bickster

oh and Jessops Suck donkey shit, I actually went in the southport branch t'other day looking for a new battery charger, they could order me one (I expected that - hardly standard stock afterall) but I got this curious rsponse "hmmm minus 39, that means we have 39 on order but it appears head ofice have only ordered 20 to cover that demand so you mifght wait a while" "Its alright mate I'll order it off the net and get it in two days"

I've got the tamron 70-300 lens myself (nikon mont obviously but the same lens), its a decent lens for when you want to take just one lens with you on a snapping day but it suffers from barrell distortion at the low end, the auto focus does hunt a little and its not taht sharp at the 300 end Its not a bad knockabout just wandering around a city centre wiothout being bogged down by loads of equipment type of lens, but if you want to get a serious days photography in you'll find it extremely frustrating (the auto focus hunting especially)

Like I said further up Juju, If I was starting out now I'd go Canon, so yes to the 350D. I'd go body only though as the kit lens isnt reckoned to be that good, So like Peter said buy a good lens to go with it camera shops in the soft underbelly of england

another one, this time photoshopped to look like a thermal image

My foot and the planks that are the floor of the pier reflected in a mirrored "piece of art - Statue thingy" at the end of the pier. All I've done to it is crop the picture and alter the colours

nother one from yesterday, not so boring this one

the football image works because of the lines that lead your eye through the image, the ones on the ball and the diagonal curve in the grass through the centre of the image

Nice, I've got a few lines on the beach shots somehwere, I'll dig em out

One for Wurzel, went to Southport today, took my camera so I could shoot the pier that never reaches the sea and as you can see, today was one of those RARE days when the sea actually came in :roll: - bloody typical That newish bit on the end has a cafe in it (this I knew - and is nothing special) but it also has an amusement arcade in it - so fecking what you might say! well i was shocked, its more of a working amusement arcade museum, lots of really old amusement arcade machines and they all work, best of all they work with those big old pennys (imperial) - you put a quid in a change machine and get ten old pennies out, the slot machines are on the max payout I think as you do wiin quite often (the idea being you get to try more machines for your money), superb waste of half an hour, my opinion of the Worlds first Iron pleasure pier (another fact wot I learned today) has gone up considerably - still prefer yours Wurzel for photography though

theres only one Panorama software worth having - its called Autopano - its something you have to pay for unless of course you know where to get a :roll: slightly naughty copy from :roll: (Pm me I might just be able to help there) Autopano is so good that Adobe have just bought the company just to get the software Oh and anyone who needs to process RAW files use the Free version of Rawshooter less features than the pay for pro version but it still outperforms PS in the Raw processing stakes (rumour has it Adobe is buying this company too) Edit - just went to the RAWshooter website and low and behold its plastered with Adobe stuff, they've been bought out too

Same beach from above this time and a one shot not a stitch

I found my old OM-10 just t'other day, thinking of getting it serviced to see if its still useable, its quite cheap to buy second hand lenses for as theres still plenty to be found in condition. You would with an OM-10 though need a little plug in thingymabob called a manual adapter to give you true control over everything. But as long as it works it works but one thing you need to make sure of is that the film chamber is light fast (ie it doesnt let light in) - only way to check this is shoot some film

And after two bottles of very strong ale, I just realised, your photo shows almost the start of the Welsh coast and mine if you look on the left hand side shows almost the finish of it at the other end - Bristol channel > Dee Estuary, taken on the same day thats kinda neat

And you wanted to see what I got up to today, well this is the beach panorama I'm working on, very much a work in progress, much to do, curvature of horizon needs sorting, ghosts of the walkers (my missus and daughter) need cloning out, few other bits and bobs need sorting too Anyway even the picture the thumbnail leads to is only 2/7ths of the full size - its seven photos stitched together

Wurzel That pier is a bit of a draw for photographers, seen it a few times in magazines. If thats close to you - you're a lucky man, my closest Pier is Southport - its a) very shit and it only reaches the sea twice a year (you think I'm joking). Best piers close to me (relatively speaking) are the ones in Blackpool which are great for photo's - I've taken a few of my best ever shots there

sunsets early there doesnt it, hours to go yet Don't know they are coming off the card as we speak, might have had a decent beach panorama, have to see how it stitches first though

Cartman forgot about that

yes but did the harmony's belong to Elvis or Cave?

Picasa is limited though, Elements is good for starters, theres not a lot it cant do that photoshop can Thats the thing with digital, nearly every shot needs to be shopped in some form or other even if its just sharpening, its the way cameras are set up

we had a **** FANTASTIC sunset on Monday night, the sort where the sky looks like its on fire, where was I? in the bloody office Don't know whether I've put this one on here before but its my fave sunset shot, the colours are just unreal but we get these here two or three times a year, usually in the autumn

Love that one wurzel! I'm going out for the day tommorrow, see If I take anything worthwhile

Pah you can't help some people You cant create those things from where you were, the point is to find somewhere you can, thats why landscape photography isnt as easy as turn up and take photo, theres a lot of legwork and research goes into it and most good landscape photography requires shooting either in the first or last hours of daylight ("the golden Hours") as the light is considered to be better. thats how all those great landscape pictures you see on calenders and the like are created However if you like the photo the way it is thats also fine, its all personal opinions, if it means something to you thats the best reason in the world for liking it Is the foreground as dark on your screen as it is mine btw?

Yes Pete, absolutely sound advice with regards lens BUT with Digital photography the body will make a difference, pixel count does matter as do the various features a camera has. For example my Nikon D70 is provong to be a problem for me now because it won't shoot at an ISO lower than 200, this wouldn't be an issue with a film camera because the ISO is governed by the film you put in but in digital its in camera, also theres various features like noise reduction that some makes are better at than others for the higher ISO settings. If you want a full frame digital you'll have to spend serious money as the cheapest Fullframe digital body on the market is the Canon 5D (about £1800 body only last time I checked). There are a lot more issues with digital bodies than there ever were with film If I was starting now from scratch I'd go down the Canon route as their lens are fractionally better and there isnt a lot to choose between the bodies, When I bought in, the entry level dSlr bodies of Both companies the Nikon won hands down. Kit lens wise the Canon Kit lens with the Canon350 (the one you mentioned Peter) isnt as good as the kit lens bundled with the nikon D70s. its a minefield out there and you have to be informed in your purchase

few more mins work, sharpened it up and burned in a few areas and tried ( :roll: ) to balance out the sky with the foreground

the landscape needs abit of shopping Al, thought I'd have a quick bash before i got in the bath very roughly and two mins work - took longer for PS to fire up shame about the telephone wire, really didnt have time to clone that out as a view from my window type snap its not bad, still no real point of focus, no leading lines and no compositional rules On a positive point it has a couple of weak diagonals and a nice interesting sky but not that bad can't really comment on Aston kicking a ball as I'm crap at action photogtraphy myself