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Thanks, everyone. I've been going through all my old pictures of Dakota, which brings up a lot of sad feelings, but also happy memories. She was a great dog - I used to joke that she had more friends in my neighborhood than I did.

Dakota lost her 6-month battle with cancer yesterday. She'd been doing well until recently, but over the last couple of weeks had declined pretty steadily, developing some mobility problems that were caused by the cancer spreading to her spine. She's been living with my ex-wife since we split up...

Nice shot, Frank!

Nice shots, Paul. #2 and #5 in particular really 'speak' to me.

Mike - I'm sorry to hear of your loss. They are with us for far too short a time, aren't they? Thanks for sharing the pictures, too. Take care.

Nice shots, Frank. I especially like the Muscovy ... not a pretty bird, but the timing and angle on that shot is terriffic! I've never been to Alabama, but seeing all these pics is making me tempted to join in the fun next year!

I like #1 a lot. The crop on #2 doesn't bother me at all. However, her expression does. She looks a bit irritated, and the shot isn't flattering to her nose.

Nice pics. Cool to see some shots of the Thunderbirds instead of the Blue Angels. (Nothing against the Angels - they are great! - but I've seen a lot of very similar shots of them from different shows).

I look at it like this - Let's say that you decide to go on a road trip. You don't decide where to go, you just start driving, and take turns at random. You could end up in, say, San Diego. OTOH, you could end up, say, in San Bernadino. Or, you could say "Hey, I want to go on a trip to the...

You can add me to the list of cart-riders. I think my wife can't decide whether to be amused or embarassed, but I'm glad to know I'm not alone ... and I hope that I'll someday be 73 and continuing to ride carts through the parking lot.

I miss my cat, Max: Below me is a symbol of springtime.

I guess this is why you should always have a camera with you, eh? :wink:

I had a client tell me about this a while back. It's totally hilarious.

It depends on where you are walking. :smile: For a park/outdoorsy walkaround, it's great! For a city/urban walkaround, it's a bit limiting. Still, those limitations can be used as a good creative challenge. In a lot of my life I have been known to try and 'force' things, despite a lot...

Thanks! The 70-300 isn't the best 'downtown' lens, but it was still fun. Next time, I think I'll go out w/my Sigma 30. Thanks! I really wish I spent more time just walking with my camera. I've often been amazed what I come across when I do, not to mention how it impacts my awareness of my...

I'm sorry to hear the news - it's always so hard to say goodbye to our beloved pets. Thanks for sharing the picture, and I hope you are able to have a special weekend before saying goodbye.

Cute pups, Odie, I especially like the 2nd one. Welcome, and thanks for sharing your pets with us!

Nice pic - my 50/1.4 AF-D is my favorite 'cat lens'. He looks like he's bored, hoping for the sun to come out.

Sorry, I forgot to respond to this earlier ... I don't really know her origins, though she's too small to be a Maine Coon. She came into my life sort of by chance. My first wife and I (not yet married) had adopted a cat (Max) a few months before we could take him. When we went to pick him up...

Hi everyone - Thanks so much for the support. Maggie and I (and my wife Chris, too), really appreciate it. One of the things I enjoy so much about the Cafe is what a warm and friendly place it is, something that is harder and harder to find on the 'net these days. This morning, Maggie's...

I had never used Auto ISO until I read an article about it somewhere (don't recall where). I decided to give it a try, just as a 'learning experiment'. I've found it to be really useful. There are certain circumstances where I don't use it (mostly if I'm shooting on a tripod or using...

Nicely done. Good atmosphere.

Hi everyone - It's been a rough 12 months for me on the animal side of things. My 17 year old cat Max died last April, one of my dogs was diagnosed late last year with an untreatable tumor in her lung that will probably kill her within 12 months, and I got some bad test results back today on...

Hi Bill - I haven't done any sort of comparison between the two lenses, especially for portraits. I also haven't done much testing for bokeh quality on the 70-300. That said, my impressions of the 70-300's bokeh from the limited observations so far are favorable.

(Downtown Sacramento, that is!) I had some time to kill before a lunch meeting a couple of weeks back, and took the opportunity to play with the 70-300 a bit. As I wandered, I saw some old buildings ... and some new buildings ... I also saw some refurbished buildings with...

You're probably thinking of the Vic-20. I think it had 16k of RAM or something incredible like that. Then, of course, there was the PET, as already mentioned in this thread. My Jr. High had a bunch of those. My 6th grade library had a Apple II, and we used to have great fun starting...

1200 baud? Heck, I remember having a 300 baud modem on my Commodore 64 that I had to plug the handset cord directly into. One of the BBS' I used to call was run on an Apple II with a 5 MEGAbyte hard drive. Of course, when floppy disks held 140-170k, that was a lot... Ahhh, the 'good ol'...

I agree on selling the 70-300G. After that, it depends. If you need the 2.8 but can get away without the 24-35 range, I'd probably sell the 18-70, otherwise I'd sell the 35-70. Actually, I might sell the 35-70 anyway - it will get you more money, and you may be able to address your low-light...

Cool! Reminds me of a Cocteau Twins album cover from around 1990 or so...don't remember the name of the album, though.

WOW! Both nice images, really captures how quickly they grow up. Thanks for posting 'em!

Cute pooches, thanks for sharing the pics!

Jake - I'm glad my earlier response was helpful. For still subjects, the 70-200VR is probably going to do better for you because of the VR. As you have figured out, you can't stop motion with it. Also, you won't get quite the DOF control you have with the 50 f/1.8. I don't like using...

I like the compositions for #1 and #2 a lot, though the colors feel a bit 'off' to me, like the WB may be a bit too 'warm'.

The 70-300 is a great lens for shooting outdoors. It really is not an inside lens. A couple of thoughts .. First - up the ISO. It looks like your first shot was at ISO100. You certainly could have gone to ISO400 without any noise issues. That would have gotten you to 1/16th. Not...

I've seen Kongs before, but never a Kong ball. Must investigate...

I gotta say, if we all could take the attitude my dogs have, we'd all have more friends and be happier... Here's some more animal humor for ya: Dear Dogs and Cats: When I say to move, it means go someplace else, not switch positions with each other so there are still two of you in the way...

I have a Zenfolio account, and have been pleased with it. I like their interface - it's simple but flexible. I also like their default display size for images. I can upload full-size JPG files, it's super-easy for me to send links to my files (at multiple resolutions, too), and they're now...

Since my post, Montana has taken out two more racquetballs. It's still better than the time he chewed the plastic cover of the seat belt mechanism on my wife's truck, that's for sure...

It'll be interesting to see what happens as far as online purchases and taxes go. It will also be interesting to see if all of the price wars help re-create a niche for local, more service-oriented businesses to rebound. I take the same approach with computer equipment as any product: I'll...

I'm watching the local CompUSA stores to see if the Fuji F20s they have stick around long enough to become a good deal. They were listed at $199, are now down to $179, but that's a lot more than they are going for online (~$150). We'll see what happens ...

"Honey, can I buy the Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8? Don't worry, we can afford it - it'll replace my gym membership!" That thing should come with a wheeled tripod! Do you think it uses a lens cap or a manhole cover? That thing truly is huge!! Maybe we can nickname it "The Compensator" ...

AFAIK, yes. I believe the next most expensive VR lens is the 70-300, at $499.

As with so many things, it comes down to a question of trade-offs. The 70-300 VR is sharp, light, focuses quickly, and has VR. Very hand-holdable, nice walk-around telephoto. The Sigma 100-300 is sharper and faster, but is a lot heavier, and has no VR. Great on a monopod, but probably not...

I hate to think what havoc ours could wreak if they had thumbs!

Both of our dogs love plastic bottles, big or small. It's hilarious to hand them an empty 2 liter bottle and watch them trot off to start working on the lid ...

Thanks! Montana is a mutt of unknown heritage. My wife was involved in his 'rescue' when he was just a puppy, long before I knew her. He's a great dog, full of energy and personality.

Does your dog do this? :mad: Ok, it's really more amusing than annoying ... but he doesn't seem to get that the point is to chase them, not chew them.... :Curved:

Ok, so we can already tell a couple of things: 1) My theory would appear to be shot, as I'm seeing no clear pattern whatsoever. 2) I missed at least a couple of options in constructing the poll. So much for publishing the results ... :Curved: (no, I wasn't actually considering that ...)...

Ok, this is the psychologist in me at work. I've put together a poll to test a theory. Speaking in general terms here, in our day to day lives, some of us tend to be more oriented towards details or specifics. Others tend to be oriented towards concepts or themes. (Or, if you prefer, some of...

Rawshooter was great from a speed, workflow, and ease of use standpoint. I have to say, though, that I didn't always get good results, especially w/skin tones. After I stopped using it for conversions, I still used it to review downloaded pics and weed out the bad ones for a while, but now I'm...