Linda K

Good for you in wanting to find your own style and not wanting to just be a copycat, that is one of the hardest things to try to define, but you will find it. One of the things to watch with the colour saturation is bumping it a bit too much - like anything, a little is nice, an overkill takes away from the simplicity of the shot. I like the sepia processing it is very nice. In some of the colour ones, which look like they were either taken in bright sunlight, or in dappled light areas, there appears to be many highlight areas blown though, which will just print as pure white (ie no details at all), not sure if these have been blown out in your processing, if you have one that is straight out of camera (no processing done to it), we can tell that for you. The way to tell if they are blown is that you should be able t tell by the histogram, which will be pushed far right, what I do is also keep an eye using he eyedropper in photoshop, which is set to point sample, and then read the colour information on it. For white areas, anything above 245 can be a bit dicey, anything that reads 255, 255, 255 across all 3 channels has no details there at all (similarly any dark areas that read 0, 0 ,0 will also print pure black)

no, they all have specific mounts, - Nikon lenses can only be used on Nikon Cameras, Canon on Canon ones, and then within the brands you also have some lenses - eg Canon EFS lenses that can only be used on compatible canon cameras. 3rd party manufacturers (like Tamron, Sigma etc), make lenses that also have specific mounts - eg make Nikon mounts, Canon mounts - these are not interchangaeble, you must use the one made for your camera brand.

there has been many camera threads just like this if you do a search, main thing is what sort of budget do you have to spend. Both Canon and Nikon have great entry level cameras, and speed is not a problem with either camera, they are both capable of fast shooting, what you are limited by is the cameras capability to perform at various light levels, and also how fast the lens is - the kit lens you are talking about at the longest end for instance are 5.6 aperture, so will not be as fast as say one that is 1.4 aperture (but of course that then means extra $$$$$) Personally I feel at the moment the Nikon ones are better at handling the low light, whilst Canon is going the route of chucking maximum megapixels in and video capability, so all depends what is important to you

amazing how you manage to stir things up like this wherever you go Annie - I also took the wording product meaning the whole thing of buying a registered puppy from a proper breeder, not one just council registered or whatever dubious claims they have to being a breeder, when they are nothing more than a BYB.

exactly, and someone with an interest in law presumably would know about the problems with naming names like that on a website. As for the Vic link though for operation of breeding establlshments try this Annie link

Looks great, very nice and simple background for your subject, and great job on the exposure.

had the 1.8 and agree it is a good lens if you get a good copy, but will not last, the 1.4 is much more robust, and it is one of my main work horses. Would not considr going to the 1.2 after the bad things I have heard about the focus on that, which would probably make it the one L lens in Canons line up that is not worth upgrading to. The 1.4 is worth its weight in gold and then some

awesome so glad you retrieved them, have had that happen, and with the price of cards now, I never trusted that card again and ditched it - it is the worst feeling on the world though isn't it when you see nothing there, and even go back to the camera and then it won't show anything. I always format each card too when I have used it and put it back in the camera ready for the next shoot, and do not delete as I go when shooting, nor use the computer to delete images from the card, as I have been told those things can cause corruptions with the camera then reading the card next time it is used

what sort of shot are you trying for - are you wanting to get a silhouette of the bats against the sky (so ie the sky will be exposed nicely but you see little details of the bats, or are you going for a properly exposed bat, irrespective of what that does to the sky - what you want will determine whether you should use a flash or not, and what you then need to expose at. If you are after getting a silhouette, then just meter for the sky (you can take a test shot or 2 to work out what that should be), and then go from there - make it easy on yourself by going onto either AV if you want to control the aperture and let the SS fall where it will, or TV if you want to control the shutter and let the aperture be picked by the camera, and then just use the dial to compensate to get the exposure where you want it, - if you are handholding, would not go under 1/250 with the larger lens, even with the VR unless you are very confident with that, and then bump the ISO to whatever you know your camera can handle best and then go from there (can't give you exact as I don't know what you intend to do, nor am I there to read the light anyway) Good luck, sounds fun, and post what yo get!!!

my cat actually just ad his 1st booster done today, 12 months since his 2nd kitten needle. As he is a show cat, show regs are they need to be done every 2 years from hereonin - if he was not I would be doing it every 3 years after this one.

even if the cameras get better though, it does not magically give someone a great eye to take a photo - that bit is still up to the photographer to learn if they can - same as other art, just because you can paint, does not make you an artist, similarly just because someone can use a camera and expose a photo properly, does not mean it will be more than just a snapshot unless you have the eye with it to set up the composition

Also saw the news report where they were identified as malamutes, not huskies, and showed what the council had done to the fence which allowed the dogs to escape - imagine that would then come down to how long ago was it the council did that - if they had done it for instance last week, and it had been like that for many days, it would be different to if it had been done 1/2 hour prior. I feel for the poor woman and her JRT but I do also feel for the dogs that got out through no fault of their own. Will be interesting to see how the council handles this, as this is my council.

as soon as I got to that bit in the story I just cringed, as I knew what would be next, I agree, just what were the parents thinking letting the child near the dog whilst eating, Poor child and poor dog.

so sorry to hear this, RIP Johnno, just love a Clydesdale, such gentle souls. Hard thing to have to do, and it never gets easier

one of the things this does which makes it wonderful for shots like macro is that because of the small area the camera is using as its image area for the shot, any camera shake is noticeable - one of the reasons to use a tripod for instance, to eliminate even minimal hand shake which on an ordinary shot might not be detected, but on one that detailed, would be, along with any shake induced by the camera itself (either from vibrations caused as the shutter is depressed or the from the movement of the mirror flipping up). If you do not have it, then you can't use it, but you can at least eliminate the shutter pressing shake by using a remote or by having the self timer function activated (both things I use on landscape, along with the tripod) - this means there is either a 2 second or 10 second delay if you use the self timer between you pressing the button and then the camera taking the shot, which prevents the movement, or by using a remote, it is the infra red sensor or connection making the camera activate, which also prevents the movement. Most of the more expensive models do have this function, but on its own, would not be upgrading yet just for that

oh god, selective colouring please no!!!! When done right, it can look good, but there are very very few instances it does look right, mostly (like for instance when someone does just the eyes, and puts the rest in BW, it just looks creepy, or say does a flower and leaves the person or animal in BW - it draws attention to that and not the intended subject of the photo.

what a fine specimen of a person, how proud his parents must be, another sociopath in the making

photoshop and lightroom here too

So I guess then that anyone who supports this line does not have any animals themselves, since surely that them makes them just as bad as those they are protesting against. What a load of cow ........ A world without my cats or dogs is not one I would wish to live in, and such a stance as mandatory desexing being advocated by the Greens surely shows their take on this agenda too.

Merry Christmas Troy and all, thanks for such a great site that is such a wealth of information. Stay safe and here's to a happy 2011

merry xmas to you too!!!!

you will not know yourself Bec, I love my 70-200!!!!!!

I think that all you can really do is let them know you are there for them, another thng on the NOT to say list is to tell them you know how they are feeling - you don't, you only know how you may have felt after undergoing a similr circumstance, but you are not them, so can't know how THEY are feeling about it. Having gone thorugh the loss of various fur kids, a miscarriage, a loss of a twin at 20 weeks, a niece at 1 day, friends having stillborns, death of a MIL, and a father with life threatening disease who was not expetced to make it past April this year (he is still going strong), I know what was important for me was having other people letting me know they were there for me. If you are phyically near them it is very helpful to make them casseroles etc to help out (one of the aunts make a big batch of Vegetable soup as soon as she heard my MIL had died, which was great, as we were in too much shock from the unexpected suddenness of it to even want to think about doing stuff like making dinner), or if not, just be a listenng board for them, and above all, not to just move on and not let them talk about it, even if it means sharing photos with them or listening to stories about their loved one - the last thiing I wanted was to feel like these were not important anymore just because they were dead - today is the 10th anniversary of the day I lost one of my twins, and it still hurts as much today as it did 10 years ago, the only difference is I have learnt how to deal with that pain and loss, but I will never forget him, nor will I ever stop wishing the outcome had been different - to even learn earlier this year from his dr that now there is a surgical technique that would have saved his life that was not available 10 years ago made the hurt all new again. Hugs to anyone who has lost a loved one this year, it is certainly never easy to go through, but in o[pening ourslvees up to love we open ourselves up to that pain, but as the only option is to never let anyone in, I personally cherish the impact all these souls have had on my life in making me the person I am, and continue to do so.

client may not like, but they may - of course you find out what they want, and what they intend to use it for, but if you look at a lot of the motoring magazines, and even on shows like Top Gear, they use that all the time, and once you have grabbed the money shots, why not experiment a bit

would use the 50 & the 18-55 - use the wideangle to get in really close to the front bit of the bike, and get some great shots due to the wide angle distortion effect