Alachua Sink

I sometimes get asked about what equipment and software I use which surprises me because I think the only thing that matters is the finished image.  When I answer people's emails I'm sure they are disappointed when I tell them what I use.  I use low resolution SLRs by current standards.  I have a Nikon D1H and a Nikon D50 with 2.7 and 6.1 megapixels respectively.  It's not that I can't upgrade it's just that I'm very happy with the results I get for my intended uses.  I have 20x30 prints on the wall and my standard print size is 11x14 for both cameras.  I use every trick I know  to get sharp images, the highest resolution camera around won't produce a good image if it's not sharp to begin with.  I almost always shoot from a tripod if I'm going for something special and I always shoot RAW regardless of the subject.  I save images that I may want to print, share or enter into a contest in as TIFF files.  I don't view the photos on the camera screen because that generates heat and heat equals noise.  My low resolution sensors don't generate much noise and therefor requires less processing.  I captured the accompanying image by taking 3 vertical shots and then importing them into a horizontal frame.  My D50 sensor size is 3008x2000 but by using this process I ended up with a file size of 6000x3008.  After cropping and processing I saved a TIFF file that was 126 MB.  The sharpness in this image holds up to very large print sizes.  I used a Nikon 24-120mm non-VR for this shot at 24mm.  I use aperture preferred which meant the 3 exposures differed in shutter speed.  I know the experts say manual focus and a constant manual exposure but I like my results.  As an exception I took these 3 shots handheld.  I know I've bored many of you but I thought I'd explain my process one time in response to the questions I've been asked.