These things are sent to try us . A great shot though. The sunlight really sets it off .

Glyn

Thank you. Fortunately Hipperty's carrots are nowhere near ready otherwise my choices would have been severely constrained

Glyn

I'm in.

I did think about taking a shot of the inside of our fridge but on reflection I don't think any food magazine would contemplate printing that .

Glyn

E for B

[IMG]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/Misc/IMGP5420-c1-small.jpg[/IMG]

K-7 with Sigma 17-70 HSM OS @ 55mm
(Because my (3rd) DA* 16-50 has gone back with an SDM fault )

F11, 1/6 sec and ISO 200

Taken on Sunday 20th June @ 8:41 and then consumed .

Glyn

I think its important to remember that the noise is probably a side effect of the fantastic length of rotational travel the focus mechanism has on this lens.

Many more recent lenses have a much smaller length of travel for their focus range, probably to speed up the auto focus. Consequently these are much harder for the manual focusing that I think can be a real benefit in macro work.

I was a late comer to the DFA100 but its one of my favourite lenses and has produced some of my best efforts. I love it .

Glyn

As the winner of this rather controversial competition I thought I ought just add my thoughts to this thread.

A duotone was a new concept to me and it was not really clear to me what was needed. So I took my usual approach and watched the comment thread, the early entries and did a little research. Although I was a little confused it became clear that the brief for the competition was open to some interpretation and having been inspired by an earlier submission I thought that I could submit an entry that was pushing the boundaries a little. I have seen in the past that others have succeeded this way if they manage to hit a soft spot in the judge.

I did not really expect to win. Aluther's entry, that was my inspiration, went out of its way to point out it was not a proper duotone and I also added a similar comment to my entry.

I too was a little concerned that some entrants were being encouraged to re-submit their entries but I set this aside as being a quirk resulting in the issues with the definition of this particular competition and really to me it became a note on how difficult it can be to create unambiguous subject definitions and how not to manage them.

I also have say something in defence of Anvh. We expect quite a lot from our judges. I'm sure he has done what he considered to be best. I beleive he was worried that some people had misunderstood his requirements and tried so sort it out. While we didn't necessarily agree with his methods I believe he was not trying to upset us but doing his best to keep the competition open for the majority. We all interpret things differently and this is extended with the huge diverse scope of people we encourage here. I'm sure one of the beneficial consequences is that we will tighten up the rules a little.

On the posting early front I have copied below the comment I wrote in the competition thread:

{
I love the way these competitions evolve over their duration and I think hiding the entries would take a lot away from the fun we have here.

When you compete here you are always faced with the dilemma do you you post early or late. Its part of the competition.

If you think you have a really good idea and want the credibility of getting it in before anyone else you might want to post early and take the risk that it could seed someone else's later entry, remember the Design Icon fortnightly competition? If you think you have a really unique interpretation, that no one else will think of, then you might choose to post late. I think its all part of the fun and quite a few people have proved that you can win these competitions posting both early and late. Posting up an entry early might just inspire someone who otherwise might not have participated.

Certainly from my direction, particularly as a beginner to this craft, when there is any doubt about what is needed it can be worth waiting to see which way the competition is going. On top of that if we hid the entries then what would we talk about in the discussion thread?

I love these competitions and the people here. I learn something new every time and I'm always impressed by the quality of ideas and implementation displayed here. I don't think we need to change it.
}

These competitions are primarily for fun and I think provide a terrific demonstration of skills, interchange and support for newcomers. They certainly have had a tremendous impact on the enjoyment I get out of this hobby.

I hope we can go on to the next competition. I certainly intent that it will operate within the usual rules.

Glyn

(Who apologises for this rather long post)

Somewhat amazingly only seven and a half hours in I have spotted our first entry.

Therefore people I'm out of here.

If there is anything really serious that you think needs my input then one of you will have to send me a PM.

My work now begins. Have fun,

Glyn

This is the discussion thread for the weekly competition #153 - Communications.

As is traditional I will stop looking in this thread once the first entry is submitted.

Good luck and I look forward in anticipation to seeing your interpretations.

Glyn

P.S. Please remember that entries must be shot using a Pentax camera, or Samsung equivalent. The normal rules will apply. Re-submission of entries should not be necessary and will not allowed.

I seem to have a need to try various things so have acquired lots of stuff that actually I very rarely use . My filter collection is amongst this pile.

I have a circular polariser but hardly ever use it. I have recently bought a ND grad with a vague idea that it might improve my landscapes but have not yet put it to serious use.

I also have a six point star filter but was disappointed to find that it really only works with very bright lights.

I have a 49mm 4x close-up filter which although was fun is put to shame by my DFA100 macro. In a similar vein I also have a 49mm back-to-back adaptor but the amusement wares off when you find out how small the DOF is when coupling the DFA100 to a 50mm manual lens.

Glyn

P.S. Being from an engineering background I also have to have a book that tells me all about the filters that I hardly ever use or still have to collect

If this is a Windows PC I recommend Malwarebytes as a clean-up tool. It is available as a free download here. I have been using this in preference over spybot for a while now. Remember though that this is just a clean-up tool and you still need a decent virus protection application. I'm using Avast having recently upgraded it to version 5.

Glyn