I suggest you wear thermal underwear then, and bring a thick wooly hat and warm scarf, dont forget the gloves, its Bl**dy freezing up here!

As for the OP I think we definately need a seperate photo critique section on the forum, possibly only short term posting as well.

FWIW I think Petes shots are coming on tremendously, I would have been pleased with any of those (well maybe not the sunny highlight one) and I bet the model is happy with them too.

Someone suggested that Pete take more shots and select the best for posting, I would disagree to a point. I think trying to get it right with only a few shots is very commendable, filling a memory card and getting the shot of a lifetime is all well and good, but if you cant recal taking it or what was going through your mind at the time then you aren't going to learn much. Only taking a few shots and being able to remember the way you shot them makes it easier to evaluate your work later and remember what NOT to do next time.

I will agree on one point thought, lose the top.

Quick Edit..... "lose the top" that should have been CHANGE the top

unbiased my @$$

I bet Pete goes out at night with a hunting rifle looking for Canon users
Where else would he get a Canon camera

Seriously tho' John's spot on, the test wasn't controlled enough, the plant pot was about the nearest comparison, and dare I say the Pentax shot seems to have more depth of field?

Dare I say that looking at these pics I would be happy with EITHER camera

Well folks our dreams of visiting New England in the Fall are about to come to fruition, I got confirmation of our booking today and the house sitter sorted, for the guys and gals who replied to my earlier post our itinery is listed below, links to photographic dealers along the route would be a godsend (especially if they stock Pentax or Pentax fit gear This has cost us a small fortune so all you New England users, please stick the leaves back on the trees if they drop too early if the fall is late then you'll have to get the spray cans out

Itinery;
3 nights in Boston,Massachusetts (were gonna find out the American version of what happened )
Pick up rental car, damm it'll be automatic
3 nights In Jackson, New Hampshire
3 nights in Stowe, Vermont
1 night in Sturbridge, Massachusetts
3 nights in Sandwich, Massachusetts
I night flying back to UK

Were also going to try and nip across the borders into Maine and Conneticuit and pass through Rhode Island so we can say we did it all

Allready got the Kancamagus highway listed as a must, all suggestions welcome.

PS; getting old and spending your kids inheritance is wonderfull

My sentiments exactly, I only bought a few recently for K10D reviews, I also might buy the odd one for "in-flight reading material" Todays mags seem to only offer the same re-hashed articles on technique or what kit to take on holiday, I have lost count of the number of times I have read the line ".....and with digital you can shoot as many frames as you like and not worry about processing costs"

True, there are some very good article/interviews with Pro's but I cant justify the expense of a whole mag for a few pages (unless its a Pentax review of course )

I think this is some of the best advice ever posted on a forum, no amount of technical skill is worth a jot if you cant "see" an image.

I have been into photography (or was it playing with cameras) since my early teens, my images were nothing, snapshots, poor ones at that, until a few years ago when I attended evening classes in photography and was encouraged to observe other peoples work and study it, we also had to do a paper on a chosen photographer, I chose Edward Weston as at that time I was impressed with his work with shells and peppers
Our tutor also told us to stop buying photographic magazines and spend the money on decent books, not on technique but on the photographers work.

Following this bit of advice has improved my photography no end, I still dont get it right and its a long way from being even remotely "Pro", I am slowly starting to build a style of my own, this is evident in that members of my camera club can now guess which images are mine in competitions, but dont asK me what my style is, I cant define it

Body armour for a Canon 400D?

So it can be almost as good as A K10D then

If its a Hoya filter then leave it on, if its a brand X then take it off and throw it away or at least save it untill you can afford a Hoya

Excelent point Chris, but the stuff I suggested doesn't really come about from incompetance with a camera, and the OP has clearly demonstrated a capability that probably exceeds my own, (thats why I was having a go at his pics )

I agree totally though, relying on photoshop is not the way to go, getting it right in camera is. There are members of my camera club that will spend hours manipulating an image, and probably win competitions with the end result, but like you say, where will they stop?
I suppose its all a matter of preferance but the debate of how much manipulation constitutes "cheating" will rage for a long time to come.

We are allready seeing the "injustice" of it all in slide competitions, ie those that are straight transparancies competing alongside those that have obviously been made from digital negatives.

PS I must be losing my touch I missed the highlight on the guys head

Very commendable sir!, the "This is what I saw so this is what I took" approach, "I dont want to cheat"
I used to think like that myself, still do to a degree, but now work on the principle that its the final image that counts.

I would draw the line at moving the tree for instance, or shifitng the buildings around, but elements that could have been "moved around" by waiting for the right moment are in my opinion "fair game"

Please note that I wasn't trying to tell you what your images should look like, just making a point of what you could watch out for in the future to (IMHO) improve on composition.

Just try the cloning suggestions and see the change, you dont have to keep it (you might have a point about the dog though )