Thanks all and patwood, great info in a few short words. Dan did go into many areas. He did bring up calibration of monitors but I told him that that was not the main issue. Back when I was scanning in film photos, for my doggie ads, I calibrated my monitor, scanner and printers using color cards. I don't find that as much needed now days (mainly because I don't need the colors "that" true and there seems to be many more settings (small files to instruct devices) that help so much in that area. In addition I do think newer monitors, scanners, printers are just plain better at giving truer colors.) Because my friends "photos" are going to print in magazines all of the calibration is necessary for him. The digital files he sends for publishing include all the calibration info needed. It's a great program that does it automatically for him. In addition he does need more calibration for his web page. In our case so many people have so many different monitors and display cards too much tinkering on originating end probably wouldn't do any good. Also, in relation to REDS, it seems to be a universal problem for most of us just capturing them to begin with. I haven't had time to "play" yet but I have dragged in several REDS to the dining room to shoot them together and/or play with white balance. One of the best pieces of advice that Dan gave me was to get out the manuals for my cameras and research them thoroughly. geekgranny=alice

For me, I have to use most of the tricks you guys listed, because I never know when the flowers are going to be at their best. Some are open early, some in the afternoon etc. For me the ISO is always different depending on the day (bright sunshine vs. bright overcast glare). Jan - I have used the white paper thing inside for capturing true colors, but never even thought to do that outside! Good one... Floota - I don't see anything wrong with using Photo Shop either if you are really trying to represent the flower properly and not trying to jazz it up/make it look better/whiter/bluer/brighter etc. Really, the reason I try to get things right on my camera instead of in Photo Shop, is that I can't compare the flower to the picture when using the program, but I can do that right on my camera screen. I mean, I DO have a laptop but I don't want to drag it all over the back yard! :o) Maryl - I think when talking about the "true" color, for me, it would be when the flower is at its very best (open fully, but not wilted or already faded by the sun). Kind of like when people take pictures of me... I prefer not to be photographed right after working in the garden! :o) I am a bit wilted. As for printing... whoa, that is another whole matter. Don't know anything about that, as I usually don't print my flower photos.

I have found 9-pound bags of a mix of mostly millet with some sunflower seed and, I think, safflower seed, at a dollar-type store here called Big Lots. $7 per bag. Birds gobble it up in winter, but in the winter they'll eat anything; in the spring they are picky, kicking out the milo for the pigeons and doves, so I stop feeding them and concentrate on hummingbirds and, this year, suet for Ladderback and Downy woodpeckers. Also I have nyger thistle feeders (both metal mesh feeder and sock feeder) out for our sweet, tiny lesser goldfinches. To complete my first post in this forum, I spotted and got pictures of a male Northern Cardinal this morning, a rare sighting for our area (Albuquerque). A similar male bird (the same one??) was reported a few miles further north back in February. I also photographed a rare Vermillion Flycatcher in April. Maybe more birds are moving into my state -- and I'll have figure out how to feed them if they visit my apartment complex :)

To my knowledge most game cameras are capable of taking IR pictures. I have two, one is a higher end camera and the other a lower end camera. The main difference between the two cameras is the software which provides the trinkets and menus in the camera. In you case that fact that it has IR is not as important as the lens, For small animals you will need a camera that can get a good relatively close pictures. Otherwise a small animal may not be able to be identified as when the image is zoomed there may be insufficient resolution to see the identifying marks on the animal. As I said I have two, and it has been fun to learn of the variety in the wild life in our yard. It has been interesting to see what the animals actually do, ie thier interactions with each other, what they eat, etc. We have seen many different types of birds, fox, opossum, coyotes, deer, etc