You can have all the nice gear in the world and it won't help if the picture taker doesn't know what they're doing. However, not knowing what photo you're referring to I'm being more general than anything.I'm a little surprised about the quality of that picture. You've got such nice gear I'm sort of confused how bad it looks(might just be the resizing)
Yeah now I'm jealous!
eh, in my opinion, this picture doesn't work cropped. I framed it very intentionally. My real intentions were to leave that left light out though, but the flare crept in. Cropping off the top will throq the bridge too dead center. I like the play of negative space against everything that is going on from the top of the bridge below. Cropping out left lowers the perception of depth (since i'm shooting at an oblique angle) since it takes out the end of the bridge past the mirroring tree on the left side. The left flare is a bit distracting, but cropping it out totally screws with the proportions of how everything was framed.
I've had a lot of people say they like the flare. I'm a bit indifferent to it. I think the shape the 3 white lights is a good balance to the dark space the tree creates on the opposite corner. If i was doing this shot for money, i'd probably find a better way to do it. but this was purely a personal thing, so i took the shot, hit the instant replay button and thought "good enough" and was on my merry way.
) you thought "good enough" because it was "only" a personal shot. Hmmmmm...
I'm sorry but that to me looks like its been photoshopped
If it's legit though thats an amazing photo
Why not attach your files so that they can be preserved here? Or at least if you're hosting them yourself, consider not moving/deleting them so people can view them in the thread later. It's kind of frustrating and pointless to see empty posts and contextless* quotes referencing it. 
I'm a little surprised about the quality of that picture. You've got such nice gear I'm sort of confused how bad it looks
One can have great gear but a lot of times circumstances as well as the photographer's skill and knowledge come into play..... I am still also getting a feel for which settings work best on the new D300 and after returning home the other day discovered that I had been using one setting incorrectly which then slowed down my fps which in turn affected the overall focus every time I shot a BIF. The learning and the tweaking goes on.... My forte is really macros and candids of people; this bird thing is something fairly new for me.
Dude! Did you hang out for the ESA contest later in the morning? I was just there Saturday at the Cocoa Beach pier. Red Tide sux, don't it! I was at Paradise a little farther south Sunday when I took this, while holding my breath.
