I'm with everyone else Pete, I like it a lot, I love this sort of shot.

Only thing I can say regards competition material is.....the textures dont seem to go together, thats just my opinion but it would be interesting to hear what others think about it.
Maybe if you had an assortment of just feathers (every colour but red) then just one big red feather replacing the fabric diagonal......I could be talking rubbish here but it may be worth a try and comparing the results.

Despite our comments though dont be disheartened if it doesn't "qualify"
I remember entering my first camera club comp. I had a slide of brightly coloured lollipop sticks arranged in a repeating pattern on the diagonal, I got first place with it, then the Interclub Secretary asked if they could use it in the upcoming round of the Interclub Slide Comp. I went along to see what coments it got and was gutted when the judge said it was lacking interest and gave it a very poor score.

Had much better luck with the image below tho' I think the title got it most of its marks...."Bags of Colour"

Well folks, today I actually took off my shiny new Bigma and replaced it with my trusty old Pentax 80-320, this is the first time I've used it on the K10D and at first I was a little dissapointed, to be fair I was trying to focus amongst a load of twigs and branches but I eventually gave up and switched to Manual focus.

I am quite pleased with the results, especially as I was handholding and poking the lens through a 10"x5" hole in a fence.

Cropped to around 1/3rd original and tidied up a bit (photoshop tree pruning)

I think a better option would be an auto bracketing facility where the camera takes ONE image and then writes a further two to the users prefered settings. this would be ideal for things that are likely to move during exposure like birds.

Currently we have a typical scenario of;
frame 1, turns out OK but not brill'
frame 2, not quite right
frame 3, exposure right on the nail, only the thing flew away so all you have is a perfectly exposed blur!

OK OK, I know there is a lot of leeway with RAW and it would probably only be of use with jpeg but whats the point of having auto-bracketing if your going to push or pull the image later

PS; am I allowed to use the terms push and pull for digital?

Makes a bit of a mockery of Pentax's backward lens compatability doesn't it?
The MZ50 was the same, and the MZ60 was even worse and wouldn't even work with KA lenses.

Thank god I got into Pentax with the MZ7 or I may well have been a C or N user by now!

I'm with Tim, your bottoms too big

I think the exposures about right under the circumstances.

I always thought Yorkshire was Gods Own Country?
Does he live in Wales as well?

....you mean like the scrap yard?


Sorry mongoose, you walked right into that one

If its any consolation I have a 307 diesel (and I bet yours is built better than mine)

Daniel. very nice!
I am extrtemely jealous, its been snowing here in Leeds most of the day but its not trying hard enough to settle.

Lilly;
Youre learning fast, the cropped shot is much beter than the original.

Pete; as for your Olympus shot......and here we were thinking you were a total novice, you old snake!

Nice stitch job Daniel.