Linda K

would not on principle

depends on your budget, but the Canon 5DII or the Nikon D700 are both great at low light, I regularly shoot at ISO 1600, 3200 etc and have printed images to to 30 x 40 with no problems. Shots like those ones you showed just need a tripod and remote trigger, so that you can keep the shutter open and play, you would find it very hard to handhold long enough for stuff like that. Have just got a D700 myself, and love it already (previously Canon only girl)

much easier to do it in camera though - the more you can get right in camera, the less you have to do afterwards in photoshop

called gausian blur within the filters in photoshop, but really it is no substitute for doing it with the lens at wide open, as it just does not give the same look as lens bokeh

DSLR is just the body, the zoom factor will come there with the lens, however as with everything, you get what you pay for - for decent glass, expect to pay a lot for it, but it is a great investment if you are serious. Otherwise the zooms that you will get with the kits lens in the ones you mentioned would be good to start with. The lag factor you mention as occuring with the cybershot is common to the P & S, that is why I use an SLR, as I cannot stand that lag (and prefer to be the one controlling what I want to picture and how I want it to be composed and exposed, not have my camera make those choices for me)

agree with Mikelli - when I first met my DH, he had a beautiful lab X , who over the years got very fat (at her max was 45kg), Her main problem was she would swim in the dams and get ear infections, and as the vet put her on cortisone, it made her very hungry. My MIL also had a weight problem, so would feed the dog each time she ate - as she ha no self control herself with her own weight, she was certainly not going to have any for the dog. The only thing that did work (so we got Princess down to a much better 28 kg), was by telling her the vet had said she would not survive much longer at her weight (I'm sure she wouldn't and the weight was not doing her health any good, so not really a lie), so a diet was now a matter of life and death. It worked, and we were able to get her weight back to a much healthier level, and she was a lot more active then too, despite her age.

don't know why that makes them so concerned - 525 puppies is not 525 matings afterall

when is it on (or was it today?) - don't worry, I just found the other topic where it said 18 April

I have a Canon 100mm macro I am going to sell, as I just don't use it enough - updated to add sold now

you could forgive her anything

just love them, they are so gorgeous

facets of having taken the good photo still with good light, exposure, focus, composition etc still apply, and this can't be faked, but will make some tasks so much easier, but agree with the watermarks, that will be a pain, but lets face it, there are still the types now anyway that have no qualms at stealing off the net and printing off now even with a watermark on them, but if this is only in the full version and not elements, that might put some of them off spending that much to do it. Myself, will be upgrading as soon as I can, will make cloning that whole lot easier (of course taking the time to get rid of any clutter up front is even quicker still!!!), and as I am in the business, staying current is a must.

what a great outcome for Luki, he is looking much better already

and such a true reflection though on so many peoples lives. Must admit the technicalities of the flash through his life did not impact on my kids (8 & 6), but did on me, I was blubbering away, they were saying that was boring, they waned to get to the house floating away stuff but we all loved the rest of it, and my sons adored Dug Squirrel and loved his attitude too

had me tearing up, very moving

don't mind the dark either, but what I would love to see is catchlights in both eyes, so they don't just disappear into the face, and also I think you have some blown highlights on the light side of the face (easy way to see is check with the eyedropper in photoshop on that area, and get a reading on that area - 255 is blown.) Agree with the advice to use a reflector, if you don't have one, you can lso use a reflective car shade, or even a piece of white foamboard to reflect. Something I use when photographing a person is position them, and then have them turn slowly in a 360 degree circle, so I can see how the light is falling on their face, and whether I have a nice light on the face in their face or not (obviously something a little harder with a dog!!!) , but with experience, you will get better at reading the light

don't forget that the camera too comes into play here - the card can only be written onto as fast as your camera can record, so for instance it would not be worth paying for a card that can write at 1 speed if you camera can only record at a lower speed. I also go with the point of view being that I would rather have lots of cards than only 1 or 2, that way if you have card failure, you do not loose as much - ie have lots of 4GB cards instead of 1 16GB card. A good card reader is also a must, do not go with the cheapy ones you can get at Harvey Norman etc, - I lost 2 whole cards worth from one which not only corrupted the card, but also made all the data inoperable - it was worth it to by a Lexar pro card reader that also works by fireweire transfer, so I can upload really quickly (which helps with the mega file sizes I have from my 5DII)

poor little girl, best wishes for a speedy recovery

were they aware that you were taking the shot, and that this was what you were going to do with it - if you know them, I would ask first.

if anyone wants to use the code, just contacted Kelly and it is still good until midnight tonight, but not after then, also fuchsia is sold out (just got the last one) here is the code again Save $75 on the Kelly Moore bag with this code -> MCKMAMA

Would also agree with needing to make sure that your dog can't leave your property, and get onto others, as you have no idea what they are getting up to while they are there, and what might start innocently enough can end in disaster - one of our bugbears is our neighbours dogs getting onto our properrty from theirs (which they are not at all confined in), and chasing our horses, esp foals - horses natural instinct is to run from a threat, and we have had a few horses run straight into fences (even white post and rails that they can easily see), trying to get away from the dogs, and had the vet bills to contend with. Our neighbours however ignore the complaints, council does nothing, and meanwhile we have to try to look after our own animals. Whilst our fences are horse proof, but obviously dogs can just go underneath, but our neighbour has no area where their dog can be confined, nor do they care to consider doing this, in fact half the time their dog I think is on the run looking for food since these are the people whose cat adopted us since they weren't really feeding him either. A neighbour on the other side of this property at one time did do as an OP suggested above once his stock got chased once too often by taking a gun to the offender at the time (the previous dog who had already bitten our horses a few times), as he had had a few stock breaking legs from being chased and having to be destroyed.

deleted double post, sorry!!!!

Pink Panther, obviously no one is ever going to be able to guarantee that an animal is never going to get sick, that is not what I meant. I mean from the point of view that the cats are tested by registered breeders for such diseases as PKD, HCM, HD, FeLV and FIV, so that you are ensured that when buying a cat from a breeder who has tested for all of these diseases that the kitten is free from these, as the breeding stock that they have used is not a carrier of them. There would be very few BYB who would probably even know what these are, let alone test for them

prior to our next dog, only ever had cross breeds, next one for sure will be purebreed from a regsitered breeder, no BYB Cats - up to last acquisition, again only moggies, but have just got a purebred Devon from a breeder, and would only ever buy purebreeds now Horses - we have an breed thoroughbreds, so these are all purebred Definitely agree that the cat breeder population is just as worried about the BYB and the every increasing influx of cross bred cats masquerading as "purebreds", you only need to look at some of the pet trader sites to see these (all the "ragdolls" for instance or Ragdoll crosses, that look like if they have any ragdoll in them, it is in their big toe, and unlike a registered breeder, a lot of these are advertised for similar prices, but without the health checks / genetic tests having been done on the parents, so no health guarantees as far as that goes, and usually not desexed, so these costs on top of what the purchase price is. A lot of the cat breeders too offer the lifetime support for you to always come back with any queries etc, or if you ever need to rehome the cat, (would like to see your BYB do that) And there can be quite some size differences in cats, so that whilst not as marked as in dog breeds (eg Great Dane vs Chihuahua), you would be in trouble for instance if you crossed a Maine Coon with a Singapura as the kittens may be way too large for the mother to deliver safely. Quite simply a lot of these breeds have been developed for their quirks, so do not see the need to cross them (same as crossing a beagle and a ckc - why would you do it, just does not make any kind of sense)

one thing to look at though - not sure whether they are the ones issuing the warranty instead of the manufacturer?