Thanks, Davex and Gwyn, for the info. So much for Flickr.

Al

All in all, a decent picture of a small deer. Sure, it's not in the ideal position in relation to the house if that's a feature you want to include but I doubt your subject would have stayed put long enough to allow you to have found a better viewpoint. I'm no expert in wildlife photography but it takes a lot of time, patience and skill to capture your quarry with the perfect background. I straightened the pic, cropped it and added some blur in the background to isolate the deer a little. Thanks to John's advice, this may appear somewhere with this post.

Cheers

Al

link

Thanks, John. Blindingly obvious, really. I didn't realise photos had to be parked in cyberspace to post them here. This opens up a whole new world.

Thanks again

Al

There's no one down the pub yet so I was at a bit of a loose end and tried fiddling with the pic. Not a howling success but I thought I'd post it anyway. I'm damned if I can figure out how to post it in the forum. Any tips would be appreciated.

Aero

Hi, Pauly,

Another great shot

I hate to admit it but, after a seven-year stint in London some time ago, I don't have even one photo that comes close to your work. On post-processing (as they like to call it now), I used Photoshop for years but have now settled on Serif PhotoPlus as my software of choice. Few professionals (and I know many) come close to using even 20% of the features in Photoshop. I'm lucky if I've used 10% of features of PhotoPlus, which is well up to professional standards. If you send me a PM with your address, I'll happily send you a disc and instructions for PhotoPlus version 11, which I'm sure will do everything you want. Dodge and burn is no problem. Serif is quite happy for customers to pass on earlier versions when they upgrade in the hope that they get hooked on the product.

Keep up the good work, and I'd even even be prepared to cough up the postage if it would encourage you to produduce more splendid photos.

Al Rogers

Strange things, these memory cards. Two Kingston Class 6 4MB cards failed to work properly in my GX10 or Samsung NV5. MyMemory.com happily replaced them with a Sandisk Extreme III 4MB and there have been no problems since then in either camera. Park, where I bought the GX10, recommended the Sandisk Extreme III and I should have taken their advice in the first place -- although, from other posts, there seem to be no guarantees in this game.

Al

The scoop here would be the story rather than the photos. Most of the national daily papers would pay you for the news tip if no one else had the story.

Al

I fear the only way you're going to make any money out of this, Conexus, is to charge your friend or his company for taking what they would regard as some PR photos. Newspapers won't pay for mugshots of someone in the news (no matter how skilfully taken) when the company will happily provide them free to the press, distributed through the likes of Reuters or the Press Association. If you happen to grab a shot of the CEO of a major company naked with a film star, though, you could always try the News of the World. It's possible you could sell a photo to a business publication or a picture agency, but not if the company is then going to hand them out for nothing. If your pal is going to be president of a "multi-billion, new international motor manufacturing company", he shouldn't object to paying you what the job is worth.

Good luck

Al

Hi, Nilecrane,

The four-way controller on my GX10 (also from Park) seems fine, with no excessive play, although I can't compare it with Pentax models. Might be worth asking Park to have a look at it or finding another GX10 to make a comparison.

Al

Hi, I've used a Visioneer One Touch 8700 flatbed scanner for several years and, although they're less well known or popular than Canon or Epson, they do as good a job, to my humble eye. Sadly, that model isn't made any more, but I wouldn't write off the brand if you can find a new model with the price and spec you're looking for. I've got no experience of a flatbed that also handles negs and slides but you'd certainly get better quality from a dedicated film scanner. The Plustek seems to be remarkably good value for money, although its ability to handle dark slides lags a little. It should be fine for negs.

Good luck with your search

Al