Sutton Warrior

Having read the whole thread . . . Its sad we need bad language on or off the screen, yeah 'miserable old fart ain't I'. Robson Green ain't got a clue where heavy angling is concerned, I cant be bothered with such piffle!!! RG or any form of reality show, including that mouthy chef type twit? Passion for angling was and still is a classic, come back John Willson, please . . . all is forgiven. Need a DVD copy to replace my old vidio version (vid mc dead!) of Passion for Angling, any one know if its avaliable SW

Small lakes, (large ponds) were my preferred venues for course fishing in my home county of Hertfordshire for over 50 years. Roach, rudd, perch, tench crucian carp and a few upto 20 pound common and leathers as well, all on light tackle, great fun. Two venues have particularly found memories. The pond by the railway bridge near Leighton Buzzard that was the site of 'the great train robbery'. I had some most enjoyable days there, and it was the pond my 5 year old daughter fell in, one second standing on the bank beside me, the next she stepped though a hole in the bank plop! full immersion, as she came up I grabbed her coller, in one clean sweep The second was a farmers pond in Barnstable, North Devon. My late wife, me and the kids used to regularly rent the cottage in the field by the small lake. I would get up 5pm'ish, fish until breakfast, Kathy called me in, we then had a family day out and about, very fond memories . . . Kathies ashes are scattered on the cottage field. SW

You are so right Colin, but if one does not try . . . ? I have to, even if I get it wrong. Well I went down the marina this pm, there is a Shanty weekend at the marina with some of the old gaff rigged boats I love all that sort of thing (they dont make em like they used to) . Weather went a bit naff but I shot off 80 pictures, kept an eye on the histogram . . . The results were interesting, Center weighted gives a generally usable picture at 0.0ev see (1). A tad of lift at 'post processing' would do the job, but only a tad on the 'levels' probably. My in camera adjustments have produced colour to my liking, in fact I would say i'm impressed, see (2). 1. This is totally untouched, other than re size. 2. This is totally untouched, other than re size. Because I watched the histogram I was able to re take the Barn Owl picture with -0.3 that put a richness into the wood enough to make the hairs stand up! Watch the comp? Bass, I'm planning a few hours up the river on Sunday, see if there are any there yet, we know there are some small ones, but how big are the ones we cant see??? SW

At the risk of being shot down??? I have finished my initial experimenting with the in camera settings on my D80. I think I've got a 'usable group of settings'? The picture her, though not inspiring in subject matter, was set up in real time, as close as I could get it? Take picture . . . put on screen . . . compare with what I see through the open patio doors. I started this morning with matrix metering, poor results, one needed to go to -1.0ev to get anything like an acceptable shot??? Moved onto 'center weighted', dramatic difference, colours were better, 0.0ev was just the wrong side of OK, but this at -0.3ev, a fraction under exposed, was lifted with a minimum of 'post processing' a touch of Elements 'smart fix'. Before this final picture, I removed '+vivid' and set to 'menu normal', the grass is near perfect . . . ? or perhaps, 'as I see it and like it'. Next step, to take a whole load of pictures this afternoon, out and about to see how well the setting works in varying conditions. It had been suggested on another sit that 'center weight metering' might be an answer, especially with the way Nikon set matrix metering up on the D80, there is a variable program on the D90 it appears that address this potential problem? I know RAW can overcome, and may be my way forward in the future . . . but for the time being . . . ??? This is only my thoughts, and as I'm not so hot on technique, any one got any other suggestions? Or ad their own experiance with metering? SW

You just have to keep digging dont you Sharkbyte, flight of fancy? duff computer forced the issue, I was most grateful for their help, no flight of fancy! Spit the dummy cos I got fed up with nonconstructive (as usual) comments from your self. I dont have to accept you view, indeed, I dont. I will be out this weekend trying a few more ideas, In the end it may not be practical or work, but at least I'm not 'stick in the mud', I do try! Sharkbyte, you have a very irritating way with criticism, IMHO. How about getting constructivly involved, if you are so good (in your opinion), why not regularly enter the competition for instance, show some interest, put the money where the 'mouth' is. I might not be much good, but I do try to do my bit! May I suggest we draw a line . . . this is going to get boring ________________________________________________________________________________ ____________ SW

You know what Sharkbyte, I had not picked up the DSLR for 6 months, used the P&S happily, perhaps I was right all along?? Seems you just love to pick holes!!! Its obvious one cant pose questions and expect constructive answers . . . You dont take it in, I DONT WANT TO USE RAW!!!!!!

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A man who understands "I dont believe it" A little tweaking may be, but some of the faked up garbage that is being produced these days under the banner of 'photography', what happened to 'the photographer's eye' and 'what you see is what you get'. I must be getting old . . . Sorry to offend, just my humble opinion?? SW

Hi Danny, I simply prefer things as original as possible, perhaps its the old fashoned side of me. Bit like prefering things of 'yester-year' as I often do 'dont make em like that any more' . Strange, I have posted similar questions on other sites, seems to provoke a very hostile reaction??? My dislike of PS'ing is taken personaly . . . I do tinker in PS, but get very little satisfaction? Ho hum I will get there, but it looks like under my own trial and error method? SW

Go Diwa or Shimano . . . you might have change to buy a bottle of champers to celebrate the big catch, and me, a 'died in the wool' AUB user . . . I must be loosing it!!!! Then again, you want a table sculpture . . . ???? 'Eye candy' is best on two legs,

Bit of sour grapes there mate??? Looks to me like 'if we', thats 'pleasure anglers' play the game we can continue as we have been, nothing changes. Stop crowing about the XXX number of fish cought, even though its once in a blue moon, those watching dont know that in their ignorance! Just show a couple of pics, lets be fair, seen one cod, seen them all etc., no pics of boxes full of fish, use the old grey matter a bit, all will go swimingly. Carry on boasting and we will get clobered next time round! Just my humble opinion, grab the life line!!! SW

Not surprised they have a 'few' places left at £120 to win £500! Who is kidding who here?? I have no interest in competition angling . . . I wonder why?? You'd do better in the 'E.A.S.T Specimen Hunt' scheduled for this coming Sunday 29th. Biggest Cod £500, heaviest Thornback £500, all for a tenner entry! Three start venues, Titchmarsh marina, Shotley marina and Felixstowe Ferry, incidently if the idea tickles your fancy talk to Les on 01376-347882, they are still taking entries. SW

. . . dont know about 'non fishing' but I think my lack of success mentioned below (copy of my report posted on another site) is due to to few trips this year, getting rusty and messing up on timeings. Should have locked out at first light, about 6-6.15am, would have rode the ebbing tide all the way if I had gon direct!!! Not so much 'non fishing' as 'no fish' 5am the alarm goes, did not take long to 'leap' out of bed . . . well more of a stumble really Saturday morning, the weather forecast has been giving 5-6mph W, and I've not been fishing in 'Little Gem' for what seems like forever. Look out of the window, dark! but still enough ambient light to see it was frosty and misty and no wind? not the best combination. Driving to the marina confirmed my early assessment, its going to be a GPS/Radar morning, 50-100yds vis at best!! I'm reasonably happy with using the radar nowadays, worried me early on, but, whilst not an expert, I can suss out the basics well enough. Lock out at 7 o'clock, with crew Roddy on board, he was waiting for me when I arrived at 6.30, keen. Today was a, long tramp, the big cod have been reported consistently over the past few weeks, and populate a distinct area and contour depth, and thats where I was heading, despite an estimated 2 hour steam. Arrived, did not like what I could see on the sounder, more to the point, 'could not see'. What now? Anchor and hope or search. The fog had lifted, the sun was out in all its low, spring, blinding glory Roddy picked up the 'binos', "thats Steve a couple of miles to our port" he said. Steve is one of those guys who you give a bucket of water to and he will catch a fish in it! and he has been catching some bigggg cod recently. We dropped anchor, at a respectable distance, acknowledged all OK! He reported a dozen cod in the 7-9lb bracket, we will have some of that . . . Not to be, our faffing about had cost us the first 2.5 hours of the very small neap tide, or had our arrival jinxed the fishing? Cos it started to tail off, Steve had 3 more fish. We had 3, in the next 2 hours, 2 cod one 4lb and one 9.5lb plus a small dinner plate size roka maid that went back. 9.5lb cod, best for me for 5 or 6 years. I'd forgotten how good a scrap a decent size cod can put up especially on braid and an ABU Suveran rod! 'Just another 7 pounder' to Steves boat Despite the low fish count, we still had a good day, learned that my displacement speed Mitchell was up to the job of a long steam, and that next time I will go direct instead of the roundabout way that cost us most of what tide there was SW

Think more in terms of what would he get as a trade in? as a business man he will have writen the camera down to near zero on his books. 1000 shots per sitting . . . personaly I'd see it almost as a liability . . . why's he selling? Trade-in, from a pro, looking well used . . . against the new price, I suspect he would be lucky to get £200???? Yeah I'm a tight old git as well

Hi Fred, just been playing around with Hazels D40X, found you can choose the auto focus 'AF-area mode', see pages 24 and 75 in the manual. There are 3 options, normally the smallest, fixed area would be right (for me) but 'dynamic focus' would be the choice for moving targets, certainly give a better chance??. In fact I have found all sorts of extra control in the menu by double pressing the 'info' button. I will be having a play, always said the D40X was a good'n? I'm beginning to believe it. Hazel and I went for a walk around the marina yesterday, the quality of the pictures that have come from it compared with my D80, I suspect its no more than the differences in the lenses we use. In fact, its got me thinking, do a session with me using the D40X and my lenses, put Hazels 18-70 on the D80 and see what she gets from it. Then I will do a session with both cameras using only the 18-70 kit lens?? Sorry off subject, I hope the 'dynamic focus' helps. SW

Fred, dont worry to much, my gull pic., in this months comp., I took 50 pics, this was one of two that were just usable, the rest were a wast of space. Imagine it, an 'anorak' with camera/long lens in one hand, throwing chunks of bread in the air with the other and it was blowing a hoolie'!!!! What people though who were watching . . . Choose inanimate objects like ships propellers . . . makes life easy SW PS, ISO on the gull not dissimilar to you figures, if I remember rightly.

You are right 'n4lly' the beach disappeared a couple or three years ago, few big tides, a storm or two . . . and some gravel dredging off shore, whoosh, all gone. Put the rock defenses in to protect the promenade! Its cracking up the other side of the pier! SW

As an amateur in the world of Photography, who enjoys picture taking for its own sake, who also gets very frustrated with technology and the 'you must have . . . and if you have not got . . . you dont rate', has the world gone mad? . . . Well I have been watching the BBC2 series 'The Genius of photography', fascinating, sadly not seen them all but last night was for me, an eye opener. It showed work by revered photographers of mainly post war and more recent years, also explaining their mind set and the 'why' of their pictures, significant to me was the feature of the 'street photographer' . . . very 'point and shoot' style with an 'eye', using a simple compact 35mm camera, simple Lica quality Get a bit lost when any one tries to understand the hidden, deeper meaning of pictures, paintings and art in general . . . ? I'm just not that deep . . . However, what did come over to my simple mind was that in the era covered, 50's to the 70's and 80's, these revered photographic artists were often producing pictures that were on the face of it, grainy, washed out, lacked pin sharp focus. Thats not a criticism, far from it, I see it a personal revelation. The pictures captured a sense of suggestion, very much in the way a painting is never highly detailed, it leaves your mind to fill in the blanks. If you get up close, it is very disappointing unless you are into technique and brush work. The same applied to much of the picture work displayed on the TV, it was not about detail, more a suggestion beyond the main subject that the mind interpreted. The other point that came over was the introduction and use of colour, how colour was see by the street photographer as a description of the image . . . still getting the brain around that one, but I, see it as a significant statement . . . I think? Set me thinking, pin sharp, noise, washout or dark shadow . . . a few steps back in modern time might be a good idea, all in descriptive colour? The above had me looking at this picture recently taken on a jaunt along Felixstowe promenade, I remember the moment I first put it on screen . . . and the preparation to put it in Februarys competition. Not a winner, but to me it was very much 'my street style', I originally thought the title should be 'Darby and Joan' . . . Perfect . . . no, but for me it has something, as have many of my early pictures that I now see as 'street style photography my way' and I did not know it, thats not to say one is not learning, the learning process is painfully obvious . . . sometimes it is a pleasurable experience The picture was cropped quite a bit, it came over in the BBC program, cropping is not a no, no . . . some times there is no time to walk 50 yards for a more full frame before the moment is gone in 'Street Photography'. Life changing program? Perhaps not, but it certainly set my mind thinking . . . 'less is more' . . . ???????????? Anyone else see or get anything from the series? SW

Thats the uncomlicated way Shatcher Might not go down so well with the purist 'shoot manual' types But I like it, I like the simplicity a lot why did'nt I think of that Go for it Fred SW

How about predictive focus and/or continues shutter, Up the ISO to 200/300 which allows the shutter to set faster (if you want to stop the action 500th sec. shutter priority?) Follow through as though you are using a shot gun, looking through the view finder, keep the other eye open. SW

To ad a little more, an interesting point that came from the other site. In the days of film, 24mm was considered 'very wide', and 28/30mm or more was the choice of landscape gurus at the time. Wider lenses were into the weird world of freaky distortions and fish-eye? These days 10/12mm is the norm = 15/18mm at 1.5 crop. Technology is such that distortions are very low, even so what the hell, we have photoshop! The above then throws up the question of the over use of sky in 'landscapes'? How the eye sees, and the eye/brain capability to produce 'panorama view'? peripheral vision was also mentioned? Certainly, I'm looking at how much 'WA' do I actually need? SW

A subject I was watching on another site on my enforced day off work was in fact two topics. One was called 'Ultrawide overload' the other was the '+ and - 's of prime lenses over modern zooms'! The emphasis on 'modern' in the zoom discussion. Well, passions ran a little high on the 'prime v modern zoom'. Personally as a laid back armature photographer, not wishing to prove anything to anyone except ones self, and, who fits photography around my life and other interests, I sit firmly in the modern zoom camp. 'Ultra wide overload', discussion was a little more measured. As one who has recently purchased a Siggy 10-20HSM, I read with interest. The perceived limitations of WA lenses, on a personal front, I love the WA perspective, but already, on occasions, am finding I miss the convenience of the universal zoom, because of 'my life style and other interests'. What I'm now considering is, the new Tamron 18-270VR lens, which has rocked the photography world a little . . . so indicates the media. This to replace my Nikon 18-200VR as my standard walk about. Or to look for something a little less stretched 18-130'ish with possible improvements in image . . . but they say the Tamron is special on image?? Not unhappy with the 10-20, but am finding carting three lenses and a camera body is heavy . . . for me that is, on a long walk about. Subjects for discussion . . . SW

Intersting stuff there coryoras, thanks, put in favourits to have a better look. SW