Beautiful pic of a beautiful creature. Nice depth of field.

Excellent. Love the cheetah!

Shaun, I spent 9 months in Tucson in 1970-'71, training to fly F-4s. (I see you are doing the same in A-7s.) Being a Seattle boy, I was surprised how much I liked Tucson and the surrounding desert. Enjoy it while you're there.

I was wrong about it being from Oregon (see my correction).

These were taken in very early June. I not a farmer, but I'd guess that by August, things there get pretty toasty. Much of the green in these pix is wheat, irrigated from the Columbia. They'll harvest it around Sept., I'm guessing.

Thanks Stan. I wouldn't worry about clouds there in the summer or fall. However, the later you go, the drier it's going to look.

Here's a favorite shot I forgot to include; the Palouse from across the Columbia, near Vantage, WA. (I also would strongly recommend you visit eastern Oregon as well.)

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Washington has two distinct ecological environments - west of the Cascade Mts. gets the rain, east gets the sun. Here are a few shots I took last summer in the east. (The only water they get runs down from the snow-packed mountains, or Canada - e.g the Columbia River.)

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So, they built the church first, and then they needed a jail. H-m-m-m.

When did the Scots switch from gaol to jail?

Very nice pix, Sylvia.

If you have concerns about buying a used camera from someone you don't know, the Nikon website has a section selling Nikon-refurbished (and warranted) gear - cameras and lenses. Worth a look.

Davey, regardless of the lens you decide on (I had and used the Nikkor 105 MM, F2.8), you're going to want to stop it down, to give a little more depth of field. I'd strongly suggest using a camera-mounted LED light bank (typically with 40 - 60 LEDs), even for outdoor shots. They're inexpensive, AA battery powered, and clip into the flash mount on your camera. Here's a shot I took in my backyard last year, using a light bank.

My hobby just got a whole lot more expensive. My home was burglarized a couple weeks ago and my Nikon D800, and a bunch of Nikkor lenses, (several 50+ years old for my antique FTn, which was also taken) were packed into my Eddie Bauer duffel bag and hauled away. (I'm pissed; I really liked that duffel bag.)

The good news is I have $5000 "valuable property" insurance on that stuff plus more as general "renter's insurance." Hoping to get enough to afford a D850 plus a couple new Nikkors.

BTW, the boat on the right is an Alaska cruise ship heading out for a five day cruise. The are two more big cruise ships docked on the right.

The small, passenger ferry just goes across the bay to West Seattle. The large one sitting at the dock (bottom center) goes across Puget Sound to various destinations (e.g. Bremerton).

I joined the 'Hog a few years ago but lost track of it while overseas. I've since retired and returned to my beloved Pacific Northwest (though Seattle is not the friendly city in which I grew up several decades ago). I'm enjoying y'all's pix and discussions, and glad to be back.

Warning: For reasons known only to my inner psyche, I enjoy shooting and assembling panoramas (maybe because my neck works better turning horizontally than vertically). Here's one of Seattle's harbor, taken from our highest building.

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