The GR - which after all is family now - pops up on one site I've just looked at. I suppose the truth is that Pentax seems historically to have put less effort into its compacts than some other brands -- the well-regarded but slightly quirky Q and MX-1 recent exceptions.

A very sour experience, and one that I hope resolves itself sooner rather than much later. But it's a bit of a marathon from that to your post's headline. In one area at least, Pentax already has good claim to being a pro brand, with its medium-frame camera.

Sometimes a degree of messiness is inherent in a scene, and can be part of its attraction. Sometimes it is a distraction in an otherwise 'perfect' shot and yet could not be avoided at the time of capture. I am a failed purist when it comes to such imperfections. Mostly, I leave them alone. Partly out of indolence, partly because I want to be as true as I can to what I've seen with my own eyes. But I am not above a bit of visual cheating. One of my shots from a while back, taken with a fisheye, included in prominent position the famous London Transport emblem. It was part and parcel of a scene on the Underground little changed from the 1940s (and so not just any view), but the electric roundel was showing its age and glowing orange rather than red in a number of places. I filled the roundel, courtesy of Photoshop, with approved LT red. A cheat? Of course. It gives the photograph more impact at the expense of potentially disappointing (in a rather modest way) anyone who goes to this magnificent station having seen my photograph.

So, I'm in no position to offer a lecture on the sins of cloning & c. But if it's done, it should at least be done openly. Posters should perhaps be encouraged to tell us whether they have bent nature or the built environment to their will.

As for the photographs that stimulated this discussion in the first place, they are exceptionally good. But I also appreciated the criticisms, which made me look at them afresh. They didn't alter my initial judgement, but nor did I think they were 'overly critical'.

What have I browsed that prompted Google to believe I was a prospective customer for an Acorn Stairlift?

Perhaps after a dawn-to-dusk shoot, it's just what a photographer needs..

Currently, Asda are trying to tempt me, along with the Univ of Herts (for a photography degree course), SRS, and Clifton Cameras. It could be worse (!), and the ads could easily be more intrusive, breaking up threads -- as it is, apart from the banner ad at the top, they sit snugly in the rt-hand column.

Since the ads are provided by Google based on some relationship to past browsing, we largely (if unwittingly) choose our own poison.

I only opened the thread because of Smeggy's comment in the preview panel. Otherwise, I'd probably have given it a miss -- what an error of judgement that would have been. These are well-isolated examples, well lit ... well worth viewing.

I think only Peter Pan went around (for a while) without a shadow. All the ghosts I've seen had theirs attached.

I'm sure you're right about underinvestment, though I'm not sure it has much to do with Hoya. Magezine [sic] Publishing Limited, which owns the site, presumably has little incentive to upgrade the experience, since it is such a niche site with low levels of traffic. MPL also owns Ephotozine, which I suspect absorbs most of its attention and the lion's share of any investment there is to be had.

When Pentax has nudged Canon and Nikon out of top position I'm sure things will improve.

HugBubble, good to 'meet' you in person. You'll have an interesting cover by the end of the process and will discover for yourself what works and what doesn't. You may find that having the title in black will not separate it sufficiently from the photograph. You need to pull away a bit from the existing colours -- something in the yellow spectrum or perhaps the red, eg, would achieve that. If you drop the opacity far enough on the back panel and use a strong typeface, your idea for the blurb should work. If you do find typeface and image fighting with one another, you could always replace the image in the panel with a colour, either solid or tint.

Good luck with the project.

This thread confirms my 40-year experience as a publisher: that although there are some 'rules' to follow, getting all interested parties to agree on a design can be challenging! By the way, don't diss the cliché. The first two duties of a cover are to 1) make the reader want to pick up the book, 2) reveal its nature. Clichés can have a role in the second.