Loooooove this shot!! Soooo dramatic and powerful, Peter!!

Aah!!.. Now I understand why pic #1 wasn't working. I hate when a trade-off like that potentially ruins a great shot! I've tried quite a few stitches that haven't quite worked, but I've posted one in my gallery here which I'm pleased with - the one of the Chao Phraya River in sunny weather.

I'm toying with the idea of taking several shots of the shopping centre around where I live, and doing a super-stitch of it. The possibility is that I will use Microsoft's PHOTOSYNTH program to do it, so as to get a "3-dimensional" view, akin to taking a walk around the block. I'd imagine that it would be of some use to a website featuring our area.

FROGFISH - some countries offer preferential rates of duty on certain imports from certain countries.The probable reason why you paid so much in import tax is because China uses a process known as the GATT System to assess what's owed. GATT is an acronym that stands for General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Whereas EU members impose their own low levels of duty payments (typically, UK duty is between 4-7% of the value of the goods), and VAT is added at that particular member state's pre-determined level. VAT in UK is 20%. This would mean that a £100 lens would attract duty/vat of £24-£27 on top of the £100 you paid for the item in the first place. A customs handling fee is added, which in reality is an admin fee. If an item is declared below the current low-value threshold of £15, then only VAT is collected.

GATT is a fixed rate applied by each country that operates this method of revenue collection. I know for a fact that goods imported by Thailand attracts a tax of 47% of the value of the declared goods, although there are no other government add-ons. There is still a customs handling fee to pay though.

Shouldn't worry about extra costs as Greece is an EU Member State, therefore if the VAT was applied at source, you don't have to pay it again in the UK. You can ship packages all around the member states of the EU in the same way as you can send a parcel to Aberdeen from Manchester, London to York, etc.

Great shot!! It looks as though the moon is in actual fact a giant pearl nestling on a soft bed of cotton wool! My one criticism (I hope you will see it as constructive criticism though!) is that the water/mountains combination is a bit "empty". Either a B/W of this would look better, or the addition of perhaps a colourful fishing boat or something would give it some added "ooomph". Just my opinion though, for what it's worth.

Peter - as a fellow Scotsman myself, I know it's not easy getting great shots of the Highlands, mainly because the weather can change dramatically in such a short space of time, but there's a lot to be said for your shots here. Unfortunately, the 4-pic stitch isn't working for me (perhaps a 6-8 pic stitch would have been better, as it would look less "forced"), but Glen Coe (pic 1), and Etive Mor are pretty good photos... Naw - strike that!! They're better than pretty good - they're NO' BAD, as Rab C Nesbitt would say!!

Point noted about the vote, Algi! Glad you found this useful though, as I often hear people moaning about having to wait for goods from overseas, when in fact they don't fully understand the processes involved.

I fully understand your point about UK carriers too, as our own company have switched from City Link (poor follow-up after the theft of a consignment of iPods), to UK Mail (formerly Businesspost) who seem to have lost interest in being an overnight carrier to concentrate on being the possible market leader when/if RM gets privatised. We now rely upon UPS domestic for delivering to the rest of the UK from Monday to Friday, although we inject our material into the UK Mail system on Sundays, as they are the only carrier that operates a Sunday collection service for a Monday delivery.

ATM, I'm waiting on delivery of a Tamron lens I ordered from PIXmania last Monday. It was meant to be delivered by HDNL on Friday to my business address, but it didn't turn up, despite the fact that I didn't "shut shop" until 9pm! I now have the distinct feeling that this has been returned up to their hub with the ultimate aim of RETURN TO SENDER. PIXmania have been told to get this order to me tout suite, and also refund my £8.50 delivery fee, as they stated that I would receive my shipment within 2-3 days (Friday was Day 3).

Just so's you're aware - HDNL are a subsidiary company of Littlewoods/Shop Direct Group, based in Speke, Liverpool. To my mind, they do not have a clue about how a courier company operates, or should operate! Their drivers are not equipped with comms equipment in their vehicles, so they are effectively incommunicado from the moment they leave their depot, until they return in the evening. If you were to call my company to let us know you missed a delivery, we'd immediately contact the driver to see if he is still in your area, and if he/she is not, we ask if it's possible to re-attempt later in the day, even going so far as to trying to narrow it down to a time-scale for you. Most (if not all) courier companies operate on that basis.

LHS is Marlow, RHS leads down towards the National Sports Centre??.. I think you took this shot early in the morning, and possibly on a weekend, because that bridge is usually fairly busy.

Some of you may have wondered why the goods you bought from a foreign website takes so long to arrive on your doorstep. Having worked in the international express industry for close on 25 years, I'd like to explain why it takes so long from placing your order to taking final delivery of it.

Generally, goods purchased from China will be despatched to you via a service called EMS Chronopost. Chronopost is a sort of international courier company, but to some degree is state-controlled. Generally, what happens is, your packet is treated in pretty much the same way as general mail up until it reaches a sorting office, usually located near to a main international airport. Up until it arrives at this sorting office it is treated like every other surface mail package. It is at this international sorting office (a hub office) that it is routed to the correct destination, sometimes transiting through another hub, for example, Liege (Belgium). At the origin hub, they consolidate all Chronopost shipments with airmail documents and small packets (think SD cards here, for example). This consolidation then travels on its own master airway bill (MAWB) to its final destination. It may well be that freight covered by this MAWB is subject to an airline offload, usually caused by lack of available capacity on the flight which it was pre-booked on. Upon arrival at its intended destination, the shipments are generally inspected and assessed by local customs to ascertain how much duty and any other taxes (if applicable) should be paid by the consignee (the recipient). Sometimes, you will receive a customs invoice seperately from receipt of your goods, unless there is a relatively considerable sum of money owing, hence you will normally see that your £100 Pentax Lens has been described as "used camera equipment (or some sort of generic description)" with a declared value of US$10.00, or whatever. This is done to minimise the chances of tax being applied to your item (although you will be expected to pay VAT).

If however, you have purchased your goods through a seller who will despatch your goods via a courier company, you should normally expect to have your shiny new purchase in your hands in 3-4 days (subject to customs checks). The main reason why courier companies can offer these transit times is because (in the case of the "Big 4" - TNT, UPS, DHL, FEDEX) these companies operate their own fleet of aircraft, as well as utilising the capacity of "common carriers" (commercial airlines such as British Airways, etc). Since EMS Chronopost offers the common carriers lower revenue on their linehaul rates, theirs is usually the first thing to be "bumped", with airfreight being next for offloading in the pecking order. Courier baggage and passenger excess baggage generates higher profits, so there's less chance that they will be off-loaded, although in rare circumstances, it happens.

Bottom line is - if you want it fast, pay the extra for courier service, otherwise if you are happy to wait a few weeks on your goods to arrive, then stick with the EMS Chronopost option.

Great shot! I can see the possibilities of this being heavily used in photoshop projects! I'm thinking along the lines of adding this into a photo of hot-air balloons by hanging a basket beneath it, and perhaps re-colouring this moon shot, for starters.