I'm told there's someone around here offering wedding shoots for £50.

Problem is, most of their customers love the results because they've never seen anything better. A local pro (who told me the story) reckoned that, as might be expected, they were dingy, lacking originality, and didn't do the subjects any favours.

The other side of that debate is that they're catering to people who wouldn't book anything more expensive, so they're not really taking business away from other pros in the area.

In the case mentioned above said photographer may well find it hard or impossible to progress their business having offered freebies, as while you'll find plenty of customers who book you for nothing the repeat business will probably hang up when informed that you're now charging.

If you want to get into the market then talk to established pros and convince them to take you along as a second camera for a few events, that'll get you the experience without having any effect on reputation. If anything it should help, as you can put something like "experienced professional now starting own business" in adverts.

I've got the plain 3-section ally legs and ballhead, it's a bit heavy but it'll handle the biggest Pentax-fit lenses you can lay hands on without sagging or drooping. I've had a Sigma 150-500mm on with no trouble, even Bronica medium format gear doesn't bother it.

You get an interchangeable centre column for when you want to get right down to ground level, I've never used it but it's there. As the ballhead uses standard Arca Swiss-type fittings you can buy spare QR plates very easily in various lengths (and I think L-brackets to make it easier to mount the camera in portrait orientation).

Been having fun with overpriced tyre retailers. Sorry, but I'm not paying £140 more to get them from ATS than it'll cost me to mail order and have ATS fit them!

Also vague ebay sellers who don't answer the questions they've been asked. Watching a lens at the moment where the seller has been asked "are there marks/scratches/fungus" and the response is along the lines of "If you want a mint lens I suggest you give this one a miss". Not terribly helpful really! Fungus I can deal with but scratches are obviously a deal breaker.

To be honest you can learn the absolute basics pretty rapidly just by playing around. Put your K-r on Av, set the ISO manually (try anywhere between 100 to 400 outside depending on weather) and experiment. You'll soon find how aperture and depth of field go together, then on to backlit subjects and exposure compensation when the camera can't meter accurately. Don't worry if you end up with rough compositions or fuzziness where you wanted sharpness, just try again with different settings. It costs nothing to do so with digital.

Do that now and you'll arrive on day 1 of the course knowing what all the important buttons do and how it affects the image, leaving you ready to handle the more advanced stuff the lecturers will cover.

Keep looking, I'm pretty sure mine was closer to £10 (minty and cased)!

Depends on how fast you want it really, but if you're prepared to wait and watch for a while you can usually find things cheaper.

It depends on what you want to do, really.

If you want to turn pro quickly then a qualification of some sort will probably help you to get work experience or "second camera" gigs with established photographers by showing that you're serious.

What it won't necessarily do is make you an original, creative photographer. I'm not sure what the B-tec is like but I get the distinct impression that a lot of courses just teach the currently fashionable techniques and compositions. You'll be technically competent but it won't necessarily inspire you, as the subjects and locations they use could easily leave you cold.

I've seen people who've passed all sorts of courses, but their images are predictable. They end up with compositions just like the ones in the magazines which obey all the rules, but never explore beyond those. I know I take a lot of terrible photos, mostly because I'll keep trying unlikely angles and subjects until it fits together. Case in point, I only managed to make something original from the Claerwen dam this summer after about ten years of trying!

I seem to have picked up photography 60s style, judging by "The Asahi Pentax Way". The suggestions relating to technique and composition are pretty close to what I was doing anyway.

The current P-TTL flashes won't work.

My advice would be to hunt down an AF200T (very under-rated and therefore quite cheap) or an AF280T. Both support TTL, program flash, auto flash and various manual power output settings. They have safe trigger voltages for digital and have a surprising degree of automation with Pentax DSLRs.

Pentax did offer a contraption for powering motor winders from a car battery or mains supply, but I don't know if they've done anything for flashes?

Mind you, walking around with a deep cycle battery in a backpack would probably get you arrested in some places these days!

This is slightly convoluted thinking and may display a misunderstanding of DOF, but...

Surely on a variable aperture zoom the minimum distance will be shorter at whichever end has the slower maximum aperture? On the basis that DOF extends in front of the subject as well as behind, anyway?

I'd imagine it to be in the order of millimetres but still, it must have some effect?

I often suspect the battery type plays a big part too - fresh lithium or similar batteries will recharge faster than standard alkalines, giving you more flashes per minute (for want of a better way of putting it!)

If you can't justify or afford a system like the Quantum one then this might be a cheap way to upgrade what you already have. I know my local Tesco has 4-packs of Energiser Ultimate Lithium AAs for £7. Used in my K-m these gave around six months or about 600-800 images, although I've now switched to Eneloops on the grounds that they can be recharged.

Do all remote power packs/mains PSUs tend to be of the "instant 300v" type?