Thanks Bruce.

Last week I went with others three times to the waterfalls that is always falling (it seeps through the ground from a river, so even in dry weather this falls falls, LOL) On the third morning we had fog!

Rock Island Tennessee, Twin Falls.

You are looking to talk with someone who has used the Nikon 80-400VR lens? I have owned one for about 2 and a half years, and it's my favorite lens for wildlife. The down side is that it's heavy, and some older folks don't like it for that reason. It does give you sharp pictures, auto focus, and I usually use spot focus. At the time I bought it I, also had to decide which lens or lenses to purchase because I enjoy taking shots of animals. It also does a pretty good job with close-ups from a distance..........about three feet away. You do have to keep it steady tho. I have not yet tried a 1.4 teleconverter as I'm afraid the sharpness would suffer. I understand that with an extender you would have to manually focus it. But, I still love this lens, and it is usually on my camera.

https://picasaweb.google.com/107831683085141733877 is the site I post pictures on at present. Most of the animal shots on that site were taken with this lens. Let us know which one you decide to get, and how you like it. B&H will allow you to purchase a lens or a set-up and give you a month to try it out before charging you. I once sent a lens back that was too soft, and they didn't charge my card. Good luck!

Well-done, and I agree, about the only way to stop the motion of a little hummer is with use of a flash. Even in full sunlight, it sometimes takes a shutter speed of 1/1500 or 1/2000 to stop the motion! I like how the background is black, makes the little guy/gal show up more!

Elizabeth 23, the image of the child alone is simply out of focus, not blurred from camera shake. We all get blurred images and all have some we can't show. Several ways to fix that problem, and like someone said, make sure the main subject is what the camera is focusing on before the image is taken.........with people it's common to do spot focus, keeping the sharpest focus point on the eye nearest the camera. Out of focus shots are not fixable.

To prevent movement with-in the pictures you need to increase the shutter speed, like movement of the child's hand in the image of the three of them. I would be inclined to try the 'sports' setting on your camera, and if you can manually increase the ISO, do so.

About the only program I have found that only sometimes works to fix an image that is not as sharp as I'd like, or where some parts in it are a little blurred is a photoshop filter called poster edges. It doesn't fix the problem in a photo, but it does outline the edges just a little sort of like your topaz filter did. I'd say your fix is just as good as the ps filter.

My advice about the shoot would be if you are ever in the situation of getting no good shots, or if you're not pleased with most of them, offer to re-shoot for no extra charge. That way you can plan ahead to a spot or time when you have adequate lighting, thereby eliminating the need for a slow shutter speed.

Thanks Lynn

Some nice silhouette's in this thread. Here's my contribution. Taken just after sunset.

If you want to take a tripod, my suggestion is to place it in a bag. I flew across the country a couple of times last spring, and I had my tripod strapped to the outside of my backpack, exposed. The guards eyed it, and when I inquired, one of the officials told me it's up to the individual guard as you board. They didn't make me try to put it into backpack. I had removed the hook that will hold a bean or rock bag and it was in my suitcase, checked. On my most recent flight, I placed the tripod within the carry case and had no 'looks'. It just makes for one more thing to carry tho. If you have a tripod that will fit into your carry-on that is best.

Geopapa, do you have a program that will take the original image and enlarge and darken it like you have done here or do you do that by hand, then either overlay or fuse the two together in photoshop?

Please tell us about them! They're very attractive!

The second bird shot and the last two turtles are great!! Looks like a good place to find wildlife. Great blue's are one of my favorite birds!

Lovely couple. Check the backgrounds, as they could be distracting. I would have a tendency to try selecting the people, inverse, and lighten the backgrounds to be more than 50% lighter. It gives a surreal look, but also takes away the distractions. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. These are great in black and white!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So are good photographs. Shoot for what you like and the pictures that help you feel happy and good about yourself. It is all a personal choice. We had a member give a presentation once at the camera club of the most famous 20 images of all time. There were only MAYBE TWO that I would even hang on my wall!! I do hang those that I have a good feeling about, regardless of who has taken them.

You decide if you have a main subject, and if so, focus on the brightest spot on that subject. However, for portraits, you want to focus on the eyes, almost always. If it's a scenic, with nothing close-up, you can set the spot focus to around 1/3 of the way into the image and come out with a good depth of field. It depends on what type of picture you are shooting as to which focus option you want to use. My least used one is center focus (I shoot with a D300).

I had a similiar issue when upgrading a different program. It might be wise to check with the company. Sometimes it does make a difference and sometimes not.

It seems to me the important difference in the two cameras would be the mp count. Isn't the D700 a higher pixil camera? If so, your cropping ability with macro's should be greatly increased with using the D700 over the D90.