Looks like typical sensor noise from low light to me.

Got a RAID0 (striped) Firewire800 drive for fast access (sooo fast) for day to day working files and a RAID1 (mirrored) USB2 box for backups. Peridoidically I send to a NAS box over gigabit, but the drives are so slow in that box you'd think you were using dial-up modems to send and receive files. Will eventually get another bigger/faster server for storage, but would like to perhaps go offsite.

Been looking at Carbonite, hopefully they will get a Mac version soon. Yet still,a lot of my storage is on a networked server. Carbonite and similar do not backup networked or shared drives. (well, until you sign up for enterprise level services).

Thanks for the link for the Taiyo Yuden DVDs. I know I have some CDs from ten years ago that work well, but I don't know if I'd trust anything made currently (CD or DVD) to last more than a few months. I just hear so many horror stories of the short lives of DVD for storage. I'll have to check out the Taiyo Yuden. Although it may still be cheaper to just cycle hard drives every few years.

Yes. Look up 'hyperfocal distance calculator' on google.
Although the Hyperfocal distance is geared for determining how to get your entire image "in focus", the calculators will often give you the DOF for any general focus and aperture configuration.

A good example is here:
e.g. http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

What sort of dog is it? f2.8 is great for light, but very difficult to get the DOF needed to keep a long nose in focus... if that is what you want. Out of focus nose may be acceptable. It is really a matter of taste.

If you have enough available light, that tends to look better. But if you have two or three good strobes, I prefer that to trying to fight a moving dog to pose for a reflector. You'll likely need the second and/or third person to distract/attract the dog's attention (unless the dog is very well trained).
Also, at a higher f-stop to keep everything in focus, you'll need all the extra light you can get. I find indoor lighting to be difficult when you cannot communicate with your subject with regards to exact positioning.

I have one dog that always poses and sits perfectly still for photos. A dream to work with even on my own. My other one, requires at least one other person to get her attention. Addition of reflectors would require another person, at least.

If you think you'll do this a lot, one of those all white vendor booth tents from the big-box stores are wonderful outdoors. They act like a giant white-box when the sunlight is very harsh and would otherwise be difficult to work with. For $100-150, they are worth it. (until the sun moves far enough around the corners... nothing is easy. )

1. Plenty of light.

2. The dog is black, so do not expose such that the dog turns out gray. You will probably need to set EV down a stop (similar to how you add a stop for snow to look white, you may need to under expose a bit for black to look right.)

Lots of people seem to recommend hot-lights for photographing animals indoors, but if you have flash use it. I have yet to see a dog freak out from flash... even a 1000watt hot light does not put out enough light to stop a moving animal from being a giant black blur!

Set flash to manual -- do not allow pre-flash as the animal will blink by the time the camera takes the photo, even if people might not.

If you can get some side or back light (hair light) it can help provide some definition.

Unfortunately I would have to disagree with regards to the build quality of the 16-50 DA*. I would not say it is the worst lens I have, but for the money I paid, it is far below my expectations.
It squeaks as it focuses. It does not focus fast nor consistently. It also has started freezing up on zoom and focus, so I never know if the lens will be usable. It is out of warranty. I'm debating even trying to see how much to repair, or just go with the 16-45 or perhaps the 17-70.
It seems some batches were worse than others. The quality assurance for this lens is in the crapper.

The weather sealing is nice to have and have needed it quite often. Although I have no proof of the seals being inadequate, I do wonder if the behavior is due to faulty seals.
For the money, I'll rubber band a plastic bag over the lens/camera. That worked while I was at the bottom of Niagara falls before I got the 16-50, so don't see much point in the extra bucks just to "look good".

Well, all I can guess at is that although Windows "can" handle profiling of two monitors, with the right added driver/control panel (must search for, and add manually from Microsoft website), it just simply cannot handle the job adequately nor consistently.

I suppose on a single monitor PC, it is possible that the same monitor would not show any significant difference. But if you use two monitors, color consistency might be a consideration worth noting.

Regardless, the eye One calibration/profiling shows the Mac display to have a larger gamut and more linear color representation than my other LCD monitors... which is what I was trying to get across. Sorry for pulling things off track.

Just picked up a Mac... (and loving every minute of it... so much faster than an similarly equipted Windows machine)

Have to say, the iMac 24" LCD monitor is pretty darned good.
I honestly do not know how they compare to expensive monitors. But compared to my previous LCD screens, the color is bright, and pretty darned accurate to what I see on paper.
To be honest, the LCD from my old Windows machine looks a lot more accurate as well now that it is connect to the iMac.

Although the colorimiter does show the iMac screen as having a significantly larger gamut than the others. (Dell Ultra Sharp and LG brand LCD screens).

Just gotta say the Mac monitors are a lot easier on the eyes for text and the photo processing just looks better than I would have expected.

I wonder if one would do as well connected to a Windows machine...

Hurray, the forum is back up.
FYI, You can see the contest entries and results here:
http://www.shortcutinc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172

I use the cheap Cactus V2s ebay triggers without problems with my studio flash as well as my Pentax my 360 and 540 flashes.

The Catcus remotes must be the V2s or newer versions. I do not know the specifics, but there is supposed to be some compatibility issue with the earlier model and some models of flash. Pentax of course being one of them.

The V2s is the type with the hotshoe connector as well as a PC connector.
For the small cost, it may be worth trying the V2s.

FYI, I also have Elinchorm Skyports, but they are not much better than the cheap ebay triggers but at 10 times the cost. Stick with Cactus V2s. If you need more, go with Pocket Wizards (anything but Skyports).