Oct 15, 2007: Same place, much more skittish specimen. I wasn't too close to him/her, and I didn't move much, but after only a few shutter clicks, he/she beat a hasty getaway. The sunset made for a dramatic lighting, but of course with the bird flying away from me and the sun, the capture suffers. I am still struggling with the craft, and this day was no different. 300mm doesn't get me close enough, and the economy lens' focus mechanism isn't all that, so my lack of skill really adds up to disappointment. Still, it's not unpleasing to look at, IMO. NOTE: I was shooting RAW/JPG combo this day, and I'm noticing that the RAW image produced by my camera looks pretty horrid. I haven't exhausted all avenues of investigation in diagnosing the issue, and I'm very open to it being fully my own lack of knowledge, but RAW bears a noise pattern that defies NoiseNinja, and basically just looks really bad. Any input on how that can be addressed would be appreciated.. (perhaps I'll upload a direct a/b example tomorrow for better demonstration of what I'm talking about?)