Peter,

It is a long story as to why they wouldn't allow me to use their 35mm camera, which I presumed was reserved for their 'favorites', which I was NOT! Long Story, no need going into it.

Regardless, I was stuck with the Jimmy Olsen 'Special', but I learned the value of cameras with Roll Film instead of single negatives, from cumbersome Large Cameras that required two foot lockers to haul around the required film packs and flash bulbs.

And not to cast bad news on the single negative cameras, because they had the BEST BLOW-UP Features for huge Court Room presentations for serious cases! Absolutely HUGE PHOTOS that sat on very large easels, for the Juries to view!

It was just a pain in the caboose to drag around those two foot lockers of necessary gear.

Scooter,

Bozsik,

I love your exquisite detail, wonderful stuff.

When I do landscape photos, I always carry a plastic bottle with water in it, to spritz flowers to replicate 'morning dew'.

Your spider web with a spritz of water might have .... enhanced it a bit.

Just a thought . . .

Scooter,

Gene,

I've fell in love with my 24-240 mm lens as my most used lens. Texas has lots of wide spaces and that lens can reach out and grab a lot of it and or the near stuff that pops up.

I always keep my Macro lens tucked away in my bag just in case, as I walk around looking for different possible angles, something close to hand might present itself. Two instances come to mind.

One was a very old wind driven water mill, with the structure made of wood. It was so old that the wood had taken on that aged patina in the harsh Texas sun, that cannot be done to new wood, only time, weather and sunlight can do! Then the Macro lens comes into its own, with close ups of the wood itself.

It always reminds me of a series of photos I've seen over the decades of very old wooden gates or doors with extremely old locks. Priceless artwork. Theirs not mine. I'll let the viewers of my work decide what is what.

Scooter,

Bob,

Here in Texas, it is March and that literally sings ... Spring Wild Flowers Blooming in vast quantities over very large areas. Specifically, the large medians of Texas Freeways that Lady Bird Johnson had caused the Texas Dept. of Highways to sow the medians and the hillsides with Wild Flowers. A smashing success! That region of the Freeway from San Antonio to Houston, has to be seen in March to be believed!

Lady Bird will go down in Texas History as the most 'thoughtful' person Texas ever produced ... for love of the Texas Landscapes.

Scooter,

PS: getting away from the Freeways and near the natural landscapes around the hills by the Lakes of Texas, is another extra special place to check out in Texas. I always carry a mat to lay down on and use my macro lens and a spray bottle with water to spritz the Wild Flowers with ... 'then' take their photos.

Spritzing them with water ... gives the impression of early dawn dew. Without having to actually lay down in the dawn dew. ;-)

Alliebess,

My best guess is that it looks like some kind of early iteration of a Pressure Washer!

Just guessing, I am in no way knowledgeable in that field. I just saw the water hose and the old engine on top of the gizmo, and the wood thing looked like some kind of solution tank, perhaps hot water or vinegar to kill mold on farm buildings' north sides.

We have the same problem with the larger houses in South Texas, where the north sides of them after a few years have that green mold growing on them. Here along the Texas Gulf Coast mold is a constant problem.

What with the EPA outlawing LEAD PAINT (that KILLED ALL MOLD on buildings, INSIDE and OUT), the WAR on Mold has become a Major Industry for some building remodeling outfits!

Who knew, that the Lead Paint was a Health Safety Feature for families and their homes, after the hysteria about Lead Paint "going to kill all the Babies" because of businesses making Baby Cribs painted with Lead Paint! That wasn't the fault of Lead Paint manufacturers, that belonged to the morons making the Cribs, with Lead Paint!

Scooter,

Gessman,

You nailed it. Gary Fong the very experienced Top Dollar Fashion shoot photographer and Marriage Photo Specialist (he started out doing wedding photos and sold that business for Big Bucks) then switched over to Top Dollar Fashion shoots. He laughed while doing his Sony Tutorial A6000 little camera that I bought for just under $500 bucks back in the day. As Gary talked about how of ALL the cameras he owns and uses frequently, he ALWAYS CARRIES the little Sony A6000 with him. He has even done Fashion Shoots using the Sony A6000!!!!

And Gary was very precise as he said, what caught him off guard was ALL THE HIGH END 'features' the little Sony A6000 had and Gary went on to say, BECAUSE of that little Sony A6000 camera he switched from Nikon & Canon cameras to Sony's various digital mirrorless cameras ... simply because of the VAST NUMBER of HIGH END FEATURES in those cameras for very modest prices!

Scooter,

Bridges,

I watched a series of Sony A7R IV Tutorials today and one of the more informative Tutorials was addressing the latest competition in digital mirrorless cameras. The originator of that tutorial discussed how Hasselblad thought they'd cornered the market on high end digital mirrorless cameras when they hit the market with their 50 mp new digital mirrorless camera; but was disheartened when Sony came out shortly later with their A7R IV digital mirrorless camera!

The originator of that Video wasn't sure what Hasselblad was going to do at this point.

(my thought) was perhaps .... they'd come out with a 100 mp digital mirrorless camera. Because I remember when Hasselblad came out with their 41 mp camera back in the very early 2000s if not 2000 and they only wanted $25,000 bucks for it! But, the key factor was the PHOTO STORAGE SPACE for either 600 or 800 pics.

It was made specifically for High End Fashion Shoots that Pro Photographers fly around the world to Exotic places and hire top dollar Models to do these shoots, for clothing manufacturers and vacation businesses trying to bump up Package Vacation deals for folks with the big bucks to spring for those packages.

Plus the drop dead gorgeous Models in the ultra high end clothing including evening wear and bathing suits for the day time for the friskier set (ultra sexy always sells), those shoots took place in some of the 'most' beautiful & exotic locations around the world!

Scooter,

Hi guys & gals, Scooter here and I have to tell you, back in the day I was a Professional Film Photographer and I was shifted over to the Crime Scene Investigation Unit and since I was the new guy in that Division, I was ordered to use the Daily Planet, Jimmy Olsen Grayflex Rapidflex 4 inch by 5 inch negative Format.

It was the old b&w film, bellows camera that held two ... repeat TWO ... negatives per film pack. We had to drag along a military sized Foot Locker to hold ALL the Film Packs, and a second Foot Locker to hold all the Light Bulbs for the Flash attachment.

I was sent out on Graveyard one night to take photos of a Double D.O.A. accident that was the worst call I ever made in the C.S.I. unit. Two girls were burned to death in a Ford Pinto in our city down in South Texas one weekend night. Keep in mind that this camera shot ALL Film in b&w and for those who've never taken photos of Arsons or Burned Scenes, you know that color film is a waste of time right out of the starting gate.

Everything is in shades of black, gray & white - period! As life has its quirky ways, my photos were used in the Court Case of the DWI who caused this nightmare and again in the Civil Law Suit against Ford Inc.

The two families that lost their two precious teenage girls, received $112 million dollars to share with each family. They actually had agreed ahead of time to take a smaller settlement amount; if only Ford Inc. would agree to RECALL ALL FORD PINTOS to keep any future families from going through a similar nightmare.

Ford refused and the Jury hammered them! It might have had something to do with the Inner Office Memo that the lawyer for the two families got his hands on that stated that Ford would NOT recall all the Pintos and Retrofit them with better bodies and gas tank models; as they had chosen to 'litigate each case' as they went to court! Something of an indication, as to how much they regarded the safety of their customers. So it seemed to even the Jury in that Trial.

But from that camera, which was great for Court photo blow-up presentations that could produce a enlarged Photo that needed a LARGE EASEL to hold it up to show to the Jury. Decades later I went into retired life and using a Canon 35 mm film camera. It was good.

Then I watched a Gary Fong YouTube Tutorial for the Sony A6000 24.5 mp mirroless camera and was stunned by the Fastest Auto-Focus Camera in the world, for public use. Obviously not in the same class as those monster superfast cameras that can take photos of BULLETS flying out of the barrel of a gun and hitting something. But, nor do those Superfast cameras cost $500!

Gary took a sports setting 11 frames per second of his little kids popping large soap bubbles in their back yard as his wife made the soap bubbles for them to POP. You could have wasted thousands of dollars with a film camera in an attempt to get the SINGLE BEST PHOTO Gary got of his son popping one soap bubble!

The reason that single photo out of a burst of 11 photos captured his son busting that bubble, and the other HALF of the Bubble was STILL INTACT as a Soap Bubble!

Gary went on to take Sports burst-mode 11 f.p.s. photos of his friend's daughter (maybe 10 or 12 yrs. old) jumping obstacles while riding her horse. Gary was able to grab that single photo in the middle of the 11 frame Burst sports mode, showing his daughter making a PERFECT Landing, while retaining her Form.

At the end of that burst of photos ... she lost her form ... and was not able to stay in the saddle. She didn't fall, but she had lost her form.

But, this little camera was able to grab those Once in a Life Time Photos, for their parents and relatives to see for themselves! This is why we all love those Professional Sports Photos in slick sports magazines, that we can only dream of taking ourselves. With the new Sony Mirrorless cameras ... you GET THAT ONCE in a Lifetime Quality Photos! With my Cannon 35 mm I never GOT one of those perfect photos, ever!

My new Sony A7R IV, 61 mp camera is OUT of this world folks. Go to YouTube and pull up all the Tutorials for the Sony A7R IV camera and you won't believe your eyes. And since it is a digital mirrorless camera, you can CHECK the photos immediately AFTER you take them and if you don't like the result, take the photo again! You haven't paid the price of having the film processed and photos made.

The Sony Digital cameras are a NO-BRAINER, especially the new Sony A7R IV . . .

Scooter,

Brian,

I've been using B&H Photo at bhphoto.com for several years now and I am just blown away at how GOOD they are!

I used to use another provider their name starting with 'A' and it was a trip through agony in 'ANY' attempt to get them on the phone. As they said in the movie Donnie Brasco - 'Fugggeeetttttaaabbbbouuuudddiittt'!

B&H a person answers the Phone IMMEDIATELY and all the folks are as informative as you can hope for! Shipping is as FAST as you can imagine, even when you do not ask for Overnight shipping!

They are hands down the BEST!

Scooter,

Great Shot Sergo! I love rainbows so much! They are gifts to mankind!

A reminder, as to why you need at least ONE camera, that you drag along with you, JUST IN CASE an excellent photo presents itself to you to capture!

It drives me up the wall that back when I was working for Uncle Sam in 'wild places' around the world; I couldn't even ~have~ a camera in my possession, while I was ON DUTY; because that would have been a ONE WAY trip to Ft. Leavenworth for twenty years!

There were two Special Instances where I saw gorgeous visions of nature's Landscapes, that were brought to life under ~unique~ lighting scenarios that just transfixed me and were honestly transfixing all by themselves.

If only I'd had my NEW Sony A7R IV digital 61 mp camera with me back then! Yes, I actually saved up and got one. I'm still learning the ins and outs of it.

Scooter,

Hiya ladies & gentlemen,

I have absolutely NO connection to Sony Corp. other than as a Customer of their products, starting with my purchase of a Sony reel to reel tape recorder in 1964 at the Northern Greenland Air Base in Thule, Greenland, as an American G.I.!

This many years later, I've purchased two Sony Digital Cameras, in recent years.

To my surprise, I learned yesterday in an Email from Sony they have announced their NEW Digital Camera Upgrade of the A7R series of cameras. They've surpassed their A7R III with their announcement of their Brand New A7R IV ((( 61 Megapixel ))) digital camera. Pull up B&H Photo.com's PAGE on the Sony A7R IV and click on the MORE INFO computer prompt about the A7R IV to read about the INCREASED ADVANTAGES of this brand new A7R series camera over the previous TWO! It is beyond description in so few words.

I was gobsmacked, to put it bluntly! I thought it would take them at least TWO more years to put their 2017 Award Winning A7R III into the dust-bin of has-beens! But apparently NOT!

Thankfully, their new camera will STILL WORK with the older lenses from the A7R II and their A7R III, cameras, because all three of them are FULL FRAME SENSOR CAMERAS! Lenses from Crop Sensor cameras do not work properly with FULL FRAME SENSOR cameras.

I quit dealing with Amazon because of their INFERIOR STAFF members who cannot carry on a credible conversation about basically ANY QUESTIONS or ISSUES regarding products. While I am 'sure' they wish to, they cannot .... simply because they do NOT understand basic American English or our normal line of thought!

Having said that, I freely admit ... I am an EX-Army Intelligence Linguist who worked Two Tours against the Russians in Europe. I 'KNOW' about communicating in a Foreign Language!

And I also KNOW about how important it IS for those who attempt to speak in a language they have little to now basic skills in their NEW language they are attempting to use!

I switched to B&H Photo dot com for ALL my Camera needs and questions regarding sales, buys and Technical Questions about what will and won't work with specific camera issues, I want to solve.

I cannot begin to adequately explain how pleased I am to have found B&H photo! I have been a resident of TEXAS since 1957 and still live there. Needless to say, having found a New York City source for my camera needs is BEYOND my scope of experience. Considering my past experience in camera technical needs!

Other than being a happy customer of B&H camera, I have NO connection, let alone FINANCIAL connection to B&H Camera with the exception of BUYING 'stuff' from them!

I've found that John P. in their Email Section at johnp@ghphoto.com is 'invaluable' in dealing with Technical Questions in regards to Digital Cameras. He is an old fart like me. I am however his ELDER! For a 'kid' (joking) he isn't half bad! ;-)

note: I found out after calling B&H Photo yesterday (after receiving Sony's Email regarding their NEW A7R series camera) that I can SELL B&H photo my A7R III and use the Trade In amount as a down-payment on my NEW A7R IV when it debuts in September!

YOU also CAN TRADE IN OLDER CAMERAS as a down payment on the sensational A7R IV digital camera with 61 megapixels photos - along with a VAST AMOUNT of INTERNAL UPGRADES like its NEWLY ENGINEERED BODY that is their "most environmentally secure/sealed digital cameras they produce! Resistant to rain & dust better than any of their other cameras.

B&H is selling this camera for $3,500.00, for the Body Only. If you ALREADY have a Sony A7R series camera, ALL your lenses will WORK with this camera. (that was my major question)

And you can INQUIRE from their Trade-In Dept. as to how much you can get for your OLDER Digital Cameras as Trade-Ins for this new camera purchase.

IF you do NOT ask, you won't know.

Scooter,

PS: like I said go to B&H photo and download their article about this camera and read all the specs about what has been upgraded from the older A7R series of cameras, to realize WHAT A GREAT DEAL IT IS!

Kirlian Photography purports to show the 'living Aura' of plants, animals & humans. I've seen the Kirlian photos of a whole plant leaf. Then they cut HALF of the Leaf away, take a second photo and the Aura (a fuzzy outline of the original subject ... is STILL THERE in its entirety and undiminished even though the piece is gone from the new photo!

Several Years ago I saw separate individual photos of a young guy and then a young girl, they are not together in the same photo. It shows a baseline for their 'aura' around each of them.

Then they placed the subjects together and have them embrace and kiss, their AURAS are CONJOINED and FAR LARGER indicating the old phrase .... "it was LIKE MAGIC or CHEMISTRY " Perhaps there is MORE to this phenomena than meets the unaided eye?

It certainly gives enough evidence to ..... move forward looking for more Scientific FACTS . . . .

ScooterA13

note: I cannot remember what type of camera or medium was used to capture these 'effects'.
I even saw a documentary on Cable TV about it a few years ago. The implications of 'auras' .... are far reaching, with a wide range of suppositions .... as yet unproven.

But this process, is obviously extremely enticing .... as I freely admit I'm not sure but what we see in these photos is the INFRA RED PATTERN left by objects removed; and as far as the smooching couple, it is obvious that as most of us know ... a GOOD SMOOCH with a Hottie is liable to HOT UP ALL of our INFRA RED SIGNATURES! ;-)

For the Best prompt Lens sales, I use B&H Photo now. And they do have Warranties on NEW PRODUCTS.

They always respond promptly to phone calls and you don't get computer 'idiot messages from hell' that drive you to distraction, like Amazon does.

With B&H Photo you get a Human answering the phone to give you the INFO you need, and they live IN America!

Endeavor,

That is the best Digital Mirrorless Camera in the $500 to $600 range, is the Sony A6000 with the kit Zoom 16-50 Lens . . .

Had to Clarify that.

Endeavor,

The best Digital Mirrorless Camera is the Sony A6000, 24.4 mp and it can be purchased around Christmas for approx. $550-ish with the kit Zoom Lens it comes with for the Christmas Sales depending on the Seller, all together. My Sony A6000 came with the Kit Zoom 16-50 Lens. Takes excellent close up, medium and medium-far shots, with the 16-50 Zoom lens.

While it uses a Crop Lens set up, the photos look like full frame products when printed. The only drawback is that you can't Crop the Photos as much as one can with a full frame 42.4 mp Sony A7Riii digital mirrorless camera.