kja

Wow, you guys are doing great! I'm loving seeing them all. Kinda sad I'm not finding time to do anything myself other than work, but I'm still smilin' so that's a good thing

Does Nik have a 135 f2.0? This is an awesome walk around, capture life lens that rocks for portraits, too. Downside is you need a lot of working room. But as a travel or city on the fly lens for candids, it's awesome. I'd go the 70-200 out of your original choices ... and I'd go it over the 135 right now, too, unless stealth was a bigger issue. It is a big lens but it's an amazingly versatile lens that will allow you enormous freedom to create images.

I've been using my 70-200 more and am loving it more and more. As you might remember from an earlier blather of mine, I have a weird hand condition thing that basically means they're pretty weak and prone to bad cramps and pain. So far, no badness from this lens on the new big camera at all. It's heavy, yes, but it's feeling good now that I'm using it more. It's not really a birding or wildlife lens as 200 just isn't really that long. Clearly as it's a zoom it will give you the best range and the most options. It's great for pj type stuff because you can be stealthy and you can change your framing in an instant. I have the Canon version (2.8 IS) but think the Nikon version is just as wonderful. I would not be without this lens. I also have the 85 and it's a hot piece. But it's not as flexible and I find the 85 just a tad too long quite often...or just a tad too short. I use it when I have more control over my distance and subject. Which might seem obvious but... Both are great but they are different tools. From what I've seen of your shots, the 85 won't really expand the types of shots you are doing that much. The 70-200 will let you do what you do and allow for a great deal of growth and experimenting. But, there's no way you can go wrong with either and you will end up with both eventually

Yup, it will likely cost more to repair than to just update Give it a deserving burial and go shopping

I used those disposable ones while on holiday coz I walked out without my normal ones. Work just fine, just get a reputable company and not the 1000 pieces for 99 cents :rolleyes: Now I have my spudz hooked to my new camera bag so at least I'll know where to find it. I've never washed mine...

Yes, get Spyder (or your calibration tool of choice) ... it's amazing the difference it makes! Your life will get easier with calibrated monitors My prints go out in sRGB. I use snapfish.com.au for fun stuff - always get spot on colour and my toned and bw prints look very nice, too.

Nice challenge idea Bindi - Happy Birthday!! Great start, Everyone. Loving the photos - can't wait to see more. Will likely only get to look at this month's shots and not post much of my own stuff - April is a little insane for me with the dive shop and some photo commitments. And for the past two or three days I have been fighting with my hands again (I've got some weird thing that causes great pain & considerable weakness for no apparent reason sometimes) so am trying to limit camera and computer time where possible.

Just get the 11x14 pages - then you can mount any size print up to your 8x12s

+1 for Digital Works. I can put an order in on a Tuesday and have here in my hot little hand on a Thursday. I don't know how they do it coz lord knows no other company gets stuff to me as fast. Their prints have been spot on every time. They offer a great range including metallic paper which is very cool, though I prefer to use it sparingly as it can be a little overwhelming! Customer support has also been excellent. Their software is super easy to use and I haven't had any glitches at all. I've also had prints done at...hmmm, what was the name of that place...The Edge. I found they tended just a teensy tad towards pink but my clients were over the moon with the prints.

I just had a sample hard cover 8x8 book done by Clickonprint.com.au and it has turned out very nicely. The colours are true, the pages feel pretty good in your hand and you can have a photo cover. The binding isn't zillion dollar good, but for this price range and the intent, I think it's a good book. It's the first book like this I've had printed by an Australian company so I'm still looking around at other options but haven't gotten organized enough to send anything off for a test print LOL My own wedding album is a Momento. It's fine. Nothing outstanding but solidly done. The prints lack a certain something, but that very well could be due to my photographer's pp and/or paper choices. I haven't looked in to Momento's offerings for about a year now. At that time I decided that they were too expensive for what you got, but things may have changed. I'll be posting some photos on my blog hopefully later today or this weekend.

Shipping is stupidly expensive. I'm betting you can find the same thing here - contact your local arts council or the uni arts department coz all their students are going to have things like this. I don't archive prints. Heck, I hardly ever print anything for myself. When I do I either get the el cheapos coz I know family/friends are just going to toss them in a box (or the bin after a few months of not looking at them after they open the envelope) or cheap album or I get the high quality ones that I know will last for 50 years if it's something I want to show or know people will display. For most day to day stuff, the cheaper prints are just fine...I think of these kinds of prints as temporary and I can always reprint. If you have high quality prints, splurging on an archive friendly display book seems like a good idea segue - does anyone else hate "leatherette"? I saw the most ridiculous thing the other day..."animal friendly leather" - which is leatherette with a fancy name LOL

rocco - beautiful shot and a wonderful idea. I take so many of my girls now because I didn't of my beloved Diva and I so wish I could have had today's technology then. Film was just such a pain the patootie to deal with while living remote, which we did for almost her whole life. Boy, I miss my Girl Clicking - that's MatildaLily in the quiet shot. She's the younger, crazier one. ash - something easy sounds good to me as April is totally insane here but I love to check in and even throw some images in now and again.

Back to contracts - join AIPP. They have standard contracts that can be modified for just about every type of photography and they offer good support to photographers. I'm not sure I'll renew for this year yet, but we shall see. I definitely thought my first year was worthwhile, though.

I may have purchased something recently

If that is your budget you absolutely cannot go past Ruthless' rig. I'd be on the phone/PM with her ASAP to get it, if it were me. Great deal and it's gear you know has been taken care of and is in excellent condition so buying would be worry-free.

No, you should be able to comment as an anonymous user if you aren't logged in to a google account? Can you double check it for me? Anyway, thanks!!

Taurus - nice set! Tis for Trio U is for Uber Sexy

What a cute pup, ruthless! Cordelia - Love my rock is great! Hmm, I need to try to remember what letter I'm up to LOL

Put up a fun blog post to introduce some new gear Leave some love

Clicking - love the shot with the tongue out!! lea - hehehe on "keep" Rocco - Ralph is just such a cutie!

O is for Out of it P is for Preening Q is for Be very very Quiet...don't scare the fish! R is for Reeaaaallllyyy?? Are you sure you want to take my photo again? S is for solitary sand dollar

LOL I was running LR on less than 1GB RAM and it was fine, if a bit slow. I am glad that those days are done, however!! A fact of life right now is that LR does crash now and then ... just keeps things exciting More RAM is always good and since you are working on photos more often now, I'd definitely upgrade. I've been editing on my laptop, too, for the first time since having a lappie. My old Sony Vaio sucked rocks for that sort of thing. I have a Toshiba now and I actually quite like it. Hate only having a single screen, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do sometimes

Bindi - I love the processing on your second shot of your son! Very very nice... share? What a great collection of letter shots, Everyone ... I'm glad I had a little time this morning to look again!

Do you have a budget in mind? It's amazing what I run across during a week so if I have an idea of a budget I can give you a heads up if I see something

Thanks, Guys!! Sorry it's taken so long to reply - things are insanely crazy here at the moment. Some of my new toys arrived and the last should arrive this week. I had to buy my own pressies this year...again. Hubby's not much at my birthday Haven't even had time to play with the new stuffs, but hopefully soon!