PossumCorner

Camera House do it - do you have one near you? They call it their Shoe-Box service, give them a shoe-box of old photographs and they will scan all of them and put them onto a disc. For a price: it is well worth joining their VIP membership for the discount price if you have a lot of photos.

Ring Camera House in Croydon and tell them you need a shoe for your camera to suit that model head. They should be able to give you a price and order one for you if they don't carry them. I think they post orders, I've seen them packing lenses for mailing. If the head does come off, you could buy a (better) head and shoe combination, to go onto it. Very limiting just putting the camera onto the top of it, you'd have no tilting or panning adjustment, defeats the purpose. Better to use the head. It looks right to me: push that little lever around, and the silver bit should swing its flat side to the front of the square. Put shoe on camera, slot the shoe in, then push the lever back and the silver disc will spin back and lock the shoe. Well, that's the plan. That was good of your friend to think of you: any tripod is better than no tripod

They are lovely, the fuschia is special. My trick is to cobble the inserts from an old camera bag (I'm also a compulsive with them, you can't have too many) and buy a bag that really grabs me, maybe when all-leather is on absolute special, or end of season specials for the strong bright coloured ones, at say Strand-Bags or Victoria Station. A touch of spray craft-adhesive on a piece of padded lining as an inner lining, then set up the inserts to suit bodies and lenses - with velcro for adjustable or a touch of craft-adhesive again. This way you get the bag of your choice to modify for cameras, and the old camera bags (now without padded inserts) are still handy as storage to keep things dust-free. It's a new dimension in looking at handbags to check if the base, closers, side-pockets will work well. I checked out one of the Oroton shops the other day, there was the most fantastic suitable bag, only $1,300 so I let that pass with it's neat flat base and real gold zip-pullers. It was dark cream, so would have showed the scuff marks a bit. There are some strong glossy mock-alligators around at the moment, brilliant deep greens and reds, watching them for sale-time. The small back-pack camera bag I bought a few weeks ago at The Good Guys has been handy: it was on special $89 down to $35, and holds about the same as the Lowepro MicroTrekker (a lens or body less than the MiniTrekker). It also came with two good lens cloths and two UV filters, which sealed the deal for me.

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There is a thing just now on 'ordinary' TV, the Winter Olympics coverage (joke). Next room, can only hear it. Talking about the Iditarod and having sledding in the winter olympics next time. And an Australian team if it works out.

Yes, - and great job snake catcher. It was good to see some video of it for ID. If I'd seen that one briefly and wild I'd have said red-belly because of the colour underneath: but quite different when you look at it. We caught a young brown snake in the house years ago (let's hear it for large square tupperware containers) and released it up on Black Mountain in Canberra. It only shot a metre away, then stood up full height and was ready to have a go. Cute but scary. The within 5 km of the catch-site is interesting, do you know why this is? With echidnas in Canberra area, the rangers told us not to release the ones saved off the highway near Yass or Goulbourn on Black Mountain because of the gene pool mix, and trying to keep the Canberra ones separate in case future captive breeding was necessary to preserve species. I thought this was a bit far-fetched, but I suppose looking at the Tasmanian Devil programs it does have some merit.

Here is okay (only just). On a website that has a sniff of offering anything for sale, they would be very anti. Their viewpoint is that if some photographers have paid for the right to shoot and sell, no-one should piggy-back on the event without prior permission thus undercutting business from those who've gone through the right formalities and paid for the privilege. Fair enough. Edit to add: Gila it's not exactly a public event: it is run under the rules of the owners/organisers and entry infers acceptance of their rules.

I didn't read all the fine detail and might have missed something. But did you try Shutterbox for a quote? Best in town. I wouldn't go back to a couple of otheres mentioned in the thread in a fit. Shutterbox are on Toorak Road. Website www.shutterbox.com.au - he would be the best (imho and all that) camera repair person in greater Melbourne, they are engineers, do all makes, totally honest not devious, don't over-charge. Might be a fee for a quote if problem not immediately obvious, but it usually is. I wouldn't trust what the others have said until I checked with him. (Them: they are both brilliant). If my camera broke down within warranty, I'd still consider waiving my warranty and going straight to him, that's how confident I am I'd get the best advice and best job.

Just keep the Raw. You can always make a jpeg etc copy again: but you can't replace Raw once you've lost it and that's the one worth keeping. Cull all you can of the copies, but keep the originals. We need to do the same, too much duplication happening again. External drives are great - keep a 'word' document of what is on each of them, to save time looking through archives.

Thanks for these shots, they are the loveliest animals given the chance. In Kenya I knew a woman with a big camel herd, they were loose up in the bad-lands near the Somali border, but would come to her LandRover when she drove out there, and were like friendly ponies, in your pockets for treats and really sweet natures. She used them to give sort of "adventure ride" three-day camping trips. It's so good to see them here being appreciated and used well. There are three or four that give camel rides at the Pet Expo at Caulfield. It was nice to see them back again at the weekend. Yes hope the unwell one will be okay, will they get an exotics vet from Melbourne Zoo to have a look while they are close to them in Healesville, or do they do all their own vetting?

All quite lovely, nice shots. Blizzard where are the tulips? Latvia?? We don't do flowers any more. James, where are the flowers? Ummm. Dunno. Can't see any.

Oh c'mon did you look at all 7000 entries: maybe you've set the bar a bit high, there are some pretty nice shots among them.

Thanks Ashanali (I think). Pioneer Women's blog somehow led to "Lost in Customs" (huge credits to Smugmug, bless him) which led to another HDR tutorial and back to Lynne Glazer who is awesome, so three hours later it's too late to cook anything. Lynne Glazer's website - she also has a good blog there with some thoughts on copyright issues. http://www.photo.lynnesite.com - portfolio worth a few minutes.

I might go for a look on Sunday, it will be the first one for a few years I haven't had Frodo or Rheneas or both in the flyball demo so it will feel a bit odd not having a dog there. Sunday afternoon is good for bargain-hunters: quite a few of the dog-food rep stands have extra discounts on food or promotional "show bags". Saturday flyball should be good at Berwick: and the fire-fighters are going to be showcased opening the Highland Games - can imagine that will be pretty emotional but something special to see with the pipe bands. (Fun/serious dog show too: West Highlands against Scots Terrier, battle of the whites and blacks (and wheatens)).

Did you really mean connect the camera to the computer? I would never do that, nor would most people I know, it's risky, doing this "just because you can" doesn't make it sensible or good practice. Best way is to get a card reader. They are only around $20. Put the memory card into the reader then connect it to the computer, and avoid doing any expensive un-necessary damage to your camera. It is just as quick and easy as direct from camera. The only people who recommend connecting a camera to a computer are commissioned shop assistants trying to sell you features on a camera (care factor zero).

Photographing flowers is good contortionist training, especially the little ground orchids. I still prefer to use a tripod when the conditions allow which isn't that often unless the action is in a fixed area. For a longer day (event) with a tripod where a lower aspect is needed, something like a milking stool or low beach chair avoids the stressed crouch and chin forward pose: no wonder photographers have bad backs. At calisthenics the other day it was mostly sitting or lying on the ground, without tripod because their action pieces were unpredictable. I guess the answer is "whatever it takes".

Very sincere condolences Rocco1 and family, we share your grief. He gave so much joy through your photographs, Roc will always be remembered here.

"complaints about images from customers ... Nikon kit lenses much better ..." As some of us keep saying, it's the person who takes the photo, who is responsible for how "good" the result is so far as composition, focus, backgrounds, exposure are concerned. I'd guess that the people complaining to him about the kit lens image had not learned too many basics and then blamed the kit lens for their results. Of course you get what you pay for, but only up to a point. Sure if used well a more expensive lens will give a better result. But he's comparing oranges with oranges here, kit lenses on entry-level cameras. Not saying bad workmen blame their tools exactly, but kit lenses can produce the goods. So far as Nikon kit lenses being better than Canon, I wouldn't agree. I use Nikon, I prefer Nikon, but to say one is better than another at entry level seems pretty silly. When salespeople say stupid things like that it's annoying, it's misleading (or dishonest), and just fuels the stupid Nikon/Canon wars. I am so over all the snarkiness that is more about ego than brand loyalty.

Okay, thort Qld because of your avatar note. Best camera repair fellow in Melbourne is John at "Shutterbox" in Toorak Road. He is brilliant (also his wife, both engineers). Phone 9809 4711. Address 1163 Toorak Road, Camberwell.

What rotten luck, never heard of that happening, thought only aircraft had fatigue fractures or the like. Can't help with a fix-it place in Qld. But for me I wouldn't take it to a camera store or retailer, in case someone ignorant mucks about with it. Probably it would be worth contacting your nearest camera club (photographic society) and ask them for a recommendation for someone they know is good. Just for that it would be worth joining (probably about $50 for annual membership). I know who to go to in Melbourne but there must be a repair facility to trust somewhere closer to you, and the pros in a camera club would know them by word of mouth, the best recommendation.

If he is honest, and it is a wild wolf, how totally shattering! If only the organisers had stuck to the "old rules" of wild-life photography, of no man-made object in photograph. Then he couldn't have used the twee wooden fence/gate as a prop, just done a wolf-in-snow-forest shot and maybe it would not have won but at least he would have been spared some embarrasment. I thought it was a bit odd when I first saw the shot that they had allowed people-stuff in it, but seems the requirements have changed.

Looks interesting, is it a "formal" sport anywhere? I thought the dog looked quite lame behind, and that it was getting tired. It could work well as a timed team event like Flyball. Next dog goes after previous dog has the ball in and behind the goal-line. It wouldn't have to be two teams running as in flyball: just enough stop-watch-holders to keep it fair. and best team-time wins. Using teams of four or five would still give dogs quite a few runs through the day instead of doing too much at once. It's certainly less equipment to carry around than flyball, I think it would get a good following if a few teams could demonstrate at competition standard.

Just an add-on for Vistaprint. They are only a medium, like workman-like quality, not high or extra-fine quality. Turnaround is about two weeks: the last lot of stuff I ordered through them came from Holland. I'd expected it from USA, I don't think they print in Australia now, but possibly New Zealand. Oh and after you 'join up' to order something you will get endless emails from them advertising specials, but it's always handy to know what they can do.

An opinion on a business card is like critiquing someone's favourite photograph. It's a very personal thing. The photo backgrounds look good initially, but sometimes defeat their purpose if the wording is not crystal clear against the busy background. For myself, if I am looking at a business card I don't want pictures or cartoons or even cleverly designed logos: just the details I need professionally clear and readable, black text on a white card is fine. If the business name is not the person's name, I also prefer the name of the person I will be ringing made clear. I think my point is that if they don't know the name of the person they are calling, and can't read the phone number easily, they are not as likely to ring. Your black and white draft is good, smarter than a small photo. Vistaprint are doing free biz cards as a promo at the moment. Double-sided printing on them if you prefer it is a few dollars, delivery is a few dollars. You can design your own from scratch using your own images, photos or logo, or use their templates as a starting point so it's easy.

These are great for lenses, very safe and strong. Bunnings had them a while ago, our local Bunnings is sold out, think we got the last two. They only had them as a one-off, tho I guess they'll get more eventually. Forget the price but on special for the last few I'm sure they were still way over $50. Then I looked at something similar in the city (at a camera store) something like $250 and didn't seem any better for the purpose. (Edit to add: Bunnings guy said they were just over $100 each before they went off-range. Bump for Ravyk, good camera gear cases).