Free means you are the currency. Your contact info with the potential to get revenue.

Traditional marketing is to just blast everything to everyone. Now, with digital, markers know more about their target customer and can target their communications. For them, this does mean higher conversions and more revenue. Think about the promotion you got for something you were about to buy anyway, that is the win-win.

You are describing the downside to this in that some marketers will take this too far. To do it right, it is called a nurture campaign. Send just enough to be remembered, but not so much that you annoy them. I think you are in the annoyed bucket and I'd suggest op-out from the communication.

There actually is good science and data behind this, but not all firms have it and some guess. And guess wrong.

Signing up for a webinar or "free information" is usually given a very high score which means you'll get more promotions.

I to recently signed up for a free ebook and I am getting slammed. I also signed up for Steve Perry's a while ago and really like what I get from him and have purchased his ebooks. You can't make a blanket statement that it is all good or bad. If that person's approach isn't working, opt-out and that will help them to know it isn't working.

Ok, coffee is now ready, I'll stop. Sorry for long rant.

Great shot. You can reuse this for Oktoberfest too.

They do see smart. I was just there adjusting the irrigation and two were battling a bit. I think they are on to me. They are around as long as I don't have my camera ready. I'm getting tempted to get a feeder.

I was sitting in the front yard yesterday having my coffee and every 3-5 minutes a hummingbird would fly over and do its thing in the flowers. So, I figured I'd go get my camera. I dialed in the AF on my prime with the teleconverter the day before. With all the birds, it would be an easy test.

Well, an hour later, I was sitting there and hadn't seen another bird. Then this guy drops in to the far bush I wasn't expecting (the pretty flowers were getting all the birds before). I had to crop more than I'd like.

I waited another hour and gave up. The neighbors were probably starting to wonder about me with the long lens sitting there. I'm in a very urban setting (the background is a car parked on the street). I've got a lot more respect for all the nature photogs out there.

(Download)

For a week or so now we've had "red tide" that is bio-luminescent. It will light up if you splash in it or when waves crash. Bigger surf is better, but the crowds were it but much for me when the waves were better. It is really cool to see.

Long exposure

(Download)

Multiple images stacked

(Download)

This is interesting.

For me, Lightroom Classic is my DAM and all images live there. I do sync some choice ones to LR CC which I can then do your workflow. I usually do that when I need to be away from my big monitor and just use it for really basic edits.

I do think the power Instagram users leverage tools from their main computers to upload. I haven't figure that out, so I get them on my phone (Dropbox, Google Drive, Lightroom) then save to Photos and share from IG directly. Now I see that is a lot of steps. I should try just sync from LR Classic and then share from LR CC.

Lots of good suggestions in here. If your dog can sit still, you can have some fun learning. Mine... doesn't.

For detail in a dark subject, you need more light. That is the short answer.

Here are two images I have handy. One, I used the light of the window, the other is outside.

The window is with my iPhone where I touch his head and it tells the phone to spot meter there. The rest is a bit over exposed, but you can see his face. The phone lets you see the results first. Point is, I decided what I wanted to be exposed right. If I touched the white background, he would be a silhouette.

The other was in the shade metered for his head. I was testing a lens and managed to get him. I spot metered off his face which adds some highlights to his beard. The shade helped a lot to keep the background from going too crazy. I don't know what mode I was shooting in since I was check AF of a new lens. I either was in M with a spot focus on face, or auto ISO and I ticked up the exposure compensation to make his face visible. The background was blown out, but I'm ok with it in this image.

I approach most high-contrast situations the same. You need to realize that you can't easily get both the highlights and the shadows, so you need to decide if you want the shadows or the highlights to be the focus. For my dog, I want the shadows because he is dark. Same with an backlit subject. You can spot meter to see what the area you want in focus, or do overall exposure compensation. Over time, you will know to see your meter reading higher than "zero". For a bright landscape with cool clouds, I want the clouds so I might have the meter go the other way.

You do say "no flash", but off camera flash does wonders with dark subjects too. Particularly ones that sit still.

Happy shooting.

iPhone at window

(Download)

Nikon D500

(Download)

Bracketing is the number one reason this happens to me. Can be turned on by a bump of a button.

Remove some variables and test. Constant light, tripod, manual mode etc.

200-500 can be great. The 300 is super sharp. So, you aren't looking at a really bad choice.

My experiences show the primes handle the 1.4 TC better.

Other thoughts on the prime include that it weights less, lets in twice the light and may AF faster. I know a lot of people who are still using the 200-500 and say the AF is a touch slower. You may not notice.

For the zoom, well, you get a great range. Primes are awesome, but you are limited to a focal length.

I personally tend to bump into light limitations, so I go with the primes for the wider apertures.

Thanks. And it looks like you live in a very nice place. Well done.

I shoot my D750 at 10,000 often for poorly lit sports venues. It is a great body. Noise comes from many variables including how you process them. I think exposure is most important (get it right in body so you don't magnify it in post). 8000+ ISO I shoot jpeg and get solid results. My measure for solid is sales and not getting rejected by editors. If I can get lower ISO shots, I will always try that.

I'm glad you are liking your results. When you already have confidence in your outcome it helps you focus on composition and getting a good shot.

Some of the newer cameras can pull very nice stills from their video. Frame rate in video is like shutter speed and then 4k or greater gets you the higher resolution.

Not this specifically, but I've noticed a change in the general wildlife behavior. Around here there is far less noise from cars and stuff. We are also starting to get some spring weather, so hard to say for sure.

What do you use to attract them? I get some and have been thinking about trying to attract more.

For DX, I like 8mm. I got a cheap manual focus Samyang that works great. At 8mm, hyperfocal is like 1'. I used it as a goal cam lens in ice hockey on a remote and it was great. Later, I used it for more stuff. It was super cheap used off ebay (I expected it to possibly die as a remote, but it didn't).

So, there are options. My cheap Samyang also is re-branded under a number of names. They all look the same. For fish eye, manual focus isn't a big deal. The focus ring is like .2, .75, 1.5, infinity in a quarter turn.

A little air from a rocket blower type bulb. Else, try to get used to it. Don't touch it.