It'll take the Spanish Inquisition to get that out of me Seriously, it would the the end of my marriage if my wife knew I'd actually told strangers that it's her!

Did an interesting portrait exercise a few weeks ago. Took a series of head and body shots of my wife modelling t-shirts, for a friends website. She hates having her photo taken and is always blinking or pulling a face.

So for this I set up the camera on a tripod and used remote control release to take the shots. Worked so well that I modelled t-shirst after while my wife used the remote.

200 shots and only 2 with us blinking!

Good points about this method: the camera is forgotten about completely - just have a laugh and press the remote when the subject is totally relaxed; you can really engage with the subject.

Bad points: subject has to stay pretty much in one place (quite a few shots had missing arms); dof has to be wide enough that subject remains in focus if they move towards the camera slightly.

All in all I was quite pleased with the exercise - no I won't say which website these photos are being used on

Sounds like a line from "Titanic"

Well, I think this is an example of how my software skills outweigh my photographic skills

Hi Photon

If you have Adobe Camera Raw CS4 you can add a digital graduated filter to any part of the image. Set the filter location, orientation and size then freely adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, Saturation, colour, clarity and sharpness.

Just wondering if there are any Pentax User members in East Kent / Canterbury who might be interested in the occasional meet up. I'm thinking of something quite informal: swaping tips and techniques, the occasional local photo day/afternoon and drink. Or maybe there's a really good local photo club you belong to that does the same kind of thing?

Don. Sounds like you already know what you think is right to do. It sounds cheesy but go with your gut instinct, I've gone against my instincts a couple of times on design jobs and always regretted it afterwards. Sounds like you know what you think of the job. As others have suggested, if you value keeping the possibility of working for the company again, politely turn the job down on grounds that you're fully booked but suggest someone else they can contact. Don't lie for anyone.

My Mum told me about someone getting arrested for talking photos of Christmas lights - apparently a local news story.

I'm beginning to think a peaceful protest march around London might be called for - as many enthusiast and pro photographers as possible marching round London snapping photos the whole time. Pentax, Samsung, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony, Ricoh, Kodak, Casio users unite (for once)! - I'm sure I've missed a few brands there!

PS: For Mr MI5 who's internet traffic monitoring equipment will certainly have picked up on this post - this post is (slightly) tongue-in-cheek and is concerned solely with a peaceful march to protect our rights as patriotic enthusiast and professional photographers. It has nothing to do with any "T" word acts.

PPS: John - if you feel this post is close to the mark, just edit it as you see fit!

Second congrats on being 30. Don't knock it - I'm 39 now. I'd love to be 30 again but not 20! 39 is actually pretty good too

Ok here's the link. I'm using an iPhone so won't be able to create a link fom the url. Also I take no responsibility if this breaks anyone's PC!

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/

hope this helps.