As others have mentioned, I have found my dog is a good protector against squirrels -- besides Rodney, the Doberman, also provides some good photo ops when no birds are around.

If you do go back for Kruger, I suggest you rent a car and drive through the park without a "safari", as you will be able to go pretty much wherever. Spent almost 2 weeks in the park, staying at the campgrounds throughout. The campgrounds were beautifully maintained, with air conditioned rondavis (round buildings, not sure of spelling) complete with kitchens. They had wonderful restaurants in each campground and offered evening bus tours for those nocturnal movements of the animals.

I had to laugh while in Cape Town. I felt like I was in New York City or Los Angeles -- there was so much traffic there, as compared to other cities we drove through which did not even have a traffic light. And the only McDonalds I saw in 3 weeks was in Cape Town. There is a park outside of Cape Town (maybe 30 minutes or so) in the general direction of the Power Plant, but, for the life of me, I do not remember the name of it.

Have a wonderful trip and post lots of photos when you return home.

While I like her pose and her expression, and as others have addressed the person behind her is a distraction, there is one thing that bothers me about this photo. The white halo around the bottom and right side of her skirt. With her coloring, these are to me rather detrimental to the overall look of this young lady. Maybe a little too much processing?

While I cannot give you an answer to the question you posted, I would like to add to this request for information from the student's point of view. Two years ago I decided I wanted and needed a new camera after going on a trip where lenses and greater reach would have been wonderful. I wanted to upgrade from an Olympus point and shoot digital camera. So I waltzed into the camera store, asked a lot of questions, held and shot with a lot of different cameras and decided I wanted the Nikon d5200. So far, so good. I bought it.

As a camera owner with a camera so totally different than anything I had ever used, I read the manual, and began to learn the general operation of the camera. Yes, there were things it would have been nice if someone could have told me, but, there was no one. So I started shooting with the d5200 in auto mode, at the same time searching the internet for information on shooting in PASM modes as I learned the camera basics.

I searched all over Jacksonville for an introduction to photography class, not because I wanted to learn camera operation, but because I wanted to understand why one type of lens works better for a photo than another. I wanted to understand lighting, iso, aperture, and general terms that everyone here speaks of on a daily basis. I wanted to understand why f stops were important and what they did when taking a photo. I needed to know how depth of field impacts a picture and how to achieve that DOF. There was no such class available. What was available were 2-3 year courses designed to teach students to become professionals, including dark room technology to photo processing on a computer. These classes spent 6 months on taking digital movies. None of this was what I wanted or needed. In the end, I did not take any of those courses, as they did not truly offer what I needed to learn -- an understanding of the basics of photography. (Thank goodness I found UHH to give me some understanding of these things, even if sometimes in the abstract.)

I went through all of this to say, you have been given some really great information here. In my opinion, no one in your class will expect you to know everything about their particular camera. They will expect you to teach them to understand aperture, iso, f stops and how to put these things all together to make their tool (the camera) suitable for the particular shot they want to take. They will expect to learn about composition, times of day to achieve the best lighting, how to achieve better shots in poor lighting, low light night shots, and they will appreciate a few field trips at different times to achieve these things. As advised already, do a written survey on the first day, getting all the information you need about the students and their camera and allow those having similar cameras to "buddy up". Download the manuals for only those cameras in your class at the time.

And whatever you do, be honest. Explain that while you do not know every camera on the market, if there is a particular question about one that you cannot answer, you will research and find out for next class. However, continue to state through the first class that you are not teaching individual cameras, you are teaching the basic principals of photography that will enable them to take better, more interesting photographs.

Your class will appreciate your honesty and look forward to coming to learn what you have to offer. Good luck in this venture. Oh, can I come to your class?

It is too bad you are limited to only 7 days there. There is so much to see and this is such a short amount of time. The Kirstenbosch gardens and Tabletop Mountain are of course beautiful and you will enjoy those. Great photo ops along the way.

While at Kirstenbosch, if you are so inclined, you can catch a bus to tour the city of Cape Town. The guide gives lots of information and stops often, where you may get off to take photos and then catch the next double-decker tour bus. Takes you back to Kirstenbosch where you have parked the car, or you can catch the tour bus all around the area. Right now is their summer time, so you won't need extremely warm clothing, but do take a windbreaker.

Try to find a trip to some of the animal "parks" to get an opportunity to see the wildlife. You are probably too far away with short time to go to Kruger National Park, but I think there are some closer to Cape Town you could go to visit. You won't be able to get out of the car, but, you can stop, roll down the windows and carefully take pictures of some of the larger animals.

The Cape of Good Hope, Betty's Bay and the wine country are also very good places to visit. Do try some of the South African wines. They are very good.

For me, two weeks driving through Kruger National Park, did not allow enough time to explore and photograph everything, but with 3800 pictures when I returned home after a total of 3 weeks there, I was glad I had enough SD cards and an iPad. Enjoy your trip. It will be one you truly remember and will leave you wanting more.

A Dossie, Closest Living Relative to the Elephant, Taken on Tabletop Mountain

(Download)

I just returned from a trip to NC and found many places to shoot, but unfortunately was not able to get to the waterfalls because of weather and illness. Others here have given you the recommendations that were on my list to go to.

The reason I stopped in today was to advise that you will love your visit to the Biltmore and yes, you do need to get the extra package second trip. BUT, be advised, the Biltmore does not allow photography inside the estate. Outside is fine. The interior of the estate is much like a museum and they are very particular about such things as flashes, etc.

I am sorry to hear about the accident of your loved one. It is always hard, but especially at this time of year, to have someone we love hurt this way. I sincerely hope this person survives and is with you for many years to come. He and your family will be in my prayers.

When I took my trip to South Africa two years ago, I knew I would be driving from Johannesburg to Capetown and would need help with directions. I purchased a South Africa map from Garmin for my Garmin Nuvi and downloaded it to an SD card that I installed in the unit. Two other members of the group (there were 9 of us, travelling 2 or 3 to each car) also took their Garmin units. My little Garmin Nuvi NEVER once got me lost, but others in the group kept making turns that were not where we were supposed to go. Good thing I knew the addresses we were going to (hotels, etc.) and I was really glad I had "Jill" with me. I have used this unit for 5 years now, update it about once a year, and other than Jill wanting me to take interstate highways when I want the scenic routes, I have never had a problem. I guess I am lucky.

Jim, you are dealing with apples and oranges here. Let me explain.

The flash card is installed in the d5200 and is where the photos you take are automatically stored. You cannot make pictures without there being a card in the camera. The camera will not work without the card properly inserted.

There are several ways of transferring the images stored on the card to your computer.

1) You can connect the camera to the computer via USB cable provided with the camera. Most people here do not like this method, but I use it constantly and have never had a problem. Just be sure the camera is turned off before connecting the USB to it and to the computer. Copy or move the images to the folder of your choice on the computer. Turn off the camera, unplug the USB cable, turn on the camera, go to menu and format the card to erase it (or replace with a new card if you chose to store images permanently on the card.)

2) Turn off the camera, remove the card from the slot, and insert the card into the appropriate card slot on your computer. You can then copy, or move the images to a file of your choosing on the computer. Then remove the card, reinstall in the camera, and turn on camera. Go to menu and format the card to erase all images, and you are now ready to go again.

and finally,

3)Turn off the camera, remove the card from the slot, and insert the card into a card reader which is connected via USB to your computer. You can then copy, or move the images to a file of your choosing on the computer. Then remove the card from the card reader, reinstall in the camera, and turn on camera. Go to menu and format the card to erase all images, and you are now ready to go again.

I personally detest card readers because they add another piece of equipment for me to have to keep up with. Most computers today have built in card slots that will accommodate SDHC and other cards so there is no need for the extra equipment.

I hope this answers your question. By the way, I also have the d5200.

Congratulations, David. Life with "new" and better vision is so wonderful. Enjoy. Can't wait to see your new photos.

You will be able to see so much more once the other eye is done and Thanksgiving Day will be so "in your face" with the new vision. Enjoy the trip.

Beautiful. I love the touches of color on the horizon.

Travesty, I really love the first photograph. Once in a while we have to break a rule to see the effects and here the effects are wonderful. Actually, the tree fits the rule of thirds well and the barn being shorter seems to balance things out.

But, I have to tell you, it hurts to look at the second photo of the barn. Why? Because the sun is so bright it hurts my eyes. Almost like standing outside and looking straight at the sun. I love the effect of this photo as well. You would do well to print these and hang them on the wall, side by side, or maybe even sell them.

Beautiful works. Thanks for posting.

Patty

As others have said here, this surgery and recovery is relatively simple and should cause you no problems, other than keeping up with the drops in the eyes for a couple of weeks.

After anti-rejection meds caused cataracts, I had both eyes done in 2008. I had spent my entire life being nearsighted so when asked did I want to be "nearsighted or farsighted" (both of which would require glasses for some things, I decided to go with monovision. What is monovision, you ask? Well, I can see distances with the left eye, and close up with the right eye, and when looking out to drive the car, I am able to do so, without needing to wear glasses. Since I wore glasses all my life, this is really refreshing. And, I can set the diopter on my camera to show me nice sharp in focus images with the right eye, so all is wonderful in my world.

Good luck with the surgery and recovery. You will be happy one it is all over.

I read recently that this style of wearing one's pants was developed in prisons to indicate one's availability. Either this guy is REALLY available or he has just been had.

I like the image. It is sharp and everything is perfectly aligned making it interesting in and of itself. I can see that it had recently rained and I know that people will move out of the rain to a dry place. The technology and creations of man (the planes, equipment, buildings, etc.) as compared to the beauty of God's creations (the mountains and nature) are very stark and different. These are both demonstrated in this photo.

But, my comments were directed to the impact it had on me and the feelings it evoked since you had commented on what you were feeling when you took it. In the photo, with no living people moving around, it brought to me a kind of "Twilight Zone" feeling of "What has happened here and where have all the people gone?" Okay, so I have an overactive imagination.

I spent many years at airports with my late husband and our plane and never have I seen an airport after a rain storm look so empty of life (i.e. people). This photo caught my attention because of that lack of life (again the missing people.) You captured in this photo something that is usually never seen -- the lack of people where normally there are so many who are moving and preparing a plane to leave or just after one has landed.

Nothing I wrote in my first comment was meant to be detrimental. As you know with your photography, we have a "vision" of what we are trying to portray. That is all well and good. But the viewer often sees something different in the photo.