kerry_grim

Adobe products have a free trial. Lightroom is also a product to catalog your photos and do a lot more like creating slide programs. It is easy to use but there is some learning curve. I have not used the full-blown Photoshop, but it has the reputation of a fairly steep learning curve and overkill for a new photographer. There are a lot of other choices as well. Lightroom is probably at the top of the list in popularity. I am sure others will be suggested. If you bought Canon, their free software is very good and I would not hesitate to use that before rushing into other software.

Thanks for sharing this information.

Really Right Stuff has them: http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/Shop/EOS-5DS-5DSR/

Thanks everyone this is wonderful information and very useable. We will be taking a little more time than originally though and probably not cover so much. There are a lot of excellent tips here and we appreciate every one of them. I have experience in New Mexico in September so understand about water and suspect Utah has a similar monsoon season. Although this is a lot more remote! We are hikers, but the mountains in the east area joke compared to the real mountains of the west. Heck, 50 feet of the highway through Shenandoah National Park they consider as wilderness! Thanks again.

That is good advice. We do not want to try too much, rushing from place to place. I do have Martre's book and it has a lot of photographic advice.

My son and I are tentatively planning to fly from PA to Las Vegas in mid-September and then visit north rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion NP, Bryce NP, and Capitol Reef NP (from a Wednesday to Wednesday). We are choosing September because October does not work with my son and his work. How are these parks at this time of the year? Are they crowded? Are advance reservations needed for lodging at or near these parks. Are there any must-see outdoor locations on the way to or close to these parks? I believe Vermillion Cliffs would be on this list. I have a lot of information on these national parks and will study in detail. For now, we would appreciate some of the basics since this area would be totally unfamiliar to us. We want to book our flight 2 months in advance for the savings. Canyonlands and Arches is a must see, but this would be out of or area and am sure the above mentioned areas would keep us more than busy. Any advice, suggestions, or pitfalls to avoid would greatly be appreciated. Thank you.

Hmmm, 47 years of photography and I still have not learned to hold a camera properly. IS is not a requirement, but a nice feature to have. I've taken photos of things like a sign at 1/40 sec with IS. Handheld, I would likely have gone to 1/250 sec. It adds bulk, expense, and potentially expensive repair costs to a lens, but when you need it, it is great. On a recent trip to Shenandoah NP with 17-40, 24 IS, 100 IS, and 70-200, I used the 24 IS and 100 IS for about 80% of my photos. A 24-105 IS could have replaced the 24 IS and 100 IS with less lens changing but I need the capability of 1:1 closeups with the 100 IS macro. The 24 IS I love for landscapes as it is sharp, has very useful depth of field scales for landscape and takes 58mm ND filters I used for long exposures of waterfalls. This is with full frame. In this case, I used a tripod, so IS is a no-no on a tripod. If this lens is not wide enough, I simply go to the 17-40. The point I am trying to make is there are no, one best lens to do everything. Tailor you lenses toward your shooting situation but realize there are numerous lenses and combination of lenses to cover the situation. I would suggest choosing a lens that will cover the majority of your situations as your next purchase.

The 70-200 is excellent for sports, but I would not consider any version that does not have IS. It would do excellent as a portrait lens but if you are not going to use it for sports, an 85, or 100 would be excellent without the bulk and expense of a tele-zoom. The 100 macro with IS is also excellent. I would not consider the non-IS version as the IS makes the lens a lot more versatile. I use mine in the field a lot, sometimes walking many miles, so a tripod is not practical, nor is a tripod practical with a lot of nature related photos as insects, snakes, butterflies, etc would be long gone before you set up a tripod. The 24-105 would cover an excellent general range for full frame. AS JD mentioned are you using a full frame or crop body?

All easy improved in Lightroom.

John, are you talking about: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens? This lens has manual focus override. Can you explain further. I am not sure exactly what you mean.

I have the 24 IS lens and love it. the 28 is a bit sharper. Of the 28s you mention, the clear choice (for me) would be the IS lens.

Congratulations...an excellent lens. An 85 would complement the 16-35 nicely without adding a lot more weight or space lost. I often take just a 24 2.8 IS and 100 2.8 IS for walk-around nature shooting. If in an area with with a lot of nice scenery, I will add the 17-40. If in an area where there is a decent chance of wildlife, I will take the 70-200. That is with full frame. On the other hand there are certain situations, where, say, a 24-70 or 24-105 would be an excellent one-lens solution, especially with my 6D. Unfortunately I do not have either of these lenses. For me, it works best to vary my equipment depending on the location or type of shooting I do.

Note that Canon has a white 400 f4 DO (diffractive optics lens). This has a green ring instead of red. Some photographers absolutely hate the white color of the lens because it attracts attention and wildlife photographers sometimes add cameo tape hide the white. The white does draw attention and I recall using a white 70-200 zoom to photograph my kids running events in high school and some people asked if I was a professional photographer. I did not want that attention.

Lots of suggesting an conflicting information to confuse you. So forgive me for adding another suggestion... Personally, I would get the 16-35 f4 unless that is too much money. Another alternative would be to get an SL-1 body dedicated to your 10-22. But that is more gear to carry, although you would have a backup camera. That SL-1 would also serves when you want to carry a camera with a minimum amount of bulk. A 40 pancake lens partners nicely with the SL-1.

I used the 17-40 with a 40D...it was OK, maybe not the best. But now I have a 6D and it is much more appropriate although I often carry just the 24 2.8 IS lens which is great when I don't need the bulk of more gear and want to travel light and compact. Although the 17-40 is very good with the 6D, I would prefer the 16-35, but for me, but I am confident with the 17-40 and see no strong reason to upgrade to the 16-35. If I could afford it and did not have a wide zoom, I would get the 16-35. I would not let the weight of the 16-35 discourage me. It would seem that only you can decide if you can afford or don't mind, the extra cost of the 16-35. BTW, my son just bought a new crop body for a trip to Africa, as he wanted an upgraded body from his aging XT1. He did not want to change to full frame or another system because he loves his 10-22.

What Wouter said. Think of your RAW file as a negative. If you threw away the negative, what would you do later when you wanted a print. You could throw out the worst of the RAW files and just keep the best ones, but that is a big if...IF you are certain you will not need it later.

There are many ways to rename your files. You just need to set that to how you like it in Lightroom and then don't worry about it. No doubt all the Lightroom book offer some suggestions and I am sure there are a lot ideas can be found by internet search. One place I would start with: http://thedambook.com/blog/ This is what I use. I like it for me, but everyone has different preferences. An example of the last photo that I imported in Lightroom: GRIMKA_150605_104.CR2 last name, first and middle initial, year of photo, month of photo, date of month. 104 is the 104th photo imported that date, and CR2 is Canons RAW file ID. If I add more photos from the same date they will start as 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, etc...no file number duplications. But all of this may be worthless unless you assign keywords. In Scott Kelby's book he stresses that Lightroom can do a brilliant job keeping you organized as long as you follow one critical rule: keep all you photos inside one main folder. Within that folder you may have many folders...but one main folder. I call mine Lightroom Pictures. You have a lot of photos, it is worth the effort to purchase a book or two regarding digital management.

Why not consider: Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Lens. It is $149 with discount (which expires tomorrow) and uses 52mm filters.

I suspect Canon would have to release 3 or 4 different versions of a 50mm, with and without IS etc, and then still people would be bitching. This lens look like a decent replacement of the so-called nifty-fifty and I hope that designation goes away with this one. Canon did a good job with this lens and kept the price reasonable. Personally, I have no interest in it with either my crop or full frame body but do think it is a nice addition to the Canon lineup.

The old method would be a lot easier, but I am not disagreeing or criticizing with the above method. That is, use a 24mm lens, compose, and focus by using the depth of field scales. Simple.

The quick answer for photographing an off-center moving subject is to change your focus point to the off-center position you want to focus. Either that, or crop the photo accordingly. It takes some practice to quickly change the focus point to the one you prefer.

Laura...you are right...commonly called hummingbird moth. The point I wanted to make is that it is important to know the Latin name which I totally failed to do. Although, my getting the common names mixed does prove the importance of attaching the Latin name!

Here is an excellent site to hummingbird and moth identification, and very helpful as you can break down the list to your location. http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/gallery It is a White-lined Sphinx Moth. Hyles lineata It is NOT a Hummingbird (or Hummingbird Clearwing) Moth.

I just updated to Yosemite after about 18 hours to download it (slow internet). Works fine and visually more appealing. I use Lightroom so no interest in the new photo programs. I would recommend it, just backup and cleanup your hard drive...remove temporary files, history, etc. before you start.

FWIW, I have the 700 2.8 non IS. It is an excellent lens as are all Canon's 70-200. The sharpness of your photos will be dictated by your ability to get the most out of the lens. I've taken thousands of photos with it, anything from runner photos to bird photography. That said, as much as I love the lens, I would now choose the f4 IS lens...lighter, and easier to carry. It sounds like you will use it hand-held, and possibly carry it over your shoulder. That would be a mistake. A shutter speed of 1/250 hand-held might get you sharp photos, but I doubt not the potential of using a tripod or IS. I transport the lens in a backpack, so I am not too worried about dropping it or dunking it. In addition, by hand-holding, you may or may not get the correct focus if your focus point moves off target. In my opinion, the lens is too heavy to carry over a shoulder. The f4 IS would be much better suited for using it hand-held.