Interesting, Nigel. My favourite is the last one, superb colour and clarity with that great little zoom lens! It must be quite a sight, seeing you with all your electronics kit set up and flashing in the forest! Did you get any comments from passers-by?

Cheers.
Philip

P.S. I think you'll find it's cacti.

And if your little model turned slightly to her left, to me it would seem to justify having that extra bit of space (i.e. visible background blur) on the right of the frame.

Cheers.
Philip

I think you're right about the light here, Nigel - nothing too bright in the skin tones, in my view. There are no distracting objects in the background, but I might turn down the saturation of the greens to make it more muted. Just as a matter of interest, curiosity, and understanding, do you have a reason for pushing your model close to the left of the frame?

Cheers.
Philip

They seem a bit close to the left side of the frame to me, Nigel. I would like number 3 with the background levels of number 1 - the lighting of her face looks good to me in 3. (But this could probably be nonsense - I don't do flash or people!)

Cheers.
Philip

Regarding security of backup and storage, do you want your family photos to be available for several future generations?

Consider, if they are stored on disk drives, the life of the storage medium, whether the files will remain uncorrupted in the future, and/or whether there will be technology around to read them. (e.g. Think about the 5.25 disks that we used to use only a couple of decades ago.) Perhaps there is someone in the family who will maintain the storage and transfer the files to the latest technology.

Consider, if they are stored in 'the cloud', whether the data would still be there in 50 years time and, if so, whether future generations would know about it, and/or have access to it - perhaps relevant information, account names, and passwords need to be recorded in a will.

In our family we have photo prints of relatives from up to 100 years ago. Perhaps it might be worth considering making good quality prints of your favourite/important family shots, and storing them in a secure environment.

Cheers.
Philip

For a camera that can be carried with you most of the time, the MX-1 is unlikely to disappoint. If you want to travel lighter than your main kit, but still have a versatile DSLR with you, consider the following:- a Pentax K-S2 fitted with the 18-135 zoom; it is not bulky and weighs in at just about a kilo. This is a neat WR combo capable of great quality images in most situations. Also, if needed, the images from this sensor and lens can give decent 5 megapixel crops from the centre of the field of view (which is very sharp), to double the effective reach available for wildlife, etc.

Cheers.
Philip

Another +1 for Microsoft ICE here - simple to download, install, and use.

Cheers.
Philip

There are two groups of people - those who put each person into one of two groups and those who don't.

Cheers.
Philip

Nigel, it might be a valuable aim to the photographer, if that is how he/she attempts to rekindle (every time he/she views the image) both the vision and the emotions that he/she had at the actual time of encountering the scene.

Although one might take a guess based on experience (unadjusted raw tends to give a duller softer image), the answers to such questions, and whether those answers have any value, can only be opinions. Firstly, it is unlikely that any respondent to your questions was there to see the scene at the time - it really might have been dull! Secondly, even for the photographer, memory is not particularly reliable and is complicated by the emotions felt about the scene, both at the time and subsequently.

Although I take a keen interest in how others work, it doesn't bother me how they produce their images. What I find not acceptable is the attitude of a few who imply that some others must be a lower form of life because they choose to make their images differently. The final result is all that matters for me and, if someone likes it, that must be a bonus.

Cheers.
Philip

As Nigel has written, I am happy to set the camera to produce output JPEGs close to what I want, and then to further adjust them into the final image using PaintShop Pro. Although it is possible to adjust the recorded JPEGs in the camera, I always use my PC software and a big screen for that part of the process.

Richard, although I always do any cropping on the PC, the recorded image could be cropped in the camera. The size of the crop rectangle can be adjusted, as can its position in the image, but the crop format is limited to only the standard aspects 1:1, 2:3, 3:4, and 16:9.

Cheers.
Philip