Looking at the EXIF ISO setting was at 200 so I am assuming lack of light on the first one.

On the second one same ISO setting but its out of focus. Just wondering if it was camera shake or just plain out of focus. Anyway my modest opinion on this is f/2.8 is definitely way too open and even with that shutter speed was 1/60 only. Bumping ISO perhaps would have helped. But that out of focus would still have been a problem.

PentaxBabe did you use tripod and autofocus? Try focusing manually, works better on certain shots. Also my advice is get a wireless shutter release from SRS, its going to be one of your best investments, they are so cheap. I felt a huge difference in my macros when I started using wireless shutter release. I do not use it always, but on certain shots where I am very close or I feel that I need to use it I make full use of it. Works wonders.
You will be surprised at the sake the camera suffers even when you press the shutter release button. Very minute but still affects the image depending on how you press it. It takes a lot of experience to be able to press that shutter release button without affecting movement of the camera. I certainly have a long way to go until I master that skill , so until I get good at it the wireless remote is constantly in my pocket whenever I have a camera with me

Hope this helps

You mean upload rather than download is it?

If my assumption is correct then its just like Scott mentioned. Join the penatx magazine then you can do it too

Wonderful shots Bob, they are all stunning in my view. And yes the second one my favourite one it is

Hi PentaxBabe
Just as Stefan said I also think the images look pretty good. I personally think that all of them look quite good, considering that you haven't done any post processing work at all I think the images are very good.

The first one with a noise reduction would get more enhanced in my opinion.
The others also are not bad at all, and may I say quite an improvement from your images that you were taking hardly a week or so ago, if you dont mind me saying . You seem to have come a long way.

Lil Andy

I can't see the EXIF on the water drops images but one thing I can assure you, you were way way out of focus. You were nowhere near the focus on what you said a floating lid. Hmmm hold on, how big was the lid? Was the lid same diameter as the jar? If that's the case then no wonder you were thrown so out of focus.

For water drops you need to put something of the diameter of the intended water drop precisely on the surface of the fluid where you are expecting the drop to fall. Welcome to macro focusing

If you put things bigger than the spot you intend to get the focus on then its almost like aiming to reach Birmingham but taking the M4 and ending in Bristol instead

Even during what you call "summer nights" if you get the settings correctly you get the darkness required around the trailing lights.

rbubbly
this subject has already been touched in one of the threads. This card has been around for a while now.

I personally do not see any sense in getting one, unless you have specific use for it. I remember somewhere around here or might have been in another forum being discussed that probably good idea for event photographers or wedding photographers who want to have easy and prompt access to images shot immediately to the laptops to be vewed by guests.
Otherwise I prefer to take my images and finish the shoots and then sit with the card on my pc and start the reviewing and post processing work. Personally I hate to snap a few and check on the laptop, then go back and snap again and keep checking. For that I have tried tethering, but not my cup of tea either.

Rees,
I am afraid it's not as simple as that. The police in the event of a crime having been committed and having a culprit, they do have to provide burden of proof that the alleged crime was committed by the individual accused. But just because the individual says that he or she was somewhere else during the time of the crime being committed it doesn't mean that the burden of proof falls only upon the police to provide evidence that links the accused to the crime. The accused also has the legal obligation to provide sufficient evidence and proof that he or she was wherever he or she was during the alleged crime.

What do you think lawyers rely upon in courts? This is precisely the ping pong evidence game that they shove on each other. And then the judge or juri has the unenviable task of deciding whose evidence lacks in consistency and pin the culprit. Could well be in certain cases that the evidence that the police provides falls short of convincing them even though it might be the correct one. That's how criminals get away.

This is just my take on things
Karl, you seem to have ample proof to easily provide evidence that you were miles away during the events taken place. I am sure you won't have any trouble at all getting this one off your back

Lil Andy
light trails I can't say much on them as I have no clue about those images. I have seen them and when they are spot on they look great. Yours seem to be full of light instead of being dark overall except the light trails, so may be you could work on that.

Now about water drops, sorry but they are all out of focus. Best is for you to restart the whole process from the basics including aperture settings also as you have to control the DOF really well, otherwise they will come up with the images of things that you might not want to include like that table cloth or whatever is on the bottom of the jar. Unless of course that was your idea to begin with, to include that in the shot and make it visible.

But from what I see focusing is really your main problem. They are way out of focus unfortunately. You might also have to read and check about lighting and the angles, although I know that it is possible for certain shots to use the onboard flash, but general consensus including some of the best shots of water drops I have seen, all agree that you have to bounce the light in order to get the best images. But these rules are not cast in stone, as with all these type of photography, in my modest opinion and mind you from a newbie's point of view like mine, experimentation is the best.

Hope this helps, and keep trying

Hmm, I didn't get it, what is it that you miss and in which lens? You mean the Pentax 100mm? But if they are both the same, the tamy and the pentax how come you miss the pentax? "scratching my head now" you got me all twisted there Mike, go on explain me again. Or is it too late in the day now probably for one of us to make sense of anything tricky ha .

Well, catch you all tomorrow, I hear its going to be another hot day