tried to find one or get advice but no luck.
Can anyone tell me a good make and where to get it cheaply please?
I have polarising filter which will kill a bit of light for now but I need a graduated filter to avoid spending hours in PhotoShop!

My comments certainly look harsh when taken out of context.
Just for the record, I wasn't suggesting that the sharpen tool was used here. I have been using PS since 92 so I feel qualified to help out occasionally. When I leave instructions they are for interested parties reading the thread not necessarily for the OP.

I think my comments were not only balanced and properly constructive, but very favourable towards the image itself. I call a spade a spade so that people can take my comments seriously. Quite often when I post an image it is because I suspect it is lacking something and I wouldn't want a load of sycophantic guff, I would want someone to tell me where I was going wrong and how to fix it.

I think philstaff took it the way it was meant.
chrisA, you're right of course, I wouldn't dream of stopping people filling this forum with pictures of ducks and there's plenty to be learned from it, but if I have to be less than honest about my thoughts then I think I will just go somewhere else where you are allowed to think bad things

When I saw the title of the thread, I kinda groaned and thought, 'here we go, another lame shot in a park', but actually this is a really nicely composed shot, very pleasant to look at and worth the effort.
I agree about the sharpening and I notice your camera (or something) is set to hard sharpening.
Maybe a more selective (post process) sharpening around things like eyes and water droplets but avoiding the neck line and definitely keeping well away from the blurred areas will help. There should be negligible noise in a 200 ISO image in daylight.
I only say this 'cos it's a good shot and well worth getting just right.

BTW, for those who are interested, selective sharpening doesn't involve the sharpen tool! it means sensitive use of unsharp mask or similar thru a mask or using the history brush to carefully regain the soft areas after sharpening.

That's a beauty Simon, seems like a good lens.
Can't offer any advice on wildlife I'm afraid. It seems that patience and a fast lens is the key to a truly first-class shot... I am guessing, because I have neither and no wildlife shots worth keeping ... in fact I haven't even got many of the dog unless he's fast asleep!

not sure what you were advised about the effect of aperture but I love the ones with a shallow depth of field.

But they are all corkers! well... apart from the out of focus fly and the 'orrible maggot thingy

I love those silver metalic flies, they look really mechanical and the hard focus works really well on them.

The American forum is doing a competition on yellow macro, maybe your fly on a yellow deck should go in there. Worth a punt.

Great images, I like number 1 coming in to land.
Watch out for over sharpening - it manifests itself in noise, lines around things and just an over contrasty effect. well worth having a play, I'd like to see a couple with softer processing, or more selective sharpening.
mind you, I use LCD monitors which can be a bit unforgiving.

Do you get many of these bugs stuck in your teeth when you grin on the mororcycle? now that would be a picture.

I had a bumbly bee in the eye once, not nice... like being punched, but that's another story.

Any comments? I'm not putting it here as an example of good photography so fire away
SMC M 50mm 1:7, wide open.

Aj, I think yours is the sun catching each spoke and making a pretty and consistent patern.
I went out again today and took a load of images mostly SR off (no difference) and at different speeds and the slow ones definately show this the best.
I think when you pan smoothly, there is always a part of the wheel (particularly the bottom part attached to the road - not moving up or down or against the direction of the road) that is effectively stationary to the sensor or scribing a smooth image across it.
But because there are several spokes, each arc is burnt onto a slightly different place.
So I think the Spirograph theory wins

... now to PhotoShop a dog into the driving seat.

cheaky monkey!
seriously tho' you could be right.

focal length 16mm, I may have been swinging up and down as well as sideways, although the sweep of the greenery seems consistent.
The wheels suggest a twist in the camera as I panned.
Maybe there's twist, vertical movement and hand shake and the SR trying to kick in

if the sensor is being moved up and down then it must stop at each extreme and so 'burn' a stronger image onto the sensor at that moment.

Still can' figure it out tho', I'm just going to do it again in the same situation with the SR off. if it continues to do it then my money is on the 'facets of the wheel reflecting more at certain points' theory.