What monopod do you use? TIA

If you want to save money, try to estimate what future equipment you might possibly get, and buy a quality, sturdy tripod for that. It will be the cheapest in the long run. You will only buy one good tripod rather than several pieces of junk before you finally spend the money for the good one. I speak from experience.

I shoot AWB in raw and then adjust in processing. Since I usually shoot early mornings and late pms, I have found that most WB settings do not closely match the light I am shooting in. Also if I use anything other than AWB chances are that I will forget to change it when I am a different lighting. Not sure what I would do if I were shooting jpg.

I have used the Gitzo 3540LS for several years with a 600f/4 and Canon 1DsIII and 1D4. It is relatively light wt. (a little over 3 lbs.) It has 4 legs so folds up to a little over 2 ft. I also have a heavier 5___ series carbon fiber Gitzo, but I find that the 3540 does just as well. I use the Wimberley gimbal head with the 600mm and the RRS head for smaller lenses.

I have the Tokina 16-28 f/2.8. It is the only non-Canon lens I own. Resolution is good even out to corners. However, it does demonstrate flare when the sun is in the picture.

I was about 50-60 yards from the Grizzly, but he was across the river from me. There were only 4 of us photographing him. Usually, when a bear is sighted in Yellowstone, there is a "bear jam." Traffic gets blocked in both directions, the rangers come and try to get people to get farther from the bear, and finally the rangers set off a loud bang that scares the bear off. But we were maybe an eighth of a mile off the road and not visible from the road. We had almost an hour with the bear. When we first saw him he was trying to sleep but couldn't seem to get comfortable. After about 10-15 minutes, he got up and dug like crazy, with dirt flying in all directions, and then laid down with his hip in the hole he had dug and went sound to sleep. After another 20 minutes or so, a couple guys came down the river in a boat. That woke the bear up so he got up and posed for us several times and then slowly walked off.

I backup to hard drives. I have 3 copies of everything, one at home and 2 at different off-site places. I used to only have one off-site drive and almost lost 2 years of images when both the on-site and off-site hard drives failed. Fortunately, I know a tech person who was able to recover the images from one of them (not the other) somehow by disassembling the drive.

I use the Wimberley head for my 600 f/4, on a tripod in or out of the car. In the car, I have a tripod set up (more or less permanently) so I can shoot out the passenger side of the car. I use a beanbag to shoot out the driver's side. If I'm out of the car, I mount the Wimberley on another tripod.

I use 600 with full and crop frame cameras and frequently with 1.4x and rarely with 2x converters for wildlife. I use it either on beanbag (from car) or tripod. Even with all that magnification it sometimes requires cropping. Wolves are really hard to get close to in Yellowstone, but bears are not. I have an uncropped image of a grizzly posted in the Photo Gallery that was taken with this setup.

This was taken in Yellowstone. Canon 1DIV, 600mm + 1.4x converter, f/8 at 1/250, tripod mounted.

Uncropped image.

Judy, I forgot to mention in my earlier reply that I am on the verge of ordering that lens for myself. I am interested because it is lighter (by 8 lbs.) than what I have been carrying and I am getting too old to carry the heavy loads. Your camera should do as well with that lens as with any other you have. The quality of the lens is (in my opinion) far more important than the camera you are putting it on.

The bean bag gives much more flexibility for aiming the camera. If it is setting on the tripod collar lens foot (as your lens is on the monopod) there is no interference from the bag for zoom and/or focus. In fact, the focus ring on the lens does not move when focusing using autofocus (at least that is so for my Canon lenses). Raising or lowering the window adjusts the camera to eye level faster than changing the length of the monopod. Most of the folks I know who do wildlife photography from the car use the bean bag. In many places, the car is a pretty good blind because many of the subjects are used to cars. Open the door and they are gone.

I have one but I no longer use it. Instead I use a large bean bag with the window down on the driver's side window. It is much easier to manage than the window mount, especially in cold or rainy weather.

I think it would work just fine on the 60D. People who own it seem to be very happy with it.

Over the years I have owned a lot of macro lenses, from 50mm to 200mm, Canon and Nikon. I highly recommend the longer focal lengths. When trying to photograph insects/spiders/whatever with a shorter lens, you will frequently frighten the subject before you make any images. The 180mm Canon is the best I have owned, but it might be more expensive than you want. Sigma makes a 150mm f/2.8 that has a very good reputation, more so than their 180mm. Not sure what the price is, but certainly cheaper than the Canon 180. The 100mm Canon IS macro, will not take teleconverters without an ext. tube. Not sure about the non-IS 100mm. In any case, I recommend the longer focal lengths, 150mm and up, if they are in your budget.