StarLapyz

Thanks Sky Another quick update. Yellow's cut was still not healing up completely, it had mostly clotted but he kept bumping it with his tongue and making it ooze a little bit so we decided to have it stitched. The operation went perfectly last night and the wound has been stitched and cauterized and the bleeding has stopped. Was the best thing to do since we think the constant need to clot was using up all his clotting factors and not giving him a chance to catch back up as it where. They are keeping at the hospital for 24 hours to make sure he is stable and then he can come home. Paws crossed that he is home for snuggles tonight.

you could try suing for any of the above, whether you would win, or get any money out of it really boils down to how good your lawyer is, how good their lawyer is, the circumstances of the case, how good a witness you are, how good a witness they are, how the judge is feeling on the day, what he had for breakfast and the alignment of the stars. Litigation is completely unpredictable in my experience and the relative damage from something like you describe is highly subjective so could go any which way. nice idea bout adding them to the public liability insurance under you home policy though.

Thanks! Kinda insane that the quickest way to get accurate results is to send samples to America.

There is a test for Factor VIII concentration that gives a good indication. We sent bloods off to Melbourne Uni about a month ago and they still haven';t gotten back to us. Spoke to another provider this morning who can do the tests in a week so need to talk to the vet about sending new samples off. Whether they can have a normal life or not depends on how bad they have the disease. You need about 20% of normal factor 8 levels to function normally in 'normal' circumstances. i.e.anything but major trauma or surgery and they are fine. If they have less than 5% of the normal amount they are unable to have a 'normal' life. So it really depends on severity whether he can have a normal life or not. The testing should show hoe bad it is (if we ever get results back). Atm fingers are crossed that Kane only has a mild case. The girls can't have the disease. Hemophilia A is X linked, so the girls can't have it cause the Sire doesn't. At least there is some good news there We can also get the girls tested (so we know if they are carriers or not). So carriers won't get bread from. (* Disclaimer I am Woofen's housemate so have been around for the whole thing) Edit: oh btw the condition is completely unreported in kelpies

Really nice. Loverly photos. For the sake of someone making some constructive criticism. I think the first one is a bit 'busy' and the last one the DoF is a bit tight The third one is pure brilliance.

Nice photo :p The 70-300 isn't really in the same class at the 70-200's though. The 70-300 is a lot slower (especially at 300). Even at 200mm it is at f/5. That is a HUGE drop from f/2.8 (about 1/4 the light is getting through the lens at f/5 taht is getting through at f/2.8). Also anything with that kind of focal range is going to have issues with optical quality. With the Tamron is especially suffers at the long end. I am not saying you can't take beautiful photos with a cheaper lens (your photo there is a good example), but you do get what you pay for with glass. Good glass doesn't make a good photographer. But better equipment is never going to hurt either.

I feel I have to stick up for the poor old Tamron here For a bit over $400 I think it is a great lens, especially as you get Tamrons equivalent of IS and USM on the lens. Of course it's not an L lens, but if someone is on a tighter budget then it's a viable option. I also have a Tamron macro and the IQ on it is just lovely. I think I've taken some ok photos with my Tamron lenses :D Another 3rd party option is of course Sigma, but I can't make any personal recommendations as I've not used one before :D Where can you get a Tamron 70-200 for $400??? The cheapest I have seen them is high $700's and that is for an import. For that money you can get the Sigma which is a much better lens. Though I agree, for $400 a Tamron 70-200 F/2.8 is a damn good buy if you cant afford more. Note that the optical difference between all the lenses is relatively small. The only massive difference is the Tamron is really slow at focusing compared to the Sigma and the Canon options.

Been a long while since a pup-date here. Sad news :D One of the puppies got sick and we have been busy looking after him. He didn't make it though and had to be put to sleep :D . Teddy is running free now The others are still happily being idiots.

Thanks :D

I finally managed to edit my pictures from this years Flyball Nationals as Sydney Royal. the whole gallery can be seen here. A few of my fave's.

If you have a Mac (which hardly anyone does I know) Aperture is easily the best photo editing solution available. It isn't expensive either ($99 from the App Store). If you serious about photography your going to want a Mac anyway

It isn't great. It doesn't throw much light and you can't bounce the flash with it. On the plus side it is small and light. If you are looking for a cheap, reasonable quality flash get something like the Yongnuo YN468. It throws more light than the 430EX, is fully TTL and doesn't cost too much. Can be had for around $100 off ebay clicky. The only negative it has compared to the 430EX is the focus lamp isn't as effective. You can also spring for the bigger YN560 for around $75. It throws more light than the very expensive Canon 580EX, though it is manual. Cheers

By the way, if you are interested in taking photos of birds you should think about joining the excellent forums at http://www.feathersandphotos.com.au/ . They have a 'newbies' section and you will get tons to top quality feedback from a lot of really talented photographers. Cheers

It is really just practice, practice, practice. Doing something like project 365 so you are getting the camera out everyday is one of the best ways to improve . Also post lots of pictures on the here (and any other good photo forums as you'll get good feedback that will really help you out.

My 70-200 is my most used lens. It is on my camera probably 75% of the time. (Interestingly my 50mm is on there almost all the rest of them time)> So I would definitely recommend one as a second general use lens. Your first decision you need to make is whether you need f/2.8 or can live with f/4. If you can make do with f/4 and can afford it, get the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS. It is optically one of the best lenses Canon makes. Otherwise the non-IS f/4 is also a good lens. If you want f/2.8 you need to either pay for or sacrifice some optical quality. If you can afford it the Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 L IS II is the single best lens on the market today (you pay through the nose for it though). The lower canon options are all good. Sigma also makes a quite good 70-200 in the 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM II (OS or non-OS), just make sure you get the II and not the one (note the Sigma lens is DG which means it is for crop factor cameras only). The Tamron lens is fairly below average. I would steer clear of it. Buy the Canon f/4 instead. While optical quality on a lens is important you can make up for a slightly soft lens quite a lot by using a good quality sharpening routine on your photos in post processing. It adds to post time but if you can't afford a top quality lens you can still get the results in software for a fraction of the costs. Something to keep in mind.

One of the girls. Still haven't picked though!

I may know someone who has a few spares lol

They hit five weeks old yesterday so we decided it was time to take some 'serious' photos and stacked the little puppies up to see how they looked. Unfortunately there were a bit tired and a few of them had trouble standing up when the possibility of sleeping was on offer. A few were little troopers and stood there all pretty just like they should. We might give it another go during the day when they are a bit more awake later. Purple Girl Green Girl Black Boy White Girl Nekkid Boy (Now rocking a funky orange and purple collar). Pink Girl Yellow Boy Blue Boy And my favourite outtake. As soon as the photo was done Black flopped in a heap and fell asleep.

The puppies also headed out into the rain yesterday to feast on Chicken Necks. It was their first go at bones and their first go out in the rain. A few weren't fans of the wet, but they all hooked into the chicken wings well enough. Pink wasn't quite able to get the concept of chewing before swallowing and it took Purple quite a lot of coaxing to get her to eat one, but in the end they all had a good chew and some fun. And I got cute pictures. Blue looking tough and manly in the rain. Experimental eating techniques. Black managed to get the wettest by far. Nom nom nom! Nom nom. It is important to look as cute as possible while you eat. White hooking in.

Time for more cute puppy photo updates! The puppies had a portrait day a few days ago and here are the results. Green Girl Nekkid Boy Purple Girl White Girl Pink Girl Yellow Boy Black Boy Blue Boy They are all growing up so fast !!!

Our little brood of Kelpie puppies had their first little outing today. To a carefully fortified section of the backyard. They all had a good time 'sploring. THough some took to the funny green stuff much faster than others. One of the more adventurous boys. Yellow boy making an escape attempt. All of the boys together. Red girl tried to escape by climbing mum. Chilling in the great outdoors. They quite enjoy using each other climbing gyms. Checking out the sites.

Bay Photo Lab (www.bayphoto.com) in California do pretty much the best quality prints you can get anywhere in the world. They are a bit expensive though, especially as they are shipped from the US. They also do a very wide range of interesting photo printing options. You can sign up for an account directly with them or I find it easier to upload the photos to SmugMug.com and buy through them. Obviously not the best option if you just want cheap prints, but if you want high quality, stabilised prints with perfect colour and contrast reproduction, they are the place to go.

The Puppies had a bit of a photo shoot today. They are all growing up so fast. They all have their little collars on now which makes working out who is who so much easier. Green Girl Red (pink) Girl White Girl Natural Girl - currently the smallest of the pack, though she is catching up fast Yellow Boy Blue Boy Black Boy Nekkid Boy (nicknamed fatso cause he's huge) And all of them together in a little basket of puppy.

Woofen had a litter of Kelpie puppies yesterday. The 4 boys and 4 girls ended up requiring a cesarean. Both mum and pups are doing really well though. Anyway, the whole point of puppies is pictures. Having dinner Sleeping after filling up on milk. Pretty much the definition of a happy one day old puppy. More sleeping. And the whole brood.

Those primes are incredibly impressive but are going to be WAY out of everyone's price range. the 70-300L is interesting, will likely be cheap and a good, sharp budget telephoto for the masses. Real pity about the aperture though. f/4 constant would have been much nicer (but pushed the price to high I'll wager). 60D looks a fantastic option for people looking to move up to a new level from the base xxxD range.