It's not just you, it felt pretty weird for me as well. If your frame it in the context that we made it back, it kind of takes the edge off. But I think people struggle for something else to say. It is kind of like the thorn in my side of someone saying thank you for your service, it sure wasn't that way when I got back. I just kind of roll with it because most will never understand...

Thanks and Happy Veterans Day to all my brother's and sisters...

U. S. Navy
1970 - 1974
Vietnam 1971 - 1973
River Division 53
Task Force 116

Here are a few shots on the October 28th Moon. They are pretty good, however I would love to gather some insight in how to make them crystal clear and perfect. Not sure of the size limitations so I resized them so not to have any upload issues. It was a beautiful night with the moon in full golden splendor and I shot until she turned white. The first picture if you look close you will see the tree tops, I would like to bring these more into view without losing the moon color. For the most part I shot these at various levels of under exposure, seen in the Exp bias.
I appreciate comments and guidance...
Double B

Thank Y'all for the kind comments...

I agree, kind of a surreal dream like photo that takes your imagination for a walk...

Well not exactly...
On the last night of the Blue Moon it was a last minute OMG I have to get my camera....
Well that didn't work out so well so the next day I prepped for it and waited for the moon to break my horizon in South Carolina. These were taken with a Z6II and a Nikon 200-500 VR 5.6 ED, shot Raw. It has been some time since I posted so I can remember file size restrictions so these are resized JPEG's just in case.
Feel free to critique, I love the chance to get better.
Bob

I have purchased a refurbished Z6II and 3 lenses from Nikon and have no regrets everything has functioned as new. Nikon has my vote!

Beautiful set, I'm jealous...

Today in South Carolina it was a beautiful sunny day. Heading out to the shed to get out my lawn mower there were several different butterfly's and a couple of humming birds around the landscape. So naturally I ran back into the house and grabbed my camera, didn't want to take time to swap out lenses so I ran with the 24-70 f/4. As I should have figured by the time I got back they all disappeared....

So I can always count on these guys to be around for a photo op, but geeze.....

Nikon Z 6ll
1/1250s
f/4
ISO 100
Focal Length: 70mm
Auto Exposure
Aperture Priority

Well sitting outside having lunch a butterfly caught my attention so off I went to grab my camera and throw on the 105. By the time I got back, go figure the butterfly found somewhere else to go. So that left me searching for other subjects, this is the best I could find on a cloudy day like this....

Beautiful shot, I love horticulture done with a passion...

This for me was a great article and video, of course I am not a pro but found it very interesting. Thanks for posting

Unfortunately we are all caught in Moores law where they predicted that the number of transistors on a microchip would double every year, and they did in a single layer. So as time goes on and engineers get more cleaver they have learned how to make 3D transistor layers in semiconductors.

Hence the advancement of technology we all love, in my case Dual Expeed 6 processors in mu Z 6II. My first computer was an IBM 286 with 640k of ram and dual 5 1/4" floppy drives, I at that time thought I was king.... Fortunately those days are gone and technology has advanced to where we are today.

In our world of photography we still need the ability to correct our images and begin thinking about workflow and how we manage it all. We have operating systems, processor speed, and RAM to contend with. It is never fun or easy to upgrade computers, but there comes a time, depending on need of course, I'm sure someone out there is still running that old IBM; when the transition is necessary.

Just like the excitement of new camera systems the computer and software should really follow suite. Technology changes and so does software making our jobs easier. In my opinion Adobe, albeit Photoshop is wonderful software, is too expensive for what I use it for, I am not a professional photographer. I don't want to pay for a subscription service that I might not use for several months, which is why I found Affinity Photo and Designer serve me well. Then you have workflow to consider Adobe has become the king out there but here to are other options without subscriptions...

So the end of the long story, PHRubin, I feel your pain but you may have some options to help with your system depending on whether it is a desktop or laptop.

Here are some things you could consider to boost your speed and make Windows 10 more friendly:

- Increase the amount of RAM you have, in some laptops they have proprietary built in RAM so this is not possible but it is worthwhile checking out. In an older system it will be very inexpensive. In a Desktop, this is easy peasy...

- Consider changing your hard drive from the old SATA hard drive to a solid state drive.
Sata hard drives are rated to last 10-years it is not a point of if they will fail, it is when, and here is the point that panic sets in...
The first indication that a hard drive is on the way out will be if a computer is getting slower and slower. The programs take several minutes to load. Second, the computer keeps freezing just after you try to load a program. It stays like that for minutes, and you can’t do anything about it.

This is of course is where backup comes in, personally I have 20 TB of backup and storage where I don't store anything that I don't want to lose on the laptop I use.
Changing hard drives is an easy task and most manufacturers provide the new drive with cloning software built in so it will transfer all operating systems and software. There is a tremendous amount of information on the web regarding these upgrades if you decide this is a better more cost effect path for you to pursue.
Hope this help....
BB

For me the Z 6ii fit the bill as a replacement for my D850. I have the FTZ adapter and it works seamlessly. I didn't need the higher resolution of the Z 7 to match the D850 so this was a perfect fit for me I wanted the dual cards, faster shooting rate, the dual processors to significantly improve image processing speed and increasing burst capability. The technology advances I've seen over my D850 were pretty huge.

I kept a few lenses and the FTZ which I was first against is awesome. Just to get a flavor for lens technology differences I first purchased a Z-Series 24-70 f/4 and compared this to the AF-S NIKKOR 24–85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR and there was no comparison the Z-Series won hands down. The sharpness and edge to edge clarity was beautiful. The technology of the advanced S line lenses making it moisture resistant and reportably the best construction and optics. The next push for me was the lens programmability with a ring and button adjustment, on select lenses, that allows you to program their function e.g. adjust aperture, ISO or exposure compensation.
The button on the lens, L-Fn, can be programmed for activating subject tracking (which I have found really cool and fast), AF Lock, image playback without taking your hands off the lens. The final nail for me was the ability to shoot 60 fps 4k video...

So for all of these reasons, I divested my D850 and a wide range of lenses and made a full conversion to the Z-Series. This system just feels good in my hands and makes me want to shoot. Now with all that being said, I am not a professional, more of an advanced enthusiast. I understand a lot of you are professionals with a lot of years under your belt who have become dependent on your systems to preform, this is just another perspective from a non-professional who enjoys photography.

I felt that way too KPMAC until I got my hands on this system, it makes you want to pick it up...
The 850 depending on lens got real heavy to lug around for the day. The advancements I find with the Z 6II are significant and enticing. I have my user setting programmed for Portrait, Action and Landscapes so there is no time required in setting up for the scene. Like this series of shots were done in an action mode with a preset shutter of 1000 and one dial to increase of decrease shutter speed. It is like shooting in auto mode.
This was a fit for me and I love the ease of use...