For me it's normally whatever my ipod randomly dispenses - although at the moment I am obsessed with Rodrigo e Gabriela - acoustic guitar music rooted in Thrash metal - highly recommended (anyone interetsed can check them out on youtube)

Mat

No problem at all - you have worked a wonder with a single click in elements !!

I shall work the rest...

Regards

Mat W

It's very interesting that you mention an ISO race. I was at a workshop earlier in the year being run by a professional (wildlife) photographer, who mentioned that the Wimbledon final of the previous year had been a long match, continued into the evening (as it got dark), and as flash is not allowed, only those photographers who had high ISO capabilities were able to effectively capture the crucial photograph of the winning shot at the end of the match (and presumably produce a picture to cover the back page of their particular newspaper). As a result, there was a real demand for the D3 (considered the best in this respect at the time) and I guess this effect has continued.

Personally, for the shots I attempt, I tend to find that getting a better quality, high ISO picture is a real boon. I find the K-7 much better for my needs in this respect than my K10D ever was, but I guess the need for very high ISO numbers depends on what you want to take pictures of and how you do it (?)

Regards

Mat

Thanks everyone for the comments - you're right there is a green cast. I took the pictures a little while ago and wasn't sure how to fix it - I think it stems from the leaves rather than anything that has confused the camera. The owl was in a hole in a tree and the whole area was enclosed by a canopy of foliage with the sun (such as it was) reasonably overhead so I guess the leaves have coloured the light (?). That said, I have not consciously calibrated my monitor either and I think I ought to...

I have got used to photoshop since having first 'developed' these pictures, so I think it's probably time to go back over them and try and fix the colour

Thanks again

Regards

Mat

Try again...

Ooh - there's soemthing funny happening with the first picture - I'll try and fix that...

Mat

I posted a (slighly modified(!)) picture of a small scops owl on the gallery yesterday. Thought I would post the original here, along with one or two others as (to my mind) it was a very photogenic bird!!

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2659/3875091848_8e7a187643_b.jpg
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They were taken a little while back all with K10D and Sigma 70-300mm lens. Hope you like them

Best Regards

Mat W

I think the ways to unsharpen vary with software. I just got hold of photoshop elements 8 and that has a sharpen dialogue box with a slider, so sharpness can be 'dialled' up and down (as far as I can tell). However, previously (in fact until three days ago!) I used photoshop elements 4 which simply had a 'sharpen' or 'sharpen more' command; with that I usually used the 'despeckle' command under the 'noise' heading in the filters menu to offset excessive sharpness as the two seemed to have (broadly) opposing actions - might be worth a try (If you are using PSE?). Don't know if that helps at all...

Regards

Mat

Wow a great shot - in fact three great shots on the PPG - well done!

Regards

Mat

I really like the first shot - Like the composition, nice and sharp in the middle (I always struggle with depth of field on macro shots) and the black background. Nice one!

Mat

PS agree about the bug