I use a monopod in cramped spaces (basketball games from the stands). I prefer the tripod otherwise, probably because I am not as strong as I was before I reached the mid-70s.
I use 16mm up to 200mm (and sometimes longer) on a full frame body for landscapes. I guess it depends a lot on where you are and how you see the world. I use a 24-70 mm the most.
I carry a 600 f/4 with camera attached on a tripod to photograph wildlife. I can't imaging getting sufficient support for sharp images with a monopod or handholding with that focal length, even with the lighter weight lens.
Interesting you should mention Fred Picker. I had a 10 day workshop from him in Vermont back in the day. It was all black and mostly large format. Lodging, meals, and instruction for $400 for the 10 days.
The photos in his exhibit area (from many different photographers) were absolutely mind-blowing. I own all his books. I remember his saying "always have one foot on a rock" by which he meant firmly establish one of the three, usually composition, that was your one foot on a rock, and then experiment with the other two. He was a great teacher.
If you are traveling by car, I think the only road that is open this time of year is the road from Mammoth out to Lamar valley. I have not been there this time of year, but in Yellowstone in the 7-8 times I have been there (in late fall) finding wildlife opportunities is a matter of persistence and luck. Sometimes other photographers are willing to share information and sometimes are not. The couple times I asked park rangers, I ended up on a wild goose chase.
I am a little paranoid about my images after having a couple hard drives fail. The drives both contained the same images from a couple years and I was fortunate to know a tech to recover the images (he was not able to get images from one of them, but was from the other). I now have 3 copies of everything, one at home and 2 offsite at separate locations. Hard drives are relatively inexpensive now.
If you are there to take pictures, visit Custer State Park to the south of Rapid City. Excellent opportunities with pronghorn, prairie dogs, bison, deer, turkey, and grouse. Early and late are best. Nap in the afternoon.
I always use the lens hood. I have had accidents where the hood saved the lens and the cap would have been iffy. There are instances where the lens cap would be more effective but only those where offending object is smaller than the hood.
I first process my images in LR and PS. I don't do output sharpening on this image. I save it in a file called Master Images. Whenever I want to use the image, I copy it, close the original, and then resize it and sharpen it appropriately. This way, I can resize for small images up to the max I use (up to 24 x 36) and still have the original which has all my original work intact. I also still have the raw file if I want to start over.
Be sure the equipment has been imported by the U.S. company. Nikon, for instance, will not repair "grey market" nikon equipment. In my case, they demanded the serial number of the product (500mm f/4) and would not ever sell repair parts to an independent repair shop.
Yellowstone is great, but I avoid it when school is not in session. The crowds make photography difficult. Since you drive a school bus that makes it out for you. Custer State Park in South Dakota is a good alternative. Lots of pronghorn, unbelievable numbers of prairie dogs, and some deer, turkeys, and bison. I have visited Custer about 8 times and have always found plenty to photograph.
I have always visited these places without guides.
johneccles wrote:
Landscapes are horizontal pictures as opposed to "Portrait" which are upright !!
The content of either layout can be anything you want, although usually landscape photographs are of scenery, city or countryside etc or any wide subject matter.
Portrait however usually means narrow upright scenes such as animals, trees, waterfalls and faces etc.
Some of the best landscape images I have seen (or taken) are verticals. I don't think categorizing landscapes as only horizontal is widely accepted.
Not sure why she would not want the photos in her catalog. The catalog doesn't take up all that much space. Mine has the locations for several hundred thousand images. I think the whole point of the catalog is to keep track of where the photos are stored, even on external hard drives. In fact, with the new smart previews, you can work on files that you don't want (or don't have) access to.
I would go with the longer lens. Breeders may not want you close enough to the dogs to get frame-filling images, which I assume you will want. You can usually back up, but getting closer may be a problem.