A beautiful vision

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You are absolutely correct, Ron. The big horn sheep were in rut and this guy was looking for love.

We were lucky enough to have the big horn sheep come down from the higher elevations so that we could get some photos. Taken north of Jackson, Wyoming under some very challenging lighting conditions.

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There was no fill flash at all. It was taken at 1/1000th sec @ f/5.0, ISO 200, 70-200mm lens at 100mm, about 12:42 pm on a very bright day. The uniforms were another story. Although it is an American weapon, the re-enactors were dressed in Russian uniforms. Don't ask me why, 'cause I don't know.

Re-enactors fire the howitzer during the River Through Time in Emmett, Idaho

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Rick, WELCOME BACK to health and the Hog. You were definitely missed !!!

I so agree with you !!!

I have used Rick's repair service in the past and with GREAT SATISFACTION. I, too, will give him not only the highest recommendation, but also any and all work that I can channel his way. A medical issue is something that none of us wants to experience, so let's just be very happy Rich has made it through his ordeal.

Another perspective of the Soda fire in southwest Idaho. The sunset back lighting the devastating fire and smoke.

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This is a photo of the Soda Springs fire located in southwest Idaho. As of yesterday, it was the 3rd largest fire in the nation.

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Equipment: Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8, SB-900 Speedlight.

Settings: 200mm, f/11, 1/250th, ISO 800, 1/16th power on the flash (no HSS).

The background, which is a tree 28 feet behind the bird, is as it was shot, no additional bluring in PP.

Hope this helps.

Aerobatics at its best. And colors as a bonus. Amazing little creatures !!!

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The speedlights were both in manual with a power setting of 1/16th.
The only setting that I'm not positive is the zoom settings for each. I think the SB-600 was at 70mm and the SB-900 was at 105mm.

Glad to help, if I can. I'm trying to teach myself good use of Speedlights, so I challenged myself to try and freeze the wings during broad daylight with a very high ambient light.
High Speed Sync would only work up to 1/8000th of a second on my D7100 and the overall light output reaching the sensor would be greatly reduced. That would result in either having to increase ISO (which would invite a higher chance of noise) or having to open the aperture further (resulting in a reduced depth of field).
According to the owners manual, a SB-600 at 1/16th power has a flash duration of 1/11,100th of a second (page 88). A SB-900 at 1/16th power has 1/10,000th of a second. At those power levels and a max sync speed of 1/250th, the flash is still considerably brighter than a HSS flash at 1/8000th, short enough in duration to freeze the wings, and allowing a stopped down aperture setting which would allow the percentage of flash to compete with the high levels of ambient light.
To give the flash even odds of competing, I needed to cut down the ambient light on the bird, but not necessarily on the background. To accomplish this, I set the bird feeder in the shade and used a tree, about 35' away, in bright sunlight as a background.
The SB-600 was on a light stand below and in front of where I expected to capture the bird (camera left, facing the bird to be) and approximately 28 inches away. The SB-900 was actually mounted on the camera, 90 degrees to the bird and was approximately 60 inches from the subject. Using a 105mm macro lens at that distance and an aperture of f/11 gave me a depth of field of approximately 3.5 inches, which should be enough to get the majority of the bird in focus.
The camera was fired with a wireless RF remote ... that way I could "hide" about 5' further away from the feeder. The birds are less intemidated that way.
This all sounds like I've sat down with a formula, slide rule, computer, etc. Not so. Alot of trial and error (mostly error). Like moving the speedlites base on what I saw on the LCD, taking into account the inverse square law. But that seems to be the way I learn best. Alot of experimentation.
I sincerely hope this helps.

The SB-900 was actually on the camera. The SB-600 placed in front and below the bird, in both photos. Thank you very much for the kind words. You are one of the members here who have encouraged & assisted me over the years in such a positive way. Thanks again.