These great blue herons are truly incredible. This was shot at a distance of approximately 350 to 300 meters. Got about 10 nice shots before I finished filling the memory card.

Same bird unobstructed by the blind.

Tripods are a blessing at 350 meters, aren't they? ry

Sorry dude these were both hand held. f-8 @ 160th second :) I did use a monopod for the dragonfly shots though.

Glad you went for a walk today Alpha. Enjoyed all 3 of your photos. These are excellent.

Very nice... you need one of those memory card thingys... emptys your memory card onto a portable hard drive.... You've got some wonderful shots there, I really am impressed. I like the "hide" effect the reeds give in the first shot here. Makes you feel like you're there.

300 M !! Wow that's almost 1/4 a mile away. How did you know where to look. Doesen't it get tiring lugging all of that equipment around! I love the second picture by the way. Did you adjust the color? There seems to be an extra green tint. Bsteph

I meant to type in 250 to 300 Meters... About the length of an American football field plus the end zones. @hollowman... I think you mean a micro-drive. They are about $250.00 US, and very fragile. I have a friend who had one and dropped it once. Now it is a paperweight. @bsteph... The color is straight out of the camera. I did adjust the levels just a bit, but it was a day of mixed clouds and sun. In the first shot there were clouds, and in the second there was sun. My eyes say this is pretty close to the way it actually looked. Usually, I choose a lens and camera set up for the day and just go with that. My guess is that this one weighs about 6 pounds, so it really isn't that heavy.

Magnificent...just magnificent...

Alpha, I bet he's talking about a Digital Wallet (there are a couple different names). I think they must be like a little harddrive for storage until you can get home to your computer (never have seen one). You upload all your files, delete your memory card and go on. The drives are several gigs to 20 GB I believe. I'm assuming that you then may connect them via USB and upload to your harddrive when you get home. A number of people on the www.dpreview.com forums were discussing them--esp. in terms of long vacations/trips, etc. They are pricey though--$500 up I think. I just have several cards--a 128MB, 3/64MB and a 32 and 16 that came with cameras. I originally bought a microdrive, then thought more about how I was using my CF cards and decided that putting the money into cards was a wiser thing--as you say, the microdrives are a bit delicate.