At our small club meeting last night the visiting presenter was a highly regarded member of a prestigious camera club with umpteen letters after his name. I have never heard such an arrogant, rude prat in all my life; his technique for winning competitions (as far as I could see his sole reason for taking photos) was do everything on auto mode and sort it all out in Photoshop afterwards. If the scene isn’t misty enough then put it in later. In semi-auto modes the camera does it anyway so what’s the point, he said. How about filters? Someone asked, to receive a dismissive snort. Same with a tripod - don’t need one, just jack up the ISO and sort it out with....well you can guess. It got a bit creepy when we got on to his “artistic nudes” so I just left for the pub, I couldn’t stomach any more.

Any more exposure to Tia Maria and I will lose focus!

.....and mince pies? Courtesy of the village bakery:

I wonder if it is the Custom Image setting, it is easy to inadvertently change this whilst fumbling around. On mine it is set to Natural so the images in RAW are flat and any changes are made in Lightroom. As others have said, these are really nice.

If that is the case you can read the settings on the camera and correct them precisely in post. I had to do this after a dark shoot which all had Bleach Bypass applied!

Very dramatic, Don, and great composition. Well captured.

It’s an excellent lens, I just posted a cat photo in the gallery and you can see how sharp it is; however for a K1 or mk. II it will need the changed lens mount from Sigma.

Gareth, maybe one of your kids could have a camera for Christmas then you can buy him/her all the lenses you need next time and for birthdays!

Thanks for the link, Gwyn, interesting how different countries celebrate. When in Norway Christmas dinner was baked cod on Christmas Eve, with present giving. I like to bring holly and ivy in but of course not too soon or it is dead before the day.

Worcestershire is only about an hour’s drive for me! I always thought port was one of those drinks you could open and leave until next year but no, it must be drunk quite soon after being opened, apparently. I found this to my cost when I tried a partially used bottle of vintage port from last Christmas and it was dreadful, a terrible wrench pouring it down the sink. So, Lennybloke, to avoid that ghastly scenario you know where I am!

Time for my annual visit to the loft and drag down the decorations! In the news the traditional Christmas pud is dying out in favour of more modern desserts, same with fruit-based cake. Festive carrot cake anyone?

And time for my annual rant against the colour red at Christmas, it’s everywhere including Santa’s outfit. For hundreds of years up until some time in the early 20th century green was the theme, reflecting the decorations brought in from the surrounding countryside. Saint Nicolas wore a green outfit (something to do with the Green Man perhaps?) and it had a certain mystical connection with the natural world but then decades ago Coca-Cola ran a Christmas campaign changing everything to red and ruined it for ever; luckily in some parts of Europe they still hold to the traditional forms of decoration and how much nicer and somehow lacking in the taint of commercial greed it is.

Maybe but you have instant start-up, seamless sharing files and other facilities with other premium devices. My old Windows desktop got so slow I would turn it on then go make a tea whilst it was starting up then loading the interminable updates.