And I'd always wondered who's hand that was on your shoulder

It's the face of Charlie - a 3ft resin cow who lives in our garden. Bunged it on quickly when I first joined, thinking it would be temporary for a few days until I got something better/slicker sorted out. But after 6 months it would be cruel now to ditch it, and anyway Mike-P called it 'strange' the other day... which is a top flight endorsement

I'm off to New York in a couple of weeks... and I've just decided which lens to use for the walkabout stuff .

+1

But I think #1 snatches it because of the greater sense of depth of field - leads into the image and to the far hills.

Thanks Karl - I think I'll have another bash and, given comments above, try to split into ones aiming for a true abstract feel, and ones where you can probably tell it's water flowing but trying to get some static objects in there as well to emphasise the flow.

It's the sort of thing I can play at after rain and when the light's not so good here (which, frankly, is most of the time )

Thanks for the useful comments folks.

And a lot lot more today

After being on the Forum for six months or so, I think it has a pretty good set of systems for giving feedback on images which (at least partially) marries the needs of both numpties who need to improve... but could be easily discouraged... with those of experienced old lags who want to get stuck in to really serious critiques.

The 'nice shot' comments are important. They at least tell you something, and for the newbie are encouraging. Once you've been around a while you realise what the absence of these means - particulary on the Gallery which gives you only simple feedback (No comments = pedestrian snap; 1-5 'Lovely, stunning, ' etc comments = OK image; 6+ positive comments = you might be on to something).

Posting on 'Your Photos' can be similar, but if you specifically ask for criticism and/or when people get to know you, more detailed feedback follows. And there's always the dreaded 'no replies' syndrome (or equally just one or two only from the more humane members) to put you right on weak images.

Then there are the competitions - I've always been amazed on the quantity of reasoned, detailed feedback the judges provide. You can learn a huge amount from these without even entering... and even more when you get stuck in with your own images.

It's a difficult balance between an approachable and friendly Forum and one with serious critical bite. Maybe I'm biased, with at least one foot still in the numptie camp, but for me the balance here is excellent.

Long-ish exposure shots from our local stream in spate - brown from all the sediment and dissolved peat. I quite like these as abstracts, but as always comments/criticisms/reponses very welcome.

[IMG]http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk206/Northgrain/Shire%20Hill%20Wanders/Abstractflow-3.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk206/Northgrain/Shire%20Hill%20Wanders/Abstractflow-2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk206/Northgrain/Shire%20Hill%20Wanders/Abstractflow-1.jpg[/IMG]

Yes - balconys is excellent. Inspired, in fact . Nice spot and, like Smeggy suggests, you can probably do even more with this location given different light and/or luck with residents

Wouldn't DARE diss the beast, magnificent as it is.

But '2011 Light Expressions Multimedia' text - truly dissable imposition on the glory