Your capture is quite good. The only suggestion I make is to be aware of reptile tails, bird wings, and insect legs, when close to edge of scene. In post processing, it is much easier to crop away extra background than to fix a partial limb.

We read left to right, so our brain likes to view subjects that are entering a scene L-to-R, or looking into the scene, L-to-R. I mirror-flipped your image to make my brain happy.

I also slightly increased contrast, color saturation, and sharpness, again to make my brain happy.

That setup does include a quick release plate, and I wouldn't be without one. That should be totally okay for your purposes, and mine. Please note, however, PhotoArtsLA's remark about the willowy nature of Manfrottos for heavy duty or extra long zoom use. Again, not a real problem for you or me. That's a good head, solid build and locks into place very well. Kinda slow to adjust with the three tilt knobs, though, so I would add another ball head for all-purpose shooting, such as the 494RC2 or heavier. http://www.amazon.com/Manfrotto-494RC2-Release-Replaces-484RC2/dp/B002WN211Y

Oh, and yes, this tripod, like most, has a standard 1/4 inch mounting screw that will fit almost all cameras.

The minimum and maximum f stop is a function of the lens more so than the camera. Look at the nomenclature on the lens to see what the largest f stop (smallest number) your lens can achieve.

Quite a coincidence. I posted this recently.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-97755-1.html



http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/black-and-white-
and-blue/