Thanks guys, some great advice here.

I do like the idea of tring to keep things simple and concentrating on getting the shots rather thn worrying about kit.

I'll let you all know how I get on

Cheers

Hi Everyone

I wonder if anyone could offer any advice.

I've been asked by a friend to photograph her daughter and school friend before her Prom night next week. I'll be going over to her house (not seen it before) and she wants photographs in her new dress, with her friend, getting into the posh car they've hired etc. I've photographed her before in a studio environment (I'll upload an image to my gallery) and I'm fairly confident in that environment, however not so used to shooting "on location" so to speak.

Just wonder if anyone had any good ideas regarding :
- Kit that would be useful (I have a K5, Kit Lens, DA50-300 and a manual 50mm Prime)
- Any ideas for poses?
- Any ideas for shots?
or any general advice really.


Thanks in advance

Andy

A quick and not very positive update

Insurance was pants, Contents insurance doesn't cover personal items away from home and Motor insurance only covers up to £100 with a £150 excess !!

I'm keeping an eye on ebay, but nothing yet and I've also registered with

cameratrace.com and stolencamerafinder.com. Incidentally these sites work by tracing the serial number embedded in your images but its not the same number as the one on your camera (or warranty card).

Keep remembering stuff that was in the bag, Gutted....

Take Care

Thank you all for you comments and thoughts. Its great to have the support of so many people.

I will be home tomorrow so will be able to check out insurance polices, although I'm not holding out to much hope ! Not heard anything from the Police and I agree with a number of you that it seems to random for an act of casual thieving, but I put the gear in the boot miles away !

For me, there are positives that have come from this. I've made new friends, I've realised how important photography is to me and it's even brought me closer to some members of my family.

it's certainly been a roller coaster of a few days !!!

Wow, thank you all so much for the messages of support. Fritz was spot on when he said this was a great community and I'm so glad to be part of it. Given that most of my gear was stolen this was an opportunity to perhaps re-consider moving to canikon, but looking at whats available at the K5 price point and the support on forums like this I'm proud to remain loyal the Pentax.

Stu, Bernard, thank you for the link to the Stolen Camera Finder. That looks like an cool site and defiantly gonna try that. Not sure what my insurance covers yet, have car insurance and contents but no specific camera insurance (stupid stupid stupid), will check policy details when I get home from parents house.

Stu, thank you for your help with insurance claim, may well take you up on that

Carl, thank you so much for that offer and thinking about me. Its heart warming to see that there are decent people in the world and we outnumber the B****DS that have to cause such misery. I'll send you a PM.

Not gonna let this get me down and going out today with the uncle and cousins visiting the HMS Trincomalee.

thank you all once again

Andy

Dear All

I'm a new member to the forums, only joined a couple of days ago after meeting FrtizTheDog at Bempton Cliffs shooting gannets. I'd rather hoped one of my first posts would be more positive, but I've had a terrible 24Hrs..

Last night I decided to pop out in Beverley to take some shots of the Minster by night, before starting to shoot I stopped in the town centre to get some cash from the hole in the wall. During the few minutes I left my car to get some cash someone broke into the boot and lifted all by camera gear.

I wanted to post this here in case any of you see a K5 and various assorted bits up for sale somewhere. There is a more or less complete list below and I'll update with serial numbers once I get back home.

What they took:

- Monfroto Tripod

Camera Bag containing:
- K5 with 18-55mm Kit Lens
- Sigma DG 70-300mm Zoom lens
- Pentax-M 1.7 50mm
- Phottix Strato II Wirless Flash Trigger + additional Slave (3 units in all)
- Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit
- 16Mb Sandisk Memory card with photos of Harlow Carr RHS gardens !

Lighting Bag (Portaflash bag, but not sure its branded) containing:
- 2 x Portaflash Light stands
- 2 x Portaflash light stand adaptors
- 2 x Portaflash Umbrellas
- 2 x Yongnuo YN-560 II flash guns
- Popup reflector
- case containing cokin filter adapters and 3 ND grads and a 10 stop screw on filter

The k5 was only purchased a few months ago after saving jessops vouchers for over a year I have an amazing family and they know how much my camera means to me so my parents went out today and spent a good portion of their savings to get me a new k5. I'm so humbled and grateful.

On a slightly more practical note I now only have two lenses, the K5 kit 18-55 and a Sigma APO 170-500mm (which fortunately wasn't in the boot) so I'd welcome any advice on suitable, good value, glass to fill the gap i now have.

Thanks in advance...

Thank you for the messages of welcome.

Feels like a great community you have here, glad to be able to join in.

Ater bumping into FritzTheDog on top of Bempton cliffs yesterday, he recommended I join these forums. So here I am

I'm Andy, based in Warwickshire ( despite the handle ). Started in photography a few years ago with a K100D before upgrading to K200D, then started getting much more serious and just completed C&G level 2 in photography. I'm the treasurer of the Coventry Photographic Society, which is fun

Finally upgraded to a K5 and loving it, though still learning how to use it. Love pentax stuff, whenever I compare my k200 shots with friends Canon and Nikon shots they always look much "richer" less sterile, if that makes sense.

So hello everyone, great to meet you all..

Andy