thanks all, the weather was good for the first 2 days, however the third day the weather was terrible. Hard not to take a lot of shots considering the distance you shoot at and not knowing what will be keepers or not. a lot of those shots were shot at 1200mm and then heavily cropped. doubt if many of them can be printed at 8 X 10. Don't know. As far as organizing a trip from Long Island goes, could be interesting Indi, email me and let me know where you live.

thanks all!

thank you

thank you, just corrected it but noticed that you corrected it before. One more note that i forgot to add in the original post. Gear that they were shot with.: Canon 1Dx with Canon 600mm v II lens with 1.4 teleconverter and 2.0 teleconverter making the effective focal length either 840mm or 1200mm. All mounted on a Gitzo tripod with a Induro Gimble head.

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Below is a link to some photos that i shot at the Conowingo Dam, sorry that it took so long to process and show them but life got in the way. Anyway, all comments are welcome, good and bad. Unfortunately to many to upload and show here. Thanks, wcj0
http://j-dcreativephotography.smugmug.com/Other-7/Conowingo-11162015/

hate to go this mac verses PC road ( by the way PC stands for personal computer so why isn't mac also a Personal computer ?) years ago ( approximately i believe around 8 or maybe more years ago, PC and Mac used two different processor companies. Apple used IBM's "G" series and pc's used what ever intel put out. Apple's choice of g series processors were definitely more geared to graphics and design while intels were geared towards more everything in general. Apples OS was also proprietary and based on more of a linux, unix style file system which allowed their systems to not only be more stable but also virtually hacker free and harder to get into the root file system. They also required all component software manufacturers to design their components around their operating systems and had to get apples approval before they could sell anything that they claimed would work on their computers. So for years Apple worked under the "aura" of not only being indestructible but also better than any PC manufactured and for the most part it was. Hackers weren't interested in hacking the system because there weren't enough around to make stealing information etc. from them either worthwhile or profitable.
Now enter the time of intel i series processors where both apple and "pc" manufactures use the same computers with approximately the same chipset instructions but still different OS's. Now basically aside from still using different os platforms, they all had the same processing power because they all used the intel chipsets. They only thing that apple has over any of the BIG PC manufacturers is multi processor mother board support and even that isn't proprietary any more because if you search hard enough you can find multi processor boards with the capability of accepting huge quantities of ram depending on what type of computing you're looking to do. Apple has always required you to buy all the "upgrade" components from them because of compatibility problems and now their also designing some of their systems with non removable ram which makes the system not user serviceable friendly. They want to keep not just the Lions share but all of potential savings in their pockets. The systems that i described above would have cost on the average 1/3rd to 2x the amount if specked out in Apple. I build my systems to suit my needs with a clear budget in mind. Also anyone that says you don't need the amount of ram that i install, has no idea on what a scratch disc is and how much more time it takes for using a scratch disk for part of the computing operation verses using random access solid state memory rather than a rotating magnetic disc to support its processing power. If you don't understand the difference just compare the SSD's boot times and program access times to a magnetic drives ( or standard hard drives ) both boot time and program startup times. By the way, now there's enough apple products around where hackers are having a field day and you now need virus software to defend them. Couple that with the problems that apple is now experiencing with their new operating systems and i believe they are now on their way to being the same as a pc in general other than the fact that "I" can build my own, invest as much or as little as "I" want in the build and if in the future "I" want to upgrade "anything" "I" don't have to consult with "BIG BROTHER" to see what's allowed or now allowed and how much "THEY" decide to charge me for the upgrade. Is the windows OS any better than the Apple OS? I don't know since I don't use Apple and can't speak on that. I use Win7 which for me is the ideal operating system for what i do. I tried win8 and didn't like the rinky dink style and therefore canned it. Will win10 be any better? who knows. But for now i'm satisfied doing what i'm doing. If Apple released it's operating system to be used on any platform, I would try it. However they don't and I won't ( hackentosh ) doesn't work for me.

the only thing i would worry about with SSD's on a 2009 motherboard is driver compatibility. I've only used SSD's on my new builds primarily because back then the cost was ridiculous. I just got an email from newegg yesterday for a 1Tb SSD $349. My 500gb pro drive cost me $479 just months ago.

I would be careful with micro atx due to possible cooling problems. You also limit yourself to expansion as far as hard drives and optical drives. But most of all i would worry about cooling. One other this is you have to be careful with video card sizes since both the video cards and Hard drives are usually located on or near each other front to back. I always shoot for a mid tower design and with a lower mount for the power supply since it can breath through the bottom of the case and exhaust through the back of the case rather than drawing in the hot air from the inside of the case. Remember the further your hardware is separated from each other the more heat is dissipated either naturally or with fans. Its great to have a case like the apple cube but they don't make components to fit pc's this size. Put your tower under your desk and run the wires up through the table top or through the back

If you copy my specs, you will have a great system without having to do the leg work. Also prices for DDR4 memory, SSD drives and the i 7 processor i used have dropped considerably to a total savings of approx $300 combined and maybe even more if you wait for neweggs specials.

best way that i found is researching the various combinations on overclockers websites and also investigating the various configurations on the high end computer manufacturers building websits. Gaming computers are usually high end systems because of the programs they run. Obviously price also comes into consideration. I usually shoot for a price between 2-3k with the idea once again to build a system that should last at least 4-5 years. Remember if you build your own system and you want to upgrade if for any reason afterwards, you can upgrade all of the components such as cpu and video cards if you feel its necessary as well as adding more ram chips. your only concern would be type of socket setup for cpu and ram. Try doing that with a manufacturers pre built system. Aside from having a hard time finding motherboard drivers, you also have to contend with the internal design of the computer case. however it should be mentioned that you also have to contend withe the fact that you are your own tech support should something go wrong as with my 2 systems. the good news is it's usually not to hard to diagnose a hardware problem, software problem is a different story.

only in the dark. Forgot to add that this rig is driving 2 monitors. One is an ezo coloredge CE210w which i do my processing on and the second one is an Lg W2340 VG that i use for split screen use in photoshop and lightroom or just to go on line while i'm doing something on the other. I should add that i built this computer as a back up to my other work machine which i built in 2011 that consisted of the following:
Roswell Gear X3 mid tower
Asus Rampage III Formula LGA 1366 w USB 3.0
Asus TX560 vid card with 1gb mem
Corsair AX1200w PS
Intel i7 gulftown 3.2gh 6 core
G.Skill ripjaws 24gb DDR3 memory
6 Seagate 2tb hard drives
ASUS blueray and DVD burners

After building the computer in the other post I should add that it had a defective Asus MB and had to be sent back to Newegg for replacement which they had no problem doing. Once i installed the new motherboard in the new computer and was using it for a couple of days i guess the old one was jealous and decided to blow the 1200w power supply. When i say "blow" i mean it. It sounded like an M80 firecracker. One of the Capacitors blew up. Ordered another power supply from newegg installed it and sent the almost 4yr old power supply back to Corsair who replaced it under the warrantee. So today i have the availability of using both machines either together or one at a time and have a spare power supply in case something blows. From all of this i guess you can gather i'm extremely anal. By the way that machine cost me about 2,500 to build in 2011 but worth every penny of it. I have no lag times in either machine when i do photos, video or cad work and time is money.

Just built my new computer system a few months ago. I use photoshop and lightroom and also do some video work along with autocad work. No issues in any of the above. I build for the future, however no one knows what the future will hold as far as computer demands. so below are the specs that i build and purchased it all from newegg where i always purchase my parts. total build with multi item discounts came to just below $3,000. I have been building my own computers and others just after the purchase of the IBM Aptiva 120mhz computer. can't remember the date but at least for the last 15yrs. Does it still pay to build your own since there are so many cheap alternatives out there? Price wise i don't know, however i do know that if you have some kind of a system hardware failure, you can easily repair it by just installing the new part. Try doing that after your new manufactured computer passes it warantee period!
Corsair mid tower case
Samsung 850 512gb SSD
MSI GTX 760 2GB video
Intel i7 Haswell-E 6 core 3.5gh overclocked to 4.2gh
Corsair H100 liquid cpu cooler
Corsair HXi 850w power supply
G.Skill ripjaws 4 series 64GB DDR4 ram
Asus X99 deluxe MB
6 3tb Seagate HDs
Asus DVD burner
Corsair case with 7 cooling
Windows 7 Pro 64bit

Start, control panel, keyboard and adjust repeat as necessary. Window vista, 7.

Lr and ps6 ( cloud ) software is good for $10 a month if you never intend to stop using the cloud and spending $120 a year. However once your subscription done i.e. you decide you don't want to pay the $120 per year, both of your programs go away also. You can no longer view or use them. In some cases this is no big deal, however in most cases this can become a really big deal.

Obviously there are aways more choices. The t3i is already 2 generations old. I would suggest that you go to a big box store and check the various camera models out for both ergonomics (how they feel in your hand) and especially the menu. You can also go to the Canon website and look for their refurbished cameras since they now all come with a 1 year guarantee. You also have to decide whether your going to want to shoot video with it once in a while. Last your going to have to choose the lens you want to purchase with it. This is a great time to do it since I heard that retail sales were way off.