Thanks Gareth. I was also aided by the clouds and blue sky. Sometimes we photographers need mother nature's help too

Thanks Nigel. Yes I will take some pics of the 40 year old 15mm soon. it is certainly a work of art with a big bulbous front element. Downside is that flare is everywhere if the sun is out...i had to use my hand as a moveable hood for most of the pictures with it. On the plus side it is producing sharper pictures than I was expecting from the reviews, and although I bought it more as a collectors item, it is good to know it is stil a capable lens.

No need to focus with it either, just set f11 and hyperfocal distance....who needs autofocus ?

Popped down to Brooklands museum today to take some pics, and also try out my new toy, a Pentax K 15mm 3.5. It is a very interesting place to visit if you are into aircraft; cars; motorbikes and even cycles. Concorde is the main attraction and I assume gets the lions share of their limited funds. The Sultan of Oman's VC-10 is in a very poor state of repair.

Pentax K1 + DFA 24-70











K1 + "K" SMC 15mm/3.5

Andrew, download Nigel's guide and read it over a few evenings. It explains very clearly what each function of flash use is all about. I was the same as you before recently, and it has opened a whole new world.

Hi and welcome

Nice shots. I have never done proper aircraft in flight shots, the first is just stunning. Must visit this place at some point, as a minor aviation fan I really should.

Is there any website that you would recommend to get an idea of when is a good time and place to go ?

As I commented at the other place Nigel, these portraits really shine. Great example of creative flash work.

Like the first two especially Nigel. Something about green as a predominant colour always appeals to me

Out of interest what is the size of your picture folders ? I use an external drive for mine (500GB capacity) and the total used is 100 GB for 10-ish years of picture taking. And I save RAW files as well as the JPEG. I am very ruthless however when i edit new pictures. Anything that doesnt cut it is deleted immediately.

Gwyn

The point of backing up with PSE to an external drive is that you can at a later date import all the files and the catalogue back into PSE and all your tags/albums/keywords etc will all be retained. This is what I do when getting a new computer for example.

If however you intend to then delete the picture files from your computer to free up space what will happen is every time you use PSE and double-click on the low resolution thumbnail it will try and find the missing files. You will be forever pressing the cancel button.

I would suggest you buy a big external drive (call it Picture Drive) with more than enough capacity for your picture files, and buy a second one as a backup (Backup Drive). Then use PSE to backup all your files to the Backup Drive. Then create a new catalogue in PSE, import your PSE-backup (files and catalogue) to the new Picture Drive. You can then delete your original catalogue and picture files from your computer.

This means if ever your computer blows up your picture files are not affected as they are on a seperate external drive. Periodically use PSE to do a new backup to your new Backup Drive, which ideally you should keep in a seperate part of the house when not in use.