Well, it does seem to me that the general concenscus from the past 6 pages of opinions that the preferred way to run our competition is for us to have it back the way it was, a very special part of the forum. I really do feel strongly that is the only way this competion will survive.

Pros being:
No automation
A fool proof process of judging as and when the pics come in on a Word doc, cut and paste on last day, choose the three.
Deadline can be adjusted if need be when system fails.
The valuable forum contributing members are more likely to enter again.
Winner participant HOPEFULLY more aware of having to add C&C.
All pics displayed in the previous simple friendly way.


plus, we can all get back to learning how to improve our photography
and not spend hours having to claw back which was perfect the way it was, which it was.
Here's hoping ....
Lilly

Another bug! Seems that I am not being notified of new messages to my thread, again!... hence delay, box is ticked too!
Thanks for your help, I think I am going to go for the Sigma EF-500DG, seen at Photosolution for £155, but will check EBAY first, still bugs me such a lot of dosh for a flash, half the price of next lens I want!
But after being at a function last night and struggling and seeing the results of my incamera flash (not nice!) I have to get one.

I am really disappointed as to how these competitions are a shadow of their former self, I for one will not be submitting again unless things change for the better.

Ever since this forum has changed I cannot help but feel it all has become rather impersonal and distant and I find myself less inlclined to view and contribute than before. I for one is not only holds this view, a friend of mine who at present does not contribute but views regularly is of the same mind.

I shall go back to the time when the colour scheme was changed and my comments then were "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
I feel the same if not more so now.

I see no advantage in this new style forum at all, other than a very minor one of directly uploading ones image for the comps, BIG DEAL!.
I would much rather go back to the time when I had the very minor inconvenience of transferring from PHOTOBUCKET and have the forum alive, friendly, less complicated (for comps, which is a superb and important learning tool and more rewarding.)
I have lost count the number of times I have not seen any feedback on our entries from the judge, it really makes a mockery of the ones who spend time and brainpower individually commenting on entries.

I really do feel this forum has been changed for the sake of it and not for the benefit of its members.
We had a very personable and straight forward forum before things were changed and I feel we have lost that, it is a great loss.
Lilly

Thanks for asking Gwyn, this forum is not working at all well, I did not get notified of your message, a friend had to let me know when she noticed it!
Trip has been long overdue, was meant to go a while ago. We are off beg of Dec for 8 months approx., spending a month in Jaipur over Xmas/New Year, then 2 weeks traveling down to Mumbai. Then over to Vietnam & Cambodia then Tropical Oz, the NORTH for the duration and them onto NZ and Cook Islands. So, lots of good photo opportunities with the K10D, need to hunt for a spare body now!
I will still check in to Forum when I can, but doubt I will entering any comps till they get it sorted!
All the best Lilly

I have the K10D as you all know by now but I am not very conversant with flash but now feel the need to get one.
A friend has the Sigma EF-500 DG Super for his Canon and gets great results and recommends it, however, I am not sure how this compares with Pentax own make.
I really will not being using flash, heavily so if there is large difference between the two I would prefer the Sigma.
Any help, gratefully received.

Now, you are probaly going to here, but IMHO this image does not scream mono to me, you have picked a hard task with this image that has too many similar tones, the tonal range is not wide enough to make it an interesting image. IMHO I prefer it color.

However, I had to have a go didn't I and a quick one at that on a low res jpeg is not ideal, I usually work on 16bit tiffs for mono.
However, this is how I approached it:

[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/lillymermaid/G107074_nosharpcopy.jpg[/IMG]

IN CS3:

adjustments, black & white, select yellow filter
then slide those sliders to enhance tonal range
up the blue for the sky, green for grass etc....
(they dont need to add up to 100% anymore!)

when happy with that, use curves for adjusting contrast, delicately

I never burn the sky in nowadays if I can help it
I use the Gradient tool which is well worth learning -
works like a grad filter and is much less destructive and controlable and even

I applied only a little dodging on stone wall

Photo filter under adjustments, warm sepia 25%, as I thought it needed warming up.

But I still dont think it works that well, too many similar tones and textures to make mono a natural choice, you picked a hard one to learn on!

Hope this helps somewhat

Been doing some research my big trip is at last coming up and this tip is from a guy who is travelling for long time, anyway, thought this might be of help & interest to some:

http://www.travelblog.org/Forum/Threads/5969-1.html

cheers, Lilly

Is it possible that we could emphasise somewhere obvious, that it's easier for those of us who like to look at photo and critique side by side if judge puts comments under each pic, like John Riley suggests?

It was taken at 0922hrs, I always go through this cemetary on my morning walks and in June, I shall be more observant next time and get a closer view, Oh Dear am I getting into bugs

thank you IS, for taking the trouble, I thought you were joking about it liking Cornwall, but it is true....LOL..
He is very intimidating up there...

Lilly