I think 'Valve' for me as well, although I love the woolly caterpillar in the second shot. Clearly the must-have accessory for all self-respecting pipes... very cool

Regards

A nice set to my mind and a nice contrast to the snow and ice here. I especially like the fifth shot - that looks like a fantastic place, very sharp image with great colours and textures. Nice work

Regards

Hello all, more pictures of the current cold snap I'm afraid. No snow in West London (yet) but a pretty thick frost and freezing temperatures, coupled with a bit of sunshine! Here's a handful I took yesterday morning, in a departure from the norm (for me), one of them even (just) has people in it!

First up - Walking the dog...




A spot of ground frost:




Chilled pond:




What's happened to the water?




Turner-esque sky (




I also did a mono version of the first - be interested to know whether people prefer the colour or this:




I hope you like these. They were all K-7 with the DA 35 Macro, apart from the Mandarin Duck which was the DA* 200. There are a few more on Flickr if anyone is interested. Any C&C welcome.

Regards

I like the gritty subjects, and I'm drawn to all the rusty chains... I wonder what it would look like with a bit more contrast perhaps?, there are some quite strong shadows but the texture of the chains themselves looks like it could do with a bit more pep (imo). I rather like the diagonal line of floats in the second one as well. Nice work

Regards

I rather like the first - it really does look proper cold! and I like the DOF very much

Regards

My drink froze on my morning bike ride this morning... was very cold, so had to keep moving... couldn't stop for pictures...

Regards

Well I'm pinning my hopes on the lottery I may have to wait a while to get one...

Regards

Great set Andrew. I hope you enjoy the K10 (I'm sure you will) - I often wish I still had mine - it makes wonderful shots at low ISO (imo). I rather like the close up of the war memorial especially... quality stuff as ever

Regards

Hello all. Did anyone else see this on the web today:

link

Pretty providential I thought...

Regards

Thanks again everyone.

Oggy, it's funny you should mention the WWT at Arundel as I have a mind to head down there for a day if I can manage a day off on a nice day...

Andrew, you are right about the lens in this case. I think 200mm or 300mm would be the shortest lens I would fit really, as most of the birds are not that big, and whilst you can get reasonably close, I found the 300 lens was just fine for frame filling shots... some will approach very close and you can get away with something shorter, but conversely for some of the birds out on the lakes, 300mm is not long enough to my mind (depending on what sort of pics you want to take).

Techno, my top tips would be to use as long a lens as you can manage, and make sure that the shutter speed can reach an appropriate level (for a 300 mm lens I would always try and keep the shutter speed at least at 1/300th of a second (i.e. the inverse of the lens length in mm)). It helps to have a nice day (lots of light) to achieve that. To get that last week meant apertures around f5.6 and, although it looked very sunny, ISO400 or often 800 (winter sun is less intense than summer sun I think). The DA*300 will go up to f4 and stay sharp, but i prefer to stop down a bit if I can to get a greater DOF. I also use point focussing and I turn off the focus function on the shutter release, and always focus using the AF button on the back of the camera, which I generally find works better for me. Best bet is just to head out somewhere like this and practice

Cheers