Congrats Mel! You deserve this honor .. much more than the last inhabitant of the GoM gg. Thanks for all your great work. I'm mising some of the images you've deleted but anyways .. the new ones are not inferior. So thanks for sharing your great art and helping those in need :) huggles, Tom.

Take care Kim .. this one will call you "mom" sooner or later :) Btw.: can't find any hot-pixels over there? My fault i guess ... hugz

Don't you get bored by me always saying "thank you Misha"? :-)

Ok, in that case it wouldn't be ok to charge him more. I'd do it for free but insist on having my name on that website. That could give you a good reputation and make your name known ... but as i don't have clue of those things, i'm not sure if this is a good advice ;) :-) Tom

Congrats my friend! :) May i ask on the money, this job was worth? Sorry for asking, but - i guess this could be interesting, even if the prices over there aren't really comparable to e.g. the german market.

A lot i've missed this time - so double thanks from me, Misha!! :-)

Thanks a lot for all of your kind words!!! I'm very happy that you like what i'm doing. Especially, as all of you have excellent galleries, well worth taking a look at .. i like most of em more than mine ;) Have a great weekend, Tom!

ooooooooops .. i'm out of words ... Thank you so very much .. Special thanks to some very special people for their encouraging words. You know i need them more than most others do. huge hugz to you all and a great sunday :-))

Another great summary Misha. Well done and Thank you! :)

Yeah .. that's what i'm waiting for. Imagine what NG will pay for some wee blue birdie tits!!!

So she finally is complete thanks to you two guys? :-)) Perhaps i should add that into the challenge right now:

The secret of two tits and one unknown bird?

Could it get any more mysterious?? lol

cya
Tom

Hmmm ... Donald is right in what he's saying bowingtomymaster :) ... but if you never used analog cams, i can't see any reason why you should start with that right now. And if you did, one more reason to go digital.

I'm using a digital rebel and i'm happy with her .. as are a lot of other people i know (look into the gals of Kropot or RedundantlyAbundant, Zuulan and many others). The Nikon D70 for sure would be a great choice too .. depends if you're more into wide angle (Nikon) or tele-lenses (Canon). The Nikon is a little bit more expensive - though a little bit better as it seems.

But if you don't want to spend one hell of money (into lenses), you could also consider buying one of the new 8 MP-Cams as the Sony F828, Minolta A2 or that Canon. They can't really compete with any D-SLR with good lenses, but if after buying your D-SLR there's no money for lenses, you won't be happy with that decision too. In that case, think about the Sony or her competitors .. 1000 bucks and that's it.

But if a quick AF is important to you (as it is to me) don't ever forget, that nothing can compete with a SLR (be it Canon or Nikon) with a good lens ... :)

As Antonia already told - analog can be (a lot) cheaper - in the beginning (lenses are the same, but that analog body is 1/4 of its digital brother ... sigh). On the other hand - digitally i try ten times to get that image of that launching swan .. one of em will hopefully be ok, the others will be deleted at no cost. Not the best way to really learn things, but a great way to save money. Would you really try 50 shots of one sunset with an analog cam?

Just my 2ct :)
Tom

Yep, which one did you get yourself? I like the first one most - but i gues, you knew that already? :)

Thanks a lot Misha. Always a pleasure to look at your weekly summary! :)

Garmisch ... don't have too much hints on that but if you're not afraid of heights, you definately should take the cable car to the Zugspitze. If you're a little lucky with the weather, you'll get an excellent panorama of the alps ... Munich Zoo is on my list for next week too .. if i find some special places, i can tell ya. Other animal parks are not to much over here. Theres one in "Poing" where local species are kept in a very natural way .. not really a zoo. Another one is in the "Bayerischer Wald" .. it's a national park known to have some animals you can't find anywhere else in the wild (at least in Germany). But if you want to meet Tedz, you should come in September for the (in-)famous Oktoberfest ... sigh