still a lot to get used to cam and lens. i brought my monopod along mostly for resting the weight and it seemed to work out well and hand held to shoot when something interesting came alongi like the lens! have not used the extender yet…already a handful nowi got near a river where there are lots of these to try it out...one of the better ones amongst a ton of rejectsgraceful flight..heading home...Strange shutter speeds...?please give suggestions.

this guy is carrying something its size

Excellent shot! Keep shooting!new_newbiewrote:this guy is carrying something its size

thanks Yogi.i am feeling more comfortable with it now. the lens is superb and versatile (love the sharpness and contrast!) and the 600D is a very good camera for the price. everything is predictable and AF is fast. i also read that the sensor is 'more gapless' although i do not know what that means.the continuos shooting speed is adequate but could be better. of course for the price i am not going to expect it to be in the league of its elder brethren..the 7D. i bought an 8gb class 10 card instead of using the class 4 that came with the camera. it should be faster than the class 4.overall very satisfied with the purchase.these bee eaters are small and i couldn't tell that they are actually so colorful from a distance...looking for breakfast..bee in mouth...i have a question, should the color space in the camera be set to rgb if shooting raw? anyone? thanks in advance.

new_newbiewrote:thanks Yogi.i am feeling more comfortable with it now. the lens is superb and versatile (love the sharpness and contrast!) and the 600D is a very good camera for the price. everything is predictable and AF is fast. i also read that the sensor is 'more gapless' although i do not know what that means.the continuos shooting speed is adequate but could be better. of course for the price i am not going to expect it to be in the league of its elder brethren..the 7D. i bought an 8gb class 10 card instead of using the class 4 that came with the camera. it should be faster than the class 4.overall very satisfied with the purchase.these bee eaters are small and i couldn't tell that they are actually so colorful from a distance...looking for breakfast..bee in mouth...i have a question, should the color space in the camera be set to rgb if shooting raw? anyone? thanks in advance.It is hard to get a good shot of a bird against a cloudy sky. You did very well with the shots of the Bee Eaters!As to the color space, I set SRGB in camera and DPP maintains that in post. However, you can freely change the color space in post. Here is what the 'Help' section of DPP says about color space: "Setting Work Color SpaceA different work color space from the default settings can be set for each image.Select the [Adjustment] menu → [Work color space] → color space to be set.A color space set individually does not change even when the default setting is changedIf you set an image with a color space different to the default setting and then subsequently change the default color space setting, this default setting will not be applied and the individually set color space will remain.The color space of a RAW image can be changed freely as many times as requiredSince only the image processing conditions information changes, the color space of a RAW image can be changed at any time." -- YogiWhen you get down to the nuts and bolts of photography, the results depend on the 'nut' behind the camera!See the 'Plan' in my 'Profile' for my current equipment.

many thanks YOGI for the explanation and compliment. a long way to go