Nice, have you tried turning it round so the 'Lightning & Storm are at the top? Somehow it doesen't make me want to fall over so much.

I'll keep this simple!
I think the dark diagonals add to the shot, enhancing the brutal feel to the subject. A powerful shot.

Not all the world is pretty and the man who can only spell a word one way lacks imagination!

I bought at that price, from pc world, a few weeks ago and apparently they had a few in stock. This was in Reading.
Very pleased with it! There are one or two pics in the gallery.

Does seem a bit serious, couldn't you get him to smile?

Maplin are doing their own brand lithium AA's, £3.99 for 4 at the moment.

I use them in a small compact I carry everywhere, don't take a lot of pictures with it but they have been in the camera for about3 years. Used it this week, no problems, still plenty of life!

Just seen your website, you have some great shots on there.

I noticed that you have the same picture, in colour, from the top of Yr Garn. That picture is of different proportions to the one on this thread and I think that is the first problem. The picture above is streched, distorting the picture and is flatening the landscape.

In your colour picture the foreground slope has a much greater tonal range, adding depth and distance to the picture. The subtle differences in the colour of the grass add depth that has been removed in the mono high contrast view above. Try lowering the contrast, mono is not only about black and white, drama is good but it's not everything.

By the way how can you posibly suggest that this shot was taken on a hazy day. Most day i'm out in snowdonia i don't dare getting the camera out of its waterproof case as the 'haze' tends to soak it in seconds!

I think the clouds are great but knowing this view well I think there is a fundamental flaw in the picture. The mountains look flat!

There are hundreds of metres of vertical hight between the lakes and they now look as if they are next to each other.

The wide angle lens has flattened the landscape in the first instance. The high contrast is just flatening it further by reducing the tonal range of the vegetation and rocks, particularly in the foreground. This is why the slope looks flat, there is no change in tone to suggest depth and distance. Although contrast adds drama to a picture, it also lowers the range of tones in the picture as well.

It may be better in colour? Not always the case as the vegitation can be a bit monotonous at times when the sheep have eaten it all! Often there is marked differences in the tones and that difference is multiplyed by three in colour.

The Pentax 100mm macro was £350 a couple of weeks ago in PC world. Really enjoying it!

Have a look on ebay, loads of stuff there. Search for sky4 slave.

Are you using normal battery flashguns? If you are, remember that they are much lighter than studio flash and you can improvise a lot more.

Microphone stands are cheap, got a couple of boom mike stands in Lidl supermarket, I think they were about £7.00 each! Most flashguns and the cube slaves can be bolted to home made brackets using 1/4" Whitworth screw threads.
Reflectors and the like are all around us. White and coloured card, silver radiator foil from B&Q. Car sunshades come in silver and gold foil, with white on the back. Check out your local Pound shop for white poly decorating sheets for defuser and reflector material. Also good for sets of spring clips to hold all this material in place. Bits of polystyrene for reflectors. Garden centre for that weed control fabric as matt black 'reflector'.

Just a few ideas but ingenuity is the key.

Thank you all for the help.

I have had a chance to have a good play with it now and I'm really pleased with the results so far. Put a couple of shots in the gallery yesterday.