looking at your lens selection there I wonder....
35 2.8 macro?

bearing in mind of course most macros focus a little slower, and hunt more in low light, but.... I like the specialty optics!

I've tried the af 28mm 2.8. not too bad imho.... fairly fast, good optics and often found in these parts dirt cheap ($40-$70 cdn).

Ok , first welcome....
now must resist temptation....
to make joke about......


ok



Poster #1 meet poster #4
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Sorry couldn't help myself.........javascript:emoticon('')

I've got some sporting events to cover this month.
It's video stuff, car racing on a dirt oval track.
I'll be shooting some stills also.
for my first trial run I'll have my k10's (50mm 1.4 and 100mm 2.8 macro) set up to shoot jpegs, with continous shooting, af-c, and auto select af points. and also some on manual focus.

that last point (letting the camera choose it's af points rather than my usual center af point) is where I think you'll find your solution for "Missing the Boat" so to speak....I'll let you know how I make out!

draw an x from corner to corner.
are there trees dead center? that seems to be what you focussed on.
possible you had your af set to af-c instead of af-s? that would mean if you focused on the sail then recomposed, your af (being on Auto Focus-Continuos) would refocus on the trees in the center of the frame.

yeah that #2 is quite a juxtaposition.
I always wondered how the airforce made more planes!

I'm gonna have to quote Monty Burns on this last one...
Exxxxcellent!

here is a snapshot of my grey card. it folds up.
I use it not only to find my mid tones, but to set white balance, check where my midtones fall on a scale (what zone my midtones land on to get the exposure to the right of the histogram).
once in post (aperture for me) I can set my white, black and grey points, color balance, check for dust spots and heal them, then Lift those settings and Stamp those adjustments to all the images shot in that sequence (1 image or a thousand) and fix all my images at once.

I recall several book, dvd, and online courses on the zone system came complete with FREE greycard.
Ansel Adams, many have debated weather he invented it, (I don't think so), but he certianly advocated it!

Can I suggest that if you're serious about learning photography, that a grey card and the "M" setting on your dial, will get you farther, faster?