PossumCorner

Take care. The grub killer (it's the beetle grub-stage that eats the plant roots) which was used a Parlt House in Canberra killed the magpies that ate the grubs. Poison is poison.

You get what you pay for in general, but it's horses for courses, and cheap lenses can be better than people credit them for. They can give excellent picture quality, just fall down a bit on very fast focussing. Nikon has a 55-300 4.5-5.6 stabilised zoom for around $500. There is a neat Sigma 70-300 zoom for only $200. It will focus about the same as the Nikon, but there's the slight risk of lesser image quality. Going up, Nikon have a better lens, 70-300 with image stabiliser, around $1000. But it would be worth hunting around for the new Tamron 70-300, it will be around $600 I think, and has been getting good reviews for both Nikon and Canon use. Tamron are said to have designed it to compete with Sigma, who have the slightly better name for 3rd party lenses, deserved or not. (I've just bought a Tamron 90mm macro, more as a portrait lens). The Tamron 70-300 is stabilised, it has been released but just not in stock everywhere. As to where, there's no doubt the like of B&H in New York would be the best deal just now while our dollar is strong. I generally try to buy bodies and lenses locally to keep the relationship with the local store. But sometimes you just have to balance supporting your local bloke against saving a few hundred dollars on a purchase. If you order a couple of memory cards or the like along with your lens it makes it more worthwhile. B&H are very honest, and quick, and helpful. Edit to add: here is a link to Tamron's promo of the 70-300. http://www.youtube.com/TamronVids#p/u/8/PaegtriaIRQ - I'd like one for the Sony, it's only out in Nikon and Canon mounts locally so I can start saving. The tutorial vids on this site are all quick and easy with good little quick explanations of this and that. , ..

If you wanted to stick with Sony the A55 is in the same price range as the Nikon D3100 and also has HD movie feature.

Tks, looked, I see they then got the sack (in another vid). Bit of fun both. More important - noticed your shot in PhotoSig - nice - I'm only a looker, I've never submitted anything, bit of a slacko. Should join. Importanter still: do have a look at the Anne Geddes link that's in the photos/photos main section if you didn't see the clip on TV. She is one dynamic person, it changed my attitude to her photography that's certain. And loved seeing her set-ups, can only use the word inspirational again.

Mish thanks for the link, that's the item I'd meant (and missed). Awesome at so many levels. Brilliant photography and totally inspirational work. Worth watching clip start to finish, it is pretty generous on the techy side on "how it's done". I've never been a total Anne Geddes fan, often thought her photography too contrived and kitshy. Think I have come round after seeing this - for instance her reaction/attitude to the birds' nests. Yes, posivitely inspirational - and so much reinforces that it is not the camera it is the photographer.

Not often I cry laughing: must have been triggered by a recent experience. Who relates to this clip to the end, well particularly the end. Has this been around for yonks and I just missed it til now? Thanks Prime. (Takes some people a little longer).

Did anyone see the item on Anne Geddes? I missed it, was it good or not?

Some lovely shots: how are they being presented, framed under glass - or just well matted, or differently? I hope it goes really well for you, you must take your widest-angle lens along and take some full shots of the exhibition wall(s) to show us. Are they helping you with the set-up and hanging, or do you do that yourself direct with the gallery people? Red Bubble has a nice exhibition at the moment for the Dandenong Ranges Group at a good restaurant in Emerald (Vic). The images are all the same size and on the large RB mats, 18x12 I think, it really is a very good look, and yet much less costly than glass-framed. (I only had one shot in the exhibition and was quite stoked when it sold).

A few years ago I did weekly volunteering at Burwood for a while. I wouldn't say you learn anything new, or that it is useful experience. But you can always talk it up on a CV. There was a lot of cleaning/hosing kennels, putting fresh bedding down, washing bedding, feeding, walking dogs, minimal grooming, walking on lead, brief off-lead time supervised in the fenced yard for some dogs. Same care routine for all dogs there, whether just found or surrendered, or paying boarders (tail-waggers). Satisfying: yes, individual dogs so grateful for attention. Supervising staff grateful for volunteer assistance. Met some wonderful people, didn't get caught up in the anti-politics-gossip-misinformation-justified criticism, all that. Just got on with it. It's all about the dogs (or cats or rabbits) and again there were excellent caring people to work with/work for. It can be fast-paced and full-on to get everything done if they are short-staffed, and you will go home very much needing a shower. Definitely recommend it - you get more out of it on various levels than you put into it. That applies to most volunteering I think. If you wish to do volunteering to gain skills, Puffing Billy always need people: and to be honest you would gain more skills there that are useful for further job-seeking: more administrative and think-work and training are available there than at RSPCA. (And engine-cleaning if you prefer to combine hands on). Any kind of volunteering is good on your resume - prospective employers like the fact that you know how to work, and it gives you something to refer to in reply to interview questions with their ludicrous hypotheticals. RSPCA didn't at that time have volunteers helping in the vet surgery at all. And there was no handling of dogs by volunteers in any of the pts areas. There were opportunites to do basic training to work in their large op-shop in the shops across the road. So you could add basic retail skills to your CV if you do that.

If you look in the 'dreamy pastels' Group on RB, they have some tutorials or methods there in the "about this Group" page.

Have a look at this radar, it's like oh yes, I see what they mean. http://www.bom.gov.au/products/national_radar_sat.loop.shtml

Sounds severe for Saturday. Heaviest rain for 22 years expected. Coming from Queensland as well as the usual direction from Adelaide. Severe property flooding expected over much of Victoria. Must be serious worried about roads and bridges as they've held a little press conference about it to warn people. I hope Seymour is spared the worst of it for the Show, but it isn't looking good.

Council/Parks (whoever) have had good success in a poisoning campaign in Sherbrooke Forest. It scares me because if anyone's dogs are loose and trot up the road to the forest they'd be at risk. We go through pretty much hell keeping our dogs in, and they are now locked in the house most of the time. And I hate the concept of poison, no animal deserves that kind of death, it is callous and barbaric. I heard fox calling at the bottom of our place last night, but there are certaily not as many around, seldom see them on the roads around here just lately, and they used to be as common as possums. On the up side, the little population of Lyrebirds in the forest has been able to increase this year for the first time in many many years, and it's nice to see them have a little slack given to them. Now if only there was some control over rotten cat-owners who let their cats roam at night, the Lyrebirds would have an even better chance at survival, as well as the bandicoots, but too late for them I think.

Just on the subject of AFS lenses for the D40 etc., Tokina have just released a new AFA for Nikon. Claiming as good as Nikon glass, it is to be released to celebrate their 75 years centenerary or something. It's a 70-300 with anti everything stabilisation, and said to be very good, certainly it would be better than the 70-300 kit lens. Sounds like Tokina are trying to break the hold Sigma have as a preferred 3rd party provider. I like the Sigma lenses I have, but this one does sound like a good buy, it is to be "about" $500 in the USA when released, so would be a bit more here. Hope the dollar keeps holding up.

I don't know where the work on this Animoto presentation fits between Brunelli and Hale. http://video214.com/play/2c32RZHOypvyMQ9aD8ieuw/s/dark - the shoot was a fundraiser for rescue, (there are links at the end of it for BSL info and Pit Bull rescue). Where I think these shots approach great is that they are from one full-on two-day charity shoot, so under pressure - and has still caught a lot of personality without making it schmaltzy or like Huga said, "fluffy". Kirislin - have you seen Julie Poole's shots of Whippets? She has a new Animoto of them with some good action shots.

Thought of this thread when I got this link. http://video214.com/play/2c32RZHOypvyMQ9aD8ieuw/s/dark - worth a look. The photographer did a two-day portrait shoot, I think a rescue-dog related event. She uses a wide range of props. Some I love, some not, but props aside the photography is excellent. For BSL related interest, there is a footer at the end of this clip with some Pit Bull rescue video which I haven't looked at, probably something to do with the fund-raiser of the main link.

Thanks Rocco, good to look at something different like this. But my first reaction is dislike, or mild aversion. Technically brilliant, very consistent treatment from composition onwards. But too intentionally emotionally manipulative for me. Too much death or walking-death or misery, and too clinically presented in a book for mass effect. Maybe I'm tired (and sick of being ankle-deep in mud: thinks, must take some mud-misery shots to look back on if we get drought conditions again next year). Any Henson fans here? There is a Henson exhibition on at a gallery just down the road, don't know whether to go along or not.

Props are great for puppies but you want your dogs to be the main attraction, and props can draw the eye away from the main subject of a photograph. If you are in some shots that is great, but make sure you have another helper there (aside from the photographer). So they can stand behind the camera well back and toss a toy or cap to get ears or expression and keep heads from turning away. Baskets as props are good - fresh healthy potplants in them might look better than artificials - do you have a Bunnings or nursery you could get some pots of "instant colour" to pot up into a generous basket. If you use a prop it has to be of a quality "as good as the dog" not something plastic or tenth-rate. Even a top quality pre-loved Teddy Bear is better than a mass-produced cheap-looking new one sitting next to them.

Yes it is so wrong. No different to National Parks in Victoria. If you want to pull up beside the road and phtograph a bird or gum tree in a Parks park, and sell the image on Red Bubble as a card, in a calendar or whatever - between $3-400 for the Permit. I let mine lapse, not enough income generated to justify continually spending that much, as it has to be renewed every year, not just a one-off. It's a nonsense with the beaches: beach-goers are not concerned by even a large wedding shoot: most people find it interesting rather than being inconvenienced. Same with wedding groups in a forest or park setting: who does it bother? Nasty little revenue-jealousy combination. Good luck to the Sydney protesters, if it was Melbourne I'd go along, not that I think it will change anything.

Depends if it is for yourself or "somebody else". If for sale or a gift, best to have the whole job done at a pro-lab to save later problems. If for yourself, it depends how many you are doing, or how often. If you need it reliable but removable, that's contradictory. Because it's then likely to do it's own removal while on display which would be embarrassing. We put display shots onto artist boards, the painting canvases that Gillybob was asking about. From $8-12 upwards each, depends on size. And fix them on with an acid-free craft spray adhesive. Spray out of doors, it mists onto everything close by. But these are permanent and will stay good to use for years. The best repositionable glue comes in narrow double-sided tape rolls, look for it in scrapbooking stores. If you have a lot of shots to mount, you can get a "gun", ADT or the like, to put the reel of sticky-tape in, makes dispensing lines of it easy. Just be sure it is repositionable tape (which is twice the price of the permanent adhesive tape reels - $20 against $10). Another way that's not cheap, but quick and reliable, is to use a Xyron sticker machine (hand operated, not electric) with repositionable adhesive rolls. The 9 inch wide machines are between $80-$130 and the adhesive cartridges (about 3 metres long. so they do lots) are around $20-30 depending if repositionable or permanent adhesive). Glue-dots I'm not keen for upright display: they are good for flat work, scrapbooks and so on, but don't hold well for hanging.

I haven't used an Olympus since film days, but people who have stayed with them are more than happy and doing great work. I won't put up a link, but if you google "john isaac tiger" there are a few sites with John Isaac's work and it is brilliant. And Oly of course. He has a good recent article and Q&A on the NWP website - google will include that one in the list. Top wild-life in the wild work, and worth a look quite aside from camera preferences.

Anything that you can allow yourself time to focus. Anything not happening unpredictably, (like blue wrens darting about, that's not ideal). Any scenery, people who will stand still if threatened that to move is to die, no problem. Portraits excellent. Agility dogs over an obstacle, that's do-able as you can set focus up first. Anything you can fine-tune the focus. Tripods are great, as you can concentrate on the focus without having to hold/move the camera in the same moment. And of course the more you do it, the more second-nature it becomes - and all macro shots are manual focus, so it's a good skill to pick up for macro work. Plus when you are using an auto-focus zoom lens and it starts hunting, you can switch to manual and focus without it being a challenge. The camera was crticised for the lens limitation to AFS. It's a bit of a nonsense, there are more than enough lenses to suit, and it kept the camera price to a level more people could get into DSLR. You'd be wrapt in the 50 1.8 though, and like you say even if possessing it is a bit in the mind, so what! Go ahead with it, manual focus and you get more satisfaction when you nail it.

Yes, good result, but as you know it's only manual focus, so not ideal for all circumstances. Anything else in the 1.4 or 1.8 range will be getting expensive. One way out is to buy a second-hand D50 or D70 body - both good cameras, but superseded by D80/90 etc. D50 and D70 will autofocus the 50 AF lens. Otherwise a useful lens for the D40 is the 18-70mm. That's AFS and is a handy range, sharpest at around 50 (but not a 1.8). What lenses do you have at the moment? If you google for Nikon lenses, Digital Review - or even wikipedia - list AFS lenses for the D40-D60, plus list the cheaper Sigma lenses that will auto-focus on them. The 60 AFS micro is nice, but again getting expensive. The D40 is an excellent camera, I swapped mine to my brother and really regret it.

Yes they keep it complicated. My gear is not covered under my Public Liability. And the cost of cover as "business equipment" was astronomical. So it is just with the contents insurance. And the small print limits the number-of-items pay-out if anything major happens like a break-in or a fire. So my cameras and lenses are severely under-insured at the moment. If just one lens or body is affected it is covered, but not multiple loss or damage in any one year. What ticks me off is that because we live in a severe bushfire risk area, we have to pay a massive extra loading on the insurance. Yet if the worst happens, they write in so many exclusions that you think why bother at all. I really do not like the insurance industry.

So fun - met lots of people at the Carlton walk, and fine weather, fairly overcast, but good light. I took the advice I'd mentioned of just taking a point-shoot, no tripod, nuffink. For a while I felt as if both hands were cut off, but it was really liberating. And I couldn't believe what some people somehow carried, every body, lens and bag they owned: it was a real show-and-tell. There are just a few shots on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/groups/1489280@N23/pool/ I'm not on flickr so nothing there. It was good over a pizza and coffee to look at others' results. It was interesting that there was so much interest from people who stopped to ask what was going on. And jaws dropping: "What, there are Camera Clubs!! Can anyone join, do you have to pass an exam first, how do I.....". So that was one outcome, some PR for clubs and taking the mystique out of it. Now for a better look at the Geelong shots, thanks Helen.