Perfect! Thanks! :-D

Much to think about -- and thanks for challenging my aging brain! I'm gonna have to cogitate on it. :-D :-D

Wise advice. :thumbup:

What got me curious about this is a photo I saw in Kelby's The Digital Photography Book Part 4, pg 198. It features a bride in white, and next to her, in a nearly cloudless blue sky, a large blown out sun. Not at all a sunset photo. Kelby discusses lighting the bride with a reflector, but nothing about shooting directly into the sun. I can't see how he could've used a ND filter, because that would have darkened the bride too, right? I'm wondering if he might've just pointed the camera (on a tripod) in roughly the right direction and taken a few trial shots with slightly different camera directions until he got one that showed the bride and sun the way he wanted, instead of looking through the viewfinder. And cropped the best shot later, of course. After the numerous excellent replies to my question, I'm gonna opt for handling direct sun shots like that, I think, rather than risk my retina. Again much gratitude to all who took their time to answer my question.

In composing your quite lovely shots, did you view the scene through the viewfinder, thus looking however briefly at some portion of the sun itself? Or don't I need to worry about that? Should I compose the shot using Live View, perhaps, to avoid looking through the viewfinder? I'm more worried about harm to my retina, you see, than I am to the sensor.
And many thanks to everyone else for your very helpful advice.

I want to shoot directly into the sun, so that it will appear peeking around my subject, between tree branches, through a cloud, or whatever. Or just hanging there in the sky all by itself, burning a hole in the photo. I really like that look, and I can more or less figure out how to set a good exposure. It's composing the photo I'm perplexed about. I don't feature frying my retina peering through the viewfinder, and I don't want to damage the sensor. Lots of folks do this, so it can't be top secret, but I've not been able to find out how by searching with Google or here on the Hog. So how can I safely compose the photo? Many thanks for any pearls of wisdom you may care to drop!!!

I like to watch videos of presentations in B&H's Event Space. Often these photographers lead workshops. Seeing them speak for an hour or so on the video may give some idea how this person might be to hang out with at a workshop. Personality, knowledge, that sort of thing. For example, here's one who does landscape workshops: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/videos/search/insights-into-the-art-and-craft-of-landscape-photography/3250346170001?term=robert%20rodriguez
I haven't taken any workshops, but if/when I do, I'll probably pick one led by someone I've seen on a video. Rather than just randomly choosing somebody who has an attractive website, if you see what I mean. Just a possible way to narrow down your choices.

Oops, looks like I goofed big time! What I was trying to say was that cthahn's criticism of sandythesaint for purchasing a high-quality flash such as the SB800 was not valid or helpful. Personally, I've done the same as Sandy, i.e. buying more complicated (not to mention expensive) equipment than I really needed, and then trying to grow into it. Figuring I wouldn't need to upgrade for a long time, (which at my age could mean never,) and not wanting to face a second round of expenses and learning curves if and when I did so. Actually, I was trying to defend sandythesaint's decision, not criticize it. Evidently my too-hasty remarks weren't clear and were open to misinterpretation. Thank you Mogul for pointing this out, I do appreciate it!

So you're saying it's better to buy a cheap piece of c___, try to learn it, then upgrade and suffer through a second learning curve as well as another expense? Hmmm.

Cropping is certainly the first technique to learn and likely the one you'll use most often. I crop nearly every pic I take, often rescuing a shot from the trash dump and making a keeper out of it.
An alternative is to get rid of unwanted elements in post. Photoshop or some other software. These programs often aren't cheap of course, and can be intimidatingly complex, but learning a few simple skills can be surprisingly easy. Content-Aware Fill is one such, that I used to modify your lovely purple flower. As you can see, I got rid of the yellow petals top left, and also brown spots on a couple of green leaves. Took me only a minute or two, and I'm by no means slick at these techniques.
Please understand that I certainly don't intend these thoughts as criticism of your efforts so far. Just as examples of things you may at some future time want to learn. I know many photographers want to "get it right in camera" and feel it's cheating to modify shots on your computer. Well, that's all personal preference. As for me, I find it great fun to mess around with shots to see how I can improve them, and regard it as a very enjoyable aspect of my photography hobby.

Lovely purple flower

Very pretty pics. You might consider a bit more crop of #3. Those yellowish petals in the top left corner are a little distracting. The purple flower is lovely without them. Or remove them in Photoshop using Content Aware Fill.

Real nice. You used the Pen Tool on #3, right?

Excellent info on the 80-400. I knew I liked the results from it, but now I know why. May even have to try a 1.4 on it. Many thanks!

Guess I wasn't clear. I wasn't suggesting using a TC with the 80-400. It's got pretty decent IQ at 400 by itself, at least for my uses. What I was trying to say is that its IQ at 400mm may be comparable with the IQ of the 70-200 at 200 plus a 2x TC. I don't know for sure that's the case, just guessing. I did consider the 70-200 but decided against it because I wanted the extra range of the 80-400. The 80-400 doesn't seem to appear much in discussions and certainly wasn't on my radar screen until B&H recommended it. I just thought I'd mention it so the OP might consider it among his choices.

With both hummer pics in this thread (beautiful!) I'd get rid of the feeders. They're brightly colored and distracting, at least to my eye. In Photoshop, Content-Aware Fill should make short work of them.