John Di Leo

speaking of "annual rituals," we have one down here, you may have heard about?

You're having an argument with physics, and physics always always wins. IMO there is no way to carry a nikon slr with the 18-200 on a bouncing mtn bike at 10-20 mph, on your person. To keep it from destroying itself or injuring you, the case would be 1) bulky 2) likely affect (negatively) your control of the bike. I agree with marksmith. If you are going to carry it on your person (somehow) get a smaller camera or just use your cell phone. I travel a lot by motorcycle. On the back I have a 1550 Pelican case with cutouts for a d810 and three lenses. It is secure, but if I see something I want to shoot it means, stopping, taking off helmet, gloves, getting off the bike, opening the case, taking the pic then loading back up. Over the years there were many pictures I missed and I still regret not stopping etc...soooooo..... I got a Sony RX100mk2 that I carry in a jacket pocket, or my tank bag, and even sometimes that is a bit of a hassle, so I use my Note 4 as a backup to the backup. But they ALL get used. That said, I also shoot night time Mardi Gras parades, and I ride my bicycle to them, carrying the d810 with a 24-70. I have soft panniers on the bike so I use a Think Tank bag/case to hold it and put it in a pannier...works fine, but that is all I am carrying. And when I stop to shoot, I am in one location for the parade, then pack up and ride home. ON the motorcycle I am carrying clothes, shaving stuff, electronics, etc, IOW I am loaded. And stopping intermittantly But for the bicycle the Think Tank case, in a rear pannier works great-again, though I am riding to a single destination, shooting and then departing, so your needs sound more like my motorcycle experience than my bicycle one. Think Tank - Best camera bags, shoulder bags, backpacks, and rollers

Puppies of another sort. My daughter's triplets were celebrating their 11th birthday, but their almost 8 year old brother thought it a good idea to threaten the cake! d810 w nikkor 35/2

Cast your River Spells my way

(that's beautiful, Matt) when the bloom is off the rose... d810, 70-200 nikkor

Secret Canyon, Az, near Page

not "shiny" red, but red by any other name...handheld with my old 55/3.5 Ai

Bay of Fundy at Alma, NB

I did not sandwich the negatives/slides between glass. They were flat enough and using a smaller aperture, like f11, improved depth of field, so if curvature existed its effect was minimized or negated. And if I used glass, it would greatly increase my chances of getting some really sharp dust bunnies. My easel was a real Rube Goldberg setup, using the "glass" from an old XRay box I had with a painter's spot behind it. I found a place where the light was very even with no hot spots. It is not rocket science and getting started is the most intimidating thing. One thing I would definitley recommend is to tether your camera to the computer so you can see on a big screen what you just shot. I used an app, German, I think, called Sofortbild. IIRC it was freeware and very handy. I think the shooting is the easy part. You can adjust your camera to get the best image you can SOTC, but the post will take far more time than the shoot. I did 35mm slides, 35 mm negatives, color and b&w, I have not tackled my MF stuff yet, again getting started is the hardest thing. Once you get everything set up the shooting goes pretty quickly. Lightroom inverts negatives.

I copied slides using my 55 f3.5 Ai with the slide mount adapter and PK-13 extension tube on my former d700. Worked like a charm. I've had the micro nikkor since new and it remains a favorite lens.

along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge the locals of the "River Parishes" have for well over 100 years built bonfires to guide Papa Noel down the River to their houses.They are lighted on Christmas Eve just after dark, a very big family affair, people come from surrounding areas to view and to share a very south Louisiana Christmas Eve experience. Of course there is food! Also in the neighborhood is the San Francisco Plantation, bedecked for Christmas

Discovered a couple of issues, and a resolution. Some report that when using sierra, Backup and Sync will not load. And Google Drive has issues also. But going into library/application support/ finding the google section and deleting it, then restarting B&S and it will load. What I found best though is just dragging and dropping files from Finder onto the individual folders in google drive, ie not using B&S at all. I am using the paid version because a while back when I first subscribed, and maybe now, there was a limit on the size of individual files and how much can be backed up. The paid version eliminates those restrictions. It, Google drive, also had an issue with NEF files, many reported. I have changed what I am sending to google though, now just sending up the edited jpgs. Soooo, maybe a need to rethink the idea of paying, since files will ne smaller and no NEFs, thus total space needed will be less. I am backing up everything on a couple of external drives though, as you describe. IOW a b/u for the b/u.