Like the colour a lot.
The darkness of the water really adds to a deep bottomless pond look.

I'd have liked it more without that bottom petal pointing down - then I'd be able to see those great shadows of the petails on the pad.

Very nice .

Hi - Great lunchtime snaps .

Best for me are pleasureland and kirov - but I'd have cropped out or cloned out the grafitti doodle above kirov 'keep clear' and on the pleasureland door, makes them too busy and distracting to me.
Don't like 'centre', boring and got a greenish cast - 2.99 is good but I'm one for more simple pics and a sharp cropped pic of the woman looking in and the guys reflection wouldav worked for me. Branch and untitled I like but dont see any message in them, false escape is ok but I'd have exposed for the door and let us see the floor. King is cool and a real cool shot. 3:1 is good but maybe cropped just the bottom 2 windows.

Hope you dont mind the critque - just my thoughts after a long day of DIY and a few ciders.

Gonna try and snap a pic for the comp tomorrow - looking forward to it .

Great comp and thanks for your thoughts iceblinker. Yep I must stop being so crude and get more refined

Well done to Dan - soon as I saw his and Deecy's effort I thought.....practice dude cos maybe one day......

@ ikillrocknroll, another fab foto, that was one real cool HDR - congrats on the 2nd ribbon

Antony Gormley's, Another Place




18-55 kit lens @ 55mm, 1/800, 6.3, 200

The exhibition at the cathedral was actually about Anne Frank and her family - very moving.

At the other end of the cathedral (its the biggest Anglican cathedral in the world!), the tables were set up for a big fry up for a load of big name companies for a Capital of Culture event. We had to settle for a cake and a coffee in the cafe, we couldn't stretch to the few thousand it cost for a table . (I'd rather buy lenses with it anyway ).
One thing though I was watching the official photographer moving about checking out the church and thought he did throw an envious eye at the lens .
Was going to try and chat but he seemed absorbed.

The 2008 hot air pic was a charity orgainisation I'm a member of, we always use their cafe cos it helps things along, and that balloon was decorated by all the kids just before liftoff.

Went to see an exhibition at the Anglican Cathedral - took the 10-20 and got some reasonable high ISO low light shots - all hand held.

Very impressed with this Sigma.



1/20sec, f4, 800, 10mm (The guy with the tripod was doing HDR stuff - pretty impossible I thought thought with the pedestrian traffic)



1/15sec, f5.6, 1600, 10mm



1/20sec, f4, 800, 10mm



1/15sec, f4, 800, 10mm



1/25sec, f4, 1600, 10mm



1/15sec, f5.6, 1600, 10mm
New complex just down the road from the church. IS on this camera is so good - 1/15 would have been impossible on anything I had before



1/50sec, f5.6, 1600, 10mm
End of a hard days slog round the shops - cup of expresso and a hair dryer filled hot air balloon - Bit late but, Happy New Year .

Not an exercise in great photography (as she had me booked in for some serious Saturday sales shopping) more just to see if hand held low light stuff was possible with this lens.

The comedy duo in number 1 is great - got to give it to that bugs, he popped up at just the right time .

Love those colours in the last one - great contrast - and well worth 22seconds of your time. Maybe a bit soft though - unlike the 2nd horse photo which looks real sharp.

Been thinking about that Sigma 105, looks a good piece of glass.

Number 2 is my fav - path, power lines and hedge - great lines. Would have liked to see what a mono HDR of this view would'av been cool to bring out the details in the hedge and take down that sun.

Love the grain in the last.

Hi Pete - New to the forum but just a few thoughts on your question regarding the images on your site.

Overall I think your images are excellent - sharp and vibrant and capture the moment I'm sure any prospective clients would be impressed.

The initial image on the client page of the girl in the pink outfit is sharp on the eyes but I wouldn't have softened her hair like that over her right eye. And the rest of the fuzz on her dress is way to much for me - just a little softness would have been cool. I'm not a major fan of spot colour on B&W images and you've quite a few of them. A few more candids of kids and friends would have been good - I think wedding 2 had nearly all of the B&G - showing how you capture the day would be better.

Just one point on the site itself - all OK and looking good except I cant click on the links to the manicure and cake maker links.

No can't see any halos at all. The smearing on the background is the pine kitchen unit it was taken against. Maybe should invest in some decent backdrops, seem to be plenty on ebay.
Uploaded the original jpeg just to see if the problem is the compression; (converted from raw) (warning 4Mb download)

http://www.bobmcgee.com/images/pentax/IMGP1920.jpg

If you're into monitor calibration - and I suppose we all should - I bought one of those spyder2 pro thingys off ebay and it works great.

Looking at this big pic, shows up loads of tiny imperfections I should I suppose have got rid of - tiny dots on the petals and a few marks on the stalk. Starting to get hyper critical of my own stuff which I suppose is good.
Just like to say thanks here for all the time and effort people take on this forum to be constructively critical of our newbie efforts - it means a lot.