If it's dark, AF may not work very well. If you want to capture groups, then the lens is OK. I'd use something longer for individuals and keep about 12 feet away from the subject.

Lighting will be the biggest challenge. I don't like camera mounted flash. You get flat results with harsh shadows and red eye.

I would probably use my Metz 45CL (IIRC) hammer-head on the end of a bar with a big diffuser.

Good luck.

Are you sure the lens was on properly? If not engaged correctly, the auto-focus mechanism can make a whirring noise at is fruitlessly attempts to adjust the lens.

Given that good art - proper art - is pure self-expression, it should matter not what anyone else thinks. If your art is simply to please others, then it surely panders towards a more commercial exercise because you are more interested in your work's value to others than yourself.

Do what you like and hang everyone else's opinions.

I certainly appreciate what you do whether I like it all or not.

Full details and pictures: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0711/07110201voigtlander.asp

They do look rather nice.

From an email I received today:


"Due to a potential safety issue, Pentax is voluntarily recalling
certain Pentax Optio A20, Optio L20, Optio S7, Optio T20, Optio W20 and
K10D cameras.

The 3-pin plug cords provided with certain models after November 17th,
2006 may reveal a manufacturing defect under certain conditions.

Please visit the Pentax website for more information and to determine
whether your product is affected by this recall:

www.pentax.co.uk/plugcord/

If your product is affected by this recall, please discontinue use
immediately. Turn off at the socket before disconnecting.

Please contact Pentax by phone for more information and details on how
to return this item:

0800 2889410

If you purchased this item as a gift for someone, please notify the
recipient and provide them with this information."

Ugh! Flash and pop-ups.

There may be some nice pictures in there but I really can't be bothered with a fight navigating the site to see them.

If you want to show off pictures, all that animation, music and frilly bits is pure distraction. If you want people to focus on the pictures, why dilute their attention? It's a technique used in hard selling when the product doesn't stand on its own.

It has no place on a photography site.

If you want to make a lasting impression with an image, put it on the screen by itself.

All IMHO, of course.

Good luck with it anyway.

When I went to pick up my bike from its service on Wednesday, the mechanic was putting a transfer on another bike.


Geek info
Camera: PENTAX K10D
Timestamp: Wed Nov 21 14:08:07 2007
Shutter: 1/15 s
Aperture: F4.5
ISO speed: 100
Focal length: 63.0 mm
Focal length in 35mm equivalent: 94.0 mm
Hand-held, fluorescent lighting, shake-reduction on.

You can often get rid of such distortion by simply rotating the camera through 90 degrees. It depends how the moving parts of the subject and the moving parts of the shutter relate to each other.

I have a silly number of Cokin P filters including wacky prism affects, star bursts and colour gradients.

However, I rarely use any of them these days as many of the affects are easily and more forgivingly achieved post-production.

The only filter I carry in my kit now is a polariser.

Uncontroversial, I would have thought.

Step-down rings, however... They can be troublesome.