Very disappointing to be honest. I was looking forward to seeing this - not sure if the topic was poor, I thought it could be interesting.

Might be an idea to run it for another month and see how it goes.

Out in the Eden valley very early waiting for dawn to rise this morning. Quite a variety so had a go at using the bracketing feature on the K-5 and merging them with photomatix. K-X didn't really allow bracketing via remote. Dawn was quite beautiful with the mist following the River Eden. Not sure I like the effect yet but it certainly gives some detail on the tree. Big problem with spots on the sensor. Did a very rainy dawn down on Seacliff beach last week and it appears that I've had a bit of a blizzard when changing lenses. Took an age to clone them all out and I've still likely left one or two.

I rather like the fact that you can use the welding glass with any size lens. I have 2 B&W 10 stop filters in 49mm and 77mm but the welding glass will cover any size. Some nice results Alan. Seen some nice long exposures of the tower thingy on he other side of the lighthouse.

I have no problems with any criticism on any of my pictures. Main reason for joining the forum was a desire to improve. Without a bit of critique theres a danger of becoming a bit stagnant. At the end of the day I'm probably more critical of my stuff than anyone else. However, I suspect I'm the same as most others who are relative newcomers to the hobby, in that I would feel a bit of an upstart (is that the right word) if I was to start offering critique to someone who has been doing this for years. There are a number of people on here whose work I think is tremendous and on most occasions I think is super, smashing or great. But sometimes I look at a picture and think " I would maybe have moved the tree over a bit" or "jings, but thats a halo and a half" but I just don't feel comfortable saying it.

If a picture gets no comments then enough said.

I'd take the bugger everywhere - wouldn't be able to part myself from it. I get my retirement package in 3 months and I really need some willpower to save my cash for when I'm older as a standard 645 is a far more attractive idea than the wifes plans.

Super mood in these - No2 and No3 are brilliant and No1 isn't bad either.

Superb series Mike - wonderful detail and colour throughout.

I'd be in like a shot and the price is right - just two weeks too soon for me.

Cheers again - I'll have a wee play later with your suggestions Karma amd see how they go. I quite like empty space but perhaps overdo it at times as you lose detail in the real subject as it gets lost.

I took about 20 or 30 shots of the cows and had to resort to waving my free hand and making daft noises to get them to pay attention - even then this was the only one where they all 'lined' up...

Cheers folks - appreciate that.

A crop removing the tree in No4 definitely helps Doc. No 5 is a wee bit dark - not had much practice at bracketing but tried it on this but I think the balance of light and dark was quite extreme so just trying to process a single image here. I might work on one of the slightly longer exposed ones and see if I can bring that back down slightly.

Another tree added and square crops of two of the previous ones which I think improves them slightly?