Jerry, Most sales tax laws are titled as Sales & Use taxes so if you buy something out of state, and the seller doesn't collect your state taxes, the law requires you to pay the amount of tax directly to your state. Some years ago when we had a small business and were undergoing a Sales Tax Audit, the auditor told me that it was the shortest customer line in the Government.

With the Supreme Court changing its position so all states are free to collect such taxes; it may be reasonable to check the comparative tax rates for large cost purchases. NY tax is, I believe, about 8.85% whereas our tax in MD is 6.0%--$1.15 per $100 or $.25 per hundred so a single ink Canon CLT-8 ink will be $0.02 more, hardly worth the trouble for individual cartridges, but if buying in bulk....?

Just as an aside, did you know the NYC sales tax was introduced shortly after the start of WW II AS A TEMPORARY TAX to help offset some of the city's war costs? IT WAS TO BE REVOKED AT THE END OF THE WAR!

When making the choice, OEM or Knock-offs just remember that the OEM batteries are mostly not made by the camera manufacturer; they buy them in bulk made to their OEM's specs by one of the 'knock off" makers. When I bought my Canon DSLR it came with a Canon brand, and I bought a spare & charger from B & H. Both are about five years old, still work, seem to hold about the same amount of charge, and in the field I can't tell the difference. When I need replacements, I'll go to B & H and get their recommendation. If you buy by price alone, as speters you will get what you paid for; the days of all carbon/zink batteries being basically alike are long gone.

First, I think you should decide WHAT YOU NEED IN A CAMERA, not what you don't. When you know the want parameters, then if there is a good camera store in your area, make a visit and see what's available or as a secondary choice a big box store such as Best Buy. Their inventory volume is usually pretty good and you may even get a sales person that knows what he/she is selling. Then post your specific questions on here.

Ditchdodger,

We are working under similar circumstances, but I have a few years before I'm officially "a survivor". I am in my late 70's and was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer in January and started Chemo in Feb. The first dose was a disaster, and I ended up in the hospital for ten days to get my systems back in sync then ten more says of twice a week PT to regain strength, stamina, and balance. The changed and reduced the every two week dosage and now all seems well with no pain and little discomfort; and the cancer markers have declined from just under 10,000 in February to just over 100 this week; the Dr. and I are both thrilled!

About your photos we too share a situation there. I'm not quite as as limited you indicate your condition. I still drive, get out with my spouse--shopping or to dinner (on occasion)--but had to leave mu boat 'on the hard' this season so my photography is mostly of what ever I can see from the house or patio in or at the edge of the forest behind the house, and sometimes a Sailboat race off the yacht club on the other side of the river so it is mostly an escape rather than capturing many good shots. Unfortunately the forest is too far away too, about 100+ feet from either, so my longest lens-- full frame Tamron 70-300mm even on my crop sensor camera is a bit shy of what I need for tack sharp shots of song birds and the occasional hawk, and my hands haven't been all that steady since my late 60's so I'm always shooting with a fairly fast shutter priority and if using the Tamron a flexible ISO limited to 800 so like you I do a lot of cropping and PP with PSE 14. I do have a tripod, but hate using the darn (thing I'm being polite!), carrying it around and constantly resetting it when the birds don't wait is frustraring.

I love your photos especially understanding very well the situations they were taking under. You didn't quite say this, but I'd bet you too find the photography a great escape from the boring and tiring just sitting around the house.

Best Wishes and Good Luck!

Jim

You can also paint new colors with PSE; I use v.14, but I assume the later versions had the capability.

Nice shot and PP, but I can't really see much difference in the pre- and post processed version except for some sharpening especially around the "M" on the bow of the left vessel and some minor cropping on the left making for a tighter picture.

Question: Were these taken in the spring immediately after they were launched? In 60+ years of being on the water, I don't think I've ever seen three fishing vessels as spiffy clean and with little or no fishing gear visible.

I'm not a pro either, but have done two family weddings with what equipment I had a -- Canon AE1 (35mm) and an separate flash for first & a Canon 60D with the built in flash the second time about six years later. So long as they realize that you are a bit out of your "comfort level" and some of the photos may not come out (you don't have to show them those) how upset can they be? I haven't had one complaint! Do it as a family obligation and tell them that the photos are a gift to the Bride & Groom! If others want copies and the parents probably will tell them you'll print them at cost (remember to add the Paper, Ink, other supplies & some time) because it isn't cheap to print a bunch of color prints, and you will be amazed at the PP time. One more suggestion--set the White balance for Auto; if you walk outside or to other venues, it will help. You won't forget to change the setting, and you might consider a fixed shutter speed and let the camera pick the f-stop.

Good luck!

Beautiful! Nicely done.

Rook, Thanks fpr the post; I have also noticed stuff that google has let slide through what used to be a reasonably good firewall and wondered "where did that come from?", including something called 'softgateon" that wants to install it on the computer as a PDF reader and has already blocked my Adobe reader. I intend to delete 'softgateon' once I get a chance to see if the Adobe still works; I'm still using Win & PRO.

Have you found a reasonable alternate to Gmail? I hate the thought of switching as I've been using it for 20+ years, and the number of contacts I have must be humongous.

Jim

Nice pictures and all the versions are well done, Congratulations!

The original Jeeps used in WWII & Korea were pretty steady, but the revised version introduced during VM, had the independent four wheel suspension and were rollover prone; it's been a long time but think they called it a model 51. The suspension allowed the body to remain level even as the suspension absorbed all the tip so the driver was clueless about a pending rollover. The first modification was to add safety belts, which in rollovers probably killed more troops than the original (couldn't jump off), next we were sent placards that said Not to Exceed 40(?) MPH and of course most drivers followed that (when an Officer was present), but the rollover rated didn't reduce much. By the time the 'new models' reached the Transportation Companies the N.D.G. word was out and the drivers were more careful. I got off Active Duty in '64 so I don't know subsequent history except that most 1/4 ton jeeps were shortly replaced by the new 3/4 ton trucks as company vehicles. The only complaints I heard on them was that they were too big to camouflage easily and quickly in company sized field areas.

Jcam
TC Officer

I agree that the term is misleading, and is 100% inaccurate, but neither can I accept an erroneous use of percentages. Let me offer an example: you are alone and walking down some dark street in some not particularly reputable part of town and someone decides he needs your camera more than you and pulls a weapon--knife, pistol, club, whatever--from under his coat and tells you to give him 100% of your camera equipment; maybe he didn't pau attention to his 5th grade English or Math teachers. Hopefully you decide that your well being and possibly life is worth more than all the stuff he wants so you immediately hand it all (100%) over to him. You have just given him all of the equipment you were carrying and now have nothing--zero, nada, zilch--left. To strain the Queen's English a bit you have just "cropped" your equipment by 100% and have nothing left with you ! That is the same reduction as a 100% crop of a photo; there is nothing left! 100% of any number of pixels is all of them so if you do such a crop you would only have a blank sheet left.

WRITE THIS DOWN 100% OF ANYTHING EQUALS ALL OF IT! Always has been and always will be! Even the "New Math" that they tried to cram down our kids throats fifty years ago hasn't changed it. and it didn't take the kids long to figure it out.

You just blew off a lot of damn good photographers who just don't want to spend infinite hours on a computer (nic pros) to obtain perfection in their minds that will never be recognized or verbalized except here on UHH when the Poster asks for comment.

You have vastly changed the conditions of your first post, and even you must agree that the changes make a lot of difference. I have read the state statistics about lives saved by "packers", they are in mostly one-on-one in open spaces with plenty of room, not in a possibly crowded church which is probably the worst possible place for a shooter to be.

"Nuf said" on my part!

This time I agree somewhat, but if you expand the scenario to perhaps some six 28 year old people all shooting in one direction and probably close over the heads of those who haven't "hit the deck" yet, it could still be that circular firing squad, And, yes. the police do make mistakes, today a town in the west is holding a funeral for an officer who was run down and killed at an accident scene by another officer who the reports said is now being held for second degree murder. Neither incident should have happened, especially without more information.

Nice shot, and to answer your question small towns are not immune from terrorism and need if not trained SWAT teams at least the ability to protect and get their officers a chance to get to the situation alive, and perhaps contain it until trained officers can get there. That vehicle would probably stop any caliber round a terrorist might be using!

A DEAD office would cost the town a lot more than that vehicle especially at the prices they were available before O'bama stopped the DOD from selling them. I think President Trump had again made them available. They still are not cheap, but far less than a lifetime of pension and dependent support.