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Here is the business end of a Skunk!

Watch out for this view!

I had a skunk in our yard so often last year I gave him a name, I called him Pepe. He was around most every night an hour or two after dark. Always under the bird feeder. Bird seed was his favorite I guess. I found if I got low, skunk height as it were, Pepe wouldn't bat an eye until I got within 6-8 ft. He'd watch me for sure, but by moving slow, and watching out for irritation on his (her) little face, I found him to be amazingly accommodating. I shot this with a 28-105mm. No reaction from a flash. Watch out for that back end though. When they let you know they're pissed, back off a little.

p.s. The Police came by one night with a nasty attitude and a report of a peeper with a camera ( A peeper with a flash? I thought. How effective would that be?). But that's a whole other story. In the end they put their spot-light on him for me. I couldn't get them to pose with Pepe, although I tried.

Good luck.<div></div>

Hi David, I have all three of the EOS Canons you mention. All with battery packs. I started with the ElanII. Moved up to the Elan7 after a while, when I felt I needed something more substantial. Finally got the Eos 3, which is where I should have started at the beginning. I shoot mostly nature now. There are my impressions. The ElanII is a good starter camera, the program modes work fine. Auto focus is somewhat slow but accurate. Metering tends to underexpose somewhat. It will feel awful light with a 500mm hung off the front of it! Its a good place to start coming from a point & shoot. I think my son will end up with mine. The Elan7 is definitely a step up. With the battery pack it will crack off shots much quicker than the ElanII. It will handle the lenses you mention just fine. The controls resemble the Elan II, so its just as easy to use. The auto focus tends to roam at times, especially with moving targets, as compared to the EOS3. ButI still really like my Elan7. It has a real nice feel to it. Its my back up now. Another thing, I found the little pop-up flash on both very handy for general photography. I've seen a lot of people down play this feature as worthless, but I found it filled the bill as fill flash for general, people type shooting.

Having used all three, if I was to make a recommendation, it would be the Elan 7 for your situation.

Dave

I, like Robert, have just spent the last hour following this thread. Trying to find the truth about this "infamous incident."

I have to say, most of you people are soft! Getting a little too pumped up. Talk about blowing thing out of proportion!

Yes, what Michael Fatali did was stupid. Yes, he should not have started the fires. We all know that!

But give me a break, you people act like he poured gasaline all around the base and lit it up. Sooty footprints? One poster reports they were there a month later and could find no evidence remaining. Perhaps the rock experts worked their magic, perhaps nature did! It most certainly was a black mark for nature photographers and that seems to be what everyone is so upset about. What will the ramifications be for all of us? But lets not go overboard. Sooty footprints folks! Its just this kind of overreaction by the powers that be that leads to idiotic regulations. The first stories I heard were that some idiot photographer had permanently scarred the Delicate Arch with a blazing fire. "What an asshole" I thought.

I once ran a skydiving club that was temporarily shut down by a restraining order from the local court for "irreparable soil compaction" on private land. It was the airplane noise they didn't like, but had no control over. So "irreparable soil compaction" was the best they could come up with. Of course we beat it, but it took along time and a lot of legal money to do it. My point being, let's keep things in perspective. All this flaming of Michael Fatali (pun) reminds me of a lynch mob! "Off with his head, .......off with his head" she cried!

Yes, we are being restricted more and more at our National Parks and Reservations, we all feel that. But there lots of reasons for that, the sheer numbers of visitors being a big one. All our pretty pictures probably help that along, ...you think?

And we all seem to have stories about gestapo like park personnel. I myself was once threatened with being shot by one, a so called "Federal Officer."

But vilifying this guy doesn't make things right. As an earlier post stated "he's not the "Hitler of nature photography," he used poor judgment and made a dumb mistake. As luck would have it, I've never been so lacking. How about you? It sounds like he's paying plenty for it. But he's not the reason for our troubles.

Step back a little, ....look at the big picture.

One more thought. Who are these people who pay $2000.00/day for individual instruction? I've got a bridge I want talk to them about selling. You've got to be kidding!