I spent a very interesting day on Sunday doing Damian McGillicuddy's Urban Kids Workshop:

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/damian-mcgillicuddy-urban-kids-photography-wor...

Well worth it for anyone interested in taking a step upwards in their portrait skills, and especially conveniently situated for those of us in the North West. Having said that some delegates travelled a very long way to be there, and I can see why they would.

The only reliable way to find out is to give them a call and ask them.

Skye is brilliant, and you will no doubt have plenty of opportunty to test our the eather sealing! It shouldn't be a problem, just don't take the camera swimming...

As regards cleaning, a microfibre lens cloth for the lens surfaces, a dry or slightly damp lint free cloth for the body. No need to overclean at all.

Welcome to the forum and we'll look forward to seeing some images soon hopefully.

Fair enough, so what do the photographers on the list think? Do you think you could be professional photographers? Do you want to be?

Ah, but that is a different list. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you've chosen the five photographers whose images you like? That could be very different from a list of those who aren't currently but could be professionals. :

Thank you Glyn!

I look forward to seeing my own images that support any opinion!

I have no doubt at all with this. It's the less sure that I feel concern for in the sense that the more they look into this, the more confusing and unsure it must seem. Potentially, that could and probably does put some people off. I just like to remind myself that whatever Pentax's problenms may be, other marques are just the same and sometimes worse.

For example, when I had a Rolleiflex 2,8G Helmut Newton Edition, hugely expensive, the battery compartment had a really poor spring and had to be "twiddled" to make the battery work properly. The shutter release had such a strong spring that an unreasonable amount of pressure had to be used, inevitably making camera shake more likely. The least expensive Pentax had these sort of things totally sorted many years ago.

It seems nobody wants to name names!

Maybe the concept should be split into two parts: 1) Being a professional in the sense that a living is earned by photography and 2) Acting professionally within that profession. The two don't always go together.

This could be a place to start:

http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/5287/T-Mount-Adapter-for-Pentax.html

If in doubt, call SRS and ask as they sell spotting scopes. Failing that, SRB-Griturn should have something suitable.

http://www.srb-griturn.com/