waynetgreen, with your setup, it's hard to go wrong with either the nikon 200-400 or the Tamron 15-600mm. We have two, bought the 2nd used/new from Adorama for much less than you can imagine, totally happy with the results. Of course you can always purchase new, but ouch:D

Angelstar, excellent shots; brings back 0ver 40 years of air show memories. Dad was a naval aviator, delivered/transported planes all over the planet from WWII on, he took us to all the Angle's (and AF) shows whenever they were within traveling distance:)

Photolady, some have good luck with NAS, we use several 1 TB WD USB 3 drives for backup, work and to rotate into/out of climate controlled storage. 1 and 2 TB WD drives have been great for us, quiet, cool, dependable and inexpensive. Like CF or SD cards, if one goes, they're cheap enough you have backups and they can be read from any platform. Happy shooting. sv

Stroday,
Lens jacket (cover), tripod with gimbal, has worked great for us for years; then the sherpa if you go there. Enjoy, happy shooting.

Levinton, We've used Luminar 2, now 3, Aurora HDR, from Skylum. Luminar 3 has had a rough year, with bugs that took a while to sort out, and they bumped the video card requirements, which ruffled a few folk's feathers. Luminar 2 was doing OK until the upgrade to Luminar 3 arrived; IMO, it wasn't quite ready for prime time and needed at least 2 more months of beta testing before release. (Love Aurora HDR, despite the price, don't know if they'll have an upgrade though). Decided to go for the special $50 early bird upgrade to Luminar 4, just to see if they've pounded more bugs out, and finally fixed the offline installation routine for those of us old guys who have strictly offline workstations; am not really sure about all of the wonderful marketing hype over AI sky replacement, but who knows, they may get it done. It's a smallish company and they don't have the big bucks and backing others do, but they put their heart into the program. It seems at times that the MAC customers have fewer complaints or genuine issues with Luminar than the PC owners. Most of the time problems are based around how many and how much extraneous feldercarb (too many junk programs, poorly written drivers, as well as A/V, anti-spyware, anti-malware, (too much MS 'help') and firewall software that suspects everything, can sometimes make what should be a joy, into a pain). Something to be said for a non-tethered, offline station, that can't be hacked or contaminated; and, no web distractions. If one has a spare laptop or extra protected online machine, it's no trouble to 'sneaker-ware' your updates or work from the offline to the other machine, and back, after through scanning.

If you have a healthy amount of RAM, and a 4-8 core CPU, Luminar 3 and On1 Photo Raw 2019 should give you good responsiveness once you know your way around. The most recent update in August really helped to fix some issues that has plagued the program all year. It's much more stable, though depending on system load and number of photos int he library/catalog (the way you set yours up), it can be a touch slow starting up. Ours is a quite robust machine, so the current gripe for Luminar 3 is mainly slow startups. Skylum is working hard, catching their breath and putting all of their money and work into improvments. If you try and don't like it, they have a no-quibble 30-day refund policy, and you can trial it for 30-days free as long as you set up an account.

If Skylum can pull it off theie touted AI sky replacement gimmick (er, enhancement), and squash some more bugs, Luminar 4 will likely be worth the yearly price once more, unless you really want to pay by the month. If you purchase a new upgrade version each year, you own that version for life, (your life, life of your machine, life of the company etc), with free updates until the next major release. You receive up to 5 installations or 'seats' for Luminar on 5 different computers,. That's the same number of installations for registered owners that On1 Photo Raw 2019 offers. Skylum has plenty of material on it's site to help you learn to get around, and there are more Youtube videos from other users to help. Their PDF/online help file could be better, it's usually behind.

We use and Like On1 Photo Raw 2019 and 2019, probably more than Luminar, the yearly price is usually about the same, and their offline workstation install tends to be much easier than Luminar's, without having to worry about the program needing to phone home. If you want, either program can be connected online 24/7. Depending on their workload, On1's support sometimes seems slow/lackadaisical or even non-existent. If you have to wait more than two days to get a reply from a company your support, it tends to be really frustrating. Hard to say if support is based overseas, or if the company preference is for customers to just read the Fine Manual and entire website if you actually can't readily sort out something that has you stumped. Like the Luminar forum, most of the folks play nice, but some have no tact at all.

On1 Photo Raw 2018/2010 starts much more quickly than Luminar and seems very stable. Early on they had issues with updates 'disappearing' things, which is never cool no matter whose program it is. Once On1 links to the photos you want it to link to (depending on how one refers to libraries/catalogs/databases/folders/photographs), and as you learn how to set up the GUI and program preferences to suit your taste, it's a lot more fun than LR. You don't have to accept the stock look of the GUI, and can make Luminar or On1 appear as you want it to be. Not knocking LR, just finally feel we have a choice from vendors that don't dictate everything; 'choice-less' isn't cool no matter how great one feels the software is, sort of referring to the major companies who say, "We love you customers but either do things our way or we don't care, type of attitude." We still love and use LR 6 and a bit of Essentials 2018, which was the last year one could buy and install from physical media. There are many good programs such as Darktable, Digikam, GIMP, Irfanview (also PIE) and Fastone, which don't cost you anything to try, and if you don't like it, uninstall it; the price is; FREE! Hope this helps, happy shooting and editing.

Watchwinder, Don't use an infrared release but we have a couple of 2.4 ghz transmitter/receiver sets we use with our D7200, D700, D2Xs and others, to photograph birds in the garden and by the hummingbird feeder stands. As long as your connecters aren't corroded/dirty or shorted, and if the batteries are always tested and fresh, there's not much to go wrong. I have a manual/wired release also. We've never had a problem with the wireless, catching them in landing, flight, etc. Makes it nice to sit 50 feet off and trigger when the time is right. Hope that helps, happy shooting.

Farbison, welcome back to the wonderful world of photography:) The storage question comes up a couple times a week on all photo forums. It's been answered in every way possible, "over and over and over again" enough to be mistaken for the line in great Dave Clark Five song.

There is the 'cloud' solution that people who have extremely impressive bandwidth/ISP up-time. That can become essentially worthless during power and internet outages which is happening these days at times and places it never was known before. In the interest of fairness, we tried one of the best cloud providers, but it was a washout, the files in the archive were encrypted so we weren't worried about any filching but what we downloaded was gibberish. The provider had no idea if or when his system had been accessed, but was kind enough to send us drives (without charge except for shipping/return) containing the test archives we uploaded. When decrypted, the files were also gibberish. On the local matching archives, when decrypted, they were intact. Many folks report they've never had problems with their cloud backup solutions, so all I can say is, YMMV. We put our money into extra drives for our local solution; it's fast, easy to store and access and has never let us down. Knock on wood, we've never lost an archive drive.

Our solutions was to back up everything locally, in triplicate. All photographs, media and edits are housed on drives which can be instantly access by the the offline workstation. We maintain ample UPS battery backup for all our system sections, so that when there's a rare computer or internet event, no photos or work in any state can be lost. All work is instantly added to the eternal backup and a weekly backup set of drives are housed in a humidity controlled, water and fire-resistant safe on the premises, which is rotated with the 3rd master set of drives every month, to a similar safe in an off-site (yet local) secure location. We buy drives in multiple sets whenever they're on sale. Once you decide on which way works best for you, you'll quickly get into groove with your routine. It becomes automatic and the cost is surprisingly low. There are various ways to go about it, so do your research before you pull out the plastic.

Our primary dedicated studio workstation is un-tethered and permanently offline. We maintain a second machine which is permitted web access as needed but with in-depth protection to prevent unauthorized access and stray processes connecting willy-nilly. This is a decision we took which may be distasteful or even unworkable for those who have become used to a huge workflow going out/coming in via the web but the system has worked our beautifully for us. (I'm from the era where the mainframe only had tapes and sent backups over a meager phone connection at night, for a company worth many millions. We did have an enormous 400 megabyte hard drive contained in a cabinet half the size of our modern refrigerator-freezer, and dear old dad had to work with IBM punch cards, such fun (not). Having the workflow housed locally offline means it's always instantly accessible. Many of the younger photographers have never known a time when they could work offline and take the web for granted, pumping their work back and forth on the web, 24/7. Not to be seen as needlessly carping about the dangers of working on the web, but if care and isn't taken with in-depth security measures, photo-filching was always been a problem but now, for those who displaying and store unsecured photos online can present unforeseen dilemmas. (There's a good interview with a lady photographer who declined an offer of 'free' mention crediting her business, if she would give the company the rights to display one of her photos. She sent them her rates, the business was miffed and said they had no budget to pay for a photo. CHEEP, but you have to draw the line with companies who will pay a lot of money to media companies for brief mention of their name. There are several problems with online storage, with data that may be housed in many 'other' locations which aren't secured. Trolls have gotten into the habit of displaying supposedly rights-free photographs for anyone to use in their own work, if they mention the source, but when it's discovered by the trolls, they pull the original posting and hit the unwitting photographer with cease-desist and demand for payment and threaten court action. Sound familiar? Not to stray afar, but for many of us our art is our business and it pays to be vigilant when showing your or when asked to give something away, with 'credits' only.

If you use online storage, make sure you have adequate bandwidth up/down and a couple of offline backups in depth; always encrypt. Good luck with any backup and/or storage methods you choose and happy shooting.

Marino, not being contrary or snarky. Others would suggest you sell all of your DX gear. If you like it, a back up camera that you really know and like, makes a great backup. Discounting the debate of Dx vs Fx, we use them all. I have certain Dx lenses that work fine for some things on the Fx, and the camera almost always switches automatically to adapt. I use Fx lenses on the D7200 with fantastic results. My take is that one shouldn't have to divest themselves of a known good camera and/or lenses, just because you want to expand your horizons to full frame. There are always going to be pluses and minuses, and you can work around any of them to get the shot you want. (I have an old street-sweeper 24-120mm AF) that I is one of the lenses that Nikon made that wasn't made better by sticking VR on it, and it travels with me always.

Don't know if you're interested in going to long-reach, super-telephoto, we have an affinity for the Tamron 150-600mm lens. Have used the G1 and G2; when the comes down a bit, I'll trade one of the G2s. We used this with Dx and Fx and get great photos; it's proven itself on wildlife, landscape and the monthly moon shoots:). Do what's best for you and your budget; happy shooting. sv

MrBob, I had both cataracts removed in 2010, because the glare and haze was becoming difficult, especially trying focus indoors unless all lights were turned up. With the new implants, it took about a month for me to automatically put on appropriate sunglasses before going outside. Color clarity and perception was hugely different, like the difference between living in a dark cave and suddenly being able to see in perfect 4K after decades. (I didn't realize I was nearsighted as a kid until the schools tested everyone beginning in third grade in the early 60s. I realized that before, all I'd been able to 'see' was vague shadows and a blurry mashup of colors. Life became so awesome with glasses,even with the clunky frames of the era. That's when Dad was able to get me started in photography. I tried contacts but never liked them, they just irritated the eyes.

After the procedure it took a while to adjust to having perfect far-sighted, fighter pilot vision with the implants, and the color is terrific. Maybe someday the implants will come with built-in filtering and color correction.The doc hadn't counseled me about being 'farsighted' and that I'd have to use reading glasses. I now use different strengths, depending on what I'm working on, from 6 inches to 15 feet, which can depend how tired my eyes are. I have a really expensive pair of graduated bi-focals, which are set up for indoor use from 2-16 feet. Luckily I discovered that a dollar-type store existed that had readers of every variety and strength for a buck each; they have great frames with chinese plastic lenses, ground correctly (the state won't allow them to be sold if they don't meet specs). That tends to drive all the optometrists nutz of course. In frame and clarity, they're not much different than the $400 set, and if I drop, scratch damage, lose them or a frame bends, it's only a buck to replace them. Before, the opto-shop wanted $7.50 to adjust a bent frame/ear piece, and only if you purchased them there.

I take off the sunglasses outside and try to shoot from a shaded place if possible, or peek over the top of the sunglasses to focus/shoot. It's great though to get shots early in the day and late afternoon/evening without sunglasses, but still have to use my granny shades to fiddle with settings. At night, shooting is marvelous, but I've gotten away from driving; the modern harsh headlights give the implants a visual beating and the light that reaches the retina takes a toll that give a headache until the next day.

About 2 years into the new visual world, I thought things were beginning to become fuzzy so had the specialist/surgeon look them over. Was lucky that nothing had to be done, sometimes a film creeps onto the implant that they can laser off. It may come to a point that the lenses have to be replaced as focus tends to change as the eyes continue to age. I make it up for close work with my cheaper readers, but from year to year, the focal point change is quite noticeable. Now I'm totally happy I had the procedures before before HD and 4K became the norm; it's make photography and post-editing and watching Blu-Rays very enjoyable!

Best advice is to take really good care of your eyes from here on out; be much more aware of any changes and find which pairs of sunglasses you continue to buy. I have about a dozen and keep two pair in the car. (oddly, mirrored sunglasses look cop-like-dorky, but reflect the harsh rays that have to be blocked, yet allow me to get a lot done in bright outdoor light; I have a set that darkens automatically but don't like them much due to the cost. Seriously, your new eyes (I joked with the doc that I sometimes feel like the six million dollar need to be tended to and checked regularly, to be sure that all is well. I go back when I can but my doc is one that sees maybe 100 people a day, and I can't sit in his office behind a 3-hour que.

Only had one real issue, immediately after the surgery, that made me question what the hell I'd been thinking; not because I didn't like perfect vision, but because the first time I had to shave as a far-sighted only guy, I couldn't seen my face close-up well enough to use the razor. Got used to it. They can give you a mixed set of lenses, one near, one far focus, but that wouldn't be worth it for camera work. Just one of many adjustments to get used to. One last thing, as Colombo says; if you have dry-eye syndrome, check with the doc on what lubricants he recommends for regular use. Some of the drops they prescribe quickly become toxic. I have good long term results with Visine dry eye relief (not a promo, informational purposes only). Good luck! Check back with how you're coming along, because you'll be able to see and shoot some awesome photographs! sv

Linda, a great shot; it's definitely tough to break away from a good forum but lurking is almost as much fun.

Hello Walter, Welcome. Not to harp, but re the seeming rush from many to abandon windows 7 and be without MS help, if your system is well protected (in depth) or you enjoy working in an offline installation (with Win 7 that usually means having a volume license), use the OS, camera and software that works best for you. Have worked many years with many systems, have seen severe problems with every version of Windows. With others who suffered through it (once) W10 continues to wipe systems with every release. If you know and protect your system, it won't rain on you.

Lots of good suggestions, we've used Irfanview for many years. It doesn't have a blitzy interface but once you know your way around, it can do file managing and most other things with ease, without having Windows Live Essentials or extra codecs installed; the plugin package is very solid. Set it up the way you like, it's very fast. Fastone is also good followed by Digikam and Darktable; all free, all being improved. We bought the last physical versions of LR 6 and Essentials 2018, then bought into ON1 Photo Raw 2018 and 2019. Version 2019 has become extremely solid and are great for offline workstations. On 1 P/R will probably have us paying for the next upgrade. Skylum just released a update for Luminar 3 that seems to have finally squashed many troubling bugs that has plagued it this year, though it's heavier on Win 7 than On1 P/R 2019. If you buy/try either On1 Photo Raw or Luminar, both have a 30-day no quibble refund policy and run from $49-$80. Once activated, you get 5 seats/installations of each and they're perfectly happy working on offline systems. Enjoy and happy shooting. sv

LA Shooter; depends how far the gear is, and it he's startled when it goes off. I'm always careful to use a wireless rig trigger from a distance, or if I'm upwind carrying; if the skunk is startled, worst case senario, you'll need plenty of tomato juice to bathe in. good luck.

All shots spot on, beautiful birds!

StLouie, we the Think Tank model, used with a quick-detachable safety tether. I have one that I bought with the extended case for our 150-600 Tamron, it's very well made, sturdy and has done a grand job. Would buy again.

SnapshotSue, we own the same lens, bought it a couple years ago from Adorama as a Nikon refurbished for about $100; it's held up well with every body used on. As long as you have enough light, and know your camera setup, you should be just fine with it. It looked like and acted new, came with the Nikon certificate of authority/refurbishment. We'd buy it again.