I quite like Panoramio. (No upload limit, free, and a reasonable interface)

I think on average I get more views/comments on Panoramio than I do on Flickr so the community must be a reasonable size.

The discussion groups aren't as good as Flickr's, but you don't need to be a pro member to get full access to Flickr's groups.

I think it's actually nearer a case of £500 will not stretch to a decent 300 prime.

I have an old M42 300mm prime that I'd sell for £40 but it won't match the 55-300. If your desperate for something longer 500mm mirror lenses can be had for £50, but cropping the 55-300 will give you better results unless you're very good at manual focusing.

+1

Most forums realise that there is a core membership who add a lot to the discussions, even if their coments can be contenious.
Unfortunatly several of these have been driven away from PU, which IMO weakens the forum.

The coment that Smeggy was responding to could be seen as trolling, and his response seemed to me to not be unreasonable.

Not a myth but a statistic - a worse sort of lie!
A few drops of rain anywhere in wales during a 24hr period can be classed as a day of rain.

In any case the Welsh scenery is such that there's little hope of the deception keeping the English out.

I've a couple of the adapters and they're not too bad, but a very long way short of the DA10-17, as Smeggy says it doesn't always give the fisheye look.

Second hand trade in the 10=-17 is always good, so if you don't like it you can recoop most of your cash, & pass it on for someone else to try.

The adapters do have one advantage though - you can mount a filter between the lens & the adapter - which is the one reason why I'm keeping mine. (Fisheye infra red...)

Great shots, well worth the patience it took to get them!

Looking forward to part 2.

The first I heard of it was an April Fools 'leak'. Unfortunately rumours can often start with such things...

Gary you may be able to take worse, but judging by the shots you've put up in the gallery you don't publish any with such bad lighting / backgrounds!

Nearly all the examples of the US olympic team shown suffered from very severe lighting (one harsh flash with no reflector?). The poseing may be better than I'd have managed (I don't do portraits well) but there seems to have been NO preparation at all, and with such a small background cloth he should have known better than to try the wide angle shots!
My PP skills are somewhat limited but I'm sure I could improve on many of these - Clone out the ripped paper, boost shadow detail...

This seems to be the standard approach, but I suspect it's intended for locations with much more lightning than we get in the UK. Parts of the states regularly get storms with lightning strikes several times a minute. I rarely see one with 10 strikes in an hour.

Thank's Mike!

They were shot over, a gate, the bed of a recovery truck, and there was a crash barrier on the far side of the truck. I agree it is a shame, but at least it avoided the chain link fence that faintly shows in so many of my shots! I could crop it out of most of the shots taken from there but typically the most interesting ones had cars just a little closer.

The shot of Jeff Smith going off was taken through a fence (lens hood in contact with the chain link) while the Porsche made use of a small opening someone had engineed in the links. I think there's quite a difference in contrast even if the links don't show at all.