I love the first one! I know it's considered "bad form" by some to have an area of a picture blown out but it doesn't bother me, I think the Sun's rays really make the picture.

Not so keen on the second one - the overhead leaves clash too much with the grass and make it a bit too busy to find the point of focus imo.

That first one really is lovely though!

A pleasure to have been of service!

By coincidence I picked up another two of these mixed in with a job lot of bodies and lenses at a local auction this morning - I seem to be a magnet for them!

Not had a chance to test them out yet and I'm going out for the evening shortly, but if anyone wants one before they go to eBay let me know before Monday evening...

They're still my favourite 135's by a long margin!

Some real stunners there - good find!

How did you manage to get a picture of the bridge with no people on it?

Every time I looked it was covered in kids - I must have been distracted by swearing at the fish to keep still...

The first and the sixth are my favourites, the balance just looks "right" somehow. I agree with George that the last one could do with some foreground interest but otherwise they're all really good

Funnily enough George we did discuss the possibility of coming up to the IoM to see you while chewing over possible venues for a future meet

I love the bags hanging from the back of the pew - I completely missed that one! Nice lighting

My needs are well sorted for the moment - if Pentax were to go bust tomorrow I'd hoover up all the K-7's being dumped by people fleeing to Canikonypus and sit tight for a good few years yet!

Then it'd just be a case of who was making the most appealing (to me) cameras at that time. Probably Olympus though as I've always had a soft spot for them.

The time of day that you shoot will also make a difference if you're including a lot of sky in your photos. If you shoot towards the Sun then the sky will be very bright and your subject will be in the shade; try and time your visits so that you capture what you want with your back to the Sun - this way your subject is illuminated and the sky/ground brightness balance will be more even.

Photography is all about light so you need to work it to your advantage.

I don't know which camera you're actually using so the advice I gave was generic and will apply to any camera from a basic point+shoot upwards.

On my K10D, when I'm using Aperture Priority, I hold down the EV compensation button (a divided square with "+" and "-" symbols on it) and spin the front control wheel - you can see the amount of adjustment on the shoulder LCD and in the viewfinder in the form of a little sliding bar. To reset to zero I simply push the EV button and the Green button simultaneously. Depending on your camera (and the mode) then the method may vary but the effects will be the same.

All cameras will meter for an "average" amount of light, when your scene contains a large patch of either dark or bright areas it will be thrown (cameras are quite dumb really). This is where you need to take control in order to take the picture you want, rather than what the camera thinks is best.

A little practice and it'll all become second nature.

Actually, you could enter a triptych (or similar variation) - just so long as it's no more than 800 pixels on the longest side.