Wulff

Just an fyi. Bodies don't hold their value at all, in many cases nor do lenses, it depends on the lens maker and the "quality" of the lens. For example a Canon EF-S lens, won't resell for as much as a Canon L lens, relative to to the retail price, although it will sell for more than a tamron/sigma consumer/prosumer grade lens, again relative to the initial retail price. Back to bodies. Manufactorers tend to release new versions in each line about every 18 to 24 months. One to keep sales going, and two due to advancements in technology. Both the 300D and 10D are by *todays* standards old and very long in the tooth, despite being very capable bodies.<<<relative term..meaning relative to want a buyer wants/expects. Consider. The 300D was replaced by the 350D (XT), which was replaced by the XTI and now the XSI. All of that in the space of about 4 yrs. The 10D was replaced by the 20D, was replaced by the 30D, was replaced by the 40D, which should be replaced next winter. The XSI retails for a little less than a grand The 40D retails for about 1,200 to 1,300 Both *relatively* speaking are miles ahead of their predessors. I personally would not pay more than 100.00 to 150.00 for either the 300D or 10D. Not when you consider you can get a 30D for about 500.00 and a used 40D for less than a G note. Glass last, bodies don't.

That looks better or what I might expect based solely on the what I think the cork should look like and the black/white in the loon. I tried to adj it a bit by playing with curves and levels to bring it more towards nuetrals tans as what might be expected in the cork and creel and further aiming to reduce the glare a bit off the seat and reduce highlights. But without actually seeing the real deal its just a wild guess at a representation of the actual colours.

Steve, are you comfortable shooting RAW? If so, shoot in raw (auto wb )and adj your white balance post. Re your outside pic. Couple things. 1st: Shadows. By the shadows Im guessing it was late morning, its look as if the sun was almost overhead. You really want early morning or early evening. Mid day isn't the best time for outdoor photography. If you want to reduce or eliminate the shadows you'll need to use your flash as well. If your using an on board flash you'll need to set the shutter speed at the sync speed. 2nd The BG. Your "meter" will have picked up all the light bouncing back of the stones. Thats causing the rods to be underexposed. Couple ways to deal with that (meter off something else) but the easiest is not to use something thats going to reflect (or absorb ) light. Long story short and in plain english the light bouncing off the light toned stones "blinded" the camera and it in turn stopped down and/or ramped up the SS to compensate. Until your used to metering and understanding how the camera meters and how to compensate yourdself (manual modes) , Id avoid using anything thats going to reflect alot of light or arbsorb light (blacks). 3rd. It looks as though your inside your body/lenses MFD (Minimum Focus Distance), try backing off a few inches.

Nice expressions Jay, you might try the first as a B+W.

Sweet colours Andrew. J

Met up with my Falconer friend Sunday. As a treat to my wife I took both our daughters with me. My wife was estatic having an empty house on Mothers day morning and my youngest (10) was thrilled to finally see the birds. This is Artemis and my daughter getting to hold her. I've shown a number of pics of Arty here in the past. A portrait at f2.8 a 100% crop. I love their facials. Need to try this with my 400mm On to the hunt. My friend is in the process of "rehabing" a 4yr old Red Tail/Harlans mix, who has been neglected for the past year or two. So the Harris Hawk (Artemis) stayed home while she flew the Red Tail (Apache). We got to the field at about 7:30am. We were done at 7:45.We weren't 10 yards into the field when the Red Tail spotted a Rabbit and the chase was on. It lasted all of about 10 seconds. Unlike the Harris who will pull up short when a Rabbit gets into brush, RTs will prusue with a single mindedness without regard to their safety.This day was no exception, Apache gave launched from his perch, zeroed in and crashed into some heavy cover after it. As quick as it started it was done. I was disspaointed as I didnt even manage a single flight shot before the day was done but the ensuing time watching the RTs behavior was cool and enthralling for my girls...they even liked the Rabbits screams (breif that they were). Apache refusing to let go. Good Hawks get one claw in the skull and one in the abdomen. Red Tails have the strength to peirce a Rabbits skull apparently. Enjoying and protecting a well earned meal. Disembowling the Rabbit and discarding the entrails. They are effecient at cleaning their prey. Unfortunately not much more to show other than lots of similiar shots (Apache eating). Hopefully I'll get out with her again soon and Apache will get the excercise he needs. It was like limiting out on the first cast of the day.

Nice Will. I just got back from looking for some Helgramites. My stream behind my house isnt a great bug producer though

Nice Ashby. We have some baby GHOs near me I've been meaning to go see and shoot. Never enough time

Interesting ut all tha math gives me headaches. I deal with it enough at work I think as long as you shoot raw your ok. The only real danger are images where according to your histo nothings been blown, but in your raw file there are blown pixels. If the histo says blown, iwhen n reality there arent any and you back off a tad as a result it should still be reocverable in raw. I use the in camera histo as a guide, not gospel and am really only looking to ensure im a bit right but more importantly not blowing much (sometimes a little unavoidable) on either side

first signs of spring are always a joy.

Really like the last Will. J

Few new pics including one that ought to surprise everyone. I know I was surprised to see it. First the rig for the curious. A Macro lens for the most part is a macro lens, thats my Tammy 180 f3.5 mounted onto 68mm in tubes and the 1DmkIIN. The big though and improvement for me over last year is the flash bracket. Id tried others that allow you to position the flash/head so as to get an angle in front of the lens, but none quite like the RRS bracket. As you can see all the weight is centerline (as opposed to 6 inches outside to leftor right) and the flash head iself is nicely positioned. In practical terms that makes everything so much easier t handle and hold steady. The rail to ehich the lens and a nd bracket mount also helps with regards to a hand hold. Trust me its not light . As an addded bonus because its on a rail I can mount it on my bushhawk should I choose. The flash like most these days is full swivel so I can futher adjust it...straight out, steeper, inverse so from tere up to 11:00 oclock and so on.. I could even add my lens hood (5 inches more) and so on and so on. While alot of brackets offer a alot of flexibility as well, noce wuite like this nor do they seem as sturdy. Very cool rig. I had some reservations about getting the RRS bracket, but am I ever glad I did, its pretty much perfect or macro shooting. Any who a bug everyone should recognise and something surprisingly cool Cats eyes on nymphs

Sweet Will. Man, your making me want to run out, get a small aquarium and start trying this Only thing I can think of atm is adding some translucent material to the back side..Like a green or dark green cellophane. Kinda like what your get for gift baskets.

Heya Will. Yeah with a soft box and typically dialing power down anywhere from - 1 to -1 2/3. Sort of thinking about getting and trying one of Gary Fongs light Spheres. I'll try hard tonight to get a pic of the rig. Its a dream for macro. Other brackets typcially have the flash head out front and to 1 side or the other, which is fine but changes the weight and balance distributions, which can be a bear when handholding all that weight and shooting razor thin DoFs. With the RRS bracket I basically have the the flash laying down across the top of the barrel like a flashlight and the soft box just slightly above and beyond the front element (take the hood off for macro).

Hi TG. 180mm f3.5 but Tamrons, not Canons. Macro lenses are (imo) the one area where namebrand vs 3rd party really has no benefit. All of them Sigma, Tamron, Canon or Nikon are wicked sharp and excellent glass. The only thing a buyer really needs to decide is how much working distance they want. I'll use my daughters camera tonight to snap a pic of mynew macro rig. Im super impressed with it, love that RRS (Really Right Stuff) stuff. Not really my thing but heres an attempt at something artsy, fartsy I

Bugs are starting to show up. Theres your garden variety flies Stingers are here Have you ever seen sooo much pollen? Then theres our kind of flies. By years end I hope to have a nice library and lots of naturals as well. How many flies would this tie? #22 A Classic

Also in much of Canada, Trout don't open until the last sat in Apr so people dont pay much attention to Hatches until May.

What Will said about a system for "lift and grins" helps alot to. One "tip" that was given to me recently by someone who regularily contribute to Mags is to always carry your own net. Get a good one, both good material, big enough and Nice looking...Its goingto be in alot of photos. Luckily for me I had one already When I shot the "Openers" over last Sat/Sun I did just that. Its even harder to get decent fish images when strangers are the ones catching and holding the fish. They usually dont know anything about photogrpahy and often, even less about fish handling. I actaully had a guy stuff his hand into a big hens gill plate. I just about shat and only felt slightly better when he put it on a stringer. I got alot of odd looks with all my gear and a net and even more when I suggested the angler use my net to land them, rather than drag them up on shore. Either way, each and everytime I asked someone if I could take pictures Id get them to put the fish in my net. That allowed me to coach them a bit while the fish was chilling in the water, in my net and I was changing setting on my camera. Id say when I give you the go ahead I want you to lift the fish just so, hold it just so and position it just so... Sometimes I say...just half in/ half out..other times id ask for a complete lift,etc, etc. The key is the whole time the fish is in the net and in the water. Then when *I* was ready, id say "now", get 2 or 3 quick pics and then I was done. Hope you dont mind the added link in your thread but this illustrates it, even though Im not crazy about the image. http://jben.zenfolio.com/p127698064/?photo...DCBA9#923650985 Other pics in the thread of mine where the water is streaming off the fish were all managed the same way. Fish in net while I prep the camera and angler, then 'click away".

Couple things Matt. 1st. Weather sealing on the XTI....Non existant. It can likely handle getting a little spray on certain "area's but if any gets into a seam you could fry it. Ditto your lens double ditto if you get some in the mounting rings. Only Canons 1D series and L series lenses have weather sealing, and thats only insurance protection. Even they can be fried. The 40D is being marketed as having some weather sealing (not as much as 1Ds but some) and it does have a rubber seal around the memory card door, but I wouldnt trust it to a sneeze. Insurance is your friend. Riders as a general rule cost about 1% of the value. Ive got about 9k worth of stuff insured ( not incl accessories like tripods, couple cheaper lenses) and its cost me just over $100.00/year for no questions asked replacement insurance. You can use a large zip lock or plastic bag in a pinch. Take a UV filter for the lens your going to use. Trace a line around the the filter onto the bag. Then cut out a hole a mm or two inside the traced line on the pastic bag. What that does is allow you to put the body + lens inside the bag, then you position the cutout over your front element. Because the cutout is ever so slightly smaller than the lens there should be a bit of material inside the lenses filter ring. Then you screw on the UV filter and voila, that seals the bag over your body/lens but still allows your lens too "see" unimpeded and the only thing that gets wet is the front of your UV filter. Its not fool or bullet proof. Even zip locks can fail and water could seep between the bag/uv filter but its alot better than nothing if you really want/must shoot in the rain. Its aslo a good idea to always have a green garbage bag stuffed inside your camera bag incase you get caught in a down poor. 2nd Couple things on the pics. Try to always have the eye in focus. Rules are meant to be broken but no matter what your siubject is, be it a fish, a White Tail, a Hawk, a Person....You want the eyes in focus unless your going for a real "artsy" type shot. Whether its shake or shallow Depth of Field its hard to tell, my guess is its both but in alot of the shots you can see you (or the body) center focused, typically a little behind the eye. The narrower your DoF and in this case due to the light you must have had the lens wide open ( f3.5) the more important it is to make sure your focused on the point of interest as most else will be oof. Change your focus points as needed or use "One shot mode" and focus center point then recompose.<< This latter method can fail though when wide open as by swinging your camera you usually change the focus plane and when at wide apertures your DoF can often be measured in fractions of inches. So what was in focus, is now out of the effective DoF. Your daughters adorable, looks like a wonderful trip despite the less than ideal conditions.

Sweet fly John. thanks. J

Not having much luck on my home board ...Go figure I suck at tying...anyone whos ever seen the inside of my boxes can attest to that.... I want to start exploring photographing both interesting ties and beautiful ties. Over the next few months I plan on converting one of our spare rooms into more of an office/photo studio. Initially there will be alot of experimentation with lighting, back drops, fly holders. Mirrors, Black light, Food Dyed water....lots of ideas. What I dont have and dont have alot of time to find and buy are flies. Anyone have some nice specimens they feel like donating? I'd love, just love classic Salmon flies but outside of that the smaller the better. Preferably flies no larger than #16. The one pictured above is a #18 or #20 Id love to do right up to #28 and #30. If anyone can actually tie a fly that small Anyone care to donate a few? Dont need hundreds, just enouh to get me going. Samon Flies I figure I'll end up buying through online shops but it doesnt hurt to ask Pm or email me please. J

you need to resize them on your computer if you using a the sites hosting capabilities. Its agood idea to resize them your self i you use photobucket or any other free hosting service as their software will resize them for you and they dont do a good job of it. In photoshop choose. Image image size Set your width/height to whatever paramters you like in px (pixels) Paying for web host like wat I use, usually allow you to upload the full size image (not a good idea for good images) and then choose how big or small you wantto display it. 60 x 60px 120 x 81 800 x 545 ( I normally upload at this size thesedays it helps prevent copyright infringement) 1100 x 749 2032 x 1385 To preserve your oringal file just make a copy of it in another folder. So it A) prepare your file Save as..file abc.jpg...in folder xyz..I use the name of my web host (Zenfolio) so when I goto to upload browsing is easy. So the path would be /pictures/Zenfolio/ C) Image D))image size...set your width and height 800 x 500 or 1024 x 750 is more than enough E) Save and close F) Upload

Well I can almost guarentee that. I hit the water by myself a fair bit and end up use the timer for self portraits., but if its just my ugly mug you want to see. Via timer Via 1 hand Via my daughter on a g5 Via my daughter on a XT :_

Nice Ashby. The GGB in particular

Lol. Im hoping to get out this weekend for some me time. Honestly though, I hope Im so busy this year that my rods do gather a little dust.