I agree with Konrad, it's colour for me.
I like the composition, did you wind up the the saturation a little in PP?

Thanks Andrew, I'm enjoyed taking these but I guess there could be a danger of icicle overload

Colin,

You would probably only want to consider an SLI or Crossfire setup if you were into 3D CAD modelling or more likely gaming. A single card solution will be fine for photo editing. Last time I looked ATI were the biggest bang for the buck, I currently use a PCI-E ATI Radeon 4870 with 1GB of memory, not the fastest card any more but no slouch none the less

Some further shots from today as I managed to find some more imposing icicles from our kitchen window
As ever C&C welcomed

[IMG]http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/518/daggers.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2732/swordo.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/696/duoicicle.jpg[/IMG]

Welcome to the forum Jimmy

Robbie I have a RS-284 & RSH-12 Ball Head, I purchased it just before Christmas. Firstly the service from Redsnapper was excellent. Ordered mid afternoon and it arrived the next morning, can't say better than that.

The tripod and head are extremely good for the price, some reviews say that you would have to pay significantly more than double the price for the same quality and I can believe it. It comes with a good quality bag too. I would say for the money it's a no-brainer quite honestly

Edit: I would just add that I have a lighter weight Velbon tripod and monopod and for me the Redsnapper definitely matches up to Velbon quality... I was very pleasantly surprised.

Welcome to the forum Bret

Superb images, thanks for posting the link

With regard to stacking images I think you are correct. Different focal points to increase the depth of field.
A software package like Helicon Focus can be used to cleverly stitch the images together.

Thanks for your comments Glyn

I agree, you many have an opinion... I know I have on a few occasions but it's best to keep it under your hat. Or if you feel strongly enough perhaps bring it up in a separate thread as a generalised subject.
Just my suggestion.