhof?). Canon has achieved its best and most lasting publicity with the monthly images of endangered species in the National Geographic Magazine. Canon users should not forget this remarkable series that began in 1981!

The Missouri Botanical Garden, founded by Henry Shaw in 1859 is a photographer's paradise for all seasons, but especially summer.

Those are gorgeous pictures James! I wish more pros will get inspired to photograph Missouri serenity!

One of the reasons for loving Nikon is the huge supply of attachments. There was a MONOCULAR ADAPTER that transformed a telephoto lens to a telescope (a picture of it: Braczko, The Complete Nikon System, p. 370). It's no longer made but you may find it somewhere. If money is no problem, Nikon has recently release a new version of its superb D810 for photographing the heavens.

Take a ride on the Current River to photograph great scenery and exotic birds. Visit the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri to see exotic birds. Above all, Missouri is a river and forest state, so take a break from rocks and be creative with serene nature.

So, where are your pictures of it?
Sarantis

I am sorry to see that so many of you dislike domestic magazines, while the Europeans think the opposite is true. Poor Popular Photography! In spite of all your comments, each issue tests and reviews two of the best new cameras, two lenses, and has a 4-5 spread on new equipment, including something remarkable marked as "We Want This". It also has three feature articles, the main one 11-12pp long and all three not interrupted by ads.
Of course, grass is always greener on the other side of the fence but the same thing has happened to photography magazines as in so many disciplines, e.g. medicine. They all need to specialize in order to survive in this age of corporate take-overs. There is no point in looking for a miraculous, all-inclusive "Best Magazine". It seems that there are two important considerations to all photographers, learning how to master the art of composition and how to write well about it. The former is still learned by studying the great artists, photographers but especially the painters who usually spend much more time finishing their work than photographers. As for writing, the best source for reading is the New York Review of Books, a truly exceptional magazine that comes out 20 times each year. The June 25 issue includes great essays on the Clintons, Anna Carenina, the new Whitney museum, and important articles on the UK, Picasso, Edward Hopper (many of you would like it), and a great one on the painter George Caleb Bingham (a show now at the Met in New York) among many others.

Quality is mostly a subjective issue based on specialized interest. For Example, if you are interested in the latest stylistic trends, APERTURE is the best (in my opinion). The whole point in subscribing to US mags is to keep in touch with the latest news. In this respect, Popular Photography and Shutterbug bring you up to date monthly for a small price. They also have excellent reviews of equipment and "friendly" advertizing, by friendly I mean all ads are photography-related, unlike most other mags. We all assume that the internet provides other excellent services like DP Review.