HarisF1 I don’t agree, I think we can definitely point the finger at the Chinese markets as this isn’t the first outbreak and they provide a lucrative demand for parts of the world’s most endangered species with their medieval medicines and strange dietary supplements, none of which has any scientific basis. The more pressure the rest of the world can put on the Chinese government to act the better. And we had perfectly sound hygiene laws before the EU so no worries there.

Well the stock market is in free fall this morning after falling all week, so there go my savings and pension fund. It’s going to take years which I don’t have to get back to the level of a month ago. It doesn’t look as if I can give up working any time soon even though most people my age are either retired or dead. All thanks to the disgraceful Chinese markets in endangered animals transferring Coronavirus to humans, maybe the planet is fighting back.

I concur, I don't think I have sold anything valuable on eBay but selling and buying on PU from an established user is another matter which I am happy to do. Failing that I prefer to trade photo equipment in part exchange at a dealer even though at first sight it would probably fetch less it just saves all the risk and hassle.

I have resurrected this old thread to give an update. I decided not to bother with another advisory session but put together an updated panel and booked an assessment for Licentiate which was yesterday, and to my complete amazement I passed! The session was far more organised and everyone was given about the same time; also there were four judges plus the chair lady and administrator so whilst one judge might comment negatively another would take a different view, and the consensus would give the benefit of the doubt. The chair lady was Hazel Mason with whom I had had a one to one advisory twelve months before, and afterwards said she had remembered me and some of my photos.

So my conclusion is that advisory sessions have a use and I don’t think I would have passed without them but I am glad I didn’t book any more as I was seriously doubting my own judgment. If there are one or two issues which prevent a pass then the applicant has a chance to resubmit with corrections, so seven or eight photos can be ‘banked’ and the assessment just considers whether the particular problems have been resolved and all but one resubmission yesterday sailed through. I am just glad I don’t have to go through that again, but then again I am already thinking about the next level - Associate!

Well I for one probably couldn’t tell the difference either, it seems a bit esoteric but that’s how the guy is. Re. comments above about AA’s prints I just watched a YouTube video in which someone said that books and digital media don’t give full credit to his prints, and you have to see the ones he printed to fully appreciate them.

Well we can all look forward to the inevitable summer drought and water shortages!

Lubbyman, the green button is magic for manual especially and also for TAV, it temporarily applies auto mode to get an accurate exposure and when you change settings the exposure bar on the screen tells you if you are over- or underexposed.

The two flowering cherry tree shots at the start of this topic were taken with ring flash, and I have seen examples where it was used for portraits together with other dominant light sources. The only problem I find with insects is if they are shiny like a beetle you get bright highlights which are almost impossible to remove afterwards.

I used the ring flash recently to lighten shadows in daylight as it is relatively weak and diffuse but as you suggest it does get left in the cupboard a lot which is a shame.

Vibrating pipes - pipe clips loose? Change in water pressure?

Well Lubbyman I think you have cracked it. I took a quick shot this morning with on camera flash so not off camera with a diffuser as I normally do, but enough to test your method, and it worked! I set the ISO to minimum range 100-200 and in TAV used the green button to get initial settings then reduced the speed to 1/200 and reduced aperture to f22, and the screen was still bright and clear! I could manually focus handheld and the result is below. Interestingly because the flash is set to P-TTL the green button adjusts the exposure setting to suit so I took three more, first using in-camera settings with the flash switched on, then just changing the settings as before, and finally getting the exposure before switching on the flash. The results all looked the same but that of course is the P-TTL doing its job. Anyhow here is the result as a JPEG straight out of the camera which as you can see needs a bit more light but that's probably because I was close up so mostly outside the flash field; but the important thing is I could use live view on the tilting screen and see to focus.

Maybe a large format Hasselblad or Phase One but if you think about how large he would have printed then an SLR should do it, or even more so the Leica Monochrom. However my analogue friend points out that the regular pattern of digital pixels can never truly replicate the random nature of particles in film.