jwallphoto

<p>I went from D200 to D300s and don't feel the upgrade means much in the low-light department. I love the camera, but it's no D3. At this point (believing that Nikon will make a move by summer '11) I would be tempted to wait for the D300 successor.</p>

<p>I've never used MyPublisher or Mpix, but Blurb's pretty easy to use, and the quality is good. Don't bother with the premium paper option. Do get hardcover if you can afford it. The softcover is okay, but it really feels like a book in hardcover. It's ridiculously expensive, especially when you add tax and shipping. There's no 50-page limit to the size of the book, like with Mpix. Another option is Magcloud, but it's producing something more like a magazine than a book.</p>

<p>It looks more like a soliloquy than a conversation, and I don't know who'd be interested in it other than Nikon folks.</p>

<p>Hi, Dave. Good points. I never shoot JPEGs with my DSLR, so I hadn't considered that as an option even with a compact camera. I wonder what the technological hurdle is to getting an acceptable write speed in these little cameras. Frankly, if a JPEG is the only file they can write without a noticeable lag, that's a shame, and for me it's still a deal-breaker.</p>

<p>Regarding limited editions, you might be interested in <a href="http://guytal.com/wordpress/2010/10/non-traditional-answers-part-ii-pricing-and-editioning/">this recent blog post </a>by Guy Tal.</p>

<p>Doesn't anyone else care about the slow RAW processing? I read one review that said it takes up to four seconds between shots. I *hate* waiting between shots. In practical terms it means you get just one chance at any moving subject. Yes, that can be a fun challenge, but come on. Even if the focal point pre-sets make AF faster than other compacts, you still have the anemic RAW processing found in the rest of the herd. Digital cameras have been out an awfully long time for this still to be an issue. I thought the P7000 was going to be just the ticket, but the glacial time lag between shots is a deal-breaker.</p>

<p>A 300mm is the longest lens I use (in combo with a 1.7X teleconverter) with my Nikon D300s, which is also decently weather-sealed. As always, it comes down to your own preferences. I know a guy who does a good nature blog using a Panasonic super-zoom.</p>

<p>BTW, the D300s is less than 2 oz. heavier than the E3. My 300mm is an F/4 which is much cheaper than Oly's 300/2.8 and probably much better than their 70-300mm. Oly's dedicated macro lenses are only 35mm and 50mm, while I generally use a 105mm or 200mm.</p>

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<p>I am not saying that my typical approach requires no artistic or other kind of imagination, but I do not see myself as being in the same league artistically as those who go out with the intent of bringing back a particular image, or who set up an image from scratch, as in still lifes, model shoots, etc.</p>

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<p>Someone who goes out to bring back a particular image, etc., might be creative, but these could also be the attributes of a technician. Like some of the other commentors, I'm not sure about your creator/discoverer dichotomy. The discoverer who has a story to tell becomes a creator.</p>

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<p>Is the stuttering in the trails a jpeg artifact? I like the silhouette version best. Some good ideas in the comments. I need to give it a try sometime.</p>

<p>I've had my Singh-Ray grads for years and they are free of blemishes. They live in a pouch when I'm not using them. Try shooting through your nicked filters at f/22 to see how it goes. If there's still no problem, there's no need to worry about it.</p>

<p>FWIW, I think you have an acceptable amount of "keeper image" in both your shots. You'd have to crop out quite a bit of what you captured, but you are still left with nice panos.</p>

<p>When you set the camera on the tripod, is it in vertical format? You get a bigger, better pano that way. Like Zach, I'll let the lens autofocus (usually at infinity), then switch from AF to MF on the lens. Mirror lock-up on the D200 is the same as on the D300. You set it on the dial, your first click is the mirror going up, you wait a sec for the vibrations to stop, then click again to take the picture. Just for grins, you might try one pano where you use MLU, and do another one where you don't. See if you can tell which is which.</p>

<p>Here's how to get into sports photography cheap. Get a superzoom point-n-shoot camera for about $300-500. You will have to learn how to anticipate the action and pre-focus and hit the shutter release at the height of the action, but it can be done. No motor-driven madness. No tripod or giant lens.</p>

<p>Man, I thought I'd had some bad tick bites, but a few of these stories knock my socks off. I've had to make ER visits on three occasions of tick bites, but none of my symptoms were long-lasting. I had a couple of bites this season (spring is high tick season here in Northern California) that were a pain. I phoned the on-call physician on the second bite -- it was a weekend so my regular doc wasn't available -- and she told me I didn't have to worry about lyme because I got the tick out the same day it bit me. She said something about 24 hours, but frankly I don't buy it. I never heard of a lyme test, but it sounds like a good thing to get.</p>

<p>By the way, I've found the best thing for removing dug-in ticks -- fingernail cutters. Nothing else pinches down so precisely and so strongly. You have to be careful to grip, not cut, but it works great, and you don't end up squeezing the tick's innards into your wound the way you do with tweezers and the like.</p>

<p>You'll want to keep an eye on the weather to make sure Tioga Pass isn't closed or expecting snow that would close your return route to Yosemite (the detour via Lake Tahoe is a long way). Be at Mono Lake's South Tufa area well before sunrise. Drive from there to Yosemite's Tunnel View and shoot the sunset. Then drive back to Fremont. No need for an overnight. ;)</p>

<p>If you don't want to stay up that long, arrive in Lee Vining the day before your sunrise Mono Lake shoot. Get a motel (Lake View Lodge < $100/night) and a good night's rest, then do the above. If you plan to spend a night in a Yosemite motel (Yosemite Lodge = $170/night), you might want to make your reservation now.</p>

<p>None of your experience translates to photojournalism, and you don't get BFA in it. Here's what a master's program looks like at a top PJ school: <a href="http://journalism.missouri.edu/graduate/masters/two-year-photojournalism.html">http://journalism.missouri.edu/graduate/masters/two-year-photojournalism.html</a></p>

<p>How long has it been squeaking? Did it squeak when it was brand new? I bought a used 17-35mm that squeaked, also got a very good price, and it didn't affect the quality of the images I got from it. I usually used it in MF mode, though.</p>

<p>I have a 300/4 AF-S that does not squeak. I frequently use it in AF mode, and I'd probably be driven to distraction if I heard a lot of squeaking. You might not mind it in the first 15 minutes of use. But how about by the end of the day? You'd either not even notice it anymore, or you'd be in screaming hysterics. Personally, I would not want a squeaker at any price.</p>

<p>I never use the quiet mode on my D300s because the difference isn't a big enough deal. A quiet click might even act like a whisper and attract greater attention! With a point-n-shoot you can turn off the shutter-release noise so it is in fact silent.</p>

<p>I think you can forget about the Quickload holder. The Quickloads are being (or have been) discontinued.</p>

<p>Adorama has it: <a href="http://www.adorama.com/BW77ND64X.html">http://www.adorama.com/BW77ND64X.html</a> This is the 6-stop filter.</p>

<p>You might be interested in a club instead: <a href="http://photochrome.org/">http://photochrome.org/</a></p>

<p>Good question! I ended up thinking about it myself and just bought a B&W 6-stop. I was out shooting with a 3-stop this weekend and wished for more ND power despite the low light conditions. I ended up adding a polarizer just to make it darker, but I could have used still more, and even though it is a thin-mount polarizer I got vignetting at the wide end of a 12-24mm.</p>

<p>I'm too cheap to get the Vari-ND, but I hope I don't regret it. They make a thin-mount version now, for one thing. For another, you can set your focus with it on the lens and set with low ND power, then dial in all the ND you want. I imagine with the 6-stop ND I'll have to focus first, then screw the filter on. A pain, but at one-fourth the price of the Singh-Ray (on Amazon).</p>

<p>The writer may have had nothing to do with the photo being used, unless he/she is also the section editor. I would contact the appropriate editor and ask for an explanation. In my opinion, you're never going to get enough $$ to interest a lawyer since their hourly rate is generally about five-times what a newspaper pays for a photo.</p>

<p>Rob, just a funny coincidence since we share the same last name, but I just gave up on Alamy yesterday. I'm just not making sales and don't have the time/desire to really research whether what I like to shoot can fit into the world of stock photo needs. Also, I've had less than $250 in sales in the last year, which means the few sheckels I have made are sitting in Alamy's bank, not mine.</p>

<p>I'm a Nikon user with a D300s, having recently upgraded from a D200, and I've been thinking along the same lines as you. We always want bigger, badder, more. But before you do anything, go out and shoot a landscape with your D200 and 12-24mm, blow it up to 24x36, and see if you still think you need something better. Something that comes in 35mm, that is.</p>