I took a time out from the forum - I have said previously I wasn't feeling at home here any more.
Well I came back, and sadly found things haven't changed for the better.
So I have come to say goodbye.

I shall still be using Pentax equipment, so you don't need to slag me off about that. If I were changing brands I think I would put my gear on e-bay and just quietly disappear rather than risk the onslaught here.

I just don't feel happy here any more. It has changed too much for the worse. It was fun while it lasted.

Thankyou for your advice, comments and general good humour over the years. It's a pity some of it has been lost of late. Don't pick on people who change brands please. It's a free world, and you, the Pentax Users are the ones who dare to be different, and can show the world just how good Pentax equipment is. You do not need to turn on anyone who leaves the fold.

I wish you all many happy hours of picture taking, with what ever make or model of camera you choose to use.

Goodbye all.

Bradley Wiggins was in town today taking part in the final time trial stage of the Eneco tour.

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It is my first attempt at anything like this, and I found it rally hard to get good photos. It was fun to watch and with the riders coming by every 90 seconds I had time to get in some practice, but they were going at 40+km/hour past me . I had quite a good spot until a guy pushed in next to me with his Canon and it's big white lens. He was looking very smug when he saw I had a Pentax, with the 50-135 on it. Then it rained, and I mean rained. I carried on taking photos with a grin on my face while he panicked his Canon into a plastic bag .

I used Elements and saved it as a Gif. It worked just fine.

Well at least this photo got some responses, even if most of them are not positive.

I just wanted to see what Elements can do. It is a very powerful tool, and I use only a small amount of it. I'm not saying the effect is good or bad. It was an experiment. I bet most of you never use the full power of Elements or the even more expensive CS2/3/4 that you own do you?

It was a lousy photo to start with and I actually quite like the effect. Who says photos must remain photos - if we have all this computing power and ability to do other things with them then why not? Why is it any different to HDR, B/W conversion, colour popping, cloning out bits you don't like or changing the colour of something in a photo? Surely one of the joys of digital photography is that we can do things like this?

I can't see anything wrong in playing about and seeing what comes out.

A great selection and you were lucky with the weather!

I actually like #5 as it is. The balloons at the edge don't bother me - they add to the feeling of movement.

You do see to have some crud either on the lens or the sensor - it is particularly noticeable in #7.

I decided to try playing with Elements, inspired by this months Elements Techniques magazine.


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I used the trial version of Bibble Pro for the length of the licence. I really liked it, it was easy to use, and in the paid version it links smoothly into Elements and full Photoshop. I just never got around to buying the full version for some reason.

I hope so Mike. Wouldn't want to lose you.

Having used the Bigma for years on the Ds, which is minute compared to modern bodies, I can't see that it would be a problem on the K-7. I never found the combo to be unbalanced in any way.
The more I hear about the size of the K-7 the more inclined I am to swap in the K20D for one. But first I have to do two things - find the extra cash and find a Dutch shop which would accept the K20D in part exchange.

If you use Photoshop Elements you can add a copyright notice to the Exif when you import your photos into Elements Organiser. I am sure the same thing is available in Lightroom and Bridge. Make sure that you retain the EXIF on any photo you put on your website - you can often specify which parts of the Exif data you want available, certainly when using the likes of Jalbum you can do that.
Only put low resolution photos online.

I suspect actually the chances of a photo being stolen from a website are very small given the vast number of photos available on the internet.

Most companies for instance will not want to get into legal trouble and will use a stock photo site for their images.

I have known a photo to be stolen by a shop when given some images to print, but that too is extremely rare.