Chippy

That all depends.............on how good you've been through the year and whether Santa's feeling generous i guess!! Out of my three, my 17-40mm F4 has been used the most - incredibly sharp, nice and light, but fairly (cheap for an L series) expensive. Also, if you hope to get a full frame sensor in the future (or dont mind replacing your lenses), I would forget the EF-S lenses. Worth thinking about perhaps. However, that said, on a budget(ish) with no future upgrade in mind, I'd go for:- 10-20mm EF-S (landscape) 17-85mm EF-S IS (land/portraits) 70-200 F4L (non IS if ££ is tight) (portraits) On the Filters front, i dont use anything special:- Cokin P sized grads (ND's and a few coloured) Screw in Hoya full ND8 Screw In Hoya Polariser Screw In Hoya Pro UV's Hope that helps!

Thanks Joel This is the only other picture I have of it. From memory is was kind of a sandy soil along our west coast which is surrounded by sand dunes.

I'm trying to identify the flower in this picture. Does anyone have any ideas what it is? (it's a wild one if that's any use) http://www.digitaljersey.co.uk/animals/pc_...12_0065_d2x.jpg

No probs Steve, need to be able to adjust the exposure so RAW only unfortunately!

Really nice, I like the effect but never really managed to get a good one myself. Looks like it would have been a good subject to have HDR'd as well. Did you you shoot the original piccy in RAW Steve? If you did and you dont mind, I woulnt mind having a play with it in the HDR software to what it comes out like.

I missed the comment before it got removed, so someone going to fill me in?

Camera moved during the exposure for a short time - hence bright stuff has ghosted and dull stuff hasn't.

how about............ We just post the pics in the comp thread, then the winner sends the original piccy (resized with the EXIF intact) to the judge/steve/whoever to check the EXIF? Personally, I actually like to see the shooting date in pics, as it's a great way of learning how it was taken. It annoys to me to pick up photography magazine and see loads of great pics but no shooting data attached to them!!

a few of mine from tonight's sunset:- (similar one to Saturday's sunrise)

i just came across this HDR tutorial, which goes inot much better detail as to the whys and hows of HDR:- HDR Tutorial

Went out at 5am to make the most of the weather, figuring on there being a good sunrise. Only managed a couple of decent shots, first one is a HDR:-

Not true......apart from grads, there are polarizers (as mentioned), and ND's that cant be recreated. Traditional photographic techniques still live on in this digital age!!

Also....... if your going to buy more than a couple of filters, then i'd buy the square type filters and a holder, with the correct size lens ring. That way, when you upgrade to another camera they'll still fit and be of use.

Are the 3rd and 4th ones the same?

Best thing is to play with settings....i found that different pics need totally different settngs. You need to generate the HDR, then when done click on the tone mapping and play with the settings to get the result that you want. This might help as well HDR workflow

I used Photomatix....you can download a trial version to play with from HDR Soft

Excellent.........dont know if i'd be accussed of chimping around those guys - I think i'd be too busy drooling at all those long lenses!!

Been playing with some new HDR software and went out this morning to geta few shots to process.....here's the best of them. 3 shots merged - 1 @ -2 stops, one at metered and one at +2 stops. I actually wanted to see how it would cope with merging long exposures, but some dummy left his filters at home!!

I do what Colin has suggested. Back ups on dual layer DVD's and on an external HDD, as well as a set on a seperate (from the system HDD) drive.

Great shots......last one is my favourite... anyway, whats wrong with custard

Done - hopefully I've done it right!

Theme Definition: Movement One after my own heart. Totally open to your own interpretation, but perhaps a good opportunity to hone those long exposure skills. Hopefully the darker evenings and the clocks going back should help! Your posts must include the following information: Title: Date Taken: Camera Used: Camera Settings ISO Shutter Speed Aperture or the Camera shooting mode used (Landscape, Macro etc etc) Open Period. Open period is from 11.59pm Saturday, October 29th, 2006 Deadline: Saturday, November 11th, 2006 Midnight GMT. All images must be shot and posted within the "open" period ============= CHALLENGE RULES ============= New Photos Only. Colour or Black and White (Black and White conversions allowed). Photo should be limited to a max dimension of 800 pixel for the longest dimension, and the file size to be less than 300KB in JPG/jpg format. The competition is only for photos taken during the "open period" as defined in the Challenge announcement. You may post only two entries in each Challenge, and you may also replace with newer version anytime before the end of the challenge. Please keep a copy of the original photograph you downloaded from your camera as a means of checking vailidity of entry should it be needed. Posting of exif info on the post is not needed now, but it makes it easier if the photo you post has an intact exif info file attached. Digital manipulations All entries should limit the use of digital manipulations to only file conversion, level, curve and sharpening. Adding elements to the original image that were not there are NOT allowed. NO software filters or frames are allowed. Voting & Comments During the "open period", please do NOT enter any comments in this thread, this way we will have all the entries together without interruption and it's easy to view. Comments are welcomed during the voting period. The Judge will select the top three finalists work to include in the Poll for all members to vote on. When the poll has been posted it would be nice if the Judge gave a brief description of his/her choices on the challenge thread Voting Will follow after the end of Challenge, until the following Saturday. Registering multiple user accounts to vote is not allowed. In the event of a tie, the judge will make a decision between the tied finalists. Judge The winner of current Bi-weekly Challenge will serve as the Judge for the challenge after the next, for example, the winner of Challenge #1 will be the Judge for Challenge #3. By entering the Challenge, members agree to grant anglersnet.co.uk a perpetual non-exclusive world-wide royalty-free license to modify, publish and reproduce that material for the purpose of operating, displaying, distributing and promoting anglersnet.co.uk. However, anglersnet.co.uk will not use Your materials without attributing them to You, without Your agreement. Failing to comply with these rules will automatically disqualify the entry. =================== END OF CHALLENGE RULES =================== Any questions....ask them here http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=55943 Good Luck!!!

Thanks Folks.....will give that some thought. Steve - when do you need to know the theme by? Is there a list somewhere of past challenges? Cheers Paul

I'm the same boat cliff, been looking at the Sigma 150mm too. I had a Nikon 105mm but found the focusing distance at 1:1 was a bit too close. Now that i'm using Canon the option is a 100mm or their 180mm, the later being £££££!! The Sigma 150mm is just the right length for what I like to shoot, it's relatively cheap too. I just bought a new PC monitor though, so might have to wait a while longer before taking the plunge myself. I;d be interested to hear who you get along should you get one.

Joh Yes I tried it the first time round, but it's not strong enough, the edges start to peel after not too long. No problem Steve.