My wife and I spent three days with Dr. Robert Berdan, Calgary, Alberta last month photographing owls. Despite having lived in Alaska we had forgotten what extreme cold was like. I believe our warmest day in Calgary was 15 below F. It was interesting to note the different habitats of the two owls, snowys and great greys, that we were looking for. Snowys favored the open plains while great greys were found along the forest edges. In total we saw 11 snowy owls and three great greys. We also saw mule deer and moose and some magnificent scenery in Kananaskis National Park. I highly recommend Dr Berdan www.canadiannaturephotographer.com if you want to see and photograph winter owls and other wildlife in the Calgary area

Female snowy owl


Male snowy owl

Check out Molar bean bags http://www.vertexphoto.com/camerabeanbagv2. I have used this bag on twelve African trips and will use it again in October. Buy either rice or beans to fill it when you get there - just ask your guide to stop at any grocery store when you arrive. Also pick up two or three large ziplocks to dump the fill into when you leave. Your room staff will love you.

I highly recommend Santa Clara. Five blinds to choose from including one set up for birds-of-prey. Lots of birds and a wide variety of birds along with opportunities to photograph javalina, deer etc. You can easily spend a couple of days there and not get bored.

Your suggestions please. Using either a Nikon D500 or a D810 when I attached a wired shutter release or an intervalometer to the camera, and try to trip the shutter, the lens focuses but the the shutter will not trip. Is there a setting in the cameras that is preventing the shutter from releasing?

A couple of other thoughts from one who has similar balance issues - Carry your camera using a shoulder strap so that you have both hands free. Then add one or two ( I use two) hikers walking sticks when you are moving around, These sticks have loops to put your hands through so that you can release the sticks when you want to shoot and then easily regain them when you want to move on.. This systemworks well for me.

I would like to spend a month in the UK, Scotland specifically, in September of this year. I would appreciate any insights, suggestions or other advice from any of you that have experience in the area. I would also appreciate any contact information you may have for any photography guides with whom you have had a good experience with in the past. I am primarily a landscape photographer but am also interested in photographing birds.

Beautiful work.

My wife and I spent the past weekend photographing in Rocky Mountain National Park mostly driving the roads and pausing where ever we came across something of interest. For the most part the park was very quite. The elk rut appeared to be over. No moose were seen. We did come across two bighorn sheep at Sheep Lakes. But little else - except a few birds. We were lucky to see a dusky grouse (formally "blue grouse") and lots of Steller's Jays in the picnic grounds still hoping for a final hand-out before winter sets in.

Can you share where the "Valley of the Gods" is located please

I'm 72 and have had both shoulder joints replaced and both hips. These surgeries have impacted my ability to hike long distances and to carry heavy camera gear - I used to use a Nikon D4 and D810 with long lenses - way to heavy! So I've switched to Olympus Micro 4/3rds and loving it. I still use my Nikon gear and do much more photography from the front seat of my Dodge pickup than I used to. It took from 9 months to a year before I was totally free from pain. Do you PT religiously - it helps. Do strength building exercise as well.

The lighter gear has also made it a lot easier when traveling overseas which I do a lot. Nowhere near the hassle from the airline personnel about over-weight bags.

Ziess have always worked for me on many international trips and at home

I am using Lightroom. I am missing the "tiny tag icon on the thumbnails. The keywords in the Keywording panel are present.

I have key-worded thousands of images but tonight the tags on the all of individual images have disappeared. The key-wording still works. If I click on a key-word in the righthand panel all of the images associated with that word are displayed. What have I done to prevent the key word from becoming visible?

You might double check the identity of the plant - I think it is fireweed. A very common plant that is one of the first plants to reoccupy an area that has been burned.

Also look at McKenna - I am very happy with their work.