Hello Darren and welcome! I don't have a K-r (only K-x and K-m), but if the K-x is anything to go by it will be a blisteringly good camera. Plenty of shots taken with the K-r in the Gallery, I would encourage you to have a look and post some of yours when you feel able to.

Hope you enjoy your purchase!

Regards
David

Happy Christmas Shaun, thank you for your help and for meeting us in the lakes for a day in your habitat, will return the favour as soon as I can but don't expect any tips from me as I don't think I could teach you anything (except how to use the remote control on 'bulb' shots without any elastic bands being utilised!).

Regards
David

PS ordered an Infra-red filter - waiting for it to arrive!

I have a Chinon 50mm F1.9 and it is superb. It is very sharp, renders colours superbly and does not display any of the colour aberrations seen here. I suspect these may be caused by processing; do you save your jpegs at 100% quality, or does your software apply compression? The colour stepping on the first one looks typical of a compressed jpeg to me.

Regards
David

I've never seen one either, despite being just East of centre. Absolutely stunning shot Steve, congratulations.

Regards
David

I would suggest the opposite to John Riley in terms of the aperture, as I think wider apertures work better on these shots. My suggestions would be:

1. Tripod is an absolute must, long exposures are necessary, often 10 seconds or more.
2. Use soft, low lighting (the actual Christmas tree lights are good, supplemented by soft lamplight or candlelight).
3. Use a fixed focal length lens with good bokeh for maximum quality, the old Takumars work brilliantly for this type of shot. Use a telephoto to get the right Depth of Field effects.
4. Set a wide aperture to get your subject in sharp focus, with lovely out of focus effects in the background.
5. Composition is everything! Make sure your main subject is interesting and not positioned centrally. Ensure you have interest in the background like some lights, or some other decorations
6. Choose a green tree, not a silver one as the contrasts between the decorations and the tree are better.
7. Take lots of exposures and bracket them. It is not easy to get these shots right!

I am not an expert on these pics, but I have had some nice comments on the ones I have posted. Please have a look at my Gallery pics for some examples.

Regards
David

Both a hood and a filter. Better safe than sorry - I've never had any issues with flare or reflections on my 55-300 with a filter and hood attached.

Regards
David

I think some of the comments are a little patronising. She looks like an attractive young woman to me, with skin very much like 99% of the population. She has great facial structure and the portrait although straight on is very strong. I think you have done her proud and I wouldn't change anything on your pictures. This was not a fashion shoot.

Regards
David

We're bringing Oxtail Soup. BTW we might be a little after 9am - the RAC routeplanner says it's going to take us 2 hours 43 minutes! I think we can do it in 2 hours 20, so might be 9.30-ish. My son Daniel is difficult to get out of bed (teenager) but I will kick him out at 6am so we're not late!

Cheers
David

Matt, I really like the style of the site, the only problem I have is the speed it loads the images and the general navigation speed is a bit frustrating. This is clearly not your issue, it is the technology used by the site. If I were a potential customer I would probably not spend too much time on the site, not because of the way it looks or the photos, but simply due to the speed and frustrating way it defocusses images and takes a long time to open them. Would you be better with something like foliopic?

Regards
David

Fantastic shot Shaun, well deserving of a competition win! Please tell us that you are going to sell the Canon!

Looking forward to the day out tomorrow, hope we don't come across any Tigers!

Regards
David